End of February Update

February has been a difficult month for me with the passing of my mother. Though I know that this feeling of emptiness won’t be going away for a  long time, I am slowly finding my equilibrium.

First and foremost, I have started my “official” training for the Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon with the Saturday ladies and Coach Beth, Running Evolution. Our training started earlier than in the past years which has resulted with shorter runs to start with. My runs have been averaging between 12 minute miles and 13 minute miles. My best runs happen when I ran with the “fast” ladies. Unfortunately after two miles, they leave me in their dust.

My IT Band is still bothering me. My doctor calls it chronic IT Band. I can ease it by doing strength exercises twice a day and stretching before and after every run. Unfortunately, this past month hasn’t been conducive to doing that.

On March 19th, I will be learning how to blow glass using my Uptown Glassworks’ Groupon. I have to make a decision on what type of blown glass item I want to create. I have a choice of an egg, a chill pepper, an apple, an ornament, or a plate. I am currently leaning towards a plate. That is number 43 on my list.

Again, thanks to Groupon, this week they had a deal for a one night stay right near the Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula plus a free tour of the rain forest. I’ll be exploring this rain forest once it warms up a bit more. This temperate rain forest  is one of the few and the largest in the US. It’s 39 on my list. On this trip, I will bring my camera to start trying to learn how to take great pictures. Number 45, taking great pictures, will be an ongoing process.

I have re-adjusted the length of my trip to see the orangutans, Number 18. I will update when my plans are firm.

Number 21 is to read a book on Zen. I wanted a book that would make me dig a bit deeper each day with a thought about life and expand my own thought process. Though the book I found isn’t exactly on Zen, I feel that Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening is exactly what I was looking for. Each day is a chapter started with a quote or thought followed by Nepo’s interpretation of the meaning. Then there are exercises that challenges the reader to explore and meditate on how the quote and lesson can shift their own lives for the better thoughout the day and beyond. 

As for Number 53 and 54, I was hoping to write on February 17th that I had faithfully written in my journal about my thoughts on the day’s events and on five people/things I’m grateful for each day for the last three months. I had a good run of it but fell short by two weeks. I am slowly getting back into writing down the five things I’m grateful for as I have found it adds a brighter sheen to my overall day. As for the journaling, I am still finding it hard to get back into.

I am still downsizing my possessions, Number 4. At the end of January, I took about 14 boxes of personal papers to a Windermere Real Estate shredding event.  I have also been slowly going through items in the basement to either take to Goodwill or to sell. I have managed to rid the basement of a lot of stuff. But I have now taken in several boxes of items, and will probably have more, that had belonged to my mother.  I am finding that with her passing, I can’t part with certain items especially the ones that I have a memory of from my childhood. I think this has to do with no longer having a parent alive and that strong mother-to-daughter connection I don’t want to ever sever.  

The silent retreat, Number 12, I’m still researching. I’m not exactly sure where I want to do this in the Washington area. I’ve researched several places but as of yet, none have really felt right. So the research goes on.

I’ll keep updating each month as well as writing posts when I actually cross items off my list.

Posted in 60by60, Accomplishments, Goals, Running | 5 Comments

Yoga–The Hot Way!

Yoga is one of those meditation, slow move, stretch my muscles that I always feel energized afterwards. So today, I decided to try the “hot” yoga.

There were several reasons for this:

  • My back has been stiff for the last 2 weeks despite the massage I had earlier this week.
  • The sun has been out but the wind and the cold have been in high form these last couple of days. Brr…it’s cold here.
  • I didn’t really stretch after my run today. Naughty me but the coffee with the ladies was so much more fun especially since we went to Trophy Cupcakes. And yes, I had a cupcake but it was Joyce’s fault. She tempted me.   
  • And lastly, the warmth of the room would allow me to stretch out my back more than I’ve been able to as well as my IT Band. 

When I go to a yoga class, I like the 90 minute classes as the yoga instructors don’t seem to go as fast. This gives me time to adjust my poses. Standing on one leg with the other twisted around it, bending from the waist doesn’t give me much confidence that I won’t topple over in this contorted pose.  So the slower pace is good for me to find whatever balance I can.

When I first walked in to the class, I thought..warmth, great for my back.

Our instructor was very nice as she told us that if we got too hot, it was okay to lay down on our mats as this was about ourselves and how we felt.

