Evolutions 2009…

Family
Invite family into my life. Be more accessible to my children and grandchildren.

Community
Work on relationships with other woman and build a sisterhood. Make lunch dates, invite women to coffee. Find a like minded group, ecologically, health, or spiritual.

Abundance
Continue to pay down debt with a stronger emphasis on credit cards. Double savings and be less of a consumer: buy used, utilize CraigList and Yooper Yard Sale, return what you do not use to the community.

Invest
Commit to a travel savings. Keep building a savings in a high yield account or with Certificate of Deposits. Build an escrow account. Get at least one month ahead on bills.

Ritual
Build a daily yoga practice that includes breath, stretching and prayer. Build a morning writing practice even if it is 10 minutes after oatmeal.

Health
Continue with weight loss and remember the emphasis should be on fitness, too. Build endurance for hiking. A stronger core will help me go the distance. Continue with care of arm and neck by utilizing nutritional support, massage and chiropractic.

Professional
The new door that opened in 2008 was related to my photography and connection to beauty. Foster this connection to beauty by staying centered and filling your own peace. What will follow is a sharing of joy, and abundance.

Harmony
Flow, this is your theme for the year. Fluid motion. Like the river to the shore. Like the lakeshore and the ever changing shoreline. Contours change and definitions are rigid. Tai Chi, yoga, breathe, laughter, song, will bring more ease.

Kim’s Evolutions for 2008…

Each year I take a look at my health and spirit and form some areas where I would like to evolve. Below is a look at my 2008 goals.

Family

Start more family rituals and hold gatherings. Making ornaments before the Holidays. Invite people over for a monthly meal. Invite family to join us at Hiawatha. Call my children more often. Send them surprise cards and letters. Go visit my father.

How did I do?We did have more family dinners and I actually saw all three children on Christmas Day in 2008. I did not go see my father. I did not send surprise cards and letters. Where I had the best of intentions-I feel I dropped the ball here.

Abundance

Get back to my center of balance so I do not feel cynical about my place in this world. Read or watch inspirational works. Remember that doors open everywhere and often where we least expect them to. Do a monthly abundant act, like “Paying it Forward.”

How did I do?I am less cynical. My readings were fitness and spiritually centered. I do not have a daily practice for yoga, yet. I was attentive to opening doors and my creativity is moving me in new and abundant directions. I made positive moves in an ever changing financial world I did good here..
 

Invest

Save 1000 dollars again this year! Keep paying at least minimum on student loans and use second job to pay down credit cards. Invest in your own talents and keep developing one that will reward you both spiritually and finically.

How did I do? Great! I met my goals by developing a new talent, photography. I paid student loans on time and applied my Americorps stipend. I transferred debt to a 0% interest card. I closed one credit card account. I need to cut back on my consumerism, though.

Ritual

Find a spiritual community for fellowship. Make prayer a part of everyday life. Get back to a daily Yoga practice. Keep doing Tai Chi on riverbanks, lakeshores, and near waterfalls.

How did I do? I am certainly not back to where I was in 1994-5 but I am in a better place. This is an area to continue working on in 2009.

Service

Share your talents with others. Keep volunteering with the Marquette Food Co-op. Look for an organization that gives back to the community, even if it is only seasonal and take part.

How did I do? Due to illness, I was unable to massage at the Post Polio retreat this year. I was able to share resources and supplies with schools. I cleaned out closets and donated to the needy. I shopped locally. I did work as a participating owner with the Marquette Food Co-op.

Health

Lose weight! Starting with the first 10 percent. Weight Watchers. Swim. Personal Trainer. Self-pay your dental insurance. Visit chiropractor and massage therapist monthly.

How did I do? Good. I am seeing a massage therapist monthl yand visit my chiropractor when needed. I have lost over 10 lbs. My dental insurance is in place.
 

Professional

Make a decision on future. Sub-teaching is wonderful as is working respite. But look toward the future too. How can your creative talents take you into your future? By summer, have workshops in place.

How did I do? I decided to work on the respite position with Bay. I am now working over 30 hours a week. My finances are more stable with this decision. My photography is opening new doors. I did not do the workshops.
 

