Never been eaten

It's kind of funny how some things come full circle or that something said doesn't mean anything to you until you get down the road a little further. I was out walking with the dogs and Sebastian this morning when we stumbled onto a fox that had been killed, probably the night before. I wandered around looking and listening for any signs of possible pups, just in case someone needed rescuing. Not finding anything, we headed back to the house. I plan to head back out there in a little while without the dogs for some CSI work, but I've thought about it almost non-stop for the past couple of hours.

Which brings me to the full circle part....


A couple years ago after becoming "retired" I was doing a road trip with a couple of gal pals. In a suburb of Seattle we came across a physic and decided it might be fun to stop in and have her read our auras for us. She called it right on when she said it seemed like I was out of gas and a virtual "wet blanket" at that point in my life I was scraping the bottom of the bucket. She told me that she sensed a huge change in my life and stress attached to it, which would subside after an extended period of time. She also told me to take time to re-boot myself and to not worry so much about the "money" side of life and then she said...."you have always eaten and never been eaten" it made me laugh and scratch my head back then, but it struck me with the fox that a lot of others, whether they are 2 legs or 4, whether they are smarter or faster, get eaten in this world.

I have been struggling just a little bit with my decision to go back to work, but this week has made a lot of difference in how I feel about it now. I spent some time in face to face sales calls. I also got to practice and use my coaching skills with the rep I was traveling with. I realized it put me right back in the part of the work world that I love and all at once I knew that I was 100% excited to get back after it. So I know now that I won't be eaten anytime soon, and that is a good thing to know.

I am grateful.....

Sebastian

Just a quick post this morning. Lately Sebastian has been a constant outside companion. He goes on every walk with me and the dogs and is basically my shadow while I'm outside. The thing he does that makes me laugh is run up the trees like he's some kind of mountain lion or something. I'm glad he does it, with all the coyotes and preditors out here, it is a great skill to have. Anyway, just a couple of "Sebastian" shots from our walk yesterday.

Woody Woodpecker

Look how cool this guy is...and of course the Blue Jay is waiting for his turn at the feeder. I love living in the country!

The Buck stops here....

Just driving down the road yesterday....about 30 of them, 5 big bucks....awesome!

Mike and Ann (Crehan)

I have been a client at Merrill Lynch for a few years now and my account guru has been a very cool gal who is also named Ann. We have talked a lot on the phone over the years so imagine how cool it was for us to finally meet in person this psat week. Ann and her boyfriend, Mike are on a cross country adventure from Baltimore, MD to Vancouver, BC where they are working at the Winter Olypmics-awesome, right? Anyway, they popped through Colorado this week and we were fortunate enough to have a pretty decent flying day, so after a lunch at the Perfect Landing, we pulled out 373WD, aka the Whiskey Girl and went up for a spin around the valley.


After a pretty nice landing, even with the crosswind, we drove south to Castlewood Canyon. We had flown over it in the plane, but it is a pretty place to go and hike or walk around. The unfortunate part was that the wind we experienced up high in the plane, started to pick up a little bit after we touched down, so it was a little brisk, but still crystal clear and beautiful. We capped it off with hot chocolates and some great story telling. It was really fun to spend the day and I hope we get to do it again on their way back through.

Following footsteps

This one I've been mulling over for awhile, I used to like the quote about going on a path that separated in the woods and taking the least traveled fork, but today I'm wondering about following footsteps that are trodden into the other side. There just seem to be times in our lives when burdens are heavy, the air is foggy and the finish line is no where in sight. You know... it's like the dreams where you're running in slow motion or falling forever. What if those times were the exact times that there were footsteps there to follow, guiding us through the woods on a safe and proven course.


The quote I like on this subject is, "You only have to get half way through the darkness (or woods) before you are headed out the other side." It's kind of like seeing the glass half full. I think that sometimes in our little worlds we feel totally alone, like there couldn't possibly be one single person who knows how we feel or who has experienced what we are going through and maybe that's true, but enough people have gone before us and left footsteps on the path allowing us to put our feet one foot in front of the other in what I would call, small embraces. Another human being does not have to have had exactly the same experience to understand a heart that is hurting, a soul that is lost or a spirit that is in need of comfort.

I guess what I'm trying to say is there are all kinds of foot prints in the sand, on the path in the woods, all through life and sometimes we need to give in and allow the wisdom from those foot prints to guide us when it is hard to navigate fully for ourselves. Being loving is easier for most people than allowing themselves to be loved or allowing others to walk awhile in front of us creating the small embraces for us to follow. It is not a sign of weakness to need others and to say that you need love and support, in fact it is usually an honor to the person or people you request that from, at least that's the way I look at it. I have a hard time practicing what I preach, but trying.....

Simple choices

Decisions, decisions.... I go by the theory or fact that if you are indecisive or procrastinate making decisions, the decision eventually makes itself, leaving you no choice or a less desirable choice. I also subscribe to the belief that if you make a choice and feel confused or conflicted, it is probably the wrong choice. The right choice should make you feel calm and at peace. That works pretty good most of the time. But does it always? I have a couple of fairly big decisions that need to be made where it feels like the easiest decision or most peaceful is just to go about life as it is.

Launching into a change feels pretty stressful to me, but necessary. I think if I sold most everything that I have that I don't need, I could live pretty comfortably for a long time, but then some of the things that seem to make me happy I wouldn't have so what would be the point? I subconsciously worry a lot about taking care of myself, mostly I think because there most likely will come a time when I am alone in this world and will have to do that. So I think about having enough in the end. The other decision (which largely is probably making itself right now) is going back to work, I had hoped that my career/corporate days were over, but I have one little flaw that dad would refer to as having somewhat of a champange appetite that I can't support on a root beer budget. So, until I do get a few things sold, I am a working gal again - besides, I need a new washer and dryer and a few other things and my plan to work at Home Depot went up in flames when the salary wouldn't cover gas money for me.

I did re-learn something this week though and that is that there are 4 quadrants that correlate to energy levels and emotions and they are as follows:

High Positive - which is energy without tension (this is the place I would like to be....
Low Positive - which is having neither energy or tension
High Negative - Tension with energy
Low Negative - Tension without energy (total stress!)


I think I bounce a lot between Low Positive, High Positive and a little bit of High Negative, which is not where I want to be or should be. So my goal is to move it more to the High Positive quadrant. The quote for this week is "it's not the situation, it is your response to it" and a big reminder to be in control of my emotional state...looking at the situation from a different angel to find the positive spin. All this stuff comes from a book called Mentally Tough by James E. Loehr. He also has a book called The Power of Full Engagement that is excellent.


The other thing that weighs heavy on me but is a novel in itself is the topic of where to live and how to make it happen. That is a constant conflict inside me and not one that I can resolve easily. I will save it for another post, but just in case anyone thinks I don't think about it, all the time, I do, I do, I do.....