Healing and Growth are a Choice

I follow some amazing people on social media. Some inspiring and note-worthy ones. Some who are just fabulous friends. Some who stay mostly quiet except to show support for those they care about when it's needed.

The other day I came across this, and it really spoke to me.

It reminded me of our recent moves, which will total four in 29 months by the time we move for the last time in April. None of those moves has been easy on any of our family members. But every one of them has been worth it for a whole slew of reasons.

My husband changed jobs, and there was a while in the beginning when we wondered if we had done the right thing, because we have truly tried hard to follow our instincts in all areas of decision making for our family.

In the end though, it was the right thing. We came to love and appreciate each stage of our growing process, and by the time we got through them, we had been drastically changed as human beings. Indeed, my children, my husband, and I have all learned to view people through a different lens.

Ever since, I've been thinking about how this can apply to other parts of life. As a writer, I do better, write stuff that is more raw and real when I shake things up. As a mother, wife, and woman, I am always better when I break out of the grind of daily routine and do something different.

The next day, another friend posted this, and it just happened to fall in line with the very thoughts that had been on my mind since the first post.

Once again, it spoke to me. Whenever I have been unhappy with my own circumstances, I have worked hard to do whatever I can to change them. When my family has been unhappy, we have worked together, as a family, to change things--including ourselves. It's never easy, but every change we have made has made us infinitely better as people.

As human beings, we all have choices. And we can choose to change and grow. Or not.

What about you? What are you doing to grow lately?

New Year’s Revolution

Well, that does it. 2012 is officially over. I have taken down my holiday décor, changed my Christmas ringtone back to a non-holiday song, and even reset my playlists. And I’m trying to get my new house (the temporary rental) semi-decorated now that there is a tree-sized hole in the room around which the current décor seems to revolve. Funny how that happens when you move over the holidays.

But in the process, I got thinking about resolutions and revolutions and change. Things that always tend to come up in January.

First, I thought about resolutions. And how my life has been so dramatically upset in the last six months, that I don’t think I could handle much more change. And then I thought, well, of course I can handle it. I just hope it’s good change. The kind that means forward progress.

It’s what I hope. And that’s my goal for the year. To move forward and progress in all areas of my life. No resolutions needed.

It’s my personal revolution to take 2013 by the hair and drag it along behind me.

What about you? What are your personal goals for the year?  

Snippets of Wisdom, part 2

In case you missed Wednesday’s post, this week I’m sharing quotes from writers whom I have decided are infinitely wise in our open-mindedness.

I’m going to focus today on sharing quotes about life, in hopes that something here reaches out and touches one or two of my readers. Okay? Okay.

“The journey of 1000 miles starts with one step.” ~Jess Smart Smiley author of Upside Down, A Vampire Tale

“Being a grown up is not a prize you win. It’s something you reach out and take for yourself.” ~Sandra Tayler

“When you know you don’t know it all, you’re willing to learn.” ~Stacey Whitman, Senior Editor, TU books.

“Everyone is making it up as they go.” ~Tracey Hickman

“Very few times in our lives do we have a choice that will change our entire future.” ~James A. Owen, author of Drawing out the Dragon

“We have to get over the fear of making mistakes, even when we make them.” ~Stacey Whitman

“Be willing to forget what you know and just be who you are.” Jennifer Nelson

Okay, now it’s your turn. At some point in your life, you’ve heard a quote (don’t deny it, I know you have!) that changed you. Or at least made you really think. What was that quote and who said it?

Trying Something New

Have you ever watched that show extreme couponing? Last week, on a night when I couldn’t sleep due to my excessively stuffy nose and awful cough, I stayed up late watching episodes, and was astounded and amazed at how much stuff those women could get for either a very small amount of money, or completely free.

So I asked the only expert I know—my daughter—if people really get into couponing like that. Turns out, daughter has a friend whose mother does this and who has accumulated rooms and rooms of food storage.

Me: Huh.

Her: Mom, we should totally try it. They have all kinds of good stuff and they let us eat as much as we want cuz it was free.

Me: ??

Her: Really, I’m serious.

Me: You act like I never feed you. And that looks like a lot of work, which requires a lot of time and thought and calculations.

Her: But they save thousands of dollars. Please, let’s just try it. I’ll help. It’ll be a project we can do together. It will be fun.

This is how I have come to be considering attempting a single shopping trip in which I try to cut my grocery bill in half with the use of coupons. That it can be done, I have no doubt. The question is if it can be done by me, and if I can come home with grocery items my family will actually eat or use, without spending my week obsessing over sales and coupons when I should be writing.

What do you think? Is it possible?

Stay tuned next week to find out how it went.

**Don’t forget to enter my October Give Back Giveaway. The deadline has been extended to midnight tonight.

WorldCON: Loyal Fans and the BWB

Another thing that was different about WorldCON and other conferences / conventions I've attended were the parties.

There. Were. So. Many.

I lost count. On the first night, when things were really just getting started, my friends and I attended no fewer than seven. And that was the night we went to bed earliest.

During the course of the CON, we met up with a really fantastic group of fans, some of whom also write, and who took us under their wings as if we were already a part of them. Not only that, they treated us to some of the hands-down funnest experiences of the whole week. The Brotherhood Without Banners invited us in, watched out for us, and I have to tell ya. Those guys (and also ladies) were seriously some of the coolest people we met all week.

And when I say cool, I mean seriously defying the seventies-type stigma-of-sci-fi/fantasy-fan often thought of by those who just don’t know any better, strong-men, jerky-makers, contractors, other great professions, young, old, male, female, every-type-of-person from a hundred different countries C.O.O.L.

But what is the BWB? They’re fans of George R.R. Martin’s work, specifically the A Song of Ice and Fire series. And they’ve been hosting WorldCON parties since 2001. (For the record, I’d never even heard of this group before the CON, but I’m now a member, and intend to remain that way indefinitely.) And though we’d already met GRRM earlier, we had the opportunity to actually hang out with him. We even had dinner with him one night. *cue fan girl squee*

George’s fans are some of the most loyal and dedicated I’ve ever seen. And I've seen a lot of authors with dedicated and loyal fans. What does that say about GRRM as an author? A person? What lesson can I take from his example in order to gather a following of fans even half as dedicated as his?

Well. Being that this was my first WorldCON, and I only got to hang with them for a little while the last couple days, I have a lot of learning to do. But learning? That’s a certain specialty of mine. All I have to do is attend WorldCONs of the future, and I’m sure to figure it out.