Interesting

Hmm... some interesting coincidences happened over the Thanksgiving holiday that felt like a big gift to me. The first coincidence occurred because my Yahoo e-mail account got hacked.

I'm too technologically naive to know how that might adversely affect me, but what it did do was send out an e-mail from me to people in my address book. One friend wrote back asking me if I got hacked. One professional acquaintance (who I actually had been avoiding, but needed to talk to) wrote me asking me if I was trying to get in touch with him (I wrote back that, yes, I was, and asked him what I needed to ask him). Another person told me they got my e-mail but didn't understand it. And the fourth person (a guy from my high school that I hadn't heard from in two years) wrote to tell me he would be in town visiting his parents for the holiday and maybe we could get together. I don't think this guy would have actually called me if not for the hack job e-mail sent out from me.

Anyway, we did get together for a few beers and it was just really nice to re-connect and just reminded me of why we were friends in high school in the first place. This guy, P., had also been trying to get in touch with another kid (okay, man) from high school (G., from this previous post) to try to see him and maybe a few other guys in our class, but because of family obligations and time constraints it wasn't working out.

G. did text me Sunday to say that he was leaving the next morning, but that maybe things would be less hectic and we could get together on his next visit. Then on Monday I get a text from him saying he was staying an extra day and maybe P. and I and another guy could meet at this little bar for Happy Hour. And even though I'm still wearing a brace and walking on crutches and the weather was supposed to be a little threatening, I was like, I'm in!

Well, the long story short is that G. got to stay the extra day because the airline had over-booked his flight and he accepted the offer of a free flight voucher. And G. ended up getting ten guys and one girl I went to high school with all at the bar. It was just a really awesome, fun and funny time catching up and remembering the antics of our high school years. Who knows if anything more will come from the meet-up (one of the guys said he would like to invite me over to he and his wife's next dinner get-together) but once again, it just strengthens my belief that there are no coincidences in life.

Being Reminded

This excerpt from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a nice message for me today.

Hope

I saw that Kelly Preston gave birth to a baby boy yesterday at age 48. What a miracle and blessing for her and her husband and daughter. I'm so thrilled for them!

I then came across this miracle of birth that just continues to tell me "it's not over 'til it's over."

WTH?!

This is one of the saddest things I've read in a while. A couple who have already previously gone through a couple of miscarriages and are now seventeen weeks pregnant with a baby are taking a poll on the internet asking if they should abort or keep the baby. As offensive as this is to my way of thinking (and I can't believe the shallowness of these people as to put this to a vote) why don't they have a third option to vote on: adoption. There is someone out there who would love to have a baby not wanted by its parents. What has the world come to?

UPDATE: They're keeping the baby - it's a girl!

My Mom's Story is My Story (Part 2)

I'm really trying to get to the story of how I was going to try to come up with the money to have my eggs frozen which I knew, considering the cost, was going to be a challenge, but I really don't feel like I can get to that story until I tell my mom's story which is so integral to my own. So, if you have some time (it's long) here's the next installment of my mom's journey into Breakdownland.

Reminder

I've read a lot of Paulo Coelho's books, especially liking The Alchemist and By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. This post, from his blog, is something I know I need to remember.

Fertile Soil

Well, I've told you about having my reconstructive knee operation. I was supposed to get my stitches out on Wednesday, but they weren't quite healed, so hopefully at the beginning of this week I will get them out and start rehab. It'll be a good three month process, but I've been assured my knee is gonna be like a new one.

I did finally have that breakdown that I alluded might be in the works. Outside of the pain I was physically in from my knee surgery, I think I mentally, emotionally, and spiritually lost it when I had another period - twenty days after I started the one on my 47th birthday which in itself was way earlier than my normal twenty-six day cycle.

In the end you know how it goes, one thought leads down a shadowy trail, the next thought leads down a darker one, until your thoughts have no light left to lead you anywhere you can find you're way out of. I had my pity-pat party - cried my eyes out for all the lack and loss I feel in my life and when I hit the bottom, found my way out by counting my blessings and forging on in faith that it ain't over til it's over.

I'm supposed to be writing this all down. Sometimes I don't want to take the time to do it. But in my heart I know that it is a testimony to something; and I believe, that something, has to do with God, His will for my life, faith (or overcoming a lack thereof), creating, and staying true to the dreams of my soul.

In the end all I really have control over are my thoughts. Thoughts like seeds planted in the soil, need a fertile environment to prosper and, in my mind, there is no better fertile environment than BELIEVING. Rising up from the soil of believing my thoughts can flourish in the direction I lead them, even if that means it may go against the grain of how "nature" usually grows things. There are anomalies in nature all of the time; that is what creation is all about: an anomaly that flourishes becomes what was always supposed to be.