You’re at the fork in the path. That juxtaposed vortex that feels like you could most certainly see horrendous consequences if you choose one path over the other.

If you are that fork and you just wish your Betty Crocker mom could pop into the picture like an easy-bake oven miracle and make you a warm snack, hand you your nicely washed clothes and give you some tender piece of advice before kissing you off to a fantastic day … then that’s called procrastination. Because envisioning a comfortable place, with a mom figure to nurture away all the “adulting”thoughts and responsibilities are your way of forgetting about your big decisions and putting them off yet again.

In almost every temple, church, synagogue, you never hear the story about the doting God who never let challenges touch the world. This world is about becoming who you are by making the tough decisions to not be stuck, to become  more amazing, to test your strength, to tear at your endurance and tenacity, to forego valiant efforts to repeatedly get up after being knocked down. Surely, with every new obstacle we aren’t left just dangling to our peril, but we have to seriously open up all of best “Hunger Games” senses and know when to recognize the lifeboat when it comes our way. Making new decisions has everything to do with taking a deep sensory-filled inventory of who we really are and what  our blood, sweat, and tears taste like after a grizzly challenge.

Skimming through decision making topics looks a lot like a recipe for failure! Instructions like, take the path of least resistance, weigh out your consequences and risks, evaluate the decision you just made and weigh out its specific risk. Really, the decision to become a firefighter versus a quilt-maker, let’s just say, also has a lot do with your personality, your genealogy, your natural inclination and skill sets, and a whole host of other inventories about You. Not the decision. Every awakening decision process that defines a new chapter in your life should feel like it sets your on fire inside, so much so that you don’t envision the peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the “love, mom” note attached. When you make the decision, to Make the Decision already, start by writing down your plans to make it happen. Who to talk to. What network you need to be a part of. What resources do you need to make it happen. Write down every rejection you encounter for future entertainment. And find what your red carpet attire will be.

As mentioned earlier, God usually isn’t portrayed as our mom, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t hide the keys somewhere in hopes we’d take the road trip of our dreams.

“There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened. To be successful, you need to be the person who makes things happen.”

-James A. Lovell, NASA Commander of Apollo 13 mission.

~thank you for reading~

In Real Life. 30 days of it.  This isn’t just a challenge, it’s a test to change your life. Starting now. This minute. This second.

For the love of Pickles, what’s happening to us?!  When did life become so tied up with everything? “I’m too busy to do that!” When did this become the prevailing thought when approached to trying new things? Or getting our health on? Or home making meals? Or joining a fun new group?

If I said, “Your life depends on it,” would you start living In Real Life instead of just being an avatar on social media? Recent statistics, according to the CDC, are a staggering wake-up call. We are in the 21st century and have our own lack of health and wellness to blame for most of the “preventable” diseases. The following is a report of the top 15 reasons for death as reported in the U.S in 2014 according to CDC website.

‘The 15 leading causes of death in 2014 were: 1. Diseases of heart (heart disease) 2. Malignant neoplasms (cancer) 3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases 4. Accidents (unintentional injuries) 5. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) 6. Alzheimer’s disease 7. Diabetes mellitus (diabetes) 8. Influenza and pneumonia 9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease) 10. Intentional self-harm (suicide) 11. Septicemia 12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis 13. Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (hypertension) 14. Parkinson’s disease 15. Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids’

Sorry, the above report isn’t sugar coated. It shouldn’t be. This kind of information makes me ask why are we killing ourselves? Many items are these list are “preventable”. We have the option (within our means and our own immediate environments, of course) to make our health and wellness our goal. Taking a serious inventory in our own personal self is the first test in life we, myself included, have got to change right now. Stop worrying about everyone else and let it fall into place after you care for yourself. Feel the butterfly hatch from the cocoon.

