I’m sitting here by my Christmas tree, scrolling through Facebook and looking at everyone’s wonderful pictures and posts about what a wonderful Christmas day they’ve had with their families. Then I came across one post that really struck a chord with me. My friend Lori posted a picture of the home she and her husband Todd, lost in a fire a few months ago.

Lori has said time and time again, how “things don’t matter, people do” and how truly blessed they were to have just gotten out safe and unharmed, but I suspect days like today make it especially hard to feel that way. And why shouldn’t it? When these things big life tests happen to us, surely they don’t happen without a reason behind them. And it’s got to be not only a test of our strength but of our faith as well.

So what is the meaning behind it all? How can we keep the faith during the tough times and not lose hope? I got to thinking about this yesterday when I was in church. The Virgin Mary didn’t exactly have a baby in her immediate plans when the angel approached her. For Mary, this was an “unplanned pregnancy” and she may have had other things in mind she would have liked to do. But she didn’t complain and there was no meltdown when the angel told her the caveat: Son of God. Woah!

They say the shepherds were “terrified” when they heard the news from the heavenly host. But Mary? She just listened. She adapted, she looked within and she drew on her faith. She had been chosen. “Someone” felt she could handle the responsibility of such a big life change.

So when times get really tough and we are faced with the questions like, “why me”, or “how can I do this”? Think of young Mary, and that tiny baby she went on quite a journey to have. How it would have been so easy to say, “why me?” or “how can I go on”, but she followed the light and the light showed her the way. And the light was GOOD.

As the end of the year approaches, I’ve been going through my many photos as I always do at the end of each year. Google has a sort of “Year in Review” photo feature on one of their photo apps I use and I am struck by just how many places I’ve been able to visit and really explore this year.

I just returned recently from a trip to Colorado to see a friend of mine. They had asked if I would like to come visit when we had spoken in the fall and I think could sense I was in need of a “change of scenery”. I was also looking to continue my on-going travels I had started last year.

A little over a year ago, I set out to start visiting places I had either never been, or to visit friends and family that I’ve been talking about visiting for far too long & either never had, or wanted to go back to now that I was trying to live my “best life”.

I love when people say to me “you look like you’re having a lot of fun right now!!” Because you know what??? I AM!! And I try really hard to be this happy! I had a lot of time where life wasn’t very much fun at all and I was feeling pretty miserable and awful. It’s so wonderful to be enjoying life again and feeling well enough to travel on my own and go visit people. Right now my soul is feeling restored and it’s the best feeling ever.

It really all began when I went to England in the fall of 2016. And it continued as I visited California, Nashville, Montreal, Washington DC, New York City then back to England, Germany (took a slight unintentional detour to Italy) & I ended the summer of 2017 in Austria. Then it was down to North Carolina in the fall and now I’ve just rounded out the year in Colorado.

I’d never been there and jumped at the chance to see a new place and have a good friend show me around. I also realized as soon as I posted where I was going on Facebook, just how many friends I actually have in the State of Colorado and I think I ABSOLUTELY have to plan another trip back there so I can make proper visits to see everyone next time!!

I also can’t recommend enough how awesome it is to have someone show you around “their town or city” or “their State or country”. Whether they grew up there or have just lived there a while, there is nothing like having a personal tour guide around a place. I would certainly try to be the best tour guide I could be when I lived in San Diego so I appreciate the favor being returned enormously!

Emily did it in Washington DC, Vera showed Kym and I around Vienna, and between Naz, Erica, Rachel, Tom & Bridget, I have had the most wonderful personal tour guides of London any girl could ask for. And there are so many more people I am leaving out, (like Maggie & Dave in Derbyshire, Karen in Cambridge and NO ONE does Los Angeles like Kym.) She’ll even hike you up that Hollywood sign & take you to drinks at “The Polo Lounge”!! Talk about a “shee-shee sha-shee” type experience!!

And Ryan did a great job showing me the Rocky Mountains. They did not disappoint and neither did he. Good friends are hard to find so hang on to them with all you have and make sure you take them up on those offers to go visit. It’s a GOOD TIME you absolutely will not regret!!

#getoutside

#travel

#livelifetothefullest

#allgoodthingsarewildandfree

This is an indulgent post. I have no deep, profound thoughts, or messages to share. I just want to gush for a few minutes. Because I can. It’s partly why I started this blog…so that after a magical evening, I can feel free to write whatever (within reason) I wish on here on as long as in the end, there is some good in it. And this, my friends, is VERY GOOD STUFF.

I just returned from a most spectacular evening in Ottawa with my dear friend and neighbor, Anna. Anna is a very talented musician and is currently playing the oboe this season in the National Arts Center Orchestra’s productions of “The Nutcracker”. I was fortunate enough to accompany her to Canada’s capital city tonight so I could see a performance of the ballet.