As we started going through the poses, it was no longer warm, it was hot.  Sweat started pouring off me. Thankfully, I had my yoga top under my t-shirt as the t-shirt was off within minutes. A few minutes later, I realized I should have worn my running shorts instead of long yoga pants. I rolled those up to get more air on my skin.

About 30 minutes into this, I took the instructors advice and laid down on my mat. I wanted to get as far away as I could from the heater mounted on the wall above my head. If I could have levitated off the floor, I would have as that was heated as well. I drank half of my water to replinish what I had lost the first 30 minutes.

I was thankful when our instructor opened the door to the outside courtyard. Cool air breezed in. But within a few minutes the door was closed. I so wanted to take my mat and do my poses outside there in the courtyard. Freezing cold surely had to be better than this—hold a pose with sweat dripping out of every pore in my body.   

I did cool down a bit after the brief cold breeze and followed along on a couple of more poses. But the heat got to me again. Our instructor was kind enough to give us alternative suggestions on how to modify some of the poses while laying down on the mat. Was I ever thankful for that.

Unfortunately, I soon realized even laying down that I wasn’t going to make it for 90 minutes in this class. So after about an hour of “this must be what hell feels like”, I rolled up  my mat, picked up my towel, my bottle of water and left.

As I cooled down, the receptionist assured me that it takes time to acclimate your body to this as this is one of the “hotter” classes. I was further informed that most people start with their 95 degree class. And even that takes time to get use to.

This “hotter” class was done at 105 degrees!!!!

The upside in all of this…my skin is glowing and my pores have ridden themselves of whatever toxins were there. Oh, and my back feels better.

Next time, I will try their 95 degree class and see if  that is manageable.

Posted in 60by60, Journeys | 3 Comments

My Mom, Sophie Ball

As I sat vigil by my Mom’s bedside over her last days, I often thought about her life and how she had live it.

My Mom as a young child

She was born in the Philippines in 1920. Her mother was Filipino. Her father was an American soldier who fall in love with my grandmother and the islands. Mom was one of six children.

I wasn’t told much about her childhood but I do know she graduated from Far Eastern University.

Mom lived her entire life as it came at her and beat tremendous odds that were thrown in her way.

By the time, World War II arrived on the shores of the Philippines Island, she was a divorcee with a baby. Bill, my brother, was just about nine months old. In that time and in a land that was and is still predominately Catholic, she had to have faced some type of pressure to stay in a marriage that wasn’t right for her and the discrimination of being a divorced Catholic. But I know that those weren’t the pressing hurtles that had to be overcome.

With her mother and her sisters, they managed to hide from the Japanese during the beginnings of the war until finally going into Manila. There she and her sister, Eleanor, crossed checkpoints with bags of rice that hid American dollars to help earn money for the rest of family.

After the war, she met my father. He was British by birth but had become an American naturalized citizen. My Dad had come to the Philippines 1944 with the military before joining the War Damaged Commission which helped rebuild the islands.

Our family, Dad, Mom, Bill, Sue and I

After a few years of marriage, my sister, Sue, was born. Dad re-joined the military and my parents started moving. They lived in Guam for a couple of years before returning to the Philippines. During that time, I was born. But it wasn’t long before they were making their home in Japan. Then it was on to Thailand, Egypt, India, and back to Thailand. Our second time in Thailand, Dad was actually stationed in Vietnam as it was the 60’s. After his tour was over, they moved to Laos before finally settling down in Palm Springs, California for retirement in the early 70s.

Each time we moved, there were different cultures to learn and different historic places to see, different people to get to know, different protocols within each office and what was require of the “wife”. It was never the same but in all that moving, I never heard my Mom complained. Instead she embraced the change, made new friends, dealt with whatever protocol, went to see whatever historical places near-by and enjoyed herself–always the “lady” in her very mannerisms.

I remember big parties they went to and threw…Shriner’s dinners in Japan, Texas BBQs in our backyard in Thailand, summer dancing on our roof in Cairo that in the distance you could hear the Nile River with the Pyramids visible on the horizon and duck shoots with Prince Phillip of England at a Maharaja’s palace just passed the Taj Mahal.

