Warning—this is a long post regarding the personal aspects of my life. I really wrote it here for me and for posterity so please don’t feel that you HAVE to read this. Also, as promised I will be having a giveaway for my blogoversary but just haven’t had time to get things together. I placed an order yesterday and plan to post a picture and start the giveaway as soon as I receive that order in the mail!
I have had this post saved for the last few hours wondering if I really wanted to share it but I’m going to. I started this blog to talk about my life and through this blog, I found my love of sharing my creative pursuits. I don’t share personal stuff very often and, as I said above, if you don’t want to read it, you don’t have to!!! *giggle*
I don’t usually reflect back on or even forward at the New Year but I think 2010 has been an exceptional year for me as far as learning more about me, Christine, and the person I want to become.
Brave Girl Camp was a big part of that, but even before that, with events at the beginning of the year, I started looking more about who I want to be in my life. However, I’m going to leave the events at the beginning of the year unsaid here in this post. Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile will know and if you would like, you can look at some of my posts starting at the end of January.
Of course, one of the highlights of my year was Brave Girl Camp. It quite simply, changed my life. Plus I was so blessed to go with my sister, Rose. We each needed it in so many different ways. I have tried so hard to keep the things that I learned at BGC in my life—continuing to learn from the things shared their and with making my Brave Girl Art.
I will continue to grow more in the Brave Girl aspect of my life with the coming year. One of the ways that I will be accomplishing this is to take the Brave Girl Soul Restoration course starting 1-11-11. I received my packet in the mail yesterday and can’t wait for the class to start. As the year progresses, I will be taking (and finishing) other courses to grow my soul and my artistic pursuits.
A few months ago, one of my Brave Girl sisters posted on Facebook that she was going to “live with peace in her heart.” I have used this as a kind of life motto since and it really does make a difference in how I live each day. It was difficult some days like when the property managers drove a backhoe through my very rain and snow soaked lawn including over top of my sprinkler heads (we’ll see how that works out in the spring). I kind of forgot to repeat my motto until the next day and when I put it into prospective, at least I wasn’t the one with a big hole in my yard!!! (It’s still there so I think they have a lot bigger complaint than I.)
Anyway, my motto of “living with peace in my heart” has been the biggest change I have made in my life since BGC. If I’m stuck in traffic and getting frustrated, I say to myself “I choose to live with peace in my heart,” and I feel so much better. If my neighbor starts his very loud, low rumbling classic muscle car and allows it to run for several minutes just a few feet and a wall from my ears, “peace in my heart.” When I’m trying to untangle a pile of wire hangers (one of the single most frustrating things on earth), “peace in my heart.” You get the idea. It works for almost any situation.
If you live with peace in your heart, there just isn’t any room for the bad things. Thanks so much Jeri Lynn for suggesting this.
On the health-front, it’s been a great year for my heart and transplant news. I continue to pass all my medical test and doctor visits with flying colors!!! Yay!
The last few months I have been suffering from a past illness that has reared it’s ugly head again. It’s more annoying than anything but at times, I’m just plain sick and treat myself accordingly. I haven’t really done much for this yet. I went to the doc but everything they suggested is just icky and I didn’t want to do it so I was trying to control it with diet. That just hasn’t been helping much so I started on the medication (has a lot of bad side affects) on Sunday and will take the other med and run the test that the doc wants. Hopefully, I will start feeling better soon but if not, I’m sure the doc has some other things up his sleeve.
I have had a lot of issues with pain this year. Sometimes the migraine headaches would last for days at a time. I’m not complaining here, just reflecting. The doctor tried a couple of new things on me this year, one being a procedure that didn’t work and the other, a new med that did work. To make a long story short, my Medicare prescription insurance has run out for the year so I won’t be able to get the VERY expensive prescription filled until January 1. That’s pretty soon now!
The last several weeks, the body aches have been almost constant. I will be calling the doctor to see if I can get some relief without taking the narcotics. However, starting yesterday, I have been just pushing through that pain and doing the things that need to be done. If I don’t have to leave the house, I take the drugs but really hate relying on those. Hopefully the doctor will have some alternatives for me.
The neuropathy continues but that will remain constant because of the immunosuppressant medications that I must take. However, the only real issue I have with that is itching in my legs. It gets much worse when I go to bed. When it get’s unbearable, I have a way of treating it with very hot water which I had to do last night but now they feel fine.
I’m also feeling some weakness in my legs when I’ve been working around the house for awhile. I’m hoping that is because I don’t perform that type of activity much and plan to restart my daily walks—hopefully the weather will cooperate. The next few days are going to be rainy/snowy and then cold so I won’t be starting that up until I can get outside more. Hopefully, January 1.
I continue to move things around my studio. I just can’t come up with a system that is working for me but I keep trying. I’ve got a couple of other ideas in the works and hope to have “a place for everything and everything in it’s place” soon! Then comes the decorating aspect!!! Since I spend 90% of my waking hours in here, I can’t wait!
As most of you know, I’m a blog writer for the Charity Wings/Scrapbook Royalty organization. I have really enjoyed giving back in this manner and plan to find other ways to give of my time in the new year.
I sent an email off to an organ donor organization in hopes to start something up here in my community but haven’t heard back. I plan to go further up the organization’s ladder until I can find someone to listen to me to see if I can get that started. It is a really important cause to me.
So how does that sound for New Year plans? It’s not resolutions, those just don’t work. Really, I’m just going to continue trying to live the best life I can each day and then begin each new day with a fresh start. That’s one of the best things, everyday is a fresh start!
Blessings,
Christine