The (NOT SO) Skinny Girl

This weekend I hung out with my aunt. We laughed, I think she shed a tear, but we had a good time. And I walked away thinking, boy is she passionate. Let me give you some back story..... In 2008 my aunt had an abnormal mammogram [yes, mammograms suck but they save lives ladies] which resulted in a double mastectomy in 2009. At this time, she had 5 children, aged 8-15. She couldn't work, and her husband had to support them all while doing normal everyday life things- like driving them around to sports/activities, grocery shopping, making meals, etc. And then something miraculous happened. The community stepped up and stepped in- people she knew and many strangers who became friends. Meals were brought over, kids were carpooled without questions, someone stopped by to make sure the kids actually ate dinner and did their homework. And my aunt recovered fully. They didn't miss a beat in their lives and were no worse for the wear (minus a pair of boobies). After receiving such ...

The hardest thing we face as individuals is making a commitment to our individual success. Career success has been rammed down our throats. I mean, we make believe we are grown-ups. We dream of being firefighters, police officers, Doctors, ETC. We dream and play and pretend as kids to do all these grown-up things. And then we work towards it. We learn to read and write. We learn to speak, and then to engage in conversation. We learn motor skills and hone higher levels of thinking. When we were children, we could honestly say we learned something or bettered ourselves every single day. Don't just focus on your career. A career doesn't hug you when you're sad, or listen when you need to talk, or curl up next to you each night. A bank account doesn't console you when you've lost a parent, sibling, spouse, friend, or child. A nice car won't surprise you with dinner or send you a card on your birthday.  I challenge anyone that considers themselves worth the chal...

I haven't been able to keep up and post something new each day. I know I have over 600 views on my posts, so I'm glad people are reading my stuff. But sometimes living life gets in the way of doing other things- social media is one. I've had a rough few days. Everyone has them. Not feeling well Not thinking well Not sleeping well I haven't even been eating well :/ There's been a very lot on my mind and I think I will be bale to break them out into posts for you. But for those of you who have days or weeks (or even months) like the ones I've been having- chin, there's hope. there's always SOMETHING good about life. Free bagels?? Random compliments?? Making someone else laugh/smile?? Someone else who made you laugh/smile?? Saw a pretty moon?? Saw a pretty sky?? Saw a pretty person?? Puppy wagged it's tail at you?? Baby smiled at you?? Car let you go in traffic?? There's gotta be something. Find one small thing every day. Whil...

Scenario: I'm at the park, walking my dog, and I see a group of disabled people on an outing. They are all smiling. They are happy. They smile at me, and smile at my dog. And one woman steps forward and asks "May I pet your dog?". She's so very polite and I tell her yes he's friendly but he might jump but don't be frightened he loves to give kisses. And she reaches down, gently, and he embraces her. And he kisses her as if she's the most perfect wonderful person he has ever met. And this is basically how he greets everyone. And she tells me he is handsome, and she tells me she likes my hair, and I tell her I love her bright colored sneakers. And she says thank you and I tell her to have a wonderful day. And we part ways. I know I was smiling. My dog was smiling. She was clearly smiling the whole time. I wish everyone had more interactions like this. #1- Smiles for days. SMILES. FOR. DAYS. I said to my husband this weekend "Do I have anything in my...

Have  compassion  for all living things. What is compassion? By definition: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Synonyms: pity, sympathy, empathy, fellow feeling, care, concern, solicitude, sensitivity, warmth, love, tenderness, mercy, leniency, tolerance, kindness , humanity, charity. That word- compassion- is so full of meaning.  Empathy, concern, mercy, sensitivity, tolerance, HUMANITY. I would say the #1 way to promote compassion is to say you should have concern for the well-being of others. That's the simplest way to put it. And it's so simple. It's like that saying- don't be quick to judge, you  don't know whats going on in someone else's life. If we were quicker to show concern for others, we'd be not as quick to show hate and judgement. We see people's expressions and without asking, we come to our own conclusion. Resting Bitch Face is a THING. SO instead of saying to someone- why do you always look...

The Pope recently said the church should ask forgiveness for the way it has treated gays, as well as 'women, for turning a blind eye to  child labor  and for “blessing so many weapons” in the past'. This is not to be overshadowed either. There is a reason I backed out of the church a few years ago. Antiquated teachings, and comments about gays, and the fact that women cannot play a larger role in the church... all these things and a priest who didn't make me feel accepted and loved and didn't enlighten me. I felt like it was not doing the good in my life that I needed and I did not make it a priority. And yet,that was just locally. Since I have scaled back my church going, Pope Francis has upped his game. He is talking about things like being tolerant and apologetic to gays. And he's talking about us... that's right ladies- he's talking about women and their role in the church. My ears are open- Go on... So he says the door is closed. Men are priests, t...

SO I just read that the Pope made a statement about gays...  He said that the church owes an apology for judging and offending people who identify this way, as  Christians are not supposed to judge or discriminate like this.  And it is profound.  The church teaches that gay tendencies are not sinful but that gay acts are, and that gays should try to be chaste.  “The questions is: If a person who has that condition (the word he used in Italian translates to condition but can also be used as "situation"), who has good will, and who looks for God, who are we to judge?” Pope Francis said. It is following in the footsteps of his statement in 2013 when he said, about gays,  "WHO AM I TO JUDGE?" "The church must say it is sorry for not having behaved as it should many times, many times — when I say 'the church,' I mean we Christians, because the church is holy; we are the sinners," the pope said. "We Christians must say we are sorry." Y...

This should be my motto EVERY DAY It's everywhere, everyday, sometimes all day. Some people ooze it, some people just have resting bitch face but we take it personally, and some people live to see it affect others.  Take for instance- Westboro Baptist Church. A Church. With one hell of a negative message. **Disclaimer, the following quotes do not belong to the writer of this blog and it pains me to even write it out... images would have been worse ** God h8s fags... Thank God for dead soldiers... God hates you... The Jews killed Jesus- God hates Israel WHAT?!?! DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN READ THE BIBLE?  God has no ability to hate. He doesn't hate anyone. He even says that if you repent and are truly sorry, you will be forgiven- he doesn't make any exceptions to this rule.  To elaborate on these [weird IMO] people- in case you are unfamiliar- this so-called "church" demonstrates  hate-filled protests of military  -AND NOW ALSO THE VICTIMS OF THE WORST MA...

There are 25,915 days in the life of the average human.  How will you honor the great gift (body) you’ve been given? Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Moments so dear Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes How Do You Measure - Measure A Year? In Daylights - In Sunsets In Midnights - In Cups Of Coffee In Inches - In Miles In Laughter - In Strife In - Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes How Do You Measure A Year In The Life?

Someone shared this with me today and it evoked a lot of emotion in me. Maybe it will for you,too. The Awakening (Author unknown) A time comes in your life when you finally get…when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out…ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying and blaming and struggling to hold on. Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes. This is your awakening. You realize it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to magically appear over the next horizon. You realize that in the real world there aren’t always fairy tale endings, and that any guarantee of “happily ever after” must begin with you…and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance. You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or...