How Exciting!!

That is the expression often used by one of my good friends. And it keeps popping into my head these days. I seem to have a lot to be excited about lately.

Toni, the friend who used this expression so often, and I worked together for several years. We became close friends when I was moved to her part of the building and we talked every day. Even when she was going thru a rough patch in her life, when we’d talk, the conversations were always peppered with “How Exciting!!” Toni moved away several years ago and we have lost touch. I still think about her all the time and it’s her voice I hear in my head saying, “how exciting!”

Before she moved away, Toni gave me a gift that has become an amazing catalyst for this transition period in my life. It is a copy of Rosamund Pilcher’s ‘Winter Solstice’. I happened to find it on the bookshelf at the perfect time. The two or three days I spent reading it transformed my way of thinking. I realized that people really could love each other, and act in loving ways toward each other. It opened my heart… literally. It had been closed off for a long time.

Turns out having my husband walk out on me two weeks before Christmas is one of the best things that have ever happened for me. I see now that he is not the person I thought he was, and I am so very much better off now. And very thankful. Whew. I stayed in that relationship WAY longer than was healthy for me. I am so relieved that it is finally over.

My two New Years resolutions are to be kinder to myself – love myself more, and to be less afraid of telling other people that I care about exactly how I feel about them. I’ve been doing much better on both fronts. And it feels wonderful.

The Toledo Chamber held their fundraiser awards banquet/luau party last night, and it was a huge success. Not to mention a lot of fun. Way to go, Toledo! I have found that my love for Jimmy Buffett’s music has not been diminished in the least. How exciting! And I am also finding that I’m singing again. All the time. And that feels wonderful as well. I had stopped singing, even to myself, several years ago.

The Toledo Development Association was successful in their bid for a downtown revitalization project grant. This is wonderful news. Again, how exciting! It will be so much fun to see the visions of Toledo-ites come to fruition over the next few months and years. I’m excited to be involved in this.

I have become much closer to friends that I had severely neglected while I was married. I have missed them very much and am having a wonderful time getting to know them all over again.

I am back on track with Weight Watchers, and lost 3.8 pounds last week! That’s the biggest loss in one week that I’ve ever seen. I’m now at a total of 31 pounds. How exciting! I LOVE beautiful clothes again. Yay! And it’s only going to get better and better. I love WW, it is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.

The studio has been busy, and I have met some of the most extraordinary people lately, with the most amazing stories. And the fact that I am able to help them in some small way with the treasures that photographs are just makes my heart smile. I am honored and inspired by each of them.

I have also met a very special man. I won’t jinx it by telling you too much about it, but if you go to my MySpace page and listen to the song posted there by JoDee Messina, you’ll get a small idea of how things are going. He does not have a MySpace page, so you can save yourselves the conjecture that he is listed as one of my friends there. Suffice it to say that things are going swimmingly in that department.

Freckles is doing very well. She is a happy, sweet, wonderful companion. I’m so very glad I brought her into my life. All the rest of the animals are doing well… but I’m sure glad I’m not a horse. I go out there every day to feed them and clean up after them, and it’s ankle deep mud and muck. My old mare wears a raincoat, but they all stand around in the rain a lot even tho they have shelter from it. So they are doing as well as can be expected for pastured horses in the middle of winter. I will try to improve their shelter area this summer, because the rest of the place is ideal for them.
Here is a picture of Lucky from yesterday… he was getting really irritated with me because I was shooting pictures of him with my cell phone and wasn’t working on feeding him yet. That horse LOVES his food. And I love him. I love the rest of them too but Lucky is my baby.

My mom just celebrated her 5 year anniversary as a breast cancer survivor, AND as a non-smoker as well. You go girl! How exciting! My five-year anniversary for quitting smoking is next week. Yay! I’m going to get involved in the local Relay for Life this year, and not just as a spectator.

I feel like for the last few years I have only seen a dot of light at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel. And I feel like in the last few weeks not only has the light gotten bigger and closer, but that I am starting to emerge from that tunnel into the lush green world that I have missed for so long. I’m really looking forward to spring. It promises to be the best one in a long, long time. How exciting!!

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