End Of Year Blather And My Visuals Of Finding Purpose And Joy!

As the year ends, and my months of struggling with lifestyle and sense of purpose, I have come to the conclusion the finding purpose and joy is not that tough. It's simply finding what you love, visualize it. My visuals show great clarity if I allow.

It does not matter the stage of life nor age nor financial status. If we cannot find purpose, true joy will not be experienced.

In searching I came across a lifestyle that I have incorporated gradually and begun to live it fully. Though I can't yet proclaim to be a true vegan, I am a pretty good vegetarian. However, with all the research and learning, and desire to heal from within, I must push forward to the vegan lifestyle.

As well, I consider the lack of movement, any movement, to be detrimental to the being as a whole. Especially as we age.

Over the last six months I have discovered my own frailty, limitations and issues that could be diagnosed or labeled should I have a notion to visit a medical professional.

Ah well, to the dismay of my husband, I will not. This lifestyle of choosing includes being active so recharging my mind and body includes yoga, while instilling laughter along with hard work includes other classes that strengthen and tone.

While journey into my lifestyle has been fraught with obstacles, it has become my reality. In turn, this reality has opened up all the windows in my mind and shed some serious spotlights onto my purpose!

Now, at this point, if you think I will just tell you what it is...like it can be stated in a few words or short sentence...then you must not have had this enlightening moment or visual yourselves. Let me explain. Finding purpose or meaning or worth which leads to joy is not concrete. It is not one thing or another. Instead, it is the belief, the knowing, that what you believe, what you do and the love you share with others is true.

As this may seem a bit contrary to what normative 'purpose' looks like, my visuals give me a sense of peace, of clarity. A feeling of warmth and security, of looking forward to each day, the future!

My purpose is many things, including my lifestyle, but pursuing my passion, what makes me happy, what may make others happy involves writing so I must follow that path. I visualize my life and believe that in staying true to self and following dreams I have evolved. Though not complete, I will always strive for perfection. Knowing full well that I will never attain such lofty levels, I continue to hone my skills and living  so as to keep my body and mind sharp. In this manner, I will realize gains with each step.

There have been many experiential moments throughout my more than a half century in this world. However, none has been more momentous than finding purpose and extreme joy!

Happy New Year and may you all find your joy in a life lived on purpose!

More On The Nups!

What a grand day it was, October 12, 2013! The day of my wedding. Even though this was not my first, it was by far the best wedding ceremony and party, ever! I think the key to this awesomeness was the levity that Frank and I incorporated into an otherwise serious moment in life.

As the old saying goes about laughter being THE best medicine, it was certainly true for us as we enter this middle stage of our lives...I say middle because I plan on living to at least 100, therefore 51 is just over half-way there. I know Frank doesn't think he'll make it another 20, but, hell, neither may I...but we can dream of a long future, right?

So we are in the autumn of our lives and chose an autumn wedding! Even so, we didn't keep much with tradition for our wedding, but instead, chose to modify some of those traditions and even make fun of them. Such as, the wedding party wore all black...after all, at this point we are far from virginal white!

Also, I know some version has been done a gazillion times, but I think we fooled our guests (and the preacher and best man too) with the screwed up processional/half-strip tease act. I will share some of those video clips as soon as I can retrieve them. I had them and now they are inaccessible so gotta figure that one out.

Frank had a cute prank waiting for me after I got to the 'alter' (no, not really an alter...we were outside, in the yard, on the grass)! I looked up at the preacher and he grinned. At first I noticed he seemed to have a couple teeth missing which did not surprise me since he's pretty old.

Then I looked closer as he kept grinning and noticed he was wearing fake/gag teeth! I busted a gut laughing! I turned to Frank and he smiled, then opened to a grin and he had a set too...more outrageous laughing, as the best man peered around Frank's shoulder and grinned his hillbilly smile at me too. I thought I was gonna pee my pants...well, since I wore no panties I suppose it would have been more of 'peeing down my leg'.

That's another twist we came up with. On the invitations, which were emailed, it specifically stated that there would be no dress code EXCEPT the guests must wear socks or underwear, but not both.
 

Dress:  Anything you want, however, you must wear socks OR underwear, not both…verification will be required at the door!

