Birthday Reflections
Today is my birthday. (hold the confetti) I won't say how old I am, just that for those of you who work in media, I'm not that far away from being out of the key demo!  Old enough to have already lost friends to heart attacks, to know several women who are survivors of breast cancer. I'm now buying all those anti-wrinkle products. Man, those people are making a fortune on the boomers and "cuspers!"  I feel so lucky to be here happy and healthy.

The Life You Have is Not by Accident
I'm sitting here looking out my home office window to a pastoral scene. Tall fir trees line our property. There's a covey of California quails that gather right outside my window, eating the birdseed that falls from the feeders on the deck. I always laugh at how the quail move with the little tufts sprouting from their heads bouncing back and forth.  I love the sound of the red-tailed hawks overhead, the baying of the neighbor's sheep, that I can walk up the road and pet a horse's soft nose.

We live here because I always wanted to live in the country, not unlike where I grew up. I love how peaceful it is. It's good for the soul. This wasn't our first house. We bought another one first when we couldn't find property we could afford. Then 9 years later..after looking for two years, we bought this place. It  was the property we loved. The house..well, let's just say that we had to replace the red velveteen wallpaper and the gold shag carpet.... just to start. But I love it. And it's no accident that we're here.

Everything in life is like that.

Sometimes you have to take stock.
As I reflect over the past year, (because my birthday is in January, it goes hand in hand with the whole New Year's Resolutions thing) I'm happy that I've made small changes that make a big difference in the quality of my life.

I now drive my daughter to school instead of having her take the bus. The ten minutes I get to spend with her in the car actually talking to a teenager is worth so much more than the ten minutes I lose at the office. I think about that adage, "No one on their death bed ever said, 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office'."

When I am at the office, I have felt such gratitude this past year to work with such an amazing, creative group of people.  They're dedicated, fun, and so talented. It's a joy to work with them, even in the most difficult times. I'm making a point to appreciate that. I hope I express that enough to them.

I committed to taking better care of my health. Taking vitamins daily. (I really hate pills, so this is a major big deal for me.) I made a commitment  to exercising 4 times a week. Losing weight. I feel better already than I have in a long time. I'll be able to backpack this summer, something I love to do.

I committed to studying and improving public speaking, one of my passions. I decided to share my thoughts to a wider audience by launching this and my other new website, rightnowcommunications.com.