Create Your Own Happiness

I spent today at a free-form writer's retreat in Grand Isle, VT, sponsored by the Burlington Writer's Workshop. My plan was to work on a personal essay, which I did, and then I got distracted by one of my favorite quotes. I'm not quite sure who wrote it, but it's definitely awe inspiring!

It reminds me a lot of another quote I love, "Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Love the ones who don’t just because you can. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Kiss slowly. Forgive quickly. God never said life would be easy. He just promised it would be worth it."

Both of these inspired me to write this poem:

Create Your Own Happiness
Embrace the people who support you
and cheer you through the bad times.
They're the ones who will celebrate your successes.

You will need to actively and consciously remove yourself from the drama
and the people who create it because it's not just a one time thing.

Be the change you wish to see in your own life
and you'll be able to naturally apply that to the rest of your life
and to be the change your meant to have in the world.

Realize that you are a work in progress.
You are constantly evolving.
Every aspect of your life will change, sometimes slowly
and sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly.
Sometimes the change is a planned choice
and sometimes it's an unintentional external force.
How you choose to manage that change will determine your success.

Confront your demons head on.
Grab them by the horns and bring them down.
They will battle you day in and day out.
Some days they will win, leaving you feeling defeated.
The important piece to remember is to not let that defeat consume you.
Choose happiness.
Choose to get back up after falling
and get back to living.
Create your own happiness.
Be who you want to be.

Review: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Audiobook produced in 2015 by St. Martin's Press

This has to be one of my favorite books. I just couldn't stop listening to it and I've recommended that we read it for my book club, Vermont Books n Brews, for our January 2017 discussion because I'm so in need of discussing this story with other book lovers. I'm sitting in my car right now with tears streaming down my face because it was that emotional. I just had to finish listening to the last 10 minutes of the story to get closure. And closure I got. The ending wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for, but I'm so glad there was some sort of closure. The closure I was hoping for wasn't the realistic, natural way of things in life, and Kristin Hannah has an innate ability of making a fiction story so realistic feeling and relatable.

I enjoyed the fact that the majority of the story was like a flashback but it wasn't necessarily written that way. It was a 3rd person story that switched back and forth between Viann and her sister, Isabelle, about the girls lives during the war. Viann's present day life at the beginning of the book left me wanting more details of the rest of the family.

This is such a heartbreaking story, yet a true testament to the strength of the human spirit.

When softball was discontinued as an Olympic Sport

This article says it all - http://www.vox.com/2016/7/13/12067548/olympics-jennie-finch

Many of you know how important softball is to me. From the age of 8, I developed many life long friendships that lasted through the middle school and high school years - a time that's notorious for being difficult. Softball, because of my teammates, made those years easier. We learned how to pick each other up on and off the field. We learned in time that an important loss, no matter how painful in the moment, wasn't the end of the world. We learned how to celebrate each player's individual victories, and those as a team. Those lessons somehow naturally translated over to life off the field.

I was 10 in 1996 when softball became an Olympic sport for the first time. From there on out I wanted to play for Team USA. Other things eventually became more important, but watching Jennie Finch live my dream was like a dream in of itself. Watching the team lose to Beijing in 2008 was heartbreaking. And just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, softball  was discontinued as an Olympic sport. I was pissed. It was like, as Jennie says, a step backwards for female athletes.

Beautiful World

I decided to take a long weekend to spend some time with family and friends whom I haven't seen in years. I'm out in Salt Lake City, Utah for a friend's wedding. We're enjoying the beauty that Mother Nature has to offer here at the campsite. Although I'm unaccustomed to the elevation, and it's taking a toll on my breathing, I'm loving the view.