Lorna, Frank's sister, made simple signs for replacing the typical/traditional 'side-of-the-groom/bride' with the 'undie' side or the 'socks' side.

 I was not wearing underwear, so Frank, figuring this out in his own handsy way, handed me socks at the alter!

The ceremony itself got down to the seriousness of the affair, which I'll go into with the next wedding post, but the party after was quite fun. I am so glad most our friends and family could be there...it was the best wedding I've ever had! And I've had a few...

Check out the first in this mini-series on my wedding:  It Begins Again

Wishing you all lots of laughter!

Bubbling With Bubblews...Is This The New Facebook?

Since finding Bubblews, I can't begin to express how excited about writing I am again...I am bubbling! When I first came across this site, I'm sure someone mentioned it somewhere, but I'll be damned if i remember, I was quite skeptical.

Their opening video, you know the ones, that you can choose to skip and go directly to the site, was kinda corny, but I liked it.

The NEW opening video is pretty awesome, check it out:  Bubblews Intro Video if the vid below doesn't seem to be working.

  5 minutes long, but I liked it enough to watch it all the way through!

So what is Bubblews? (if you haven't already checked out the site) It is THE new Facebook, as far as I'm concerned. It is social media. It is a writing platform. It pays YOU! As Bubblews states, the philosophy is the creation of "...a patent pending system that enables our users to enjoy our community (without a cost) and share in the ad revenue growth."

They employ a revenue model that simply splits it with you 50/50. According to Bubblews site, "You will get paid for every view, comment, like/dislike and social media share that your posts gather."

Granted, it is not as fancy as Facebook, but it's really more like posting on a blog. The cool thing is the minimum you MUST write in each post is 400 characters. That's right! I said 400 characters, not 400 words. That's just plain easy peasy!!

Some will abuse this minimum, taking the Facebook chatter you see so often to this paid venue. I just skip over those or, if they become to obnoxious, just disconnect (that's 'un-friend' in FacebookSpeak).

You can use photos, one or several, you can link to other sites (just NO referral links) and the connections are great. Well, mostly. It's not like Facebook in that you really don't know anyone...you build relationships...like in blogging. There are many people that were not your friends until you connected through writing.

And I love, LOVE, the Bubblews-Speak:  Happy bubbling, bubble on, keep bubbling, bubblers, don't burst my bubble, etc.

I love the freedom to write what I like. Yeah, they gots rules! But, hell, doesn't everybody??

"Write Your World. Speak Freely. Join the movement. The time of not sharing revenue with the very people who create your content is OVER!" Bubblews

Finally, You Can Take Your Writing To Another Level! Fly Free (and get paid)

It Begins Again

When you think all hope is gone for the chance of spending the rest of your life with someone, it happens...the hope is renewed and love begins again.

Though I went in search of a mate almost immediately after my ex-husband asked for a divorce, I didn't think it possible that I would find the perfect one so soon. Don't be mistaken, I didn't think we would ever get married until, two and a half years later, he proposed. Well, in his way. I believe the exact words were, "So, I think we should talk about getting married." I said okay and the next day he says we should think about getting me a ring. I said, "Were you actually going to propose?" And he said, "I thought I did!"

So there it is and 2 1/2 months later we married, 10/12/13!

We wrote our own vows and they were perfect. Even though we did not know what each other wrote until that day, we each had written about being in search of the other for so long. I would love to share some of the words with you here, but I must get my husband's, Frank's, permission. They are personal so it would only be fair, right?

Let's just say his began with, "Hey, where have you been? I've needed you for such a very long time." And mine began with, "Oh, my love. I have waited...waited for this moment the whole of my life."

I thought that was so romantic that we had both come to this point of being together after looking for such a long time!

Even the preacher began his sermon with, "To this point they have each walked a path fraught with trials and testings that has brought them to this confluence of love and understanding."

All of our words, mine, Frank's and the preachers flowed so well together even though none had knowledge of what the other wrote. Wait. No. That's not right...the preacher had our vows in advance and wrote accordingly. Ah well! It's still a good story and all did go together perfectly.

The ceremony was awesome! Frank and I planned a couple antics that really threw our guests (and the best man) for a loop. Stay tuned for that post soon including video clips!

Next in this little mini-series:  More On The Nups