Go Small…or…Stay Home…

You may remember…I ordered a juicer…last week…it didn’t come until yesterday…so…I haven’t had the time…to check it all out…but…since…I was in the mood to get healthy…quickly…in the meantime…I read a book…about eating mostly veggies…and fruit…the goal being…to eat a pound of raw veggies…a pound of cooked veggies…and…at least a cup of beans…every day…

Well…it sounded healthy to me…all those antioxidants…all those phytonutrients…I’d probably never need to take a supplement…again…so…in I jumped…

Here’s what I learned…and…yes…you probably saw this one coming…my stomach wasn’t ready to go from a fairly normal diet…including a fair amount of roughage…to what felt like…a ton of fiber…in one day…just think about it…do you know how much salad it takes to weigh a pound…well…it’s a big…big…bowl…it would take...Peter Rabbit...and his whole family...to eat it all...and...there might be leftovers...

Bertha…laughed…as I cramped…and…camped…in the bathroom…because I’d obviously…forgotten…her…First Rule of Change…Go Small…

Now…I don’t know how I could have forgotten…she’s been…harping…I mean…reminding me of it…for years now…and…I must say…I have seen it work wonders in my life…

It works for me…because…like…my stomach…I tend to get overwhelmed…out of sorts…by…sudden huge shifts…in my status quo…even…if it’s a good change…wanted…healthy…

So…I backed off…oh…I have continued to eat the healthy stuff…just in much smaller quantities…and…by…letting my body tell me…the amounts that it wants…and…I promise…it’s nowhere near a pound…

Well…I don’t know if I’m…healthy…yet…but…I do know that my stomach is settling down…and…honestly…for now…that’s all that I’m worried about…

Jane

The Handwriting’s on the Screen…

It’s pretty amazing…when I think about it…thoughts in my brain…cause my fingers to move…and words…appear on the screen…and…most times…they are the same words that I was thinking…sometimes…not so much…sometimes they are unrecognizable…even for spell check…who gets pretty haughty…and says…no spelling suggestions…but…I digress…

I had never spent a great deal of time dwelling on the mechanical intricacies of writing…until…the other day…I was watching as a co-worker typed…her fingers moved in tiny strokes…up and down…at the same time…words were floating onto the screen in front of her…like leaves on a stream…a seamless process…it was pretty cool…

Times have changed…when I learned to type…you pressed a key…and could watch as it came forward…pressing the letter through an ink ribbon onto the page…and yes…that was after I had walked to school…bare foot…in the snow…uphill…both ways…unless…I could catch a dinosaur for a ride…geez…everybody’s a comedian today…

But…I do think of those days…and how the process of writing was so different…I can’t even imagine…all the time I would spend retyping complete pages of manuscript…for little typos here and there…because…even though there was correction tape…I couldn’t get it lined back up and corrected…

And besides…I’m a muller…a jeller…I’ll write something…walk away for a while…then come back to it…delete…insert…and I don’t have to print it until I have it just the way I want it…and…honestly…not even then…I just save it in a little file…which thankfully…doesn’t require me to physically poke a document in a manila folder…and figure out my alphabet…

Would I have been a writer…if things hadn’t changed…I honestly don’t know…there’s no way to tell…all I know…is…I am now…and that’s what really matters…

Jane

Sweet Home…Moulton, Alabama…

Just the other morning…I realized how much I appreciate living in Moulton, AL…the town of my birth…and raising…as we say in the south…

Moulton, AL…the same town that I’ve spent most of my life trying to get out of…but always seem to come home to…

I’ve been back six years this time…and looks like I’ll be here a while longer…and that’s okay…the wanderlust of my younger years has past…there is just something about seeing the same things that I’ve seen over and over again since my youth…that has become soothing…it’s like the town has a rhythm…a music…of its own…

Like all towns…it is changing…old landmarks are coming down…and new ones are going up…it’s happening at a pace that works…sort of like growing old…you just don’t notice what’s happening…until one day you are…and then…it seems natural enough…

And…I realize…that like the town…I am changing at a pace that works for me as well…some of my old…well-worn…comfortable habits are coming down…and new unfamiliar ones…are taking their place…

There is something so comforting about knowing…and being known…it suits me…so…why…I wonder…did I leave so many times…what was that wanderlust all about…

I can’t totally answer that…but…I think it had something to do…with not feeling like here was enough…that I wasn’t enough…and…that somehow…I could be more…somewhere else…

What I’ve found out…over the years…is what Mama knew before I left…where ever you go…you take yourself with you…you can be happy or sad…rich or poor…educated or illiterate…wherever you are…

It’s who you are…not where you are…that makes the difference…

So…do I love all the changes in the town…not totally…I miss the old Star Theater…even though it’s been empty some 40 years…but…the new Courthouse will be wonderful…and was much needed…

Do I love all the changes in me…not totally…I miss some of my old habits…even though they haven’t served me in about as long…but…I really do embrace…the new habits…they are wonderful…and much needed…

Jane

Iron Ore, Frankincense, and Myrrh…

I think I’m going through the change…no…not hot flashes and super sensitive crying spells…although…I am of an age…but…we won’t talk about that here…just turn off the heat and open a window…before you hurt my feelings…okay…the truth…I’m past that age…are you happy now…geez…you are so picky…

But…I’m still going through…if not…the change…at least…a change…the change I’m experiencing isn’t hormonal…it’s actually alchemical…magical…

Now…don’t get too excited…I haven’t found the long sought after philosopher’s stone…I’m not changing iron ore into gold…at least not in the strictest sense of the word…although…hmmm…I could use a couple of large gold nuggets with holiday shopping and all…but I digress…

Okay…let me explain…before even I get confused…I’m talking about the transformation of my heart…now…it’s not completely there yet…but…there is a golden vein that has developed…I’m not sure just exactly when it got there…

It happened gradually…over the last few months…one tiny speck of gold dust at a time…every time I lived my truth…I added a speck…every time I’ve been open with my feelings…every time I’ve trusted my heart…every time I’ve peeled the artichoke…another speck…every Forgiveness Prayer I’ve said…every blog I’ve written…were showers of gold dust…until…suddenly…just yesterday…I found it…the mother lode…pay dirt…stake-a-claim worthy…golden vein…

It didn’t happen with fireworks or fanfare…it was quieter…just a warm feeling…a knowing…that…I am the person I’ve been writing about…that I am the person I want to be…

So…maybe…I have found the proverbial philosopher’s stone…maybe…I am truly turning iron ore into gold…and even though it’s not the kind of gold that will pay for all those Christmas gifts I would like to buy…I think it’s better…

In fact…I know it’s better…because…transforming my heart…one sparkle of gold dust at a time is magical…it is what is going to allow me to truly experience the beauty of the Christmas season…and to appreciate the beauty of who I am…

So the gift that I offer to the world this year is not store bought…it’s home grown…it’s magic…it’s me…

And…BTW…no exchanges…no refunds…no regifting…just saying…

Jane