If you have read the blog posts over the years, you will see a slight change in the next few months as I finally use this blog as a platform to write about what truly inspires me, and what I hope will resonate with and inspire you as well.
40 lessons after 40
I was listening to a podcast today, like I do every morning while on my way to the gym or before I begin a run. This one was a new podcast for women in the 'middle part' of life, a place I have found myself hovering these days.
The subject was intuition and I listened in earnest, all the while thinking about the many times in my life intuition has truly served me and played a role in major life decisions. It may well have been a burst of synchronicity upon hearing another woman's stories of listening to her intuition that sparked the thing that happened next, but I felt a little tug to follow along. And, like most things, I moved pretty quickly, hence this first post.
I'm sitting behind the counter of my little soap shop in Chesapeake City on a quiet Wednesday as I write this. In fact, I couldn't wait to get here to let the ideas pour out onto the page, so my poor soaps have been all but abandoned for the morning, but I think they are used to me by now.
Here is the backstory and what I mean by synchronicity, and don't you just love that word?
I have been chatting lately with a friend's husband who happens to be a writer (in our exercise class every Monday of all places) and he asked me if I was still writing the other day after I sent him some resources I had tucked away to use for his own purposes. It dawned on me then that I had actually stopped writing-- a longtime dream of mine has been to publish a book. I published, but academics was never really what I was going for. I wanted to write for women. I wrote the requisite 4 or 5 books that never really left my shelf and I spent some years in a marvelous writers' group that met for conferences at the Algonquin hotel and I loved it.
But then things shifted. I worried about time wasted that could be spent doing other things - like teaching, or starting my business, which have also been amazing and continue to enhance my life in ways I can never describe - and, sadly, for over seven years I stopped writing. I've taught writing and I've done some blogs, published academic chapters and papers, but ultimately I let go of what I really want to write about, about the audience to whom I wanted to share stories with: women going through the maddening maze of mid-life changes.
And so, all of the ideas I have had came pouring in this morning, like they do when inspiration strikes, and I wrote them down. It turned out that I had, in fact, made a list of 40 topics I wanted to share with you over the next 40 weeks or so... and then it hit me: all of these topics are based on lessons I finally learned about life, about change, about being a woman, about managing stress and emotions, about the unique perspective I have gained since turning 40, and so here we are.
40 Lessons Learned After 40
I hope you will stay with me as I start next week's blog with the very first post and I hope the transparency and vulnerability I have decided to let guide me will allow you to connect with me better as you see what I view as the other side of self care. Doing this feels like I have come full circle. It feels like I am finally putting that last puzzle piece of this amazing business journey in place.
You see, self care isn't just something you find in a lovely cream or a face mask treatment--those certainly are a part of the journey, don't get me wrong or I wouldn't be making and offering them to you-- it is all the little lessons gained along the way, the stumbles and straightenings, and our reactions to things, thoughts and circumstances that truly lead to healing and growth.
Stay with me. More to come.
Carrie