A Few Thoughts ...

Last year brought a lot of change to our lives ... some sad and tragic and some amazing and wonderful - a roller coaster year that by the end of it I was exhausted mentally and struggling physically.  I put my efforts in staying sane (ha some would say I did not quite meet that goal ;) and to calm the stormy waters so that I could tread water and see in which direction I needed to go ...
I dove deeper into my creative side - which I had kind of put mostly on a shelf and looked at the 2014 year of one of rebuilding, learning, and change - and this year we have started a bit rough, in sad news about more family but I am hoping on an overall picture a year of more positive change. 

This year I decided - through my creative side - to join the community that choose a WORD for the year - this is something that is trending under the "One Little Word" title  - and it took me a good long while to really choose a word that I could work with, work for, and use with my need to have a rebuilding year - I chose ACTION.  I am an avid reader and researcher - nothing more I like to do than if I hear of something I am not familiar with, or learning a concept, technique, style or thought I am unfamiliar with to go and look for more information.  I have found the internet to really be such a vast source of amazing information, and I appreciate this tool we have today to be able to sit and at any time that is convenient for US to expand our knowledge ... it is just amazing.

It also can be a bit overwhelming ... I found in some cases in my life it caused me to reach and try to grab a hold of too many thoughts, ideas and opinions - to the point where it became hard to distinguish what I wanted to focus on in life - especially when we had some personal family tragedies that changed the way I look at life now ... period.  I wanted to do so much ... wanted to aspire to be like others that I admire so much ~ and felt frustration with my life, with my days, with who I was.  It was time to step back and take a chill pill ... seriously ... and stop aspiring to BE like others - and start really taking a look at myself ... and putting all the reading and thinking to use in getting where I could "START" - just need a start line - in living more as ME.  :)

I needed to think about my word, who I am at this point - what some of my goals were ... and I realized that it is certainly the perfect word for me this year -
"ACTION".  To take a lot of what I have learned, experienced, and items I have made tonnes of lists on - to do something with all that.  I needed ACTION behind the thought.

One of the "headings" on my list (because I always start with a list no matter what I do) under my word ACTION - is Blogging.  I realized in my time of becoming so overwhelmed with "life" I stopped connecting and blogging in the way I wanted and needed to.  I would come to my Gluten Free Blog and freeze ... the words were not there, I had nothing to say, so I would say nothing.  That did not stop me from living, going to restaurants, trying new products, having experiences every day as a woman living with Celiac Disease in this world today - I just lost my words because I had overwhelmed myself with what "I thought I should be" instead of who and what I want to be.  

I realize part of my issue was thinking I had to come in here and write up a magazine style review of everything I experience in my everyday life.  It makes me shake my head that it took complete exhaustion of life to make me see I just needed to simplify things and be me - with what I have to share and be content with sharing more than sharing MUCH.  

A big part of my 2014 goal and in using the word ACTION and applying it - is just blogging MORE, not feeling that it has to be perfect or lengthy, just share tidbits that I have seen or experienced.  There are many bloggers out there that are amazing and have so much more detailed content and I honestly follow them all the time ... I am not them and I encourage everyone to use many sources when looking up gluten free advice, tidbits, recipes, restaurant and shopping reviews, and heartfelt discussions on living Gluten Free and how to do it.  I have provided some great links to some of these sites on the side of my page ... go and look ... follow and read.  So much talent and heartfelt caring out there in our Gluten Free world.

Me ... I am just going to share a little glimpse into my world and what I am and have experienced and I hope I am a little part of what you may find helpful in your day to day life living gluten free and learning to LOVE it.

Cheers,
Sherri  :)