Happy New Year 2013

Here's to all the lessons learned, to all the friendships made, to all the friendships lost, to all the new illusions, to all the past ghosts, to all the laughs, to all the tears, to all the triumphs, to all the fears.

Think of how far you've come in just 365 days, you've survived more than one apocalypse and that's reason enough to celebrate.

Here's to the new phase of this journey.. I'm ready to bring in the New Year... May 2013 be a prosperous one in every area of your life..

Happy New Year 2013.. Maybe the lucky number '13 will be your best one yet!

Thankful Thursdays : Pre-end of the world edition

The Mayan calendar pin points Dec 21st, 2012 as the day that their "calendar round" ends, which has been interpreted as the end of the world. However, what it really means is an end of the current solar cycle and on Dec. 22, 2012, a new sun will be shining down on us.

There is no need to freak out people. I prefer to analyze it in this way; when the sun set on my heart earlier this year, my world ended. But shortly after a new sun came out and brightened up my world in a more radiant way, than the old sun had reflected on my skin. I didn't forget about the old sun, because it brought me great memories. But now I could actually look back and see the old sun behind me and smile at it ... Sincerely...

You see, the sun always comes out after the storm, so just believe that the sun will come out tomorrow; bet your bottom dollar, there'll be sun..

But just in case the day after tomorrow never comes (since tomorrow is not promised to anyone), remind those you love, that you do .. Today

Dedicated to all those people tugging at my heart.. Love you all .. Here's to life, friends, family and love!!!

A Once in a Lifetime Event 12/12/12

To my once in a lifetime friend... On your 30th birthday .. 12/12/12...

We met when we were little girls.. Back in the days when you loved your hot pink pants...

We became teenagers, and our passion for writing began as we became the editors of our middle school news paper.. Remember, back in the days when we would call each other in the morning to make sure we wore the same outfits to school.. Or at least the same body suit and jumper...

It was then our love for boys began also, and in our slam books we shared daily all of the be important stuff going on in our lives like who were crushing on that week...

In high school, I will never forget our springs breaks, because thanks to your mom, our parents trusted her enough to leave us to do as we pleased for an entire week... I definitely had the time of my life thanks to you...

Then, as fate would have it, we both entered different stages of our lives. But you're the type of friend that would go out of your way to kept all of us together, and even if we only saw each other once a year, you'd make me feel like time had never passed...

During the past four years.. We found ourselves in a new journey.. Still a little different but you have been by my side in every milestone achieved and every downfall, in every heart ache and every new love, in every failure, in every triumph, and in the most thrilling adventures to date... (Gives you the look)

Every time I begin to see the world in a different way, you are usually the reason behind it... Thank you my once in a lifetime friend... I love you...

Happy 30th Birthday Joanna!!!

Thankful Thursdays: Pre-Thanksgiving Edition : Everything Happens For AReason

I used to hate it when people would tell me "Everything happens for reason." I wanted for once, to be this so called reason that everything seemed to happen for.

The above statement used in cases of uncertainty has some certainty to it. And actually, things happens for a plethora of reasons. Fortunately today, I understand that those reasons were to help me, become me.

As I stared into the reflection of the woman in the mirror, it brought me great joy to finally greet her . I couldn't see what was behind me, I could only see what lay ahead. It was a Chronicles of Narnia-like experience. There, right in front of my face, I could see the adventure awaiting ahead. Now, t'was up to the woman in the mirror to decide to turn around and give the past a chance to determine her future decisions or if she wanted to jump in to this unknown and unfamiliar scene, and go for it... She/I, chose the latter ...



(Woman in the mirror)

Everything I've been through has absolutely made me stronger. The friendships I've made, the people I've met this past year alone, have all had such an amazing impact on my life. And to think that if I would've remained in my usual status quo, or didn't leg go of certain relationships and negative people surrounding me, I would've never met any of these phenomenal people.

Last Thanksgiving I could not have foreseen all the new blessings in my life today. Each day a new goal is met or uncovered. My Thankful Thursdays movement, to remind people to count their blessings at least once a week on Thursdays not just on Thanksgiving, has reached over 700 people worldwide, when my intention was to simply reach at least 1 person per week. My personal and love life are slowly coming out the chaos it had become. And things continue to look up.

Therefore be encouraged my friends, because when you feel like you're the only one under a cloud and it's raining lemons .. look up, say thanks for the lemons and then ask life to throw you some sugar or honey.. and it will!

My gratitude for this Thankful Thursday is you, my friends, both old and new. Thank you for being the reason I am so happy today.

Cheers to you my friends!!!!!!!!

Friendship Fridays: Then and Now

When the past intertwines with the present (which apparently it does) it's life's way of giving you another chance to do things and treat people differently. This applies in particular to old friendships. To those people you sort of knew but really didn't. If given an opportunity to get to know them better you might be surprised to find you have so much more in common than you could've ever imagined.

When the future intertwines with your present also, you can't predict how strong your friendship with certain people is going to turn out to be. 22 years ago I would have never guessed that I'd still be best friends with the same group of girls from elementary school.

In over two decades we have shared so much. Laughter, tears, sorrows, victories, loses, weddings, divorces, heartbreaks, new loves, children (human and canine), too much time together, too much time apart. But no matter where we've been or where we were going we knew every time we were together that it would be as if time had never passed.

Friendships give our lives color. They become an integral part of your existence. And if you are as fortunate as I've been, they become your family.

So on Friendship Fridays I would like to encourage you to reach out to those friends you haven't kept in touch with. Your message, whichever way you choose to deliver it, might be exactly what they needed to hear that day.

Or maybe what you need is a new friend who can potentially be part of the rest of your life. Therefore on Friendship Fridays try to be a bit more open-minded to establishing new relationships.

In recent years, I've added more friends to the little treasure box in my heart. If you are in any of these pictures it means I'm glad to call you my friend. (If I forgot to add you please slap me silly and send me a pic so I can add you.)

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
- Anais Nin

The Sculptor

A couple of years ago I wrote a personal ad to the Universe in hopes to find a sculptor that could help me break the stone that my heart had been transformed into. It read like this:

"Now hiring! My porcelain heart has been turned to stone, and now only a a sculptor can penetrate it. Because only a sculptor would be aware of its sedimentary state and as they delicately chisel away, maintain it intact as they infiltrate the layers, and slowly bring out all its radiance and beauty. Serious candidates only."

After several applicants, there was one with an excellent resume, almost too good to be true. And it was. After he broke through the layers and reached the porcelain, he became careless and let it go causing it to shatter in millions of pieces.

After months of putting back together all the pieces, I had given up on finding a sculptor that could handle my fragile yet radiant nature and decided it was better to cover it in stone again in order to protect it.

However, apparently the ad I had put out back then, was still circulating among the Universe and out of nowhere I was contacted by a new sculptor.

He claims that my heart is exactly the one he had always dreamed of but had never found before. That he understands it's been shattered but he is volunteering to wait the time necessary for the glue to adhere securely. He is willing to work on it day and night, little by little until I'm ready to let it shine again without the stone.

As an incentive to let him be the only one working on it, he offered to be beside me on my journey. He is encouraging me to continue traveling and having fun with
my friends and do all the things I wanted to do alone in all the other areas of my life.

In the meantime while I finish those adventures, he's also offering to store my heart in a secure locker while I enjoy the heck out of this roller- coaster ride I'm currently on.

Mr. Sculptor could you really be the one? The one to make me whole again? I hope so... And by the way you are hired!

The fortune cookie

Today my friends were unable to join me at the gym, so I decided to go to the closest one to me which we normally don't attend because it's like one big high school reunion and frankly the last thing we want to see when we're sweating like hogs is fake people. But since it was kind of late and I was also tired, I really didn't care if I ran into anyone.

Thankfully I didn't see any familiar faces, but as I was prepping my elliptical machine, I noticed a little piece of paper right smack in front of me.

It was a fortune cookie paper.

Unfortunately there was no cookie, but as I read it I couldn't help but look up and chuckle... Oh Universe I see you too...

It read, "Never fear! The end of something marks the start of something new."

As if that wasn't enough confirmation that things are and will fall into place as they should, when I flipped the back, it said, "learn Chinese" and the word was "to wait" - pronounced "deng". Really?!

Deng is right. Waiting sucks. But being reassured in little ways like this helps me to not stop believing in the choices I'm making and hold on to that feeling that soon enough I will have the desires of my heart.. But first I must learn to "deng" patiently. :)

Thankful Thursdays: Taking Chances

This weekend I went to Rapids water park where I came face to face with their ride called the Black Thunder.

I must admit I am a little bit afraid of heights so as I climbed the set of stairs whose final destination seemed to be the clouds, I couldn't help but get a little weak in the knees.

When I finally reached the top I was no longer consumed by the fear of the height, but rather was now feeling weak in the pit of the stomach as I glanced at the pitch black toboggan and its deep drop that I was about to face.

I knew there was no way I would go back the way that I came because it meant going down the stairs and staring at the abyss below, so down the pitch black tube it was.

The anticipation had me shaking in my flip flops and I was truly scared as my heart continued to race 1000 beats per minute. I kept thinking, "What the heck did I get myself into?"

As the sun-kissed life guard pushed us closer to the edge, I grabbed on to the small security harnesses on the sides of the raft, for dear life and then after one final push there we went.

We were twisting, turning, screaming, but halfway down I began to have fun, and enjoy the ride. I had no idea where we were going or what was going to happen next but I was having a blast!

As we approached the end, I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, but by then it didn't matter. I was thrilled that I took the chance to try something new and face my fears.

It was then that it dawned on me, sometimes we let fear hold us back from making changes or taking chances, but when you get the courage to follow your heart, it turns out there was nothing to fear after all.

"Most of our days are spent in fear of heartaches, but when faced with the inevitable we suddenly realize that we are much stronger than we thought we’d be. So don’t fear but rather live freely and enjoy the essence of life’s beauty in all that you do.... Live, Laugh, Cry, Dream, and Love without condition."--- me

Thankful Thursdays: God, the Universe & Google Earth

Think of how small we are compared to the universe, then you will realize the true size of your problems...

I never get tired of saying that. It's simply the truth. If you don't believe me try looking up your location on google earth and you'll see all the layers the satellite has to infiltrate before it can get to you.

The good news is God is like google earth and can zoom into your location anywhere in the world if you want him to.

So wake up, take a deep breath, and inhale life! It is good and something will give! Just be patient!