Calm before the storm...

I love spring. It is my favorite season of the whole entire year. Everything comes to life again. The days get longer. The air is warmer. It's like the earth is giving birth to a new start for everyone and everything. I love it. This spring is no exception with all that has been going on in my life. Not being well the last week has kind of put a damper on things. (must be something in the Swiss air) However, I refuse to let that get me down.

I'm pretty familiar with the fact that normally when things seem to be falling into place and finally life is taking shape just like we want it to, we get challenges. The challenges could be health, money, friends, family, etc. Whatever it is, it stresses out, makes us sick, ruins our sleep, give us heartburn (you laugh at me, but wait until you have it and can't eat anything but plain yogurt while that delicious quiche you just made sits on the counter. It's downright cruel!)

But I think, what happens sometimes is that we start to focus on these challenges. We lose sight of the big picture, the one that only days ago was painted so vividly in our minds like fresh oil on canvas. We could even almost touch the reality of it. How does that happen so fast??? I wonder myself sometimes. I'm not exceptionally great at not panicking. I'm getting better, and I learned that these challenges come from those entities that don't want us to succeed. Don't want us to fulfill our dreams. They come in many forms, but (and maybe this is a self pep talk as well) we can't lose sight of what we see through those rose colored glasses we just found.

We've got to make a conscious effort to polish them up, keep them from getting too scratched. I'm going to win and I'm going to win big at this game we call life. I've just got to remember that I'm fighting for it all the time. I think right now I'm just at the end of the calm before the storm. But I refuse to panic. I'm never alone in this. I've always got Him walking right beside me regardless anyway, and I'm a stubborn woman who gets what she wants.  :)

So remember to power through the storm, wearing those rose colored glasses. Who cares if they get a little spotty from the water. They clean. The important thing to hold on to is to never lose sight of the world and the life that you see through them.

Writing my own story....

I have to say these last two weeks have been some of the best I've had so far here in Switzerland. I wondered for a long time when I was going to feel like I was living my life. I'd think "When is my life life ever going to start?" "When will I feel like I'm at the beginning of it all...of everything I've worked for?" I kept waiting for it to happen. Like it would be some kind of magical entity that painted everything a different color, everything a little more shiny, sparkly. And of course, surely, what I was doing couldn't have that special shine....you know, really living that 'life' whatever that actually was.  Could it? But....

Somehow over the course of this last month,  I realized that I was in it!! I was in the thick of everything! What was I doing waiting for life to start when I was living it?! I think sometimes we lose sight of what's already in front of us always looking to the 'more' or 'someday' and we forget that sometimes....there isn't anymore. We keep waiting around for some big signpost that says 'GO! This is it!' But...we started the race already the day we took our first breath. Quit waiting to do the things you've always wanted to do! Realize you're alive now! Living now!

And you know...the funny thing is....once I realized I was right in the thick of my own story, everything did become painted a different color. It may sound cliche' to say, but seeing the world through rose colored glasses does make everything more sparkly and a little more bright and shiny, like a new penny.

A lot of people ask me 'when are you coming back?' 'what will you do when your done?' 'where do you want to be?' 'when are you going to settle down and have a normal life?' And the truth is. I don't have the answer to any of these questions. Not one.

I am loving where I am right now. Living every minute that I have. Taking in all the knowledge my poor tired brain can wrap itself around when it's translating 24 hours a day. I am seeing life through rose colored glasses that tarnish nothing. And whoever said there is some social timeline on when we have to do big things in life is an idiot. You don't get to write my story. I do. And I decide what chapter I'm on.

Right now, I'm writing chapters of self-discovery, new adventures, friends, and work that I love. I spent the weekend in an Italian village, ecstatic about the purchase of restoration books, the taste of pumpkin tortelloni in a black truffle sauce on my lips, the Veronese sunset etched in my brain, and a sunday afternoon spent basking in the sunshine, colored pink by the blossoms of peach tree groves, and made only sweeter by the sound of a guitar and the laughter of good friends.

I'm in no hurry to finish these chapters. Not yet. And I'm the author. No one else. I guess the question now is: Are you writing your own story??