
Dunt da da dunt dunt daaaaaaaaaaaaa......
Sorry, you'll have to wade through my ramblings a bit before I tell you!
I have to say, this was SO difficult! When I first started reading all of your answers, I decided that I had to come up with a prize for everyone, they were all so heartfelt & thoughtful. But I quickly realized how unrealistic that was, since my teaching & traveling schedule starts next week. So I had to copy your words without any names & read each one at a different time to really absorb it all & to test the goose bump factor! There were three that I was (and still am) particularly torn between.
Since I am still so indecisive, I've decided to choose 1st, 2nd & 3rd place, so here they are....
The 1st place winner is... CATHERINE (even though she called me an old boot!) This is her post....
Ooooh Leighanna this is too haarrd. Whine.
Actually, I am one of those pretty happy people and you have it wrong, "50 is the new 35". And 44 IS middle age, heck 35 was middle age and I think you have nothing to complain about, I am going to be 50 in a month and I am not complaining TODAY! Well, it's your birthday, you old boot. You could pretend you are even older than you are and congratulate yourself on how great you look for your age.
My life lesson is control over my moods. Especially that NOTHING makes me happy or sad without my agreement. My mission is to spread that word to other people and also that everything and everyone is perfect just as they are, and there's always room for improvement. We must have the positive with the negative, the good with the bad, the happy with the sad or else there would be no distinction and what a boring world that would be. We all pretty much have a place with our emotions that we are comfortable. If something great or bad happens we are jolted out of that zone for a short period of time and eventually go back to our usual level of happiness or negativity. My goal and aim is to practice the state of being happy for it's own sake and also because it is way more fun. More good things happen when you are open to this. Dang, sometimes NOTHING bad happens and we are still bothered, tweaked and critical.
My passion is seeing. Seeing people as they are, seeing solutions to puzzles, seeing patterns, seeing the next move, seeing inside myself for what I think about it all on any given day, seeing what is interesting about the moment and what would be the most fun thing to do.
AND by the way, I am so happy I got to meet you before you got too old. Happy Birthday dear Leighanna. Thanks for making friends with me.
You have good ideas and I'm glad I get to see some of them.
Catherine
2nd place goes to JEAN...this is her post...
44? I AM 44! And I can tell you it was just as traumatic for me:))
40 was the MOST difficult! I was at the end of my pregnancy and was SURE I was 39...I was REALLY sure...until my sweet husband gently PROVED to me by counting the years on his fingers that I was INDEED 40! Oh the ANGST!
But...44...I too got caught up in the number....telling everyone how old and decrepit I am....(and then believing what I said) Then I started to actually SEE my students...many of which are over 60 or 70. And they are really on the ball, self assured, say what they feel kind-of-people.
Age you have no control over, but PERCEPTION you do.
My greatest struggle has been to see the glass half full(it has become my life's dancing partner)...my tendency is always leaning toward seeing the leaner rather than the fuller.... But I found a quote a long time ago that I have kept floating around in my head " do the best you can, with what you have, where you are"... And it helps a lot to re-focus and re-direct my thoughts and emotions.
I try always to focus on my greatest passion of making art...as much and as often as possible...because it gives me great strength...and I get lost in the timelessness of it...
You take beautiful pictures and make fantastic art....live in the fullness of that....put your whole self (as I see you already do) into that.....and forget about what society tells you OLD is....because really....our society implies that if you are over 25 and less than anorexic your old and useless anyway! Take advantage of the power of all of your knowledge and experience you have gained these 44 years...see value in that rather than in a nebulous number and feel free to do as you please and say all you want! In certain aboriginal societies it is only the people over 40 who are esteemed....not because of their age but because of their wisdom!
So Leighanna.....don't get caught up in those stupid numbers...they just drag you down....just eat, drink and be MERRY! And above all...do as I say!(not as I do:))
Le'chaim!
Jean
& 3rd place goes to JULIE H.....
Hi Leighanna,
I think my creed(s) are simple: Be still, and let others be. For so long I rushed hither and thither and tried to be everything to everyone. Now I pause, and try to stay still until their is a clear path, a direction, until I am centered. And, I am learning to allow others to walk their own path - to be still beside them.
My passions - to many - I can spend an hour with a fur baby and have it feel like five minutes, two hours in the art zone and it feel like three minutes. I loose time in books, the garden and warm conversations. I am always letting my class out late because the time disappears as I focus on each child. Perhaps I am passionate about all I do.
I will post pics of the prizes just as soon as they are finished, & THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone else who posted.
OH, & I have to mention....honorable mention goes to KRIS HENDERSON, she would have been somewhere in the top 3, but she didn't want a prize!