BlogHer - Where do YOU find the soul energy to re-invent yourself? - Comments

Reinvented but looking for more...

LookingForHeavenOnEarth — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:54:28 -0600

So weeks after this post I caught Under the Tuscan Sun on cable just at the point where the storm comes and kills the washing machine. I stopped and watched the rest of the movie again. I want always want to move to Tuscany after I watch this movie. But I won't.

Five years ago I changed my life completely, but I did not reinvent myself, I was okay with who I was then. Today I am divorced, graduated from college, baptized and remarried, I am still me, but I have felt that I was looking for something.

I took a leap last fall and applied to graduate school in the College of Education and got accepted, thinking this was the direction I wanted to go. After weeks of studying philosophy that I did not believe in, I dropped it all and feel relieved. That was not me.

Two summers ago I began running in local 5k's and twice came, in my own time, to the finish line face to face with my ex-husband (who I don't really like) He asked me the second time, "So are you a marathon runner now?" And I smiled and said, "I have always been a runner, weren't you paying attention?" and walked away. It is odd that after being together 17 years he did not know I love to run.

Your post makes me think that I don't really need reinvention at this time, but to take advantage of what I am now. Instead of making a resolution I am making a list to do what I love everyday. Just doing this will make my year and my life better.

1. Run every day
2. Eat great food
3. Play with my kids.
4. Smile and laugh.
5. Work at least 15 minutes each day on my book project.
6. Read the Bible every evening.
7. Pray with my husband every morning before we get up out of bed for the day.
8. Spend time with my good friends.
9. Spend time with my sister.
10. Remember to love what I have rather than covet what I don't have.

Reinvention can be a good thing, but each of us should look closely at who we are and love ourselves completely! Today on January 3, 2008 my GO is just that Go and be me!

LookingForHeavenOnEarth
Loving life and laughing at it...

Love the concept

lizzen — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:54:05 -0600

I am a queen of reinvention. I've done it so frequently that now I feel my personality is a wonderful jumble of beings past and present (maybe even future). Just look at the music on my iPod, for example: I've got the piano greats Debussy and Chopin; mainstream pop stars Gwen Stefani and the Black Eyed Peas; a seemingly endless list of punk rockers like Bad Religion, Rancid, Strung Out, etc.; and club favorites like Usher and Kelis. I don't limit myself to "AN identity;" I just AM.

I do have to admit, however, that before I take a BIG leap I am suddenly frozen with fear and convince myself that it's a bad idea. Of course, after I make the jump, I ALWAYS realize it was a fantastic move and I was absolutely right to do it. (The only exceptions, where I wasn't nervous at all: Getting married and getting this new job.)

The only way you'll grow is by stretching your muscles. You won't fully know if a decision is right for you until you make it. There are always ways to backtrack, but unless disaster strikes just DO IT!!!

Just the Way It Is - A laugh, an epiphany, a like-minded soul

Zandria, this raises a GREAT point

Mata H — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:23:18 -0600

I loved your response -- it made me wondewr --

If we know the reinvention is a good idea, and

We have a record of successful reinventions, and

We have never regretted a reinvention risk.....

then...

Why do we get scared?

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs relentlessly at Time's Fool

Wonderful post!

Zandria — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:15:23 -0600

I love the idea of reinvention. Even though I'm often scared to try new things, if I can actually go through with it I've never had any regrets after the fact.

Personal blog: Keep Up With Me
BlogHer blog: Life - Singles

Debra, m'dear --

Mata H — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:25:56 -0600

We never know when something we say or do may have value to someone else. It always amazes me when I need to hear encouragement, that it is there to be heard. I love the traditional language that I can turn in the light to explain such things....so many people have been "angels" to me, appearing in the sky of what feels like night and shining a beacon that helps get me home. Today, as I was feeling overwhelmed beyond reason with what was left to pack, a friend appeared to help. It is now all manageable.

Whatever you are wrestling with today, may your burden be lightened.

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs relentlessly at Time's Fool

Mata the miracle...

debra roby — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 10:48:23 -0600

Mata,

You will never know.. but I needed this post and this message this morning as much as you needed Tuscan Sun and Maya Angelou and Tom Brokaw.

When you need help or courage, and ask for it, the universe will send it flying in your direction.

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

Where do YOU find the soul energy to re-invent yourself?

