the dream life

40 years in 40 posts: 2009

I’ve always been one to live it up on my birthday, throw parties for myself, accept all invitations and gifts with gratitude, eat chocolate while wearing a tiara, drink things that are pink and bubbly – that sort of thing. I was surprised as I approached my fortieth that I didn’t feel the usual joy. People kept asking me about my plans, about what I wanted to do, and I found that I didn’t want to do anything. It’s so frustrating to me when the people I love tell me they don’t care about their birthdays. That kind of statement always brings about a lot of eye-rolling and huffing and puffing on my part, and yet there I was staring the big 4-0 square in the face and feeling…eh. I just wasn’t motivated to mark it, felt much more comfortable letting the day float by.

40 years in 40 posts: 2008

It was a good year, 2008. It was a year of growth and change and release. I felt my spiritual progress accelerate in 2008. So much of what I’d been asking and asking for started rolling in. I was attuned to Reiki III, 

40 years in 40 posts: 2007

I'm opening my iPod here (Tracy always gives the best gifts) and Woody is assisting me just in case I'm opening dog treats of some kind. 

40 years in 40 posts: 2006

 

We went on one of our favorite adventures, a trip to the Smoky Mountains in 2006, had a beautiful stay at Woody's favorite place, Ponder Cove, then headed on over to Gatlinburg for a couple of days. 

40 years in 40 posts: 2005

2005 was monumentally important as it was the year we got Woody. 

40 years in 40 posts: 2004

I love photobooths. There are all sorts of fancy ones these days, but I prefer the old-fashioned strips.

40 years in 40 posts: 2003

2003 was a great year for adventure. This is me in Blackey, Kentucky.

40 years in 40 posts: 2002

In 2002, I threw a birthday party for myself and was amazed and touched by how many friends, old and new, came to help me celebrate. I felt good about being back home and could see that my life here had potential for all sorts of things.

Something very special that happened that night.

40 years in 40 posts: 2001

This was the year I moved back to Lexington (and Mandy back to the south, as well). My mom and I loaded up my cats and drove from New York, with the rest of my stuff traveling on a moving truck. I moved into a rental house that my family owned on Park Avenue. Prior to my coming home, it had fallen into quite a state of disrepair, but my family pulled together and fixed it up for me.

40 years in 40 posts: 2000

This photo was taken near my birthday at the best bar in New York City, Jimmy's Corner. 

I was still working at the City & Country School. I loved this school and its philosophy and the children who walked through its doors each day. This job taught me many things, but one of them was not that I had a natural “way” with children. In fact, I found being left alone with the classes exhausting and sort of terrifying, but I was grateful to be exposed to practical application of educational theories that I believed in.

40 years in 40 posts: 1999

I turned 30 in 1999. The late-twenties ages were a little strange, but by the time I turned 30, I felt good about it, felt hopeful about moving on into a new decade. My mom came into town for my birthday and we had dinner at a really nice restaurant in Bronxville that I normally would not be able to afford, and I had crème brulee for dessert. (Yes, I still remember my dessert. It was delicious.)

40 years in 40 days: 1998

I didn’t realize until I started working on this project what a monumental year 1998 was for me and my family. It’s funny how some years seem to slip by unnoticed while others are packed with life-steering events.

For one thing, I completed graduate school.

40 years in 40 posts: 1997

This is one of my favorite pictures of me and Anessa. It was taken in Bronxville.  

 

40 years in 40 posts: 1996

This was the last birthday that I spent in Brooklyn.

 

40 years in 40 posts: 1995

If you ever only listen to one thing I say, this would be the one to choose: If you try to live a lie, it will show up in your body. If you squish down your truth and pile food on top of it, it will show up in your body. If you let other people’s opinions have more weight in your decision making than your own, it will show up in your body. If you live sick, you will be sick. You know that old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? That thing is true, ya’ll.