Besides being the lady, Mom also learned to adapt to Dad’s love of the outdoors and adventure. They were camping trips along the Red Sea as well as deep sea fishing, hunting and fishing trips in India, and more hunting trips in Thailand. Two of the hunting trips in Thailand resulted in my Dad finding an abandon baby bear and a gibbon. We did bottle feed the bear until it got too big and had to be placed in a zoo. The gibbon we kept until it passed away in Cairo.  And we mustn’t forget the 45 day “cruise” on a freighter from Penang to Genoa or the simple fishing trip in Kashmir.

Once they retired to Palm Springs, the parties and socializing didn’t stop. My Mom loved to entertain. They were sit down dinners for 20+ people with her fine china laid out, most with some form of different cultural food theme on them. She would serve Japanese, Indian, Filipino and British fare.

But being retired didn’t stop the traveling, Mom did a dozen or more cruises around the world, many to places she hadn’t visited when they lived overseas. In fact, she has seen all but one of the seven wonders of the world as well as all the continents except for Antarctica.

Over the course of her life, she first learnt to to drive in a military Jeep (no automatic then), ride a horse, ride a bicycle, bait a hook, and field dress a deer.

Mom at her 90th birthday party

Mom definitely lived her life by the rules of her time as well as by her own. She died on February  7, 2011 just shy of her 91st birthday. Though I am sad to have lost her, I know she had a life few people can even imagine to have lived!

Posted in 60by60, Inspiration | 11 Comments

Updating….

I do hope this new year is treating everyone well.

I ended the year with clearing out a lot of “stuff” from the house that has just been collecting dust. I’m still not done with all of that but it has been very freeing to have most of that stuff gone.

While I was doing that, I did a lot of thinking about where I wanted to go in my career. I thank Debbie Whitlock, Karen Rosenzweiz, Katy Woodworth, Shari Spence Fox, Sylvia Taylor, Candice Busch, Cindy Bingham, Joyce Leslie, Karen A Yoshitomi, and Donna Canterna for taking the time to listen, give advice, and most important, support me as I rambled, rambled some more, and went around in circles. I so appreciate you and thank you. I am honored to know you. You are all totally amazing.

After much thinking, I decided to move to a new mortgage company, Absolute Mortgage, that is more supportive, more progressive, and so positive in an industry that has been full of negativity over the last 2+ years. I officially joined them Monday, January 17 and I am well pleased I made the decision to be a part of their family.

I have also been working on my list. Right now, I have been mostly working on the physically items.

Of course, I have been running most weekdays and weekends, inspite of still having some pain in my knee. On these runs, I have been working on lowering my minutes per mile and endurance as I’m still working towards getting myself qualified for the Washington D.C. 1/2 marathon for next year ( number 13.)  I will start training “officially” for the Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon on February 5th  (number 3).

I have also been working on the regular and side planks, number 7 and 8. I am only able to do a regular plank for about 30 seconds and as for the side plank, well…about 3 seconds! And yes, Joyce, we can start doing them before and after our Saturday runs.

Number 25, buff (and stronger) arms will probably take me most of the year but I am, I think, slowly seeing some definition. And of course, we must not forget about number 41, seeing Brain and Brent at Emerald Trapeze. Besides needing stronger arms, I am also working on my core so that doing the catch will be a breeze.

Some of the other items I have been working on is doing research on the silent retreat, number 12, and the trip to see the orangutans in Jakarta, number 18. Both of these need major funds to accomplish them so I am slowly putting the money away for both of them.

And lastly, I did purchase a Groupon on glass blowing which I will probably schedule to do either February or March. That is number 43 on my list.

That is just a quick update on what I’ve been doing towards accomplishing the items on my list.

How are the items on your lists going? Have you been working on them? What have you learnt about yourself from focusing on them?

Posted in 60by60, Goals, Inspiration, Journeys, Running | 2 Comments

Update on “Out with the Old…”

Eleven Starbucks cards

I’m almost embarrassed to admit this. Today, I went through a desk drawer in my office. This drawer was so stuffed that I never really knew what all was in there for sure until now.

Besides the normal stuff like stamps, address labels, business cards, pens, pencils, stapler remover, glue sticks, lipsticks, lipgloss, chapsticks, emery boards, rulers, paper clips, several pennies, a blank birthday card, blank bank deposit slips, and odd bits of paper with numbers and/or names on it, I also found eleven, yes, eleven Starbucks cards, three Barnes and Noble cards, two DC Metro cards, one Eileen Fisher gift card, one Visa gift card, one iTunes card, and one Coffee Fiore House gift card.