Here is your 30-day challenge, to be taken in any order, Social Media Hiatus is a Must! (Get off your phones already):

1.Plan healthy meals for the month. 2. Join a new fitness class. 3. Make all of your dinners (or lunch/breakfast) from scratch. 4. Write 10 thank you cards. 5. Take a relaxing bubble bath. 6. Join someone for a long walk. 7. Take your camera out for an adventure.8. Make a catalog of your favorite songs. 8. Hiatus from Social Media. 9. Close your eyes, pick out a map point, and go site seeing. 10. Walk someone’s pet. 11. Call up a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. 12. Start to read a biography or meaningful book. 13. Write some poetry. 14. Go to a local sports game. 15.Hiatus from Social Media. 16. Movie night with friends. 17.Start a daily journal for reflection. 18. Help plan an event or join a new group.
19. Start a food drive or clothing drive. 20. Downsize your belongings. 21. Visit a nursing home or pet shelter. 22. Hiatus from Social Media 23. Organize a room. 24. Rehab a piece of decor or furniture. 25. Paint on canvas. 26. Start a garden. 27. Plan a picnic. 28. Visit a museum. 29.Plan a new 30-day goal list of things you’ve always wanted to do.
30.Reflect on your 30-days of In Real Life.

Changing how we look at life and acting on our ambitions starts with living your life to the fullest until your cup bubbles over and floods you in your pants.

Be adventurous with your wild self.

~Thank you for reading~

Is it making you whole, or breaking you down? We aren’t truly defined by just what we look like, even though media campaigns would like us to think so.

Ponder this – What defines you Right now? Does is make you feel whole?

If we were married to ourselves our lives would look uncharacteristic. However, we have a union with our environments, careers, habits, routines, diet and exercise, partners, children and the close circle of our people. The culmination of these factors are the sum of our parts. But is it making us whole??

For a better illustration, let’s cue up Captain Fantastic. An indie-dramedy movie, 2016 directed by Matt Ross. The main character, Ben Cash goes through a journey that encompasses the discovery of realizations of what truly made him whole. You piece together that he and his wife, lawyer Leslie Cash, left the capitalist cycle of society and brought their six children into the wild to live on and sustain themselves in a naturalist lifestyle.  By observing the family and how they live naturally, how they intelligently educate their children (oldest gets accepted to all the top schools),  it opens your eyes to how they drastically changed parts of their lives to make a difference in their family unit. They became completely self-reliant,  hunting and foraging for their food. Educating their children to an impeccable degree through unconventional means. Small rations or books were procured from a small store in a nearby town. However, it seemed like their new philosophy of life was more a success than the so-called “American dream”. Then a phone call comes.

Then a phone call was made as Ben checks in at the local store. Ben discovered Leslie (had been in the city for a while due to illness) had killed herself. For Ben, things continue to proceed as normal at first. He tells his children, they will proceed as they always have. But slowly things unravel. Ben and the 6 kids have to travel to the city for funeral arrangements, make family visits, and be back in the city. A lot of brash comparisons come to light. Leslie and Ben’s family didn’t get along, they had called her a bitch for her strong will and ideologies on life. And Leslie’s Dad and Ben have a colorful and amusing distaste for each other and how he raises the kids. Ben’s second eldest child leaves him in search of a normalcy. He hurls hateful comments to Ben on how he just begs to feel normal, celebrate Christmas instead of philosophers and be in a school with actual peers. Ben discovers his eldest has been accepted into every prestigious college in the nation. On a Ben-style mission to rescue the 2nd eldest son, his daughter falls from a rooftop. Listening to a doctor’s prognosis on how his daughter almost died (in addition to his wife), he hits the ultimate low point. Ben gives up his children and leaves them with grandparents. He hops back into his Patridge family bus and you feel the weight of loneliness and true emptiness. Sitting in front of a fire by himself created a powerful imagery. He, now bare and alone, deeply contemplating all he knew and believed to be fantastic about wilderness living and how it spiraled into unchangeable live events.

Ben does a full reversal here. He gives up his children and leaves them with grandparents. He hops back into the Patridge family looking bus and you feel the weight of loneliness and emptiness. Sitting in front of a fire by himself created a powerful imagery. He, now bare and alone, deeply contemplating all he knew and believed to be fantastic about wilderness living and how it spiraled into unchangeable live events.  He had realized to feel “whole” he needed to accept compromises and accept the give and take of life he shares with his counterparts to yield a more complete balance for him and his children.

The end of the movie is where you see the best of all worlds come together. A person does think we should all change, but there is place in between that takes self-journeying to discover. Finding the balance to become whole, and fantastic.

See this movie.  It illustrates its worth on the message of becoming whole.

Go, set out on your own journey! Even if it starts small. Jump out of your fish bowl.

~thank you for reading~