Women's Life Link Be Well, Be Happy, Be YOU!

Recently, I moved. This move involved foreclosure on a home I loved and had lived in for the past 14 years. The loss of the house was part of the fall-out of my divorce. I saw it coming long ago, so it wasn’t a surprise. I had plenty of time to come to terms with the need to move away from rooms I had spent three years faux-finishing and the garden I had grown from barren clay soil. During the move, my sex drive diminished. I was exhausted, and when I sat down to write, I couldn't focus. For the first time in 5 years, I experienced writer's block.

Remember the good old days? Those years when you went to primary school, hung around with your mates, did what you parents told you to do, went to high school, thought about what you wanted to do; there were a few choices back then. Would you go to University or would you go to Tech School, would you pursue a career or a trade? Or, hey, what if you wanted to bum for a while and take a year long travel hiatus then come back and get a job… it was all possible.

"Resilient," he said… "A warrior," he called me… if I could only see that truth… Living with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) can be painful when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Love means everything yet nothing at all. We seem to love hard and fast yet live in constant fear of being abandoned. The heartache is caused by an ongoing yearning to find true happiness, though we may not even know what that is.

With Mother's Day quickly approaching, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite online companies to find unique gifts from the heart. So, I couldn't help but show you this beautiful hand-carved piece I found at Novica.com. It reminded me that no matter how far we are from our children, we are still connected and nothing or no one can take that away. I was able to find this amazing piece very quickly because of the special Mother's Day collections Novica put together in one place.

Remember the story of Goldilocks and the three bears? Just like Goldilocks, we question things in our lives. We test things. Taking a look at our lives is something we can forget to do with day-to-day stress. Goldilocks did not just know which porridge was the right porridge. She tested each bowl. Now, I won't get into the fact that she broke in the Bear's home in this story that might presently be banned from many schools because it promotes criminal behavior... Nonetheless, she tested which porridge was too hot, too cool and just right.

I have been thinking about feelings. There are a myriad of feelings we can experience; they can be front and centre, off to the side, hiding in your peripheral vision or nicely bound somewhere down in that back cabin of your mind, secured with a large padlock. We can be engulfed to the point of drowning, we can have feelings borrowed from someone else, feelings dictated by our families and friends or feelings that we think we should be having; whatever the situation or timing in our lives.

Today I drove down to Carter Dock. It is a lovely area that is like a lagoon. Half of the parking lot was covered in water. I parked and got my lawn chair out and strategically placed it at the water's edge. Then I sat down, planting my feet in ankle deep water on this warm and sunny, delightful day. As the water played with my ankles, I opened my book to a new page.

Have you ever been shopping for a specific item like a formal dress or pair of shoes? Well, sure you have. And, while on that shopping trip, did you tend to get really distracted by all the new seasonal fashions and trends. Suddenly, your purposeful trip to the mall gets derailed...at least for a few minutes while you rush to the dressing room to try on that cute top you just couldn't resist scooping up into your arms. After all, it's so much fun to indulge in things that don't have rhyme or reason, huh? And though I have my fair share of these carefree occasions, I want to use this scenario to explain how living your life like this regularly can literally derail your train to authentic purpose.

It all started a couple weeks ago. I had a real conversation with someone who actually believes in the same things I do - someone who values old school beliefs and finds peace in his universe, as well as understands how we manifest our lives. The conversation flowed for almost 6 hours, and by the end, I felt immense joy. We shared so many thoughts. Those first couple days were truly amazing. There were no uncomfortable silences. The laughs flowed as easily as the feelings that carried them. He was so beautiful to me. However, after just a few days, reality forced its way in, and I realized this would not last forever.

I sat on the couch the other night, beside me was the constant pile of books to indulge in, but I didn’t think I was in the mood for reading. The TV was on, though nothing much was on it, and I had my staple cup of green tea. Deciding to have a squiz at one of the books anyway, I flicked a few pages, came across something I thought to be interesting and off I went.

There is record of the word hope in English, though in varying form, dating back to before the twelfth century and even earlier in Hebrew. I have a good feeling that even before there was a word, there was an action- a longing, an expectation, an anticipation. It's like the human equivalent of an animal's instinct- a built in feature. Not to say that animals don't hope and humans don't have instinct. It could be that both of these things are interchangeable and innate with all life. We need hope to live, thrive, and find our purpose. That is why I am thankful to

Each of our lives start as blank canvas. You get to add the colors with the strokes of your brush through your actions and attitudes toward the things you do, feel and accomplish. Here is the way I decide which colors are going on my canvas: Anything positive, like joy, love, mercy, grace, hope, giving, and helping others are my pastels and bright colors. Anger and bitterness, hate, selfishness, and deceit are the dark, foreboding colors that don't allow for a beautiful portrait.

Who is an Addict? Most people define an addict as someone who is an alcoholic or drug user. The truth is, anything that eases pain can become an object of addiction. People become addicted to the absence of feeling emotion. They want pain on the outside instead of the inside, and they want to become someone they are not. It's not always easy to recognize an addict, however. They can have good jobs, good friends and look no different on the outside than anyone else.

Along with new technology, digital technology particularly, comes the desire and the ability to re-do, re-hash, dress up, re-create and re-produce media of all shapes and forms. This remediation is not always for the better; sometimes it’s a sideways step, sometimes it’s completely over the top. But what it always does is create something new, this is regardless of whether or not we recognise it or can compare it to what has gone before. This whole construct had me thinking. What if we viewed ourselves as a medium ready and willing for re-mixing or remediating? The opportunities are endless and there are different ways of approaching this, different levels of remixed media.

If you are like me, you tend to be anxious to get the end results of anything you do. Though there is nothing wrong with wanting to finish stuff, it can cause you to pull the proverbial trigger a little early sometimes. And when you're dealing with important decisions and the development of your dreams, it might serve in a greater way to wait for things to enter your life naturally, especially if you know you have intuitive gifts.