Tag: FOLLOW YOUR PASSION

A Night in Nashville- Say “Yes” to Adventure

ROAD TRIP PLANS

Every road trip I’ve taken seems to end up with unexpected happenings and this was no exception!  But this time, it started with an unexpected beginning, which was a text from my friend a week before asking if I was up for a road trip to Nashville the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Well, there was no hesitation to that question!   I had no plans, so YES!!

FRIDAY NIGHT – DR ZHIVEGAS

The trip would have started Friday night, but I already had tickets to attend the second annual Black Friday Ball concert with Dr. Zhivegas, and wasn’t going to miss that.  My intent was not to stay out that late (last time it was 3 or 4 am because we had breakfast after) but not this time, I thought, because we had an early departure Saturday morning at 7:30 am. But when it’s a fun concert, it’s hard to leave and I didn’t pack until Friday night either due to a busy week, so I finally got to bed at 2 am Friday night.  Oops!

This was the Black Friday Ball (current pop music, followed by 70’s music and then Prince):

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SATURDAY- DEPARTURE

The alarm went off at 6 am and I got up, showered and packed some snacks and drinks for the road and thankfully my friend, Krista, picked me up and I didn’t have to drive having only 4 hours of sleep.  We had another friend going with us and picked her up, then we were on our way!

The Road Trip has begun!
Bye STL

SATURDAY- THE DRIVE

One would expect to sleep, but not when you have a couple of friends in the car; we spent the 4.5 hours talking!  When we arrived in Nashville this song started playing ironically.

Woke up in Nashville

Woke up in Nashville! Yes we did!
Hello Nashville!

SATURDAY – THE HOTEL

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We had an early check in and were able to drop off everything in the room.  Along the way, we also found out that another friend of Krista’s and her husband were in Nashville, visiting from Virginia.  So we arranged to meet them at Tootsies.

SATURDAY – TOOTSIES

This was a multi-story honky tonk bar with a roof top outdoor seating.  It was a packed deck at 1:30 pm when we arrived, so we sat inside near the band.  We heard a couple bands play and the local TV station was recording for a promotion of next week’s event, so the crowd got all wound up with that.  It was a fun little bar, we had lunch there and visited with Kim and her husband.  After awhile, Kim and her husband were ready to head back home, so we decided to try another venue.

 

SATURDAY – HONKY TONK

We decided to explore Honky Tonk, Krista has been to Nashville before but Doneen and I have not so we followed along.  This is a 3 story building with 3 different stages on each level, so we started at the top and worked our way down.  The bands were a lot of fun and the crowds kept growing, the place was packed, the sun was going down and it was getting colder, so we decided to head back to the hotel, have dinner and change.

documenting each place
look at the crowds
fun friends

Before we made it, we decided to stop at the Tin Roof and really enjoyed the band there, so we stayed for a little longer before going back to the hotel.

 

SATURDAY- HOTEL

We stopped back at the hotel, changed and then had a substantial meal before heading out again, because this was going to be a long night ahead of us.  We had hilarious conversations and enjoyed the friend conversations and stories of other adventures in the past!

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SATURDAY- TIN ROOF (AGAIN)

We enjoyed the band at the Tin Roof, so we went back again after dinner and heard two more bands. People were having a good time at this point!

The bands were so entertaining and fun; there was a third band that was supposed to start next and evidently all the tables and chairs had to be cleared out because it was going to be a lot of dancing for this band.  We wanted to stay, but we also heard from Krista’s sister in law that David Ray was playing at the Honky Tonk Bar across the street and he was really good.  So we decided to head back there and see if we could find him.  We found him!

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SATURDAY- HONKY TONK (AGAIN)

David Ray had to be my favorite band of the night, he played country and 90’s alternative music, so of course we danced most of the time.

I was starting to get super tired at this point with 4 hours of sleep the night before and even drinking straight Red Bull, the tiredness was catching up.  But our tour guide, Krista, said we just HAD to make one last stop:  The Stage.

SATURDAY – THE STAGE

So we made it to The Stage and the place was packed.  Krista knew just where to head and we went to an elevated inside deck where we could see the band a little better.  It didn’t take long before we were dancing again and awakened!  So about 2:30 am, it was time to leave so we headed out.

