Women Who Dare

Daughter, Granddaughter, Myself   July 2016

Facebook asks...what's on your mind?  How about...nothing.  My Athlete In Training Program includes quiet time mentally where my mind clears a space for love.  This focus on mental health takes discipline and usually happens when there is a disruption in life.  Losing my job is that for me right now and allows me to discover...what is new...when I STOP DOING!!!  Learning how to adapt when circumstances change is not only building my muscles physically but mentally.  The need for tolerance for uncertainty has got to be fun for me or it's not worth it.

My quiet time brings silence.  Knowing silence is guidance my job is to not panic when that is all I hear.  "Hello darkness my old friend...I've come to speak with you again".  Women who dare do not conform.  They listen to their own songs.  It takes strength to listen on a deep level.  This simple concept to just STOP...the stories....the doing...and just be quiet is not something we are taught to be productive.  We constantly ask and are being asked..."What did you do today'?  If the answer is...NOTHING...the response is...What's wrong?

Growing up I never wanted an Ordinary Life.  I did want to be the lady on the daring trapeze.  To be born, raised, live, and die in one town would be the worst.  Then at the age of sixteen...my ten year old sister drown.  That is when I discovered what the worst really felt like.  A movie came out called "Ordinary People" and I saw the story of my life on the big screen.  Great novels, songs, and films let us know...we are not alone.

This AIT walks the S.F. Hills every day, applies for work online, goes grocery shopping, journals, reads, watches the evening news and some favorite YouTube channels all with a "quiet passive mind" in order to hear... what is new?  Turns out my "ordinary life" is challenging me to dare to give up unnecessary things and business affairs...whatever that means?