Hi Universe, it’s Lanea here.  I know it’s been a little while; I’m sure you’re just glad I haven’t been harassing you with the IPOD game lately.  Don’t worry, I’m going back to Seattle in June for a few weeks and I’m sure Megan and I will do as much damage as possible during that time :).

Anyway, as I turn thirty-two today I realize that I needed to say a big thank you to you.  I know, don’t fall out or anything, but in all seriousness I really wanted to say thank you.  I thought about it last night and over the last thirty-two years I have been incredibly blessed in my life, particularly over this last year.  I was able to work with people for over a decade, sharing with them their best moments in life and their worst.  I was able to help individuals release secrets that had been plaguing their lives for years and reclaim their happiness.  I was able to mark several things off of my live list, including kissing the most beautiful woman in the world, and finding the courage to follow my heart and find my true happiness.  I would say all in all it has been one fabulous ride, and I can’t wait to see what is next.

I know the ride hasn’t always been easy.  For the days that I ended up exhausted, in tears, and screaming at you that I couldn’t handle anything else and I was done, thank you for continuing to push me past my limits.  You have shown me just how strong I am and how much I am capable of.  My only hope is that I can spend the next how many years I am here encouraging and inspiring others to be able to take risks, push through roadblocks and live with passion, gratitude, and above all else happiness.

I also know the ride is only just beginning, and there is a lot more for me on my journey, tough times as well as amazing times, and yes, I’m sure we will have to go through that teach Lanea patience lesson a few more thousand times.  I know the tough times only help me to recognize all that I do have in my life.

Thank you for my friends, my family, and my courage and strength to do what even I think is all out crazy and ridiculous at times.  I read in a horoscope book once that May 11^th birthdays are known for being out there in their eccentric ways, and have a tendency to do and think very differently than everyone else.  That when we speak the people who know us usually hold their breath, and after we have spoken those same people usually gasp.  I just wanted to let you know that you definitely didn’t miss the mark with me.  Thank you!

Lanea

One of the best self-care reminders I have received this week came in a conversations with a good friend of mine yesterday.  The conversation started off with a rant about how overwhelmed I was, and how I couldn’t shake the feeling of how I wasn’t accomplishing anything.  My friend was incredibly patient, listening as I gave my ridiculously long list of to do items to be completed.  As I’m sure all of you can imagine, moving across the country leaves one with quite a list of things to be done.  After I was done with my rant she said, “Lanea, maybe you should just try and focus on one thing, because that is a whole lot of chaos you are putting out into the universe.”  She was right, I was putting A LOT of chaos into the universe, and that was exactly what I was getting back.

It is one thing to be a helping professional and know what other people need to do to get a hold on their lives, but it is another thing to actually take that advice and use it yourself.  She wasn’t telling me anything that I didn’t know I needed to be doing.  I knew that I had yet once again invoked my everyday superhero status and was setting myself up for failure.  The truth is we all know what we should be doing in our lives to make it better, but for some reason we seem to think the answers are good enough for others, but not for ourselves.  I think my friend said it best when she said, “I don’t know why we keep thinking we can do everything and all at once at that, but here I am giving you this advice and I know darn well I should be taking it myself.”

In my continued attempt to battle this everyday superhero I feel like I need to be, I am actually taking some of the advice that I frequently give to others.  I am slowing down and creating a list of items that I can accomplish in my day.  Okay, I’ll be honest, I didn’t get the list down to one thing, but I think from five hundred down to six is a good start.

Today as you go along your day and think about the advice that you are giving to others, or the advice you have given, remember to take it yourself.  After all people actually model what you do way more than they follow what you say.

I once again have found myself racing around into oblivion.  It seems no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to find that space for myself.  I realize this probably sounds ironic given that I am on a permanent vacation, but seriously it has been a struggle.  I am trying to make sure I am seeing everything I want to see, keep up with an online writing class, all the while trying to maintain two different blogs, finish up my memoir and read that book I have been meaning to read, and—you get the picture.  I will start off with good intentions and plan to accomplish something, but then I become so scattered that I am switching and starting something different.  The end result is a bunch of unfinished tasks.

I had an eye opening experience as I was driving down the highway where James Dean was killed yesterday.  I started thinking about how warm I was getting in the car, but didn’t want to try on the air conditioning, because I didn’t want to eat up gasoline faster than I had to.  I was sitting there trying to figure out if I was actually hot enough to turn on the air conditioning, and made this big old spectacle about how I was burning up and would die if I didn’t get any air.  I started literally having an argument with myself that I was worth the extra two some odd dollars that would be used in gasoline by using the air conditioning.  Maybe it was the crazy desert air, or James Dean spirit playing with me, but I was seriously starting to contemplate my mental health.  Then it happened, amid all of this chaos the miracle that I was looking for presented itself to me.  It was as if a bright light appeared, and the all of the confusion and chaos completely went, literally right out the window, as I reached over and pressed the window button down.  I couldn’t help but chuckle for the unneeded stress I had just caused myself only a few moments prior to this experience, but then thanked the universe for the reminder that if we don’t slow down it can be hard to see the forest for the trees.

I am mentioned in my previous post, I was lucky enough to visit with a very dear friend of my for the last couple of days while on my road trip. She is a teacher and told me a fabulous story of an exercise that she does with her students, helping them to realize their interconnectedness with one another. She explains that although our western culture tries to tell us that we are supposed to be very independent, we are actually very dependent on one another in our lives.

The exercise starts off by having the students think about first waking up in the morning.  She asks how many use an alarm clock to wake up with.  She then asks her students to think of all of the people who made that alarm possible. The people who manufactured the material, the people who designed the clock, those who manufactured the parts, those who assembled the clock, packaged it up, those who delivered the clock to the store, those that put it on the shelf, those that rang the clock up once it was purchased, and so on. She has them then think about how even their act of getting up in the morning is dependent on all of these individuals, most of whom they have never met.

American society likes to put a lot of value on “I”, and “you”. We like to think that it is all about us against the world, but the truth is we couldn’t do anything without the help of others.  We are all dependent upon one another.

As you go on your day today, think about how many people made everything you are doing possible, and thank them. Even though it may seem like we are fighting alone against the world at times, we are all on the same team.