Dare boldly.

Perhaps it is that I have run out of words, or maybe just energy. Perhaps my psyche is telling me I have nothing new to say, or that everything I’ve said stands as true today as it did when I wrote it. Perhaps it is just I need a change of pace. That in order to get a fitness routine cemented into my daily schedule, I need to make space in the morning and not leave it until after work when it’s easy to talk myself out of going to the gym.

Or maybe, it’s just time for a reboot, refresh, renew.

Whatever the reason, I’m looking at ways to refresh my blog. To refocus it so that it feels more organic to my daily life.

I have been writing a blog almost daily since March 2007. On that blog, Recover Your Joy, I wrote 1,730 posts.

I have been writing here at Dare Boldly, originally called, A Year of Making a Difference, since January 1, 2012, a total of 1,213 posts.

Which means, over the past 9 and a half years, I’ve published, 2,943 blogposts. If I break it down by an average of 700 words a post (which is probably short for me) I have written over 2 million words.

That’s a lot of words.

A lot of thoughts.

A lot of ideas.

Which raises the question for me — what’s my focus?

Originally, on my Recover Your Joy blog, my intent was to take every day situations and show people how to find the joy in everything. That included the many stories of homelessness I shared, the trials and tribulations of healing from life’s traumas, and the realities of being a single, working mother.

When I started A Year of Making a Difference, it was with the specific intent of figuring out how to make a difference ever day, even when I wasn’t working at a homeless shelter. It morphed into Dare Boldly in 2014 as I got clearer on what I wanted to inspire in other people’s lives, as well as my own: to  Dare Boldly. Live Bravely

It started as Dare Boldly after I wrote a poem called DARE and a dear friend, Max Ciesielski, sent me a track of music he wrote to go with the poem — and asked me to record it.

seasons of the heart retreat copyYou can hear it HERE.

That poem evolved from a painting and blessing I used to announce the new name of my blog, Dare Boldly, on January 1, 2014:
dare boldly 1 copy

And I continue to evolve.

All this means is that I am reassessing my online presence, the purpose of my writing here, the value of maintaining a daily schedule and the alternatives. It means in the coming weeks I probably won’t be appearing every weekday with any predictable schedule and it means, you’ll be seeing some changes as I adjust my theme, look, feel and direction.

It’s all good. All exciting. All important to me.

Blogs from Christmases past.

I decided today to dive back into past blog posts to see what was happening on this day in years past.

On December 15th, 2009, I wrote about my eldest daughter coming home for Christmas.

I could write the same post today. She is flying in at noon for a visit!

I am so happy.

When C.C. asked me what I wanted for Christmas, this was my answer. To have my eldest daughter come home for a few days before Christmas.

She and her fiance will be here in January, so it’s not like I’m not going to see her soon, but, it didn’t feel the same. It just didn’t settle well within me that I would not be able to wrap my arms around her and hold her against my heart and tell her how much I love her, before Christmas, not in the New Year.

Sure, she knows I do, love her. She knows I think of her often, but for my heart with its yearning to hold her near, to hear her laughter and see her warm loving smile, to feel her presence lighting up our home, bringing her home for Christmas is the best gift ever.

Though, she may not be as delighted as I am. It snowed last night. Lots! C.C. who was playing in his weekly pool tournament, took an hour to drive home last night instead of the 20 minutes it should have taken.

The roads are snow covered. The sky is dark and the world is soft and quiet.

It is what I love about fresh snowfall the most. The quietness of the world around me. The pristine nature of the lawn laid out in snow.

For Alexis, coming from Vancouver, the snow may not be such a welcome sight. But for me, having my daughter home and a beautiful fresh snowfall all at the same time — that’s perfection!

And from my blog databank, here is the post I wrote on Saturday, December 15th, 2007, the year I started writing on my first blog at Recover Your Joy.

Cherishing the ones we love

Saturday morning. Lazy. Sleepy. Up early. Back to bed. Brunch. Back to bed. Grey skies. Chilly air. Curled up reading the newspaper in bed.

Perfect day.

And it’s Christmas. That time when spirits rise and emotions lift us into that time and space where hearts connect. Where giving opens us up to receiving that which we cherish the most — love, peace, faith, hope, joy.

C.C. and I are going shopping today. He’s not too fond of Christmas shopping. Me, I love it. I love the crowds, the lights, the music playing, the decorations. I love the purpose of it. The searching for that perfect something to give that perfect someone. The feeling of it. Of being connected to an event that was inspired over 2000 years ago with one child’s birth. In celebrating that event we strive to embrace the significance of a moment in time when we are connected through all that is true and beautiful and harmonious in our lives.

I love Christmas.

The question is: What brings significance to you this time of year? The gifts or the time spent thinking and doing for people who are special to you? Are you creating perfect moments to cherish the special people in your life?