Today's Snowflake...

I'll never forget...

How many times can you say that you are waking up to a changed world? I can count the times that I have on one hand, and most of them are not good. Our new President elect touched on this last night, when discussing what the 106 year old female voter had seen in her lifetime, and that got me thinking – how many truly world-changing events have I been around to witness?

How do we recognize these events? Most often they are the “I’ll never forget where I was when…” moments. “I’ll never forget where I was when Challenger exploded.” “I’ll never forget where I was when the Berlin Wall fell.” “I’ll never forget where I was when we went to war with Iraq – both times.” “I’ll never forget where I was when the twin towers fell.”

I’ll never forget where I was when we elected the first African American President of the United States.

I mean, wow. What a way to top the “I’ll never forgets”. All I can hope now is that we continue to top ourselves with the positives instead of the negatives, that we keep moving forwards, and that we never forget what it means to all of us that we can be proud to be who we are, to believe what we believe, and to live the lives we do.

Rest in Peace, Michael Crichton

I just found out that Michael Crichton passed away today, and it is one of those things that just hits unexpectedly. I've enjoyed so thoroughly the world of SciFi through his writing. He was an amazing author who will be greatly missed, but who also has the fortune of living forever through his writing.

Rest in Peace.

Change and Uncertainty

Living with uncertainty sucks.

I'm just going to throw that out there into the ever-broadening ethos.  Whether it is in your personal, familial, or work life, uncertainty sucks.  

The interesting thing is that 5 years ago, I would bet that every single one of us would have totally balked at any sign of change and uncertainty. Now, however, it is like we are in "Change is NOW boot camp", doing push-ups with a "I CAN survive my 401K" and a "It Dropped 500, but I'll SURVIVE!"  

I personally have taken many looks at my life and asked, "is this it?  Is this what I worked so hard for?  Is this all I get?"   Maybe it's not that the change is hard or surprising, but that the ACCEPTANCE of change is something we don't WANT to face.  Well.  Maybe I'll just live in my nice happy-world of avoidance and denial a bit longer.

Isn't it crazy how life seems to often get completely in the way of what we often aim to do?  I seem to be the ultimate queen lately of the "I'm going to's".  

I'm going to seriously clean.

I'm going to get my act in gear and find a new path in life.

I'm going to stop procrastinating all the time.

I'm going to....

I'm going to....

I'm going to....

Yeah. So. How often do all of those really happen?  You got it in one - not very. 

I've found myself in this constant loop of time, like Groundhog Day but not nearly as funny or educational.  It's just the same thing, day in, day out.  It is time to get out of it, but I'm still trying to figure out what the magic path is.  What is it that is going to break me free, and allow me to move on to the next day?  

Moral of the story?  Keep me in your thoughts, and I continue to loop over and over and over and over and over......