SATURDAY – THE HOTEL

We arrived at the hotel and this was going on in the lobby.  This craziness was so unexpected and added another element to the unexpected evening.

Besides this, there was a very interesting couple in the lobby who shared stories about snakes and asked about how to pick out the right boots.  You just can’t make up stuff like this. So we were entertained longer.    We shared the elevator with a couple of the Vanderbilt Football players who had just played earlier that day and finally made it to our rooms!  “Nash-Vegas!” the place where no one sleeps!  We made it to the room with exhaustion, it didn’t take long to be deep in sleep after that day!

SUNDAY – DEPARTURE

It was a much quieter drive home…everyone was exhausted, but had such a great time.  It will be a trip we will never forget!  It may even end up being an annual excursion? The short trip felt much longer because we just didn’t sleep!  But it was certainly fun and worth doing again.

Bye Nashville
The Car Ride Home
Back Home

 

by Categories: Entertainment, Following Passions, FRIENDSHIP, HAPPINESS, Improvement, MUSIC, RELATIONSHIPS, TRAVELTags: , , , , , 1 Comment

THE LANTERN FEST

“Letting Go,” my prior blog, was written before attending the Lantern Fest,  I waited to publish it because the releasing of lanterns symbolically fit the topic of letting go and I was hoping I would get some great shots to add to that post.  But there was so much more to the Lantern Fest we attended, beyond the symbolism, so I wanted to write about it.

LEADING UP TO THE EVENT

I found out about the Lantern Fest on Facebook, which, in my opinion, is Facebook’s strength right now:  finding events of interest.  I’ve seen so many photos of Lantern releases in other countries and the events always appeared so magical, so I knew when I saw the event on Facebook, I wanted to experience it.  I also found out that it is an event that runs nationally and was founded in November 2013.  There are several other USA locations forthcoming.

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EVENTS WITH TEENS

I’m going to bet that many people with teens know that, at this point in life, spending time with mom or dad isn’t high on their priority list.  In fact, I think, as parents, we rank near the bottom of the list of whom they want to hang with on the weekend!  I am faced with this reality; despite all the travel and events we did when they were young and they couldn’t wait to go somewhere with me. But that is a part of them becoming independent, which is important.  So, most of the time, they spend their time based on their plans. This time, I wanted to experience this with them because we don’t often have that opportunity very often: with just us, so I signed us up.  Heading to the event I didn’t have two very excited people with me.  One kept asking how soon we could leave once we got there and the other was just silent and both were exhausted from the soccer games they played all day.

ARRIVAL

I love Google Maps especially because it reroutes us based on traffic jams, so we ended up taking some back-roads and missed most of the traffic arriving quickly.  We arrived just after sunset due to the soccer game schedules and getting ready after them, but if I ever go again, I would be there before sunset.   Immediately upon arriving we could see lights all over a field ; it was a huge festival.  We headed through the Brookdale Farms gates, opposite the activity for parking and took a long windy gravel road back to the corn fields where we parked.  It was dark out now so we found our way back to the event from headlights shining on the gravel, highlighting a few mud puddles, but of course one of us found a puddle on the way.

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THE EVENT

I wasn’t sure when the release was going to happen, so I wanted to find the lantern packages as soon as possible.  I knew the event started at 2pm and there were little ones running around, so people with them would be getting anxious to release the lanterns soon.

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We initially saw all sorts of food trucks and tents lit up, then asked someone in one of the tents where we would find the lanterns.  They directed us to the back of the event and told us to look for a white tent.  We walked for quite a while, and kept going, following the crowd.  As we passed in smoke filled air, we saw fire pits with groups surrounding them, tiki torches, and groups enjoying s’mores- awesome!  We made it to the tent where we were given our lanterns and boxes with the instructions and s’mores sticks.  We stepped to the side and noticed we were at the edge of a lake which was so beautiful reflecting the lights.  We could hear music in the distance, then heard the announcement that the launching would soon occur.  We didn’t have much time to figure it out, so we waited to launch ours, preferring to watch and video this massive launch.  It was beautiful, incredible sight!