Harmony

Connect with nature. Last year you took two trips on your own-do this again. The solitude taught much about how you think and react. This balance can continue, as you know yourself so peace will come.

How did I do? I did not take any trips on my own. The trips I took with Mike were wonderful and rewarding. I recognized that my life needed my partner. We create together.

 Links:

Evolvutions 2008

Evolutions 2007

Santa Considers…

Santa stood atop Snowberry Heights and considered . . . ?

I know it has been rough Santa.

But together we will make it through.

Christmas with Liam

Grandpa Mike picked up spinning-tops that light up. Liam watched very carefully and in a very short time, Liam would pick-up the top with two fingers and set them down–not bad for a little one only 17 months old.

Liam loved boxes this Christmas. Put-in. Take-out.

Liam opened his presents one peel at a time and then taking the wrapping to mommie or dada. And one time to Uncle, but then changed his mind and took the strip of paper to someone else. Liam was sharing.

This Christmas I had all three of my children and my grandchild come on Christmas Day. I feel so very blessed.

Mike the Elder will have all his children this holiday, too. Mike the Younger and Beth spent Christmas Eve night with us before heading out on an epic journey for 5 months. Tonight Terry, who is on leave from Naval Station Great Lakes, will arrive.

For photos of my yard on Christmas Night visit A Winter Journal, Notes from the Upper Peninsula.

PhotoFriday.com–Best of 2008

“30th Annual Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival, Cafe Bliss, a food vendor”

Choosing among my photos for what I felt was the “best of 2008” was difficult. I chose to go with the most fun, event photo. PhotoFriday.com has been great inspiration to me; visit the site to see some truly spectacular work!

Weight Loss–188.2 and Dropping

Yesterday someone asked me how I was loosing weight. I replied, random jumping jacks and salads.

“That’s all?!”

No. I also portion control more than 1/2 my weekly meals. Those salads have tons of vegies and protien from lean chicken or steak. I exercise during the commercials to the Biggest Loser. I park away from store entrances. Whole grains. Whole wheat. Brown Rice. Veggies. Fruit, fruit, fruit! Lots of garlic and spices. Dark chocolate helps keep cravings away. I pack an afternoon snack for between 2-4 so I do not get ravenous on the way home.

You must eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking to jump-start your metabolism, too.

And the biggest tool–I weigh myself everyday! Every morning before I eat. This lets me know if I need to adjust my plan for the day. I have a digital scale.

Are you working on health and weight issues? How are you doing? What works for you?

Creative Inspiration–Bolt

This is an image of a rusty bolt hanging on the side of our barn-type garage at camp in National Mine. I always find inspiration in the left behind and forgotten, and camp definitely has a history. This land has been one of great sorrow and loss for many. Someone even lost their life here.

My history has been one of overcoming loss and obstacle, of making home where I go. But like the image, finding my edges and definitions has been a hazy process.

I tune-in at camp. It is an empathetic response to the person who could not completely throw away a holy card found in the barn (but had to get it out of the house?), to the whisper in the trees, to the thump of too-fast traffic hitting upheavals on the county road.

It is a listening.

What has been left behind and forgotten, yet draws us, that is magic. Picking up a camera give us permission to listen with our eyes. You don’t have to touch what you find. It can be a cautious step forward and a quick click.

PhotoFriday.com–Weathered

This is a photo from this past summer’s Marquette Area Blue’s Fest. The artist is Tab Benoit–you have to hear him play–but if you cannot you HAVE to read his biography. While searching my photos for this week’s PhotoFriday.com theme “weathered” I had a wealth of shots. I scrolled through my photostream at flickr.com and this one went by I got all giddy. Love the weathered guitar.

Not My Tree

This photo was taken at a warm home full of family and love. I am blessed to be a part of their Sunday(s).

Marquette’s In Between Spaces

Today I am a dark corridor and I have no arrival. It is clouded and hidden. My light is burnt out and sundown is coming. I feel too inside myself. I feel like I must jump out of myself. I keep climbing uphill. But it is slippery and the light won’t come.

(Seasonal Disorder)