VernetteOutLoud

Farewell 2015

I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR TODAY.

This the last day in 2015. I got to feel the sun on my skin. I made peace with the past. I cried. I lit a candle for all that was and for all that is yet to come.

I lived to see today. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring and in this moment I am whole and happy.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. – Jim Rohn

As I sit here toasting all that went down in 2016, I keep asking myself…if the life I’m creating by the choices I’m making is propelling me towards my best self?

I walked in truth and now my heart is bigger, busted wide open and ready even more Love. I moved towards a better version of me and I truly love the woman I am growing into. As I think about those choices that led me to this moment and with a full heart, I set my intention for MORE in 2016. I want:

More of what counts.

More of what is important to me. The people I love. I plan to tell them every chance I get. Starting with the family lime we usually have on New Year’s Day. I am so lucky to still have the chance to tell them.

More Writing.

After not publishing anything in this space for 120 days because I’m lazy for all kinds of reasons, I finally turned things around this week. *throws confetti* Thank you for reading!

More Travel.

This was a great year for travel. I made it to London! I’ve been bitten by the travel bug hard. I am craving new experiences. I want more travel.

More time with my Cohort of Awesome.

I haven’t been very good at keep in touch with my family and friends who live afar…this is anybody who does not live in my neighbourhood. I know, I know! Thankfully my sister and brother live within a few blocks of me. My sister is the family whisperer though. She knows everything that’s happening with everybody. While I don’t think I can get to her level of social prowess, in 2016 I plan to do better than I’ve done this year. These are the people who make this journey of mine worthwhile. I need to make sure they know I appreciate them.

More self-care.

You know when you fly on an airplane, the flight attendant instructs you to put your oxygen mask on first, before helping others? Do you know why this is an important rule for ensuring survival? You put on your oxygen mask first, because if you run out of oxygen, you can’t help anyone else with their mask. I had a massage last week and when the masseuse got to my shoulders and neck we both could feel the knots. It was p a i n f u l. She immediately said to me that this is my health I’m playing with. Why was I carrying so much stress? If something happens to me…because I allowed stress to make me sick, guess what…I can’t help anybody and life will go on without me. I CHOOSE to be here to celebrate life in 2016. Bring on those massages!

The biggest lesson I’ve learned this year is that Obstacles Are Good. And I am grateful for every last one of them. I’m a better, stronger, more beautiful me because of them.

As I enter 2016, I’m reminded that happiness is not a destination, it’s a journey and it’s one that you begin from within. It is simply doing the things every single day that move you closer to your best possible self.

Happy New Year to all of you. I wish you only the best.Here’s to Abundance, Adventure and Infinite Possibilities.

Light & Love.

CS Lewis Quote

♪ Haaaapy Biiiirthdayyy to Meeee ♪‏

My Intention for this new year.

My intention for this new year.


Be careful what you wish for!

Earlier this year, I made some decisions about the path my life was going to take. And I remember saying to a girlfriend that those decisions should set in motion a series of events that will have a domino effect in my life for the rest of the year!

Man…sometimes I need to hush! Long story short, for the first time in my life I actually worked on my birthday! And guess what? I did not die!

In fact the opposite happened, I felt so alive and so full of gratitude for the blessing of another year of life. For making it to this birthday in good health – give or take a few pounds. I have a family who loves me. Friends (the real kind…not the FB friends who post once a year on your birthday) who take time out of their equally busy days to wish me a happy one.

I welcomed my birthday with my sister…we stayed up to have a drink and reminisce as one year slipped into the next. It was simple. It was perfect. I felt loved…and then the rains came…the perfect goodbye and hello. The promise of a fresh, albeit slightly damp start.

Here’s to a year filled with
Gratitude.
Really good coffee.
Drinks with my sister.
Tiramisu with friends.
Sun on my skin.
Trust.
Slow mornings.
Rainy Sundays.
Avocado toast.
Red eye sunrises.
Writing my own permission slip.
Sauna on “me-days”.
Family dinners.
Belly-laughs.
Loving with my whole heart.

…and most of all
Abundance.
Adventure.
And Infinite Possibilities!

I’m ready. Let’s do this!

Day 2 – The Gift of spare change

Today’s Affirmation:

Today I give with abundance.

I chose to stick with the same affirmation as yesterday, because giving from a place of “enough” can be sometimes hard for me. I’m also realising that my days are pretty routine and finding opportunities to give mindfully will require some creativity.

I do pretty much the same thing every week day. Work, then home. Gym fits in there as well but it all happens in my office building. Today, however, I chose to skip my lunchtime work-out and take a walk outside for lunch. Before I left however, I repeated my affirmation.

Now, I live on an island. Leaving the respite of an air-conditioned office to brave the midday heat is an effort that should be given awards I think. Anyways, I’m trying to be more present, looking for opportunities to give, hoping that this lunchtime walk will be fruitful. I said my affirmation again.

I got what I needed and had $3 dollars change left. I walked most of the way back to the office, with a girl-friend of mine. We were so engrossed in the conversation that I forgot that I was trying to be present in this walk, looking for an opportunity to give.

Just as I got to my building, there was an old guy begging. I actually passed him, because I was still yapping my head off, then I remembered the $3. I had a huge smile on my face when I walked back to him and gave him the $3.

Thank you to All things good for giving me the opportunity to give yesterday. Because the rest of the day went pretty much as it always does. Work, then home.

Day 1 – The Gift of dinner

I started today with an affirmation:

Today I give from abundance.

I chose this affirmation to start my 29-Gifts journey because I have a seriously dysfunctional relationship with money. It pervades other areas of my life as well and even though, I know the gifts do not have to be monetary, it was the concept of enough I am trying to get comfortable with. I need to accept that I have enough of everything, right here and now, enough, to share with another.

All day, I was looking for an opportunity to give a gift, not knowing what that gift would be. I felt that I would just know it in my spirit. I truly was beginning to despair by the time I got home from work, thinking that I would have no more opportunities to give a gift. This meant I would have to start all over tomorrow, Day 1 part deux.

Got home from work and decided to fix something to eat. The menu: Stuffed Pasta Shells (I’ll post the simple recipe soon) I made enough for just two servings: dinner and lunch tomorrow. I had my dinner. Then my sister called to say she was on her way home from work and she was going to pass to drop something off. It just came to me to give her the gift of a meal.

Now I’d like to say here, that on any other day, I’d have offered dinner to my sister. But today was different. I was being mindful of the act of giving her a delicious meal because I knew she had worked late and would be hungry.

As for lunch tomorrow, I’m not going to worry about it. I’m going to trust that there is enough for me and I will have something to eat.