 

I attempted to get some good photos, but it was so dark I couldn’t see my camera settings and fumbled around with the camera, taking whatever I could get and hoping to capture some of it.  Most ended up blurred.

LAUNCH TIME

Learning how to light the lantern, waiting until the gas filled the balloon then releasing into the dark sky…

BON FIRE

Our arrival timing worked out because many people left after the launch, so some of the fire pits were now freed up.  We found one near the lake and decided to try out our newly purchased GABOSS inflatable loungers.  These were perfect for the night.  We had an energetic one with us who loved filling these bags with air.

As soon as we had them set up people kept stopping by asking us about them and where we got them.  Click the GABOSS link if you want to order one!  They are sold with a shoulder bag and are much easier than carrying a folding camp chair.  They can be used individually or as a lounger with two or three people and will support over 400 pounds.

Patience? S’mores
S’mores
GABOSS inflated!

We made s’mores, then relaxed in the loungers, waiting for the second launch.  By this time, my phone died, but I still had my camera and could get a few more shots of the night.  The music added to the atmosphere, the night was a little chilly but when the fire was going it was an exceptional outdoor night.  Being near the lake was perfect too, as the first wave of people were leaving, the white and red car lights looked like Christmas lighting.  We decided to lounge outside until the traffic died down.

 

LEAVING THE EVENT

By this time, everyone was starving.  Because of the soccer schedules, there was very little time between games, so none of us ate much since breakfast, besides a few snacks. The craving was Italian pasta, needing those carbs!  My daughter searched on Google maps and found Joe Baccardi’s which was still open, thankfully!  It was about 9:30 pm, so we headed there and everyone ordered.  We barely made it through the meal, with my son was falling asleep at the table, so we headed out just before closing time. I think all but me fell asleep in the car on the way home.  I know for me; this was just what I wanted:  spending time with them and both of my teens seemed to enjoy it too!  We talked about attending one again.

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OPPORTUNITY FOR SCIENTIFIC CREATIVE PEOPLE

As with anything, there are multiple viewpoints.  After I posted pictures and videos on Facebook the next day, I had a friend send me some pictures of the after math.  This was bad, it looked like trash everywhere, on trees, homes etc.  The event was so much fun, but this was not good. Hopefully with technology and creative people, there can be a solution for some biodegradable, quick dissipating material that could possibly be used in the future for lanterns to avoid the landfall?  I’m hoping that someone reading this knows someone or is creative and comes up with a solution, maybe a future Patent?  If you read this and know of someone who might be able to do this, please share this post!

Lanterns in the trees
Lanterns in a backyard
Lanterns on roofs
by Categories: Entertainment, FAMILY, FRIENDSHIP, HAPPINESS, Lantern Fest, Make It Count, MUSIC, RELATIONSHIPSTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

LETTING GO – 7 STEPS

We all have times in our lives when it becomes necessary to “let something go.”  That something is causing a “pain” in our life; it could be a habit, a relationship, a job, or something else that’s not coming to mind right now.  Sometimes it’s easy, but when it’s not easy, I’ve found these seven steps successful:

  1. PERSONAL EVALUATION OF THE SITUATION

This is probably the MOST important initial step (personal evaluation) because if we don’t do this and identify our personal reason, we won’t be able to follow through.  Everyone is different, so we shouldn’t base our decisions entirely on someone else’s opinion. Opinions are helpful, but sometimes the person offering the opinion doesn’t have all the background or factors leading up to this dilemma, so they can’t give us the best advice for us, as an individual.  It is most important to evaluate the situation from our own perspective, asking ourselves questions such as these examples:

RE: Habit

Does this reflect the person I want to be?  Does this reflect my values? Does it reflect my beliefs?  Am I hurting myself? Am I hurting others?

RE: Relationship

Of ALL the experiences, which do I experience more of with this relationship: good experiences or bad ones? Does the relationship and person reflect my personal values?  Do other people (friends, family) see me happier or sadder in this relationship?  Does this relationship build me up or tear me down? Does the relationship contribute to my improvement or hold me back?

