I Got Nothin'!

Welcome, once again, to my blog. It feels like a stage, so hello everyone. Thank you for coming.

I want to say a word of encouragement to everyone, who like me, works a day job while your creative energies die on the vine.
I think anyone and everyone with a creative bone in your body, a secret talent, a hidden initiative, a supressed dream or goal, or a sidelined hobby can relate and should, somehow, unite. We all go to work every day, truding through the minutia. Working and wondering, what's the purpose?

Some people are blessed. You have followed your  hearts and somehow blazed a trail where you fulfill your giftings and creative callings in your day-to-day jobs.You write, paint, direct, design, control and command. Kudos to you. You are the few and proud who are rewarded financially and in every way for your efforts. Or maybe the financial reward still eludes you but at least you are fulfilled. Either way, good job. You are now quietly dismissed from this blog, because this one is for the frustrated, the down-and-out, the monkey-suit clad day worker, the work horse . . .

I had a good start to a creative, fulfilling career. I went to college, studied journalism and English literature, graduated with honors and got a job writing and editing. Then I had my beautiful baby girl and quit after 5 years. I thought I would write from home, which I did for a while. I thought I could get back into the swing at any time, any day I wanted. Life is never that simple.

I went back to work after two precious babies were born and a husband had left. It wasn't exactly back into my dream job. It was survival and has been ever since.

I have tried to get a job at my old alma mater. But now I am too old. They want the young, beautiful girls to represent the college and recruit the new students and develop alumni relations. I even went back over there to at least have the career counselor look at my resume and help me strategize my next move. She looked at it with a completely dead expression and told me I've got nothing.

Can this be true? Do I really have nothing? I have raised two beautiful kids, age 19 and 11. A daughter who wants to be a missionary and save the world and is well on her way to doing it with straight A grades, friends who are movers and shakers and intellectuals, and two world travels under her belt. A son with a tender, gentle spirit, an amazing intellect, a way with kids and animals, lots of friends and good grades. I have the most wonderful husband in the world, who loves and adores me. Who knows how to love. Who enjoys my company. Who talks to me!

I've got a few cool things on the ole resume, too, even if not all within the same industry. There's a little writing and editing, some Facebooking, some advertising, some customer service, there's the incredible retail business my husband and I owned and manager, and succeeded at for a few years before the tide turned and we lost everything. There's the home healthcare industry, the hospitality industry, survival of the most difficult GM  in history industry . . . it's all there. But according to the counselor, I got nothing.

You know what, we'll see about nothing. If you're out there and you can relate to the twists and turns of life, if things do not always turn out just as you planned, if it seems nothing is ever handed to you, celebrate! We are the ones with the story. And somehow, little by little, I am going to tell that story. I know it will encourage someone. I know it will touch someone's heart.

If you got nothin' here's to you!

That's What Friends Do

Welcome to my first blog. I know what you are saying, where has she been? Well, let's see, probably the same places as some of you. Working all day glued to a computer screen and not wanting to sit in front of one at night. Raising gorgeous kids that I may only see for a few brief moments a day while we eat dinner or clean house or write lunch money checks or wash a load of underwear for the next day!

So sue me if I'm a little behind on the times. I'm here now. Thanks to my amazing friend Sara. She helped me get my blog set up so I could get over my writer's block. My writer's block of about 12 years. And I really enjoyed our "Blogging 101" session tonight. She is a third grade teacher, so she is very gentle. I must admit, I milked it a little bit. I let her navigate and push the buttons and show me where to go. It was very relaxing after a long day at work, navigating my way through the endless emails and excel charts.

This new world of the blog that she has shown me really has my interest picqued. I think I'm going to like it here in this world. Who knows, maybe I've found where I fit.Everyone is out here expressing their thoughts, some with actual humor and insight. You can read a long blog or short blog. You can read about someone who is like you, or someone who is very different from you. You can even quit reading when you're tired, and go to bed. Which is what I think I will do soon . . .

We've got a lot going on right now, my husband and I. Long hours at work for me topped off by my commute. Tired, achy muscles for my husband. And both of us with tired achy minds. But I felt almost like a third-grader as I stepped outside into a cool September evening to tell my friend good-bye. I told my precious husband we are blessed to have had her in our lives the past 7 years or so. Sometimes you meet someone, a person so wonderfully unique and thoughtful and funny and worthwhile, that it evens out at least a dozen poopers you may have in your life. That is my friend Sara. She is that person. She is amazing. She loves us. But then, that is what friends do!