It was the stuff dreams are made of. I was treated to the beautiful dance stylings of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. They did not disappoint. The young woman who played Clara danced with such poise and grace and her Nutcracker certainly seemed to come to life as her prince just like the story predicts.

But the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier stole my breath. As Anna’s three year daughter Sylvie would say, “She, was the prettiest of them all!” And boy was she ever. Her legs appeared to extend to the far corners of the stage and when she would leap into her cavalier’s arms and he’d masterfully catch her just breaths before she’d hit the stage, it made you feel as though maybe for a moment, you were not watching mere mortals up there, but in fact, fairies who could fly.

Tchaikovsky composed some of the most beautiful music of all time when he wrote “The Nutcracker”. The story of Clara and her Nutcracker and this magical adventure he takes her on is so much more than just a silly dream sequence. It’s a chance to see Christmas through the eyes of a child and to see how the many simple joys we often take for granted are so wonderful and beautiful in our day to day lives. The candies, coffee, sugary treats and beautiful decorations and even the guests at a Christmas party can inspire the most glorious dreams for each of us. It’s also a unique love story on so many different levels. You can get swept up in the music and just let it carry you away like the most intricate snowflake. If we’re lucky, we will each have our own Nutcracker come to life and show us all the GOOD things life has to offer. Happiest Holidays to all!

#attheballet

Thanks for an amazing night Anna!! Ttmab!

I haven’t quite known how to broach the subject of sexual harassment and sexual violence all while still keeping this a “positive outlook ” only “GOOD THINGS” blog. But I realized yesterday as I was reading about yet another charge of harassment against a well known public figure, and then read the most courageous post on Facebook by a dear friend of mine about her experience with sexual assault that knowledge is power and empowerment is always a “good thing”.

I have always had a particularly vile reaction to sexual violence ever since finding my freshman year college roommate after she was raped and going through the agonizing process of reporting the rape to the police with her. She would eventually drop out of college and the boy who “took the fall” for the incident did as well although he never served any jail time that I am aware of.

We need to teach our girls to be vigilant. To stand up for themselves and to not accept that it’s ok to be harassed, or made to feel less than. To be objectified or sexualized just because of their gender. That its not because of how short their skirts were or what they were wearing, nobody “asks” to be harassed or assaulted.

We need to teach our boys that women deserve to be respected, protected and cherished. But they do as well. A man and a woman should be equal in every possible way from your friends to your classmates, your colleagues to your life partners. We shouldn’t receive different pay for doing the same jobs, have to dress in a more or less sexualized manner to get a job, and we should all feel safe moving through each phase of our day. From buying our morning coffees, to pumping our gas, and working out after a long day at work. We should all have the freedom and security to exist in a society where women support other women and men respect them.

But too often we are hearing stories of the exact opposite happening. Whether it be from beloved TV hosts and movie stars or from the person sitting next to you on an airplane or on your Facebook feed.

We as women shouldn’t have to feel afraid or embarrassed but instead should feel heard and like there is a clear and safe path to get a job done, or to get…ANYWHERE actually!! And if that path is NOT safe, then rather than suffer and be shamed and made to keep silent, we need to provide these women with a means to speak up and not face persecution for it. Men are not exempt from harassment either. They are all too often the victims of such behavior and even more shunned if they speak up.

We also need to listen. To each other and to men. We need to not let this become the days of the Salem Witch Trials where mass hysteria broke out from a case of group think amongst girls who couldn’t seem to get themselves out of a lie they had created. That may not be a very popular opinion I write there, but it’s an important one and one that we all need to think about. People’s career’s, families, livelihoods, educations and even their freedom are at stake with this #metoo movement and while there are many good parts to #timesup and #metoo and #askhermore there also needs to be a conversation about how it’s being handled on college campuses and how both Men AND Women are being punished by Title IX suits schools are bringing against students without appropriate due process.

No matter what, it has to stop. Any woman who has ever changed the route she was walking or driven out of her way so she wouldn’t have to make that uncomfortable stop to pump her gas or buttoned her coat up extra high and pulled her sweater down as far as it would go so that she wouldn’t get “those looks” knows the feelings I’m talking about.

Anyone who has ever had that feeling like they wish they could take a shower after talking to that particularly creepy boss, co-worker or professor who makes you wonder what you could have possibly spilled down the front of your shirt to so blatantly draw those kind of looks knows what I’m talking about & how important it is to stop this. It’s time we change the culture. We are better than this. We need to expect more from the generations we are raising and from the future men and women of tomorrow. We owe them a GOOD, SAFE, FAIR place to grown, learn and live.

I’m lucky to have grown up in a house with a father and a brother who both love and respect women and hold them in such high regard that I always knew my worth. There are plenty of “GOOD people “ out there. Let’s not let the bad ones ruin it for everyone else.

For Melissa M. & Alicia. Your courage and bravery could move mountains.

#knowledgeispower #metoo #stoptheviolence #nomeansno #equality #survivorsnotvictims #timesup #askhermore