Thursday, January 27, 2011

In the still...

I love mornings like this.

A fresh blanket of snow is lazily drifting down.

There is a plumeria scented candle flickering, lending its light to the dawn.

One big, fluffy cat is lying at my feet & the other is keeping watch from not too far away.

My favorite mug is filled with the perfect cup of coffee.

And I have time to sit & enjoy it all.

Later, there will be a pot of soup simmering, perhaps a fresh loaf of bread in the oven, a cup of hot cocoa to be enjoyed after shoveling & my favorite jazz softly playing.

But for now...

I'm enjoying the stillness.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

If on a winter's day...

summer home

winter berries

vintage

frost faeries dancing

"white" birch

Monday, January 17, 2011

Wanderings

It's amazing how thoroughly lost you can get when you think you are going the right direction.

Almost 5 years ago, I headed off down the road to an office job that I thought was a great fit.
It wasn't.
Nope, not at all.

And I could sit here & write an entry that would rival War & Peace about that experience...
But it's over, & done with, & like every bad relationship, in retrospect, I learned a lot. Better to leave all the junk behind me & move on.

Which I did.

I spent 10 weeks trying to "find" myself, which is pretty funny because I was "here" all along. I had just lost sight of what I loved to do, where I wanted to be, and, most importantly, who I am.

The best job I ever had was being a mom; & I was always pretty darned good at it. And all of a sudden, I had my life back, & plenty of time to do it! My new-found freedom gave me the opportunity to bake again, to create recipes again, to dust behind the TV again! (Oh, don't judge me, no one ever looks back there anyway!) I cooked, & cleaned, & organized, & decorated to my heart's content. I even had time to pick up a book & curl up with the cats.

~sigh~

It was wonderful.

During that time, I looked for work. Diligently. Sometimes up to 4 applications a day. And found... NOTHING! Nope, nobody seemed to want me & my skill set. It got to be quite discouraging.

So... I cooked, & cleaned, & organized more. I decked the halls, & hosted the Holidays, & quite thoroughly enjoyed being home.

But I missed the paycheck. Not the job, just the cash. And the shoe shopping. And the lattes. And the wine collecting.

So... I kept looking, & applying, & checking the inbox & the voicemail, & listening to all my friends say, "Don't worry."

Until one day, I answered a little ad that simply read "Circuit Coach". I had NO idea what that was, so of COURSE I had to click on it. And apply for it. And, much to my surprise, INTERVIEW for it.

And here I am, off in a new direction. One that I never saw coming, but that was right in front of me the entire time. And I get to use my "mom" skills as well as all my "work" related experience to make a difference in the lives of some wonderful women.

Sometimes, you just need to pause on the journey, look up, say out loud "Where the heck am I?" & get your bearings. And then head off in the opposite direction.

:)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

New Year, New You

Yes, I realize we are now well into the New Year.

It just took me a bit to get settled.

New Year.
New job.
New ideas.
New approach.
New rhythm.

And, yes...
NEW BLOG!

I was looking over the blog collection, the cooking, the martinis, the crafting, the poetry, the free writes... & I realized: "I have a LOT of blogs!" And most have a nice collection of virtual cobwebs gathered on them.

However, I noticed that, in spite of the lack of updates, there was still an audience. On ALL of them. Daily.

Given that, I decided to start fresh, pretty much like I am doing in a LOT of areas of my life.

So...
"Welcome to the Grand Illusion!"

A new approach to things, but familiar as well.
A new spot to put my musings, & photos, & featured recipes, & occasional poetic attempts.

"Come on in, & see what's happenin'"