When Life Gives You the Finger...

It has been some time since I have written a post here at this ol' blog. For these past few months, life has been, well, pretty darned full of the stuff life throws at you.

I will give you the Cliff Notes...

We sold our home of 13 years at the same time my husband, Jim, had a serious bike accident and our 13-year old Husky, Zoe, was fading from kidney problems. We said goodbye to our dear neighbors and I said goodbye to my home skin care studio, as well. We had four days to move from the old home to the new home. We moved to the new home and just a few days later, had to say goodbye to our beautiful, precious Zoe. Shortly after, during a routine test, Jim found out he was having concerning issues with his blood and was sent to a hematologist. And all of this came full-circle in the midst of a brutal Mercury Retrograde - just in time for our wacky summer to be over and school to start. Phew.

Our sweet, sweet girl.

I guess you could pretty much say that life gave us the finger. For several weeks, I thought I was losing my mind and wanted nothing more than to sit in the corner sucking my thumb.

I missed my old home - the home I brought my babies home to. I missed my sweet dog. I missed my neighbors. I missed my studio, my business and my clients. My husband was unable to walk, making moving into our new home a challenge. And his blood test made us fear the worst. I was struggling to keep a cheery face for my kids, who were making one of the biggest transitions of their life, so far.

Life has a way of sometimes trying to appear that it is bringing us down.  But, when you take a step back, take a deep breath, remember that we are resilient creatures (physically and emotionally) and really take the time to look at things - you are given the bigger picture.

Our new home is set on a beautiful 4+ acres of land with a quiet pine grove and an oak forest. When it was "go time" for our lightning-fast move - our village of friends was there at the ready, lifting, hauling and sweating to help move our lives from one home to the next. Since we didn't move far, our old neighbors have been close by to keep in touch - stopping by often and having us over for dinner. And we have met wonderful new neighbors. My husband eventually got back on his feet and was able to walk again. We found that the strange blood test was due to anemia, which we are working to resolve. The loss of Zoe still makes my heart ache, but my heart is also warmed knowing that she stuck with us long enough to make sure we got to the new house safely.

Plus, we got this super-sweet picture of my husband right before he crashed head-first into the ground. Somehow he forgot he wasn't 13 anymore when he went over this awesome bike ramp. So thankful that he has recovered from his injuries.

All of these things make me smile.

We have the power as to how we react to what life throws at us. We can choose to wrap ourselves up like a burrito in the crap of it all - or rub our eyes clear and look at how life is actually doing us a solid.

So, I guess the moral of this story is: When life gives you the finger...smile and wave back. :)

Wishing you a big-picture, warm-fuzzy, smiley kind of day!

Much love,
Camille