Happy 4th Blogiversary to Me!

A few days ago when I was checking my WP reader, there was a weird symbol in the box that lets me know someone has connected with me in some way (commented, liked, etc.). I didn’t recognize this symbol, and when I clicked on it, WP notified me that four years ago, I started this blog. Wow! Where has the time gone? On the other hand, a lot of life has happened in those four short years, and I’ve changed a butt ton.

Underway replenishment of 2 ships simultaneously. What I used to do.

It got me curious to see just what I wrote about on my first entry, and what I was writing about back then. So if you’re curious too, here it is. I started this blog by introducing myself and using the first several entries to talk about my voyage from being a merchant mariner to becoming a mother. And shared some parenting tips that I learned from an awesome parenting philosophy called Positive Discipline. One of the posts that I particularly like talks about the Spanking Debate and why, for me, spanking (or any other corporal punishment) is not an option.

In one post I shared a parenting tip and a sea story that demonstrated what happens to someone when they aren’t taught how to problem solve as they grow up. Here I was, with a group of (grown adult) merchant mariners, and one of them was more like a toddler having a tantrum.

After writing about becoming a mom and discovering that my son has Sensory Processing Disorder, something called Energy Therapy fell into my lap. When I discovered that this magical thing, invisible to the naked eye and even to the electron microscope, could affect real change in both me and in Little Man, the curiosity in me jumped up with both ears at full attention. I wanted to learn more about it.

I finally got up the nerve to write about one of my hypnosis experiences. This was one of the biggies that showed me that we do exist before we are born, and we actually plan our life’s challenges. I had read a little bit about this, but having it happen quite unexpectedly during a hypnosis session blew my mind.

About a year and a half into blogging, I discovered the feature Freshly Pressed. As I was perusing the posts, the title She’s a Maineiac jumped out at me because I lived in Maine for a time. After reading and discovering a few things we had in common, I discovered that she used Reiki to help her son (same age as mine, also with SPD) calm down and be able to relax. I had no idea what Reiki was, but on that alone, I found a local Reiki class and took it. After all, doesn’t a mother do anything and everything to help her young child?

Becoming Reiki attuned initiated big life shifts including awakening spiritually, and my posts reflected it. There were many more entries about healing, including this amazing Reiki experience I had at a gathering where Reiki practitioners donate their time to give healings to the public on a walk-in basis. It’s a great way for people to give it a try if they’re new to it.

Searching for pieces of the puzzle that is my son.

For my son, second through fourth grade years were a nightmare in school. He spent days in tears and anguish. And as his mother, I was also in anguish. His teachers were not capable of identifying what was going on with him, and they were not interested in hearing my woes about how hard it was at home to get him to go to school and to try to get him to do homework. Here’s one of my posts about trying to figure out the puzzle that is my son and how to best help him.

The summer of 2011 began my involvement in taking care of my aging and ailing parents. My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer somewhere around 1987 and with a variety of treatments, lived with it for another 25 years. But that summer was the beginning of the end. For the next year and a half, my life would be consumed with parental responsibility (my parents, that is) and flying across country a number of times to deal with them. Many of my posts between Aug. 2011 and the very beginning of 2013 chronicle this part of the journey. When I was forced to deal with things I had never had to deal with before, fear used to be the first thing to come up in me. But with my healing work and new spiritual education, I was able to see just how much I was growing and changing, especially when both of my parents ended up in the hospital at the same time and I dropped my life for a month to be with them. Things like synchronicity, trust and confidence became part of my daily existence.

photo by Just Us 3 on Flickr

After Dad died, Mom’s bipolar went out of control. First she flew into mania so high and fast that nothing could stop her. I wrote a poem when she reached insanity. Eventually, after a hospital stay, meds and time, she came down hard and fast into depression that never lifted. Ten months after Dad died, Mom took her life. She couldn’t handle life without him.

Having dealt with both of my parents deaths and the emptying and sale of my childhood home in March of 2013, it was time to shift my attention back to dealing with Little Man taking care of my family and resuming life. After about 10 days of summer vacation bliss, I broke my foot and shredded a tendon. I guess that was the universe’s way of telling me to sit down and take a load off for a while. So I did. Surgery followed by months of physical therapy and acupuncture ensued.

With the new year of 2014 and my foot being a bit better, I decided to delve deep, back into working on myself, using both hypnotherapy and a local medical intuitive. During one of the hypnotherapy sessions, we looked at my issue with body image and did some very powerful healing. I wrote about it for a fellow blogger, Liz, on Big Body Beautiful.

Other than writing about my life as a mother, daughter, spiritual being and survivor, I absolutely love photography. Here’s a post filled with beautiful flowers for you to enjoy! Thanks so much for joining me along the adventure that is my life’s journey.