RE: Job

Am I doing something meaningful with my time?  Is the work environment a positive environment?  If not, can I change the environment by changing how I interact with it?  Does the effort I make in my job match up with the income I receive from it?  Have I given it enough time to be successful? Is it a healthy balance (am I getting enough sleep, exercise, relaxation time) for me?

We need alone time for this, away from everyone else to reflect and think it through based on our personal experiences and what we want in our lives.  There may be many more relevant questions to ask, these are only a few examples, but once we reflect and answer these personal questions, they should help us arrive at a decision and more importantly the REASON why we want or need the change!  We need to remember our personal reason because this is the motivation for letting go.  If we don’t have a reason, it will never happen!

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  1. FORGIVE AND FORGET

If we truly want to “let go,” we must forgive and forget.  Forgive, to me, means when a person apologizes for something, accept that based on their words followed by their actions.  Words are meaningless without action.  In addition to forgiving others, we also need to learn to forgive ourselves, we are not perfect, we all make mistakes, but recognizing the mistake and doing something about it is a positive action and deserves forgiveness.  If the actions don’t match up with the words that were said, go to Step 3.

If the actions reflect the words, this is where we need to “forget.”  Forget, to me, doesn’t mean erase from memory, I think that is impossible, but what it does mean is “forget” and don’t bring it up again, don’t dwell on, or keep reminding the other person of what they did: “let it go!”  And reflecting on this as an individual: don’t keep going back to what we did:  the past is the past, forget it, let it go and move on to a positive future!   and go to Step 3.

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  1. FIND GRATITUDE

Find a way to be “thankful” for the pain we experienced.  That probably sounds strange, but I believe with most negative situations/pain, there is a positive aspect that will improve us.  Turn the pain into gain.  Pain can be one of life’s great lessons, it can lead us to a better future.  Think about practically every improvement: didn’t the improvement start with some sort of identifiable “pain” something we, or society didn’t like, so it motivated us to improve?  We learn lessons from the pain we experience, we become better, so for this we can be thankful. The pain may motivate us to be a better person or learn from the mistakes of others.  Sometimes a bad experience propels us into something so good, we could never imagine it happening while we are having the bad experience.  The pain of “letting go” allows us opportunities to explore or create, amazing possibilities in the future. When we find gratitude, we find our “win” in the situation: the positive motivating factor when we let go.

Find a way to be “thankful” for the joy we experienced before letting go.  We will be more at peace with letting go, if we also recognize that while it shouldn’t, couldn’t, or didn’t last, there were great memories that made us happy and our life was good during that time.  We experienced something that we wouldn’t have experienced on our own.  Maybe that good experience gave us something we learned, something positive we can keep in our future life?

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  1. CONTROL OVER OTHERS = NONE, ACCEPT IT AND MOVE ON

When we truly understand, and more importantly accept, that we have zero control over someone else’s actions, this helps us let go.  Each person controls his or her own actions; we don’t control others.  We may provide what we think is helpful advice, opinions or guidance, but we don’t control how they use that information and we need to let it go.  Let that person be themselves and figure it out on their own, because that is the only way it works.  If we attempt to control someone, we will drive that person away, so let it go, don’t try to control.  We are only responsible for our own actions, keep the focus there!

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  1. CLOSURE

This step is highly important to letting go and probably the most challenging step because sometimes people aren’t willing to do it because it is tough. I would love other readers of this article who have ideas to contribute for this subject, so please share this with others who might also have good input, and/or leave comments!  Once we get to this step, we are almost there with letting go.  I think most of us want some sort of closure before we let go.  Sure, we can abruptly let go, which may be the best way if it’s a habit we are letting go, but if letting go involves people, closure is very important, I think for both sides of the relationship.  It allows people to move on.  An honest, peaceful discussion or exchange is the best way to do this, don’t leave someone guessing or questioning things that might not be relevant. We should be as clear as possible when we have a closure conversation, think about it before we communicate it to the other person.  Communication usually has challenges anyway because people receive information and often apply it based on prior experiences, but we shouldn’t compare experiences.  Every situation is different; try to truly listen to what the other person is saying and if you don’t understand it, ask for clarification. But LISTEN to what a person says, if they are willing to give you the opportunity to tell you things, believe what they say, because closure is not always easy, so don’t make it hard on the other person. And once you have this closure conversation, let it be, let it go, it is time to move on!

