I want to thank all of you. I will miss many here, and I'll miss the laughter at times. I've had a great time here, and I'm glad I had an opportunity to make some of you feel so welcomed. I've learned a lot here...about different cultures, about different outlooks, and about myself. I've had a unique chance here to discuss things that don't often come up when talking with others, and it's provided inner growth. But life brings changes, and the Wheel turns. I will think of you, and of CS, often and fondly.
I said I'd never leave, and that if I did, I'd never do a good-bye thread. Well, life taught me once again not to say "never".
I'm doing this to have the chance to thank you all for being you. I've thoroughly enjoyed the 16 months I've been a member of the forums here, and I feel blessed to have made the friends that I have here. I've shared a large part of my story with you all, and all of who I am, and made wonderful connections along the way.
But now it's time for me to withdraw from the world of CS and its forums. I'm going to be working and studying, and won't have time to play. And honestly, I no longer have the desire to play. I've changed, I've grown, and now it's time to move on.
So, for those of you here that I'm not already in personal contact with who would like to remain in touch, please write to me and we can exchange personal contact info. If you send me your email addy or phone number, I'll give you mine next Saturday when I'm able to get online again.
Blessings to all of you, and I hope you all find what you seek. My journey has gone within for now.
And look around you...it can be very humbling. There are a lot of awesome people in this world, and there's always someone "bigger and better" out there.
Pride in accomplishments is a good thing, but pride that makes it impossible for you to view yourself honestly is not. To tame it, work in a soup kitchen or volunteer on a hotline. Or read the life stories of people like the current Dalai Lama, Louise Hay, Helen Keller...look at what others have done and overcome in their lives.
I think we have many soul mates, and true friendship is also possible with many. I've been blessed enough to have truly loved and loved truly in return several times in my life, some of which were stormier than others, but none of which I regret. I've now reached the point of being totally okay with it if there's no such man again in my future.
And yes, there are some people who live such full lives filled with career and friends that they honestly prefer to be alone when they get the chance to go home at the end of the day. And there are those who hate the thought of this so much that they'd rather enter a miserable marriage than not have a "significant other" in their life.
Find spiritual fulfillment, hobbies that you enjoy passionately, friends whose company you truly enjoy, and love yourself completely. If you do these things you will never be lonely and you will cherish your time alone. I know I do. And if love shared with another is meant to be, it will be.
When I speak from my heart, it means I don't think ahead of time. My thoughts pour out through my fingers into my posts as my heart speaks. And it's more important to be the heart me than the ego me. I am just one big, walking heart...and I wouldn't change that for the world.
Usually that's discovered in the first couple of emails or phone calls, but I've had dates that flopped after getting along so well via email and phone.
I marked "bowling", but for me that means any fun activity done together that allows us to talk and spend more time getting to know each other. Dinner and a movie I prefer for later into the relationship. I like my first few dates to be things like going on a trail walk, going to the zoo, playing miniature golf, or going to a museum. I like the very first one to just be meeting for coffee/tea somewhere public, though one of the best I've had recently was meeting at a Native American Pow Wow, and we enjoyed it immensely despite the rain and cold.
Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me! I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.
This is why I don't dye my hair...it's my banner of the road I've traveled.
This is also similar to the theory in Gold of the Gods and Chariot of the Gods. I believe it's possible that there's truth in it. And good to see you, T!
I think that the world as we know it will end, but not that it's the end of the world. And whether or not we survive it is up to us. We have an evolutionary leap to make, and only a little over two years to do it in. And yes, that's possible.
(Btw, I couldn't vote since this one wasn't an option on your poll answers.)
I'll have to look into that, but I do know that all of the men I know to be impotent do/have drank these.
I do know that there are many other reasons that these and all carbonated soft drinks are bad for your health, and that anything that can clean out your sink drain better than Draino can't be good for your body!
Oh, there is a brand available here made with organic brown rice that has flavorings added, and they're really good! They don't taste like sawdust at all! Tamari and seaweed is my favorite flavor, but they have others too.
Congratulations to you and all who have been able to quit. Sadly, from what I've seen, it remains a temptation for the rest of one's life. I keep telling my sons to never start, and I hope they listen to me. (They do seem to be a bit smarter than their mother, so they just might listen. )
Not necessarily, it can work well depending on the two people involved. However, if they're from a foreign land to yours, beware and proceed with caution. Pay attention to red flags, don't think you're being oversensitive.
Honestly, I don't really have one, though blonds would be my least favorite. Good thing I'm not too picky about this since at my age most of the men are bald, or have gray hair. Cool with me, 'cuz mine is salt 'n' pepper and I'm not ashamed of my silver hairs, so I refuse to dye it. Honestly, that type of vanity in a man would bother me, though.
I want to share a few stories with you, just to prove that if and when love is meant to happen, it will.
A man went to a weekend gathering/expo for artists and craftsmen. He's a blacksmith who happens to have work exhibited in the Smithsonian, and who teaches it. He's also an energy healer who makes his own tools, and a spiritualist who has made his own medicine wheel garden and studies the Native American traditions. While there, he met a woman who taught 6-8th grade art and created her own orginial artwork, and who also happened to be drawn to Native American spirituality and energy healing. He was married at the time, but had an appointment after he returned to Baltimore, MD, from the expo to file for divorce. She was divorced, and had just finished healing from a bitter marriage to an alcoholic. She lived here in PA, in her own home. They've been married 5 years now, and run The Mesa Creative Arts Center together, after she retired early from teaching to run the gift shop and the center with him. They are the friends who own the place I go to for spiritual healing and fellowship with like-minded people that helped me heal from the loss of my late husband and helped me leave the world of alcoholism and drug addiction behind.
A woman truck driver was standing near a pile of manure on the site where a gas well was being dug into the Earth in PA. She hauls the sand for the process that does this, and is a Reiki healer who adds healing energy for Mother Earth into her sand loads. There are times these drivers are onsite for days without the ability to shower and change clothes. A man who worked for another truck driving company on the same site walked up to her beside the manure pile and started talking to her because he found her so attractive...even after a couple of days unwashed and without her make-up (after all, he'd been there for the same amount of time, lol). He's 9 years her junior, and from TX, where he's now returned. She'll be moving there shortly to join him, and he's flying here in Feb to pop the question and give her the ring he just bought.
Just a couple of love stories of the unusual ways people have been brought together over distance because it was meant to be, and that regardless of where you are and what you're doing, when the timing is right it WILL happen.
If anyone else has any of these, please feel free to share here.
I think it's happened to many of us at some point in our lives. Nothing to be ashamed of, and nothing to regret. Heck, you had fun, and that's why our bodies were created!
I agree with you completely, and those are the things I'm living for...as well as to see where the journey takes me. I live in the gratefulness for the abundance I have in this world, and the lessons I've learned in this life so far, as well as the wonder and excitement of what today brings, fully aware that I'm a spiritual being on a human journey for soul growth.
Good-bye, So Long, Auf Wiedersehen, Farewell...
I want to thank all of you. I will miss many here, and I'll miss the laughter at times. I've had a great time here, and I'm glad I had an opportunity to make some of you feel so welcomed. I've learned a lot here...about different cultures, about different outlooks, and about myself. I've had a unique chance here to discuss things that don't often come up when talking with others, and it's provided inner growth. But life brings changes, and the Wheel turns. I will think of you, and of CS, often and fondly.