Balance

Balance is something I don't have a lot of.
I wonder if there is really anyone who has found a way to have a perfect balance in their life.
I doubt it.
I think that there are definitely people who have achieved a higher level of balance than others but I would bet that we all struggle with it.
I planned on writing everyday for 30 days no matter what. I must say that doing that is not very realistic. Once again, my lack of balance rears its ugly head.
My lack of balance has kept me from doing so many things because of fear and frustration of what I would see as failure. For example, I want to workout 6 days a week.
Realistic?
So I start on day one, day two, day three, day four, and now I am feeling goooood. I am so proud of myself. Day five comes and I am stuck in the office all day and then I have to go drive Michayla around, go grocery shopping, make dinner and I just drank a glass of wine. Gym...what gym?
Do I get up and go the next day? The answer is sadly no. Why, you might ask.
I blew it.
I "failed"
I could give you example after example of ways I do this to myself.
I have lived my life by all these rules that others have imposed upon me or that I have set upon myself. None of these rules have any balance in them whatsoever.
So I have set out in this new way of living. The thing I have been craving the most is balance.
I am eating 85% raw, living food. I have also fallen of the wagon and had some champagne and a few pieces of grilled chicken. **GASP**
But you know what? I started all over the very next day and didn't even really regret my indulgences.
I am losing weight and gaining perspective. I am shedding bad habits and grabbing hold of optimism. I have thrown out rules and have embraced clarity. I am eating raw, living, healthy, brightly colored food and learning balance.
Tomorrow will be the end of two weeks of eating mostly raw, living, organic food and drinking delicious green drinks. I feel fabulous! I am still waiting for that wake up early and ready to go feeling! I am hoping for that along with balance. :-)
Today I bought a book by one of my favorite authors, Being in Balance by Dr. Wayne Dyer and I thought I would share a quote from the book that really hit home with me.
There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and you hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.
That also sounds a lot like the verse in the Bible, As a man thinks in his heart, so he is. Proverbs 23:7
I am thinking that I am achieving balance and becoming a much healthier person physically, spiritually and emotionally.
YEY ME!!!!

It's the Little Things...

...like, Michayla and her friend Skye walking around the Harbor like I used to do with my best friend when I was her age. Watching them laugh and laugh...and laugh at nothing, just like I used to do with my friends (and sometimes still do...)
It's the little things like, being near the ocean and breathing in the salty air.
It's having friends that are more like family...It's having friends that have a boat at the harbor, that are willing to be generous enough to let you use it whenever. By whenever I mean living on it while they are gone for vacation or if you just need a get away for a night.
It's the little things in life like having a partner that after 16 years of being together you are still curious about what they think about different situations, politics, and general life topics. Nobody has become a foregone conclusion.
I sit here typing on my friend Jackie and Rod's boat in the harbor. Large fish keep leaping out of the water, Pelicans fly by, I can hear the laughter of my daughter and her friend, the tide pushes us back and forth and all I can think of is, "I must be the most blessed person on the face of the earth."
~The ocean, the white foam it throws, the wet sand you step into that sinks as you pass, the sand crabs that make triangles in the sand as the tide recedes, the sea weed and kelp that tangles in heaps on the shore...these are a few of my favorite things...
~The smell of salt, the sound of Michayla's laugh, the surprise of a sea lion popping up out of nowhere...those are some of my favorite things!
~Ipods that can play french music, pop and rap music and new age music...that is really good too! ~Lights that glimmer off the water, and birds that squawk so loudly as they go by....
~The breeze, the stillness of the water that makes it look like glass...
~The bubbles in a champagne glass that help us celebrate...
~The familiarity of family without expectation or rules...
~Digital cameras and cell phones, and the ability to catch funny moments like no other time before...
~God's grace, Thank Him for always forgiving, for never keeping a record of wrong when we fall...
~Thank God he looks at our heart...can I hear an amen???
~I love all the different cultures, languages, and customs...may we be able to travel far and often.
But for now, I am grateful for the simple sound of a rope being stretched and pulled against a boat, for the comfort of my family being very near, and for the ability of living and playing in a place I love and cherish so much...These are a few of my favorite things!