There are situations where having closure is not possible, and that is probably the toughest of all.  The situation could be a dangerous one, where it wouldn’t be safe/wise to have closure, it could also be a sudden unexpected death.  These are more serious situations that are best addressed by professional counselors, therapists, etc.

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  1. GET BUSY – HOBBIES

The best way to let go is to focus on something you enjoy, or self-improvement (classes, fitness, education, career exploration, etc.) Focusing on these will take our minds off whatever we need to let go of and it will give us something back in return in the form of happiness or improvement. A “win, win” for us!  It allows us to get over the pain we experienced and move forward.

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  1. CUT OFF ALL CONTACT

If possible, cut off all contact (physical, locational, communication, visual, etc.)  Once we decide to let go due to our personal reason and have a closure discussion with the person (if possible/appropriate), there is absolutely no reason to stay in contact.  It will be better for our future to avoid any further contact, of any kind.  If we stay in contact, we are not letting go, so think about the reason we had for letting go, if the reason was important for us to decide to let go, then this should be just as important now to cut off contact.

In certain situations, this step may be impossible, so then we need to find all ways we can to limit the contact as much as possible and both parties need to respect this limiting of contact because it will ultimately benefit both parties in letting go and moving on.

I hope this is helpful and welcome other ideas or suggestions!  Be strong, stay strong and life gets better!

by Categories: FAITH, Following Passions, FRIENDSHIP, HAPPINESS, Improvement, Letting Go, Make It Count, RELATIONSHIPS, WellnessTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Career Paths We Choose

FOLLOWING A PASSION- MY STORY

Some people are lucky and know at a young age what they want to be.  I, on the other hand, was not so lucky and when it came time for college, I had no clue what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to get a degree.

EARLY JOBS

Financially, the cost of college was my responsibility so had to figure how to cover that.  My good fortune was having parents who were intelligent, so thankfully, some of that was passed down to me in the genes and I was able to get an academic scholarship along with a financial aid grant which enabled me to complete my first year of college. I don’t mind working, in fact, I started working when I was 12, first baby sitting then had various jobs once in high school:  restaurant, movie theater, retail and life guard.  During my first year of college I met a friend who worked as a bank teller part-time while attending college, so guess what my next job was…yes, a bank teller.

CAREER START- Architecture/Interior Design

My second year of college, I decided I wanted to be an architect, because I had a friend whose brother-in-law was an architect and I was intrigued by the projects he designed and the business of architecture and creating.  So I pursued that and was able to get a job with a small architectural firm through my friend’s brother-in-law while attending college.  In my third year of college, one of the professors suggested I join a larger firm to broaden my experience, so I did that.  I found that architectural firms have good financial times and bad financial times depending on the market and saw layoffs a few times.  It was tough going through those times because people you became really close to lost their jobs.  It made me feel uncomfortable, so I thought it might be less risky to work for an Interior Design Firm where the business might remain more constant, by not depending on new building construction.  This became my next job.  I was always a dedicated employee and would work “all-nighters” as we called them, whenever it was needed to finish a project. Literally we would work all night long, blast the music, have pizza delivered and work all night long ‘til we finished!  I put in tons of hours in architecture and interior design, made some great friends and enjoyed it, but knew this was not my final destination.

CAREER CHANGE – Real Estate and Development

I still loved real estate and was interested in the sales and leasing side of the business, but those were commission only based jobs, and I owned a house at that point, which made a commission only income a big risk.  I ended up going to school to get my real estate license while I was working full time in design.  I did this during off hours: on nights and weekends and then worked part-time at a residential real estate office, while still maintaining my full time job. I quickly realized that was not going to work out; I needed to work real estate full time to make a living doing this.  I found a job opportunity by talking with a real estate client who was leaving her job, so I applied for that position and luckily was hired, becoming a property manager.  One day, a mentor of mine and I were having lunch and he threw out the idea of a new position working for him on a redevelopment project where my responsibilities would be construction administration, leasing and property management. This was a dream come true and eventually, this is where I went.  Sadly, we didn’t have much time in this business together, he passed away unexpectedly before I was there for a full year.  This was a huge blow to me because not only was he my boss, but he was also a mentor whom I had known for many years; he had been like a father to me, so this was devastating to me.  At that time, I felt like things couldn’t get any worse, so I decided to take a risk and get a job in the real estate sales and leasing side, with a company he respected from prior conversations we had.  Once I was hired, it took a couple years to stabilize, but then it became the best job I ever had, one that I truly enjoyed and was successful with it and I will continue with this, but I think there is more to do in my life.

