Thursday, July 16, 2009

The New Adventure!

Hmmm....one month to the day since my last blog entry. So much has happened in a month! And no need to be cryptic now...like in my last entry :) I am fully engaged in my new life adventure. I live in North Carolina now and am back in the industry that I love so dearly...the Special Events Industry. I am now working as the Director of Events for a very large Internet Marketing Company and loving it. I am loving North Carolina as well. The people here are so hospitable and kind and respectful...it's refreshing. I was received with the warmest of welcomes and I have been made to feel like family here. How amazing it is that one day...one decision...can change your whole world? Of course, I already miss my incredible friends and my "sistahs" in Florida. But they are with me always. I carry their love in my heart and I know they feel my love in theirs. It is a bond that can never be broken. They wished me all the best and sent me off to my new life with their prayers and support. Who could ask for better friends?

The job is going very well. It is a new challenge and a new way of looking at events and I am growing again. It's good to grow...keeps you feeling young and healthy I think! I spent the weekend (and many hours on the internet before I arrived here) house hunting and found the perfect house to rent. If I can figure out how, I will upload some pictures of the house:) I know...it's a great time to buy. And I wish I could! Especially with that $8,000.00 refund that is part of this year's stimulus package! But I can't. So instead, the lovely real estate agent who helped me find my new home, Kim, has agreed to help me try to find a way to invest in a home or two in foreclosure while the time is right. I pray that we can pull that off! And after all, wasn't it me who was talking about miracles happening just a short time ago? Well, here's hoping!! Either way, I am happy to be here and flourishing and I can't wait for my son to join me here. I think he is going to love NC. It's his kind of "laid back" and I think he will do well here.

A new adventure...happiness discovered again...new opportunities! Life is good! I am, once again, blessed. Of course I have failed to mention some of the challenges. I keep getting lost in the office!! It's big and is designed like a maze so it's pretty easy to get lost but I am finally finding my way. Around town as well, although the weekend could have been disasterous without the aid of my GPS. I actually enjoyed some of the lost moments though. It allowed me to just go with the flow and see the pretty landscape in this lush and lovely part of the country. Yep, I think this will be a good adventure. It's a "Grand New Day" and I plan to live my new life to the fullest! Wish me luck!! And I will keep u posted:) Til the next post.....

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Miracles DO happen!

...and then, out of blue, comes a phone call that would change my life.....again. Sometimes its difficult to figure out what makes people do what they do. We make decisions every day that affect our own lives and the lives of others. Sometimes they are monumental and sometimes they are just little decisions but no matter the size, they have an effect that can rock your world or send it tumbling down. Such decisions have been made in the past 6 months that have involved me and I have felt both the tumbling and now, joyfully, the rocking of my world! The point? The point is simply this. Life is short in the scheme of things. We go through life in our own little bubbles with little regard for the affects that our decisions or actions may have on the rest of the world around us. Have you ever thought at the end of a bad day..."gosh, I hope when I honked angrily at that car this morning (that turned out to have an elderly woman driving it), that I didn't scare her into a heart attack!"...or "did my decision to promote the worker who was the best man for the job, devastate the worker who was next in line for the promotion"? It has certainly made me acutely aware that my own personal and professional decisions may affect the lives of the people around me...may hurt them, devastate them, send them into depression or who knows what? I am acutely aware! Because such decisions that others have made, affected my life...hurt me, devastated me, depressed me....and made my world come crashing down. A simple, self serving decision that seems like the right thing to do, still needs much thought if we are to consider ourselves humane and loving toward our fellow man. We need to slow down in the rapid pace of these times and think. Really think about who might benefit and who might be annihalated by the decisions we make. We need to love each other so that we might be loved.

I am very blessed to have the gift of faith. And I have learned to look for the blessing that inevitably comes with every disaster. Nothing is impossible and miracles really do happen! For me, thankfully, my little miracle has arrived. I have been blessed with a friend who has reconsidered and made a wiser, more loving decision. And it has rocked my world! So I end my blog today with this wisdom: "I assure you, if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain 'move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." Matthew 17:20,21

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

And the insanity continues....

