Happy New Year!

Today is New Year’s Eve - Time to say goodbye to 2014! As I look back on the year, there were many blessings and lessons learned. I met up with two grammar school classmates whose friendships I now count among my many blessings. Our connection is familiar and I would not be surprised at all if we have traveled lifetimes together. They are my earth angels! I also cherish the lifelong friendships I have maintained over the years and am glad those friends are in my life still. Thankful for my daughter and husband as this journey would not be nearly as exciting or fulfilling without them. This year, I sadly have seen my dad spiral downward struggling with mental illness, addiction, coupled with grief from my mother’s death two years ago and short term memory loss. It is so frustrating to watch someone you love fight this never-ending battle that lives within them. Stressful, stressful, stressful…and no matter what you do it is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I pray for peace of mind and heart for him, for those he is in contact with and for my sister and our families. It is not an easy road to travel. I often wonder why this is his journey and ours. I can only think that it is what it is and he is here to teach us patience, tolerance and understanding. To love him despite his issues while maintaining a healthy distance and setting boundaries is a daily struggle. I learned a lot about myself this year as well. I am allowing myself to break from old traditions and what I thought I enjoyed and instead permitting myself to experiencing new things. I used to love to read, and while I would probably still enjoy a good story, I am choosing instead to live my own story and to be present in my life instead of reading about someone else’s. After Thanksgiving, I also made a life change choice to give up eating meat and animal fat and concentrate on a plant-based diet. I am currently working on removing dairy products and sugar. I did not realize that by eating meat and processed foods that I thought were healthy that I was causing myself to have major health issues and inflammation. It has only been a little over a month and I feel so much healthier and have lost weight and inches which has been a struggle in my adult years. I plan to continue to educate myself about the food I put in my body and cannot wait to see the results at this time next year! My resolutions for 2015 are fairly simple. I plan to laugh, smile, love and live more! Happy New Year to all! Love, Teresa

I turned around and it was November!

Oh dear, October was so busy at work and with my birthday celebrations that lasted all month (fun!)...I literally turned around and it was November. I am sorry for not posting anything lately and with the upcoming holidays I will now be taking my annual holiday leave from my blog until the New Year. Happy Holidays and blessings to all! See you in 2015!

Learning to Cope

I sometimes hear parents say “I just want you to be happy” to their children. I hear other parents say that a good spanking will teach respect. Let me begin by saying I do not agree with either of these beliefs. Trying to make your children happy all the time, will give you an adult child who is frustrated because their life is complicated and they do not know how to deal with it. Spanking in my opinion, only teaches children that it is okay for a grown up to harm them. It does not teach respect, it teaches fear. It all begins when they are young. They cry and we want to stop their sadness. They throw a tantrum in the grocery store and we immediately remove them from the situation. Whether they get hurt or they do the hurting, they are learning. Children are learning and look to us for guidance. We need to teach them to cope. You cannot be happy all of the time, and you set your child up to fail by the desire to make it all better for them all of the time. We all experience joy, happiness and love. But we also experience sadness, disappointment, anger and grief. Without acknowledging these feelings as being just as important as happiness, we give our children a great disadvantage in life. We have given them the expectation that everything will work out and run smoothly throughout their whole lifetime, but haven’t given them the tools to make it work out. Only by teaching them to cope with every emotion, can we honestly say we have done a good job in giving them the foundation they need to get through life. By promoting only happiness, we have set them up to fail. I, like everyone else, fell into that habit in the beginning of my parenting, but having a child that had her own different needs taught me the lessons I need to learn about life not always being pleasant and happy. Emotion is energy in motion, and we have to equip our children with the tools they need to understand and deal with every one of them. Life is messy, but it is also a beautiful, intricate, sometimes exhausting but also exhilarating experience. And when you learn to navigate it rather than always trying to be “happy”, it is a more fulfilling experience.

The love of a pet

There is something about me that not many people know. I love to write poetry. My first published poem was right after I had given birth to my daughter and the poem was about her. There is something so deep and meaningful when a poem is written. It is like a piece of your soul. Life has become very busy and it has literally been a year since I have written a poem. As with life itself, I don’t necessarily follow the “rules”. My poetry comes from my inner self and sporadically I feel the need to write a poem. When that happens, I write it verbatim as it comes into my thoughts. I never change it or correct it. It is the rawest form of expression and I leave it as such. Today I was prompted to write this poem and I hope that you like it:



The love of a pet

(Dedicated to those who have loved and lost a pet)

