Blue Sky Tag-Self Reflection

Touched to receive this Blue Sky Tag from Dawn . She put it best when she said:

How do you thank someone whom you’ve never “met”, but who has enabled you to gain fresh insight into who you are?

Read that twice. I think blogging touches all of us in the most gentle nudges of love. It is a chance to define our character though our writing and photos, while connecting globally with others doing the same. How often does someone send that perfect comment at the right time, or writes a funny post that sets the day into motion? For me? Often.

Visit Dawns’s blog.  She embraces life’s journey with honesty, passion,  and the love of horses and sandy beaches at her fingertips. Thank you again Dawn for including me in your nomination. And thank your for your thought provoking questions.

The rules of the Blue Sky Tag:

1. Thank the person who has nominated you.
2. Answer their questions.
3. Create 11 questions for your nominees.
4. Tag your 11 nominees.

Responses to her questions.

1. Is your Life, today, half-empty, or half-full? My life is COMPLETELY full, and don’t get in my way because I will always more room to fill it fuller. So many people live each day as if it is their last, but I think if you live each day as if it is your first you see life with a different perspective. Even mundane tasks will take on a new curiosity.

2. How have you found goodness from the bad situations in your Life? Example, please :)). None of us is immune to challenges in life. I think it’s important to decide what IS good in those moments. A shattered knee and long rehab became a character building year for me. I was a lifelong competitive runner, and even though I could no longer train, I could STILL coach and could find other things to satisfy my competitive nature.

3. Which relationships have been the most challenging for you, and what strategies have you created to improve them? A retired spouse can be challenging for any relationship. As a a military spouse, where deployments were frequent, the expectation was independence. Retirement meant someone else was in my space All. The. Time. Not that it was a bad thing, just a balance thing. We rediscovered the you, me and us, that is so necessary in any relationship.

4 What causes you angst, and how do you overcome it? Family and friends battling life’s challenges causes me angst. I always want to fix it, but know its not for me to fix. I rest knowing, they know I am here, and I WILL have the hard conversation whenever THEY are ready.  Always…  Tell Me More.

5 Have you ever written your own jokes???? Memorized them, and tried them out in a long, boring line at the Post Office . . . Did anyone chortle??? (ie — do you have a good joke ready for a sour circumstance :)) (I had a lot of fun writing my Cow Jokes.). Not a jokester or much of a joke teller, but I do find fun and the funny in everyday life.  Yes, sometimes, it gets me in trouble, but sometimes… I feel like we don’t laugh enough.

6 What challenges are you facing in your Life right now?  A new challenge that I am sure many bloggers can relate to is; how to stay connected to every person I follow, (and who follows me) on my blog. hahaha. I love people and those who surround me. Everyone I follow is someone I want to follow, so I feel like I have been gifted with that task to let them know they matter; they do. I guess it’s a matter of balance…again, and to not lose site in why I am blogging.  Life is like that too.

7 What do you obsess over? How do you rein in your obsessions? Don’t women obsess over EVERYTHING? But for me…if I could say one thing today it would be grandchildren.

8 What strategies do you employ for stress relief? I am very active, love to be outside and find gardening is a respite. I think it is important to take a good look at yourself in the mirror; not to see the image, but to know the person inside the image. Finally, the first 2 hours of everyday, belong to me. I don’t take calls, texts, I don’t do housework, errands etc. I just enjoy my me, gym included.

9 What other-wordly phenomena have you experienced? (Intuition, dreams, deja vu, ET, communication with lost loved ones, etc.) What have your learned from them? This is very personal, and I have learned it’s very real.

10 How do you make new friends, or strike up a conversation with a stranger? Being brought up in a military family and living in more places then most people can fathom, conversation and meeting people is a way of life, and if I don’t speak the language, charades works very well. I am not sure there is a trick to it, but I do know asking them about them is more interesting to them…wink.

11 What do you love to create? How do you motivate yourself to do more of what you love to do??? I am not someone who needs motivation or validation. I do what I love. I think if you do what you love it will love you right back.

Nominees

All the blogs I follow are purposeful, and the reasons are many. Some are for humor, and others reflection or life simple pleasures. Some people are amazing writers, accomplished bloggers, and others just allow me to travel vicariously with them. Enjoy some of my favorites.

Piper’s Adventures

When Timber Makes One Still

Stone On a Roller Coaster

Blissful Britt

Be Yourself

Awaken and Breath

Haiku Out of Africa

Awa on the Road

Random Daily Thoughts

The Longer Route

My Wall

Questions to You:

1.  Do you have a post that is unique to you?
2.  What does your perfect vacation look like?
3.  What does the word spiritual mean to you?
3.  If you could change one thing from the past would would it be?
4.  What is your “I could NEVER” do, but secretly want to?
5.  What do you take for granted?
6.  Who made you smile today?
7.  Who did you make smile?
8.  Who did you piss off?
9.  If you were asked to speak to a graduation class, what would you say?
10. If you could only see 3 people for the rest of your life, who would they be?                 11. What are your blogging rituals? (I have coffee sitting next to me at this moment)

I would love to read your answers,  as you are the awe in my some.  There is never an obligation.  Just be reminded, I enjoy following your blogging space.  The sky IS the limit.