Ok, so it's been a couple of weeks....already!!...since I posted my first entry on this blog. If I had the time, I could write a whole book about the circumstances of a most unusual job that I took as a personal assistant. Who could have guessed from the simple job posting description on Craigslist that I would find myself in the middle of an unbelievable situation with a woman who I believe is mildly insane! Although I do plan to post the outcome of the whole sorted story someday, it will not be today. But just to share a tiny bit of it, and boiling it down to simple, there is this lady I work for who fired her longest standing employee who, by the way, was quitting within 3 weeks of her termination. And now, she is trying to create a legal case against her that has turned into this monumentally ridiculous effort to prove thousands of little un-facts! She has had two of her best employees quit and is running the rest of us ragged. They will soon tire of her insanity and no one will be left. But even before all of this, the environment at its best, is bizarre! As often happens in my life, somehow I have become the person who will have to make it right...be the responsible one who is going to step forward and tell the truth. And THAT will be a most painful deed. But I know it's the right thing to do. I just hope that I figure out how to do it so that the innocent are protected, the guilty confess and the disturbed one can be helped.

But enough on that and on to happier thoughts:) Last week is thankfully over and this week has already proven to be a calmer and more productive one. I am learning a lot of new things at the "normal" job. And in just a week and a half, I have a command of the company's concept and am off and running to coordinate some fabulous collections of communities and venues that are needed for the company's growth! I learned how to work google maps and have mapped several of the areas on my own. Its a good day when you have learned something new! So here is something new for you to know. There is a community in central Florida...just south of Ocala...in which 80,000 people reside!! Can you believe it? One community with over 40,000 homes! It is a city in itself and completely self contained. There is a live feed from the Town Square and the Market Square within the community and you can watch what's happening anytime you want! Pretty high tech, huh? It's a little "Truman Show-ish" to me but seems like a really incredible place. Its something of a retirement community...you have to be 55 to live there. But it's a very active place with live concerts every single night of the year and hundreds of activities and shows. So now you know something new!

That's about all I have for today...I am still trying to catch up on sleep:) So before I go sink into bed and fall into slumber watching an episode of Will & Grace, I will leave you with this parting thought: There are a lot of stressful things that happen in life, especially in these hard economic times. But the good things and the beauty of the world around us not only overwhelmingly outnumber the bad and the ugly, the are free!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Beginning

Finally, a place in this world of technology, to begin the journal I never seem to have time to hand write in a book! I have followed the lead of friends and family who have begun their own blogs and I have to admit that I love staying connected this way. It is intimate and in my own time:)

So I begin this journal today at a point in my life that I never could have guessed I would be. Barely employed at 56, and struggling financially to get through each day. Oddly, though, I can't remember ever being more positive, confident and at peace! What's up with that?! I am in the process of unwinding from 12 years of unbelievable fun, stress, hard work, and so many experiences that I could write a book about (and just might!!) Basically, my life has been a total immersion of self into the job and the relationships that I have developed over the last several years. I am realizing more and more, just how much I needed to let it all go....at least for a while. All but the great friends I have acquired through the job at Ashley Events. A story unto itself but more about that on a different day!

I am back in South Florida now and so very happy to be reconnecting with some of my best friends in the world...my sistahs!!! I have girlfriends here who are the best friends ever!! They have supported me in everything that I do and have held me up when I was not sure I could keep standing. I love them dearly and I am sure they are part of the reason for my fearlessness in this once again challenging time of life.

And then there's my favorite church on this planet...St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Delray Beach. There's no place like it! My rock, my source of spiritual growth, my hope and my forever friend. It's also where I met my sistahs:) I call them that because we try to have a group lunch or something once a week to stay in touch and that's what the name of our group has come to be. How lucky am I to be blessed with so much.

And last but not least, there's my children. A constant source of love and excitement. Aren't parents lucky to be so blessed? First, we have the joy of their birth and childhood...there is nothing better in this whole world! And then, as they get older, we get to re-live our own youth vicariously through them. I have not arrived at what promises to be the icing on this cake yet but as if that wasn't enough happy blessing already, we get to be grandparents!!! I can't wait!! I have a beautiful daughter, Jenny, who is 25 and is married to her prince charming, Ronnie. He loves her so very much and takes care of her in a way that can only make a mom blissful! If I am as intuitive as I think I am, Jenny will be first to make me a happy grandma. Jenny is my best friend in many ways. She is a beautiful person in every way. And if she were my age, she would surely be one of the "sistahs"!!

My son, Ken, is 23 and could easily be called an "ambassador of good will". He is a sweet and loveable teddy bear type. Everyone loves him. When he was just in Kindergarten, he revealed his loveable nature and natural generosity. His teacher would call me from time to time to ask me if I knew that Ken had brought gifts for the whole class...crayons, candy, money....he was always sharing everything. He still does. He had me at hello!

So here is my introduction to the world of blog and I am excited about journaling all of my thoughts, hopes and dreams here, even if no one else ever reads them. I guess I am in that time of life where its my turn to have a happy thought for me. So check out my blog from time to time and stay posted on what my happy thought of the moment is!