CHANGE IS THE ONLY CERTAIN THING IN LIFE

In life, there will always be change. That’s just a part of life, and knowing, accepting and embracing it leads to better things.  I also know being open to opportunities and continual improvement because change always occurs.  Businesses evolve and most of the time the changes that affect me are not ones I control, so to survive, I am open-minded to change.

REFLECTION

This past year in my life, I’ve reflected on where I’ve been, what I’ve done and what creates happiness in my life.  I also questioned my purpose in life is?  I believe we all have a purpose but I still don’t feel like I’m at my final destination; there is more that can be done and I want to make what I contribute more meaningful for others.  If I look back at my path, what has motivated me most during my life has been “improvement”:  spatially, physically, and helping others improve.  I enjoy helping people reach their goals and that usually occurs through change!  I’ve had a lot of change during my life, and this has led me to be confident and positive during change, because it’s always worked out in the past.

THE SOURCE OF NEW JOBS

When I look back on the jobs I’ve had, even though they are diverse, each job I ever had was one that a friend of mine told me about, my entire career!  This proves to me the most important part of my life has always been my friends! I recognize this is truly incredible and look out for my friends as well, when I see an opportunity for them.

RECENT CHANGE

In August, I moved to a new home and met my neighbor, and we simply hit it off right away.  I could tell that we would get along well very shortly after talking a few times.  I was super busy with renovating my home and furnishing it through October, working on it until 1 am then waking up at 5am to start the day.  It was intense.  Anyway, it turned out that she works for Arbonne International, so we talked more and during one conversation, at the last minute, she invited me to a meeting she was hosting.  I usually had a Bootcamp class, but wasn’t going that night, so I was available and attended the meeting. I was a little familiar with the company because several years ago, another friend of mine introduced me to Arbonne International, but it had been some time ago and I wanted to know more. After attending the meeting, I connected well with the company philosophy: “Pure, Safe and Beneficial” and liked their product line which are skin care, nutrition and cosmetics. What a perfect match for what I was seeking! It fit so well with what motivates me: “improvement” through nutrition, fitness and taking care of your skin.  My neighbor gave me various product samples and after using them, I liked the products, so much that I decided to buy some for my own use.  Usually when I find something I like; I tend to share that with others and the business side of the company is built around this!  So, I decided to explore more about the company and believed in their brand, so I recently joined the company after about a month of thinking about this.

My website is now live:  anndulle.arbonne.com and I’m on Facebook too: “Ann Dulle- Independent Arbonne Consultant” if you are interested in knowing more about the products, the company or opportunities; I’m happy to talk to you!

So, a new launch has just occurred for me and I’m excited about the direction because it’s all about health, wellness, nutrition, and organic products- improving my life and the lives of others!

by Categories: Careers, Following Passions, Improvement, Nutrition, WellnessTags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

KEEPING TRUE FRIENDSHIPS

Friendships:  The most important “everything” in our lives!

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PATHS WE TAKE and PEOPLE WHO CROSS OUR PATHS

My posts are a little random, but they relate to what I’m passionate about and this one is about friendships.  I drafted a post about career paths last night and as I was writing it, I realized that every career path I took was based on a friendship with someone.  Have you had the same experience?

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BEING INDEPENDENT

I’ve always been one to push my comfort zone and do things to improve, whether it’s fitness, education, personal development,  conquering my fear of heights, career progress, speaking in front of people, overcoming shyness, going places solo not knowing anyone, and so on, there is always something to improve.  Pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone more makes us more independent, self-reliant and builds confidence after we challenge ourselves and complete whatever it is that challenged us.  You never know what you are capable of until you push yourself further!  This is so important to me – and Nike’s slogan sums it up best: “Just Do It!”