Most of these cards were given to me as gifts. Some I put in the drawer for safe keeping to be used later, some had been used and had small balances on them, and others I had used so had no balances on them. 

Other Gift Cards

Here’s my booty:

  • Eleven Starbucks cards $92.81
  • Three Barnes and Noble cards $3.44
  • Two DC Metro cards $6.95
  • One Eileen Fisher card $46.64
  • One Visa Card card $0.00
  • One iTunes card $15.00
  • One Coffee Fiore House card $10.00

The best part is it’s Christmas all over again!

Cafe Fiore Coffee Card

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Out with the old….

Every year as we get closer to the new year, I tend to spend a week going through all of our financial paperwork and start the process of gathering the necessary documents our accountant will need to do our taxes. This process allows me to clean out my office, re-organize, and generally, do a “do I really need to keep this piece of paper or folder.”

But over the last few weeks, I decided to finish what I had started when Warren and Betsy Talbot, Married with Luggage, stayed with me-get rid of “stuff” that has been collecting dust over the years. You know that “stuff”  we had to have but no longer need or want. That “stuff” we just can’t bear to part with until we open that box and wonder why in the earth we have kept it so long in the first place.

I remember when I left my parents’ home to go to college come back here in States (we were living in Bangkok, Thailand when I graduated from high school.) I had 2 suitcases and 1 footlocker to my name. But now I have duplicates of tools, numerous light bulbs that don’t even go to this home, Christmas lights to light several homes, empty Christmas boxes, sewing machines and just stuff that has me shaking my head and thinking, “where do all of this come from?”  How did we accumulate all of this? And worse, it is just collecting dust and taking up space all in the name of “I need this” or “so and so gave it to me, I can’t possibly part from it.” The problem is I can’t possibly use most of this stuff or want to use this stuff over the rest of my life.

So I have been slowly selling these items on Craigslist or donating to the various charity organizations. My goal is to have one steel shelfing unit which will house all the stuff we need to keep. Unfotunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to make that goal though I know I’ll get very close to it.

Even though I’m not quite done yet, my house fills lighter and my mind feels clearer like cobwebs being swept away.  And I’ve been told by Diane Easley, HomeGoddess and Feng Shui expert, you lose 10 pounds and it opens the door for new, exciting “stuff” to happen.

Besides the lightness around the house, the potential to lose 10 pounds (who couldn’t stand to lose 10 pounds), and new, exciting “stuff”, I’ve noticed a lightness around myself, a more openess to explore different avenues, and a more “yes, I can do this” attitude.

I can’t think of a better way to start a new year. Lightness in the house, 10 pounds lighter, and more important, a clearer mind to accept and embrace  all the new, exciting “stuff” coming my way.

What a great way to embrace a new year!

Posted in 60by60, Accomplishments, Goals, Inspiration | 7 Comments

Setbacks

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with the first step.”
                                                                   -Lao Tzu

We all want to achieve our goals. But it is the setbacks along the way that can make it hard to achieve them.

No one sees all those steps we take by ourselves nor those inner doubts that we struggle with and overcome to motivate ourselves to take those steps. And when we feel that we have failed to meet one of the lesser goals within that larger one, more doubts wash over us.

Because the majority of these first steps are done without a lot of support, most people only see the end of our journey. So without that cheering and rah-rah support, we let those setbacks further cloud our confidence.

This is what happened to me this past weekend. I walk/ran in the Jingle Bell 5K as I wanted to have a baseline on my minutes/mile. I needed the baseline so that I would know how many minutes/mile I would have to shave off to qualify for the Washington DC 1/2 marathon. Registration for that race opens up on July 4, 2011 for their 2012 event.

When I first got my official time from the Jingle Bell 5K, I was disappointed. I averaged 14:07 minutes/mile. I had expected somewhere around 13:30 minutes/mile as that has been my pace on my weekly Saturday morning runs. I also found that my IT Band (for me, knee pain) wasn’t as strong as it should have been when running up hills.

Why was this happening to me? I have been training–some speed work-outs, some uphill workouts, and some strength exercises for my knees. But what was worse was this one major doubt that kept swirling around in my head, undermining my will to continue. If I can’t do a timed 5K at my training pace, how can I get down to 10 minutes/mile to qualify and, at the same time, get my IT band stronger?

