• SURVIVAL & HEALING

    Messages From the Universe

    Sitting down at the computer this morning, I was going to write a completely different post, but something happened today and I need to write it down so I don’t forget the feelings and the profound messages that have come to me. Sometimes I get these messages from the universe. Life Has Ups and Downs My life has been so happy! After two rocky, emotionally damaging marriages, I finally know who I am. I have been able to feel love, happiness and peace in my life!  Learning to love myself was not easy but I have accomplished this and have learned how to take care of ME finally. I have…

  • Aging Gracefully,  SURVIVAL & HEALING

    How to Accept Death

    As in past blog posts, I am posting old journal entries that helped me get through rough times. Here is one that I found on dying. Writing this journal entry was my way of figuring out how to accept death. My Best Friend’s Husband My best friend’s husband passed away this weekend. I was around when she met him and when they married and had children. He was like a brother to me. Steve wasn’t even 60 years old yet. How does this happen? We are supposed to grow old and enjoy grandchildren and great grandchildren. How is she surviving this horrible loss? How would I ever survive such a…

  • Aging Gracefully,  SURVIVAL & HEALING,  Uncategorized

    Life Half Over? Or Is Life Just Starting? Thoughts on Aging

    I have so many thoughts on aging these days. As each birthday approaches I start wondering, is life half over or just staring?  I love reading the Wild Woman Sisterhood posts that are on my Facebook screen almost daily. They resonate with me! I have never been one to conform to the fads or the norms. My Childhood Dreams My childhood was on the tails of the hippie movement.  We watched the older sisters of my best friends walk out the door with their hippie beads around their necks and their bell bottoms and halter tops.  My soul surrounded itself with folk songs, black lights, beads hanging from my room,…

  • Aging Gracefully,  SURVIVAL & HEALING,  Uncategorized

    I LOVE SUMMER

    I love summer! This phrase comes from my lips at least once a week. There are people in my life who have heard it so much that they just ignore me now.  That’s okay.  I will continue to say it.  It doesn’t matter how hot it is, or how humid, I still love it.  Summer is the best part of the year.  I guess that’s why I enjoy Florida so much.  Ahhhhh….. the smells and feel of a hot, humid Florida night!!!   But that’s another story for another time. From as far back as I can remember, summertime was the best!  My memory holds visions of pop up thunderstorms that…

  • Aging Gracefully,  SURVIVAL & HEALING

    The Day of My Birth

    Birthdays! For the past few years I have made an effort to quietly let my birthday slide by unnoticed. As if being in denial would stop time and keep me at a young age! My brain tells me I am young but my body begs to differ! It’s amazing how age creeps up on us when we least expect it. We feel so young and able to do everything we have always done physically and then we lift our grandchild and twirl her around in the air and the soreness kicks in for days after!  What the heck???  I go to the gym,  lift weights and try to remember to…

  • Aging Gracefully,  SURVIVAL & HEALING,  Uncategorized

    Shannon The Riveter

    I can’t remember what it was the other night that reminded me of this, but for years I have always tried to fix things around the house on my own before I call in the professionals.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it is a disaster. My ex started calling me Shannon The Riveter. This trait (or fault) of mine stems from my second marriage where I was alone at home a lot. I would try to tackle the leaks and issues on my own rather than admit that I needed help. DRIP, DRIP, DRIP One night I walked down to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and since…

  • SURVIVAL & HEALING,  Uncategorized

    Horses and Chickens

    Sometimes life gets the best of us and stress takes over. I truly believe that laughter is good medicine.  If I find myself being bogged down with life I try to step back and notice life around me.  There just might be that brief moment where something funny can help get me back on track.  Here is a journal entry from years ago.    Friday, September 15, 2006 Just at the moment when I need something in my life to make me laugh…. I was having dinner with some friends last night on their farm in Prospect.  It’s a very beautiful part of town with a lot of land.  The whole…

  • CREATIVITY,  Uncategorized

    The Potter’s Wheel and Creativity

    I wrote a blog awhile back on missing my creativity and my clay work. I have gotten my tools back, I have purchased the clay and I have the longing to get back to my work. But I have no space to do this. I tried creating a little corner in the basement but it’s a basement! Okay, Shannon, use your creativity to imagine how this could work! Paint the walls a bright color, hang magazine photos that inspire! Open the box of clay and breathe in it’s earthy scent! DO IT! Today I watched a post on Facebook of an artist who was working on his wheel and an…

  • SURVIVAL & HEALING,  Uncategorized

    Homelessness And the Man At the Waterfall

    I KNOW I SAID I WAS TAKING A BREAK UNTIL JUNE BUT I COULDN’T RESIST.  I MISS WRITING. So I am going to share an old journal writing that still affects me when I think about the two instances that occurred that inspired this entry to be written.  Homelessness is on my mind.   The Boy With the Sad Eyes There are moments in my life that stop me cold and my heart hurts. During those moments I start contemplating my own life and how I could have helped someone and maybe didn’t.  One of these moments was a few years ago passing through a Taco Bell drive-thru window. I…

  • Uncategorized

    Taking a Break

    In my everyday, grownup life I have a full time job. I am an Event Planner. I love what I do even though I would rather be writing and doing my art full time. But a girl needs to pay the bills! So I go to work at 8am every week day and I write at night or weekends.  And am still trying to find time to slide my artwork creativity into the hours of the day.  May is my absolute busiest time of the year at work. I am at a University and this is the month leading up to Commencement.  Not only am I in charge of planning…