Mata H — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:13:57 -0600

“I must be crazy. I am renovating a three bedroom house for a life I do not even have yet!” -- Diane Ladd in “Under the Tuscan Sun”.

Why is it that bits of wisdom fly to us like iron filings to a horseshoe magnet just when we need them? What universal energy sends these messages, unbidden? Is it God catching our attention? Or is it just the odd phenomenon experienced by pregnant women? When one is pregnant, everyone seems suddenly pregnant. Certain images seem suddenly iridescent and intimately related to us when we are in a heightened state of happiness or anxiety or despair.

But random or deliberate, it is true that any reinvention requires soul-nurishment to keep in motion.

So I was watching “Under the Tuscan Sun” for the umpteenth time. I was watching the movie while in the midst of packing for my move to my own three bedroom house that I am in the midst of renovating for my sole occupancy. Diane Ladd’s character spoke to me, it seemed. Maybe I was nuts. The movement from sanity to insanity is just a few packing boxes, some packing tape, a stubbed toe and a few slipped deadlines after all. But then her friend responded to her, explaining that at one point a need was felt to connect a railroad across a difficult stretch of Alps. People built the track even before the train that could traverse its difficulties was invented. Why? Because a way needed to be made. Ahhhh, that is what I need to hear!

This is silly, I thought. I make too much over these convenient messages. I changed the station to an interview with Tom Brokaw about his latest book. Charlie Rose was the interviewer, and I caught the end of the show, when they were discussing regret. Tom Brokaw said, that the only way to avoid regret in life is that if you have a chance to GO…..then GO.

So I went to my desk, shaking my head. Let’s see if this message stuff really is happening. I picked a random book from a stack of miscellaneous books waiting to be packed, without looking at the title. It was Maya Angelou’s On The Pulse of Morning her inaugural poem for Bill Clinton. The section I opened to said –

The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space
To place new steps of change…

I confess to having felt my own share of anxiety about this move. Mixed with the excitement of reinvention are all the typical anxieties over whether or not this is a right decision. My Inner Trickster keeps trying to convince me that decisions are not changeable. Goodness me, if it is the wrong decision, I’ll just make another one.

I had to laugh about the persistence of images in my day – the Universe really does have to rap me sideways for me to get the point. Sometimes it seems as though there is such a hum of wisdom around us that we glide through every day. I often do not listen for it. But when I slow down a bit and pay attention, the world is full of such teaching.

Whether it is the character in Tuscan Sun saying that a way sometimes needs to be made first before life can rush in to fill it, or Maya reminding me that the world is full of choices, or Tom Brokaw urging me without knowing it to GO>>GO..well, I take encouragement. I choose to be uplifted this day, past struggle, past anxiety. I trade my fear for gratitude that I get to do this in the first place.

Then the mover calls and informs me that the move is delayed now by three days because of the blizzard conditions up north, so we won’t be loading up the truck tomorrow; we will do so on Tuesday. And we won’t be unloading it on Sunday; we will do so on Wednesday. I cancel phone install and cable install in Massachusetts, and delay shut-offs here. I call people who were going to help me unpack and cancel. They work during the week so I am SOL on extra help unpacking for the moving day. I suppose I could look at that as an omen, but no thanks.

I just worked my emotional self to a uplifted frazzle getting hopeful about all this. I’ll be hornswoggled if I am giving up all that hard work because of a blizzard. I guess I’ll just figure out a way to use this to get more organized or to enjoy a couple of days of pizza delivery. I’m thinking that reinvention probably happens on its own schedule, not mine. Ya’ think?

Tracee writes a blog about her re-invention to a non-smoker and says

But, you have a right to change your mind. Everyone can reinvent themselves. Everyone and anyone can reinvent themselves every day if they want to. Look at Madonna - she does it frequently enough. She does something until it stops serving her and she decides to try something else. We can be like that.
.
This isn't serving me anymore. I can let go of it. It's hard but I reserve the right to reinvent self. I might try on a few different things before I settle on something that works for me. I even reserve the right to reinvent myself as many times as I need to before I die.

Cynthia in her blog Reboot: A New Life In Italy really did reinvent herself by moving to Italy. This blog is the story of that reinvention.

Miss Kitty, in her blog Ballroom Dancing: Changing My Life One Step at a Time tells how losing 100 pounds and adding dance to her life completely changed it.