Somehow, I had to turn this negative talk of “Why did this? Why to me? Why can’t I?” around.

These types of  insidious doubts undermine our confidence  daily.  And yes, most of us try and do keep them at bay. But when we are hit with a setback especially a setback of something we felt we should have nailed, it is hard to do so. We want to wallow in our disappointments which can and will damage our confidence and self-esteem.

Instead, let’s acknowledge our disappointments but, at the same time, realize our journeys needs to be tweaked from time to time. In other words, re-assess, honestly, what we have been doing and then tweak it. This, then, allows us to continue on to achieve our larger goal. And that seback is only a minor irritant.

I broke down the why of this setback and set a new journey to follow: 

  •  Focus on a smaller goal, not the larger one.
  •  Training has to be more consistent.
  •  IT Band needs to get stronger.
  •  Need more support.
  •  Celebrate the tiniest wins.

For this new journey to work, I have to set an end date so that I can re-assess again. That end date can’t be too close nor can it be too far out. But then, it depends on what you are doing and how you are personally wired. Some people need weekly checks-in, others are better at monthly. In other words, find what works best for you.

That new date for me is February 12, 2011-about 8 weeks away. I have signed up for Greenlake’s Valentine Day 5K Dash. My goal is to do 13:30 minutes/mile. 

Here are my steps to achieve this new goal:

  •  Two speed work-outs at a track or on the treadmill per week.
  •  One hill/incline work-out outside or on the treadmill per week.
  •  One work-out of strength exercises specifically for my knees per week.
  •  Stretches and strength exercises including knee specific ones before/after each work-out.
  •  One long run each week with the ladies.
  •  Increase each work-out by no more than 10% per week.
  •  Keep a log of each work-out.
  •  Celebrate the small wins each week.
  •  And lastly, be kind to myself.

This process of re-thinking and re-assessing our goals, breaking them down into smaller ones, and celebrating the tiniest wins makes any” journey of a thousands miles” easier to achieve as well as strengthens our self-esteem and confidence so that we can achieve our most audacious goals.

And by the way, if you want to do the Valentine Day 5K Dash with me, I’d be honored.

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Inspiration

Inspirations come in many different ways. Most in the smallest gestures that people do but are rarely recognized.

Cindy Bingham is one of my inspirations. And she shows me that in-spite of our world today and all that we hear from the media, that the world is really made up of people who want to do good always and help others.

Most Sundays for the last year or so, Cindy and I either walk or run around Greenlake. Some Sundays, we do our own thing as we are training for different events or we are healing some injury or pain. Other times, we run or walk together chatting about our week or what injury or pain we are dealing with.

I am always surprised by Cindy. She grew up in Alaska and went to college in Oregon. After college, she lived in Japan as a translator for several years. Cindy returned to the Pacific Northwest living in the Portland area before moving to Seattle.

But what amazes me so much about Cindy is she is always doing for others. Besides working full time and training for one or two 1/2 marathons a year, she donates her time to different non-profit organizations after work and on the weekends amd sometimes raising money for these organizations.

Right now, she is presently raising money for her next 1/2 marathon, The Walt DisneyWorld 1/2 Marathon in  Orlando, Florida on January 8, 2011. Her fund raiser will benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in honor of her friend’s niece. Emily is 8 years old and has just undergone a bone marrow transplant. She has had leukemia since she was 3 1/2 years old. You can read more about Emily here.

Cindy is only $400 away from her goal (her site hasn’t been totally updated yet to reflect this). I know it is the holiday season but what better way to give then to support a good cause. Even the smallest donation helps.

And if you are in need of a Christmas present or an early January/February present, Cindy has knitted some hats to help with her fund raising. She is selling them for $25.00 each. If you are interested in an one of kind knitted hat, contact me here and I’ll get you in touch with Cindy. She will knit one in whatever color or color combinations you would like.

Cindy's Knitted Hats

Please consider giving just a little or if you can a lot for a good cause and help Cindy reach her fund raising goal of $3,333.00. You can donate at her Crazy Girl’s Fundraiser Page.

