Yes! :-0)

Hello and welcome to the weekend! Yes!!!! It's Friday. What a week. It's been too long since I've last checked in here. Glad to be back. I'm looking out my window at work and the sky is baby blue with puffy white clouds. Just looking at the big, bright sky makes me realize how small I am in the scheme of things and how great God is always. :-) Lie down on the grass one day and look up at the great, wide sky. It's an amazing feeling!;-)

This week I was challenged with feelings. Yep, good ole feelings. We all have them. It's part of being human. Different experiences ignite various feelings. Simple as that. Yet, sometimes I tend to allow the not so positive feelings to take over. I find myself allowing what someone says take me a little lower than I want to go. These days I'm pretty good at catching myself before I succuumb to the place where I find my mind thinking the "I should have done this," or "I'm so not doing this right," or "I am not good enough for that." I usually can nip those bleak thoughts right out of my mind...usually. However, this past Wednesday, I let my mind get away from me, all based on what I felt after a conversation with someone. And for the remainder of that day -- my blah day of the week -- I was gone. I felt like a dark cloud was following me until I literally fell asleep. I wasn't even able to clearly articulate how I was feeling, except to say it's just one of those days, a blah one. My first instinct was to scold myself (in my mind, not aloud), b/c I should know better than to allow what someone says make me forget my worth. Then, I remembered this is the journey---and having and feeling all emotions is a part of it. Just don't stay in the dimness too long. Come back to the light. And, with lots of meditation, prayer and talking to someone I really trust these days (my fiancee), I was able to get back into the flow of wellbeing that I constantly yearn to live in. Yes! I'm feeling like myself again. This just reminds me that life is like the ocean with smooth waves and rough ones. We just have to keep our balance and do our best to enjoy the ride. :-)

Today, I say YES to everything life brings to me~in all it's colors. Life is really good even in the midst of all the trials of the day.

I'm grateful for some really wonderful things that I had the joy of experiencing in the last week of my life. The first being my first trip to Chicago. I say YES to that. I was charmed by the windy city. It reminds me of a mixture of DC, NYC and ATL. What was even more special than going to the home of the Oprah Show and of course taking pictures outside of the studio~ like the crazed fan I am, was meeting my new extended family, my fiancee's brother (from another mother), his wife and their two delightful daughters. We had a fantastic time celebrating his birthday. I was embraced with love and kindness and just pure goodness. It was so special to be around people who share a history with my fiancee since his parents have passed on. What really touched my heart was seeing the "brothers" laugh and reminisce. One precious moment was when I glanced out the restaurant window and saw the "brothers" walking with their arms around each other down the block as they went to get the car. That's family. That's pure, unconditional love. This is what makes all those not so pleasant feelings that dampen our moods, at times, bearable. I am so very grateful to have love and to have good souls in my life making the journey so worthwhile.

May you all have sprinkles of sweetness this last weekend in October and embrace a new month with enthusiasm and love. After all, what else is there? :-)

Sending everything that makes you say YES your way. Tag you're it!