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STRANGERS BECOMING FRIENDS

It’s comfortable to be self-reliant and independent, which I believe I am, but I’m definitely not a loner!  I love having friends around.  In fact, when I’ve gone places in the past, I may go solo, but somehow I manage to find a new friend group!  When I was in college, on St. Patrick’s Day one year, I had a class that day but nearby there was this Irish Parade that was happening shortly after my class had ended.  I didn’t have any friends who could go, so I was a little nervous, but I wanted to be there, so I went by myself.  It was a little awkward to be honest, but it didn’t last long.  Nearby was a group of guys and girls my same age and one of the girls asked me if I was there by myself and I replied yes, so she welcomed me to join her group of friends.  We all got to know each other that day and became great friends over that summer: we started meeting on the weekends to roller blade the 7-mile loop around Forest Park, then head out for dinner and drinks.  We ended  ended up celebrating the 4th of July together that year too, taking a trip to Lake of the Ozarks and we had so much together.   Recently, I headed to a concert before my friends showed up and ended up meeting another group of people who welcomed me to join them.  I didn’t this time because I would be meeting up with my friends shortly, but the point is, people are drawn to create friendships, even strangers!

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LIFE TIME LASTING FRIENDSHIPS

My cousin was always the best at this, she always had a huge group of friends and stayed active with her friends from childhood through adulthood, adding to the group as she met more people.  I think one time at a Cardinal’s baseball game, her friend group practically covered an entire section!  As people develop families, it’s easy to get “too busy” to maintain those friendships, and I was guilty of that, but thankfully, I had great friendships that picked up right where we left off.  But, I believe that it’s important to maintain friendships at all times, find the time because it is important, you simply need to find a good balance.

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THE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIPS

Friends are amazing; what we can do for each other:  support each other toward goals, broaden one another’s horizons in careers, encourage each other, enhance other relationships, be each other’s sounding boards for ideas, help out when needed and the best part of all is just to have fun and let loose, be that crazy self that you can only be when you are in your comfort zone!  Friendships are too valuable to ignore and as a group can come up with some amazing adventures!

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Friendships with people having different backgrounds, different age groups, and different cultures simply enhances your life experience.  There is so much we learn from each other and it all makes life more enjoyable!

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PLANNING EVENTS

Recently I was with a friend group who had talked about planning weekend trips where everyone would write down a suggestion for a weekend trip and put it in a bowl then one suggestion would be chosen and that would be the surprise trip! That sounded like a fun idea and one that families could use too!  Everyone gets input and it’s a random selection.  I haven’t tried this yet, but plan to!

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My friends and I also started a closed group on Facebook for “Events and Activities” where we can share stuff we hear about and everyone has the opportunity to go.  It works well when you are trying to coordinate with 25 or more people- just post it and see who’s interested/who can make it and no one is accidentally left off an invite!   And those who can make it, excellent, and those who can’t; there is always next time!

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by Categories: FRIENDSHIP, Improvement, RELATIONSHIPS, TRAVELTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

ACTIONS NOT WORDS

SUNDAY REFLECTIONS

I don’t attend church every Sunday, but when I do, it’s truly because I want to be there and connect with God in a different way, than personally through prayer; it is meaningful to me.  It really seems the discussions are relevant to things happening in my life when I am there too.  So in my thoughts, this is God’s message getting through to me.

THE DRIVE TO CHURCH – DECISIONS

This past Sunday, on the way to church, I was talking to my son about “why I go to church and what happens” and about how sometimes when I’m making decisions I will just “have a feeling inside” about which direction I should go, and truly, it’s not always the easy decision “I want”, but I just have a feeling inside that “I should”do it. Is this God letting me know what I should do, because it’s not always what I want to do? During the service, my son and I looked at each other, because it was really ironic, the things we talked about in the car on the way there were the things that Pastor Greg was talking about, almost as if he heard our conversation.  My son noticed it too.

