I am sure some of you wondered; "huh….what has happened to Janice?" Well, I can tell you, L – I- F- E!
As I have intimated many times before my husband and I are very successful because we have always had a plan and worked the plan. When our lives have hit a pot hole or we have had some type of challenge not of our own making we have come full stop and then re-evaluated our plan and revised and tweaked it and then moved right on.
I am a firm believer that God has a plan and no matter what we try to do to go in another direction, He keeps us on the lit path He has for us if we seek Him.
Summertime is a very, very busy entertaining time for our home. I have come to the conclusion that I should just close shop from Memorial Day until Mid-August. That is the time frame when our lives are very busy and complicated with logistics of guests and events.
Our family has several standing summer events that take place every year and have been on the calendar for a decade and always before we have tried to just work and fit everybody in. No More.
Many of our family members travel from abroad and the trip is arduous at best for a young person but for those 50+, 70+ and 80+ it is draining. Any added delay due to strikes (which are common in Europe) make the trip even worse.
This year that very scenario happened. A travel delay and while in the air we got word that my 95 year old father in law's femur snapped while he was shuffling around his home.
Our guests arrived hours late and then a long drive home and then we had to tell them this news which sent every one into a tail spin.
What a logistical mess!
How did we handle this crisis so many thousands of miles away?
Next time…..calm heads….late nights and freedom to fly.
Filed under Personal by 
When you read the title of this post, what comes to mind?
Come Alive!
How do you come alive?
I want to challenge you this weekend to do one thing that makes you come alive.
If you are married, ask your spouse and then together and do what ever it is that makes your spouse come alive. I would encourage you to observe how you spouse changes when he/she is in the process of getting that fulfillment. Take in the joy and pleasure that you observe right in front of you.
If you have a family around you do the same thing and becomes a great observer of how others get fulfilled by doing something that makes them COME ALIVE!
Now, here's the challenge for you. In order for you spouse, your children, your friends, extended family, co workers etc. to live a balanced life and YOU too; we each must experience that activity of coming alive on a regular basis. What is that frequency for each person that you love and care about?
Give each of those loved ones the freedom to be fulfilled daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and you will be amazed at the dropping of stress in your own life.
Filed under Feedom by
Today something amazing happened. I got out of my head.
For those of you who are "Plugged In" to your ipod for hours on in, you are a person who is living between your ears and have made a home for yourself which is all about what resonates with you. This is your "World" and you are happy and comfortable and safe there inside the music. This "Mental World" that you live in is your sanity. It is your place of safety. It is a place where you know what to expect and you have no surprises. No one can hurt you here living inside of your head.
I will admit that I do not own an ipod. Even when personal CD, DVD, or ancient cassette players were around, I was never drawn to them. It became use one more thing that I had to carry on my person and I did not want any more weight to carry on my body. I enjoy getting up from the chair and going and touching and looking for the next CD I want to listen to. I move from one place to another and I live in my world not in my head.
Like I said in my opening two sentences, I was trying to find Alicia Keys song "Empire State of Mind" and to order the CD for my collection. But I thought, I could just buy and download it to my computer. So I did and I listened to it about 50 times straight. I was very inside my head and all of those (see the arrow and select "play again") repeats of that melody kept me frozen for about an hour or more. Yes, I really enjoyed the music and the song but, I couldn't disconnect to be productive.
Where are you so connected and in your head that you are losing valuable connectivity?
If you have an "ipod love relationship", how's that working? You both sit around in your own world and you do not connect.
If you have an "ipod family relationship", how's that working out? You have all probably seen the commercial with the Dad and two teens on a couch and he is jazzed about so new connectivity that he purchased so that he and family could have "more quality time" and the camera pulls back and you see total non-connection. Yes they are all in the same room but that is hardly a family relationship. What about you?
Disconnect just once for one hour and see what you are missing.
Filed under Growth by