The love of a pet is like no other we will ever know

Unconditional their love flows freely to us each day

And all they ever ask of us is to be loved in return

To be cuddled and cared for in each and every way

They wake us with kitty cat paws and doggy wet kisses

And greet us with unbridled joy at the end of the day

They are family, friend and companion all in one

They teach us to trust and they teach us to play

Sadly, pets only stay a short while here on Earth

They are waiting in heaven for us to join them one day

And what a day that will be when we see them again

Greeted by furry hugs and kisses where together we will stay

All of God’s creatures are special and unique for sure

But the love of a pet will remain with you and never go away

Onward we go

We all have days that sometimes seem like they last for weeks, months, years, who knows (insert Eeeyore’s voice). We are on this planet swirling around in space and it is constantly changing, yet sometimes we feel stuck. If we live in the past, we stay on the path of regrets with should-a, could-a, would-a thoughts. If we worry too much about the future, we live in constant “well what if…then” thoughts. It has taken me most of my life to realize we only really have today and sometimes really only this very moment. Being the first to admit, life to me was the equivalent of someone learning how to become a flying trapeze artist. The fear of leaving the platform (past) coupled with the fear of crashing to the ground (future) is scarier than actually letting go and living in the moment (now). When you live in the moment, it frees your soul and allows you to truly feel alive. We all have speed bumps, walls we have to climb and people and places we need to leave behind in order to get to where we need to be. But that is what life is all about. It’s not about standing still. Life is about learning and growing. Leave the past behind and take that first step forward. You will be glad that you did!

Why fit in when you can stand out!

Eclectic by definition is selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles. The word “eclectic” may as well be my middle name…but I will stick with “Celina” as that sounds prettier. From my taste in music, art, fashion, cooking, politics and dare I say it…even spirituality, I am not someone that fits the so called cookie cutter genre of anything.

If you look at my playlist right now, you would see Classic Rock, Country, Broadway Show Tunes, Classical, New Age and Christian music! I don’t like all of these types of music all of the time, but sometimes I like to listen to any one of these. Just not Heavy Metal, Reggae or Jazz…that is like nails on a chalkboard to me! Ugh!

Art, well yes my desire to create goes all over the map too. You definitely won’t find me sitting only knitting or crocheting (but kudo’s to those that can or that enjoy the feel of wool- I am itching just thinking about it!) But I love to use mixed medias implementing different methods and styles together to create something beautiful!

Fashion, let's just say the something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue still applies!

My cooking goes without saying. My family loves my creations, but when they ask for the recipe they know that I will say there isn’t one. I have learned enough about the skill of cooking to create things using a little of this and a little of that, a pinch here, a dash there…yeah that’s is how I roll and I haven’t heard a complaint yet!

Politics is a touchy subject…you can mention super private stuff on social media and nobody blinks, but egads dare you speak on a political subject and you will suffer the wrath of those who disagree with your outlook. I don’t like political labels, but I will say that I am more liberal than I could ever be conservative. But I do believe that as with most things, there are layers to the problems and to the solutions of this world, and maybe if we didn’t think in an “either or” manner, we could actually change the world for good.

Spirituality is another subject you aren’t really allowed to talk about or have an opinion about. However, growing up Catholic and my life experiences have shown me that I do not believe in organized religion or anything run as a corporation or a business. I enjoy learning and letting life’s moments allow me to grow spiritually. For me it means believing in God, developing an ongoing personal connection with that higher power and having faith that everything I do is for my own higher good.

So while some may argue that it is because I can’t make a decision about things. I prefer to look at my thought process as being “open-minded” and enjoying the whole experience. Imagine going on a hike and only staying on one trail. You are not having the same experience as if you revisit that hill or mountain and go in a different direction, see and feel other things, maybe even climb to the top and get an entirely different prospective all together. Call it “eclectic”, call it thinking without walls or boundaries but that is me. Life is a journey and whether you go in one direction or twenty, you arrive at the same destination…I prefer to take the scenic route!

Fifty will be nifty...that is my story and I am sticking to it!

My husband “lovingly” reminded me that I am almost 50…um NO…I am 47 you jerk...I mean honey...LOL

But, it did get me thinking about setting some goals for myself that will be met in the next few years. Being the OCD freak that I am I have categorized them into three categories: Body, Mind and Soul

Body
• I will continue to cook and eat healthier • I will grow my hair long • I will lose fifty pounds…more is fine…but fifty would be lovely • I will stress less • I will walk more than I sit

Mind
• I will creatively write, paint, craft and scrapbook more often • I will create my art studio • I will do more and think less • I will use my digital camera and complete the projects that have only been in my mind

Soul
• I will learn Reiki • I will meditate more frequently • I will practice yoga more frequently • I will visit the sea more often

I have confidence that I will meet all of these goals and looking forward to turning “50” in a few years and being in the best shape, body, mind and soul that I have been in my whole life. Then it will be time to create new goals for the next fifty years!

Be Happy!