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From The Crossing- Facebook Page

THE MUSIC – CONNECTING PERSONALLY

Another interesting thing happened, this church has phenomenal music by the way, so that probably explains more of why I connect so well.  Anyway, one musician told us a story of how he and a friend had a falling out after a very long friendship, and that he felt like God was telling him to apologize to his friend, which he did apologize, but didn’t get the response from his friend he was expecting.  Anyway that night at 2 am this melody came into his head and he wrote this song until about 4 am; it was a beautiful song. Here is the link:  Kenny DeShields “That’s When You Love”   Relating to this event, in my own experience, I also seem to get middle of the night ideas or early morning ideas.  Is this God providing guidance or influence?

THE MESSAGE

The bible topic this day was the two most important things we can do: “Love God and Love Your Neighbor” The Pastor went into detail on what it means to “Love your Neighbor” and the relevant scripture passage was the Good Samaritan Parable  I’ve heard this story many times before, but he made it more relevant, by asking questions:  he asked everyone to come up with reasons why the first two people didn’t help the beaten man and the answers were: “no one was looking, they didn’t want to be inconvenienced, it was someone else’s job or duty, didn’t want to get involved, etc.”   It is here where it relates to all of us, those could all be OUR reasons for not helping someone in the present day.  How many times have we thought those things in our heads when we didn’t help someone? 

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The Pastor also made another point, if we were truly starving and we were offered a) bread or b) the recipe for bread?   Which would we want at that point in our life?  Of course, the actual bread more immediately addresses the need.  He related this concept of the bread and recipe to people offering empathy or sympathy in WORDS to others, but not taking ACTIONS.  Wow!  I bet we can all relate to that in our lives!  Have you ever had someone tell you what you “wanted” or
“needed” to hear, but not make the personal effort to truly connect with you or take action?  It really feels like empty words, doesn’t it?  Have we done that to others?

SUMMARY: Loving your neighbor may be inconvenient.

MY LIFE EXAMPLES

This also related to me, personally, with the access we have to technology today, we are always connected.  I made the mistake this weekend of multi-tasking, I was distracted by a message that I hadn’t seen.  The message came in about 4 hours earlier so I was curious what it said and clicked on it when I should have been paying attention to the conversation I was having with the person.  This person is 100% more important to me than the message, but I didn’t show it when I quit paying attention to look at the message.  I wasn’t being present in the moment and I offended the other person and felt terrible about it, but I couldn’t take it back!  I did apologize, but the damage was already done at that point.  Sometimes being there for a person may simply mean being fully present and truly listening –  without distractions.  This situation has happened to me, with roles reversed before and it made me feel like I was unimportant.  An action not words example can simply be actively, truly listening to someone, and hearing what they are saying.  And I blew that this weekend!

When someone gives you their full attention, isn’t that awesome? When this happens, it is not only noticed, but remembered, even years later, because not many people truly listen.  So many people have other things going through their minds and may only capture a fraction of what is said.  I seriously remember specific people who listened attentively, because they stand out from all others.

FRIENDS TAKING ACTION

I also had another example of Actions Not Words, that I will always remember:  Our family was away on vacation and had a death in the family while we were away.  A fairly new neighbor heard about this and took immediate action:  Michelle C. contacted people that she met through me and spread the word. She went grocery shopping and Maria R. provided a meal so when we got home we could focus on family and not have to worry about the food basics.  This completely amazed me, the action she took and the other friends who did as well. Logically people do not have much food in their refrigerators when they leave for vacation, so she and others took care of that for us and we didn’t even have to think what we needed!  By the time we arrived home, it was already in our refrigerator!

So in summary, the next time someone is in need the message was to try for Actions not Words in addressing their situation.

THE CHURCH

If you are looking for a Christian Church, they offer online Live service every week, so you can log in where ever you are located as long as you have internet service. Here is their website:  https://www.wcrossing.org/, they are on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter too.

This is an amazing church in my opinion!  My friend, Michelle C. had encouraged me to check out the church years ago, but I was  a member of another church, so I didn’t. Then another friend of mine Krista K. also encouraged me, and I finally did in December 2015.  It was definitely something I should have done a long time ago and since then, I’ve found many of my friends from all different denominations also attend this church.

Have a Make it Count week!  

by Categories: FAITH, Improvement, MUSICTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment