Showing posts with label new beginnings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new beginnings. Show all posts

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Come Follow Me to my New Blog - Life is a Marathon - Journey Well!

Thank you to all who have been following my blog. Be sure to follow me on my new blog Life is a Marathon - Journey Well at www.marathonjourneywell.blogspot.com

My first blog title was Welcome to a New World. I started blogging at the suggestion of two students from Boston University's PR lab in October of 2008. I smile as I read my early posts and realize I had no idea how to use social media and how to blog. I was posting about my greeting card business, New World Greeting Cards, original poetry for every occasion and training for the Boston Marathon. The title reflected my transition from life as a VA social worker to well a new world after the diagnosis of post polio syndrome.

I changed the title from Welcome to a New World to Healing, Hope and Possibility interestingly enough on the morning of April 15, 2013. My message was no longer about welcoming readers to my new world but sharing a message of healing, hope and possibility after a life changing diagnosis and living with the aftermath of trauma.

It's time once again for a change. Rather than sharing a message of healing, hope and possibility, I am living that message and want my blog title to reflect the living aspect of my journey. I decided to begin a new blog; a new starting line if you will.

On Saturday night I was blessed to be a guest on the Jordan Rich Show.

As we talked about my memoir, "Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility", I said that life is a marathon. Just when you think you can't take another step, there is always something left in the tank. You're stronger than you think you are.

As I was leaving my therapist's office at Sollievo Massage and Bodywork, on the Thursday before the weekend of the 2014 Boston Marathon, anticipating the weekend's events, Joseph said to me, "journey well".

I am learning how to go the distance on and off the roads and how to now journey well, managing the late effects of having contracted paralytic polio at the age of 5 and in the wake of severe childhood trauma. My intention for my blog is to share race reports, training runs, new experiences and the joy of new discoveries on my road to health and aging well; wisdom and soul lessons learned; poetry, people who inspire us, my next miles in the marathon of my life and anything that inspires me/moves me to share with you on the open road before me.

Thank you for reading!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Letting Go, Letting God



First of all -- a disclaimer. I don't have an entirely empty nest. I have a beautiful animal companion, Alex aka Alex da cat dude. When my son did relief work in the lower ninth two years ago in New Orleans they heard meowing in the attic at Common Ground, the volunteer house where he was living. Common Ground had adopted a dog, Chopper and a Katrina cat. My son was planning to bring home Chopper to give him a permanent home but after hearing the meowing in the attic, the volunteers discovered that the Katrina cat had given birth to a litter of kittens. There was no way they could stay there; my son and his friend each took one of the kittens. My son named him Alex after an anarchist leader (whose name escapes me now). My daughter and husband dubbed him Alex da cat dude and since he rules the house, we call him King Alex (and even have that name inscribed on his ID tag). (In case you are wondering, my son moved out a year ago April to follow his own path).

Yesterday, Alex manifested a sign for me. It was raining yesterday morning but he still wanted to go outside. I expected when he returned he would be soaking wet. When he came back in he was moew'ing and meow'ing so I thought he wanted a pick up to be dried off. When I picked him up, he was completely dry. God sent me another sign last night. I'd been in and out of the kitchen several times yesterday. I'm a little OCD especially during times of change and transition so I notice things that are 'out of place'. While I was vacuuming last night, something was moving around on the floor refusing to be vacuumed up. I looked closer and it was a nickel. It had not been there all day or I would have noticed! God is letting me know that there are mysteries and miracles abounding all around me. I only need to let go and let God.

This morning's Daily Word is Divine Order.

"God is divine order. The spiritual universe, from which all the material universe springs, is orderly. Order is its essence. Spirit is everlasting, unchanging and unchangeable." ... "I keep my thoughts in order by refusing to dwell on any but harmonious thoughts. I refuse to let fear or doubt or discouragement derail my thinking. I achieve order in my life by affirming that I am in harmony with divine order, directed and guided by it."

During this morning's meditation I realized that part of the tears I cried yesterday were for myself. What a contrast between the way I left for college in September 1971 and the way my daughter left for Tennessee. My father had spent all of my college savings. He had chosen to end his life a month before I was leaving for Boston University. I was carrying the trauma from years of abuse and the baggage of a polio survivor. My mother, herself a trauma survivor and dealing with many medical issues which led her to become addicted to prescription painkillers was not able to provide any emotional support. In fact, I would commute on weekends from Boston to help her settle my father's mess and take care of her parents who had begun to slip into dementia. God was there all along and despite the seeming chaos, everything was as it should be. Everything was in Divine Order. Thank God for my brother. Up until this moment, I had not realized the important role he played in my life during that critical time. And right in this moment I realize the significance of the nickel. Five. There were four people in our family but God's Love and constant Presence through it all made for five.

The sun is shining this morning. It is a new day. Every day is a new day, a new beginning and I let go and let God guide my day. It would be easy to clutter my day with things to do, calling people, busying myself to distract myself from the grieving process of having sent my beautiful daughter off to Tennessee. It is gentle grief today unlike the wracking pain of yesterday. Not having someone around who has been a part of my life for 23 years creates a feeling of sadness. I just let the little ripples come and go and can smile and know that God is right here. There is a bird singing loudly this morning - a call to go outside and be one with God as I go on a run to start the engines of my physical body and see where Spirit leads me this day.

I've been blessed with the gift of inspirational poetry which has helped me to heal mind, body and spirit -- I'd love to share my gift with you. You can order "New World Greetings:Inspirational Poetry and Musings for a New World" and "Set Sail for a New World:Healing a Life Through the Gift of Poetry" through my website New World Greetings.

After you order your autographed, signed copy of my books, browse the samples of original poetry I create through New World Greeting Cards and celebrate and commemorate with a one of a kind poem.

Be sure to check out my News and Events page to see what's next for me in my new world.

Followers