Posted in Goals, Inspiration | 2 Comments

42 Years of Friendship and Counting

My best girlfriend, Candice Kranz Busch, called me on my birthday to wish me a Happy Birthday. She mentioned that when we become best friends neither of us even imagined we would be this age, much less imagined our relationship would span 42 years and counting. Our mothers were in their 40s when we meet and that was an inconceivable age to us as 16 years old.   

Our Senior Year

That conversation got me thinking about our relationship. Over the years, we’ve begun to realize  how special our relationship is as most people never experience this type of connection with another person.

 We meet in our Junior Year of High School in Bangkok, Thailand when Candice arrived in 1968. Her dad was with the Army, mine was in the State Department and both were serving in Vietnam during that war.  Our mothers elected to be stationed in Bangkok as that was closest to Vietnam allowing for their husbands/our dads to come home more often that the normal six months. Also our families had previously lived in Bangkok but at different times. 

We become best friends in our Senior year. We were never far from the other, more like two peas in a pod, hanging out together at school, after school, and on the weekends at each other’s homes, mostly hers. We borrowed each other’s clothes and things, told each other our deepest secrets, double dated, and generally supported each other while more or less keeping each other out of a lot of trouble. And yes, there was a lot of trouble to be had in Bangkok during the late 60s. 

After our high school graduation, we went our separate ways though we did try to convince our parents that the two of us should be allowed to travel through Europe on our way back to the States before college. That grandiose plan quickly went up in smoke. Apparently, our parents were much smarter than we thought they were at the time. 

We went to different colleges though we did manage to see each other in 1970. After that point, we lived in different parts of the world, raising our families but that connection between us was always there. Even today, I often marvel that we were able to keep in touch without the Internet, cell phones, low cost long distance calls between states or even to a foreign country. Candice moved around in the States as well as to Europe whereas I stayed mostly in the Los Angeles area moving to various suburbs. 

We saw each other again 20 years later in 1990 at the San Antonio airport. We were attending our first high school reunion. Our reunions are actually a gathering of students who had attended the school in Bangkok, Thailand, and are held in a different city every two years. 

I remember vividly the feeling I felt as Candice walked through the gate. She looked the same, smiled the same, but it was like being reunited with a part of me that had been missing for 20 years.  That night, we stayed up until the wees hours of the morning, playing catch up with each other. And we still do when we first get together at whatever place we meet. 

What was even more amazing is we drifted back to the being the same two teenagers we were in high school. We are still two peas in a pod, hanging out together at our high school reunions. We still share our deepest secrets with each other. We are each other’s go to person for advice and support. We would and have dropped whatever we are doing if either of us is needed, even if it means a flight across the country. 

What makes our relationship even more unique is we have never lived in the same city since we left Bangkok, Thailand, 41 years ago.  We do tend to talk on the phone in a most erratic way in that we will go a month or so without talking to each other to talking every day or even several times in a day for about a week or so. Of course, we text as sometimes that is the easiest way for us to communicate. But even that follows a similar pattern as our phone calls. 

Over the last 10 years or so, we try to see each other at least twice a year. We do travel together or I should say meet in different cities. We both went back to Bangkok, Thailand, for our high school’s 50th celebration in 2002.  We spent almost 2 weeks exploring Bangkok, visiting our old high school, marveling at the new campus, and finding our homes where we lived. 

In Venice

We did finally travel to Europe but not the 1-3 months we wanted after we graduated from high school. Instead, we went to Venice, Italy in 2008 for about a week.  And we have plans to travel back to Bangkok, Thailand, again, maybe in 2012 plus another trip to Europe.   

We have accepted each other’s idiosyncrasies without one disagreement. Candice is more outgoing while I’m reserved. She is more disorganized while I’m not. She can go without a plan while I need some type of plan. We are as different as two people can be but at the same time as close as two people can be.

 
And even though we still live over 3,400 miles apart, she in Atlanta and me in Seattle, I certainly would like another 42 years of friendship with Candice even if that will make us over double what our mothers’ ages were at the time we started to become BFF.

Posted in 60by60, Inspiration, Journeys | 5 Comments

My 59th Year Starts Today…

And my list is now finished. 

But as I try to write this post, I find myself struggling on what I want to say.

So instead of continuing to struggle, I’m going to wish myself a very Happy Birthday, take the day off, and enjoy every minute of it.

Posted in 60by60, Journeys | 1 Comment