Blogging Challenge: My Vision....

Today Michelle shared her "Virtual Vision Board" with us. I was SO inspired. I promptly got out the magazines and starting cutting and making a huge disastrous mess! Here's the link to Big Time Literacy, read about it and link up if you want to! Here's the instruction: "Hey friends! Today we're sharing Virtual Vision Boards. What I'm thinking is you would just put some pics of the things you want to manifest in your life. If you have a vision board, feel free to just take a pic of it and share with us." 

Here is a picture of my office floor after I completed my board!! 

notice my helpers

I have a bulletin board in the office that I covered with fabric that I love. It was full of a hodge-podge of stuff. So I streamlined it to be the things I really want life to be about. And a few specifics.

So.... here I go in no particular order (please channel Ryan Seacrest using his American Idol announcement voice)....

The butterfly. My daughter colored that and gave it to me. It represents two things. Okay, 3 things. Gifts. Cherish the gifts from children and loved ones, no matter what they are. Transformation. The butterfly starts out life hard and ugly and despised. Who likes, protects and cherishes the caterpillar? And then she/he creates a chrysalis, dies a sort of death, stays in limbo, and then emerges again triumphant and beautiful. Relaxation. I have jumped on the coloring bandwagon and it is truly relaxing and helps my mind slow down and stay calm.

Some things are hard to see. To the right of the butterfly is a squirt bottle that says "better life." I thought it was hilarious. I want to just squirt some spray in the air to get a better life. But we all know that a better life is never that easy.

A couple years ago I made the "Attitude of Gratitude" plaque in the center. I was fun and whimsical and I always thought I'd take it school and hang it in my classroom, but you can see that it has never made it there yet.

Someday I want to own a farm. I want to be a hippie-farm-mom and grow my own food:  keep chickens and cows and grow my garden and plant fruit trees. I want to live a natural life-style without GMO's (sorry, my farming family, what Monsanto is selling is not all goodness and light) and pesticides. I want an abundance of pets. One day I will have this. And a quaint little farm house where I roam barefoot and tie-dyed.

I didn't put a $ figure on what I want in regard to prosperity. I almost forgot to put any sort of financial focus and that is good I think. It's not all about the money. But on the other hand.... I am tired of living day to day, week to week, and paycheck to paycheck. I would like to make a living wage. I am not sure yet what I consider that to be, but as I find my way I will define this more and more.

NOTICE. I want to notice life around me. I want to notice the good in the world. I want to notice places where I can make a difference and make a change. I want to notice my children. I want to notice people who need encouragement. I want to notice. 

I am ashamed to say that I did not remember my one little word for this year, and yet.... it is still in play today. My OLW for 2016 is Momentum. I want to keep the good in my life going and continue to learn and grow and gain respect and acceptance and change and expand and improve. So far, it is getting gooder and gooder. Life is good today and it just keeps getting better. One of my friends always says "gooder and gooder". He's a super smart man, an engineer, and so it's not a slip, its intentional. And there are few of my group of friends that have adopted this saying and say it often. 

Dream Big. Next to the dreamer, sleeping in the soothing lavender color that I love so much. One thing I know would improve my quality of life is good old-fashioned care of my physical body. This is not just one thing. It is better sleep habits, finding the balance and becoming physically active (love the warrior pose), and to eat better, more whole foods, less processed foods and more raw foods (salad, vegetables, fruits). 

CLEAN. Oh man.... on so many levels. My house has not been CLEAN for several years. For the last two for sure I just have not cared or been able to find the motivation/interest. But I have been begun a focused work this summer, even though I have been fairly slow, I am making progress. I want to stay CLEAN from alcohol and drugs and the dysfunctional thought patterns that swirl around in my head that would bring me down. Being CLEAN (for me) is more than not using drugs or alcohol, it is a mindset, a change in thinking.... moving away from my twisted and self-centered thoughts. I want to live CLEAN. As mentioned above. Less processed foods, more healthy foods and less medications and more physical healthy choices. CLEAN. Living simply. More is sometimes just more. Less is not always better, but sometimes it is.

Miracles. I want to learn to wait for the miracle to happen and not give up. On people. Career. Kids. Students. Colleagues. and the list goes on. 

Passport. I have never obtained a passport. I want to. I have been saying this for 5 years. So it is the time to "just do it." And then I want to use it. I am not super adventurous. (Fear vs. fearless.... see yesterday's post). But I think I would like to go on a cruise sometime. And I know this is not out of the country really, but I want to go to Hawaii someday. I have thought about maybe teaching in a tropical place someday. 

Cement Shoes. This is significant from the book Fostering Resilient Learners. It talks about what keeps us cemented. Find our cement shoes to combat burn out and gain resilience. If we can stay grounded in our cement shoes, we will maintain the "why" of teaching and keep our vitality and passion. What keeps me cemented? What keeps you cemented?

Will I ever love again? I didn't plot out a vision because I truly don't know what I want. I know that if I don't learn to love myself, really and truly in a forgiving and gentle way, I will never be that person that someone will want to spend their life with. I will also not have the ability to sift out good from evil and protect myself, making it more likely I'll choose that same guy I've already dated and married and dated and dated and dated.... And seriously I am pretty happy being self-centered and focusing on what I want and need and raising my children. So do I want to fall in love again? I don't really know. But I do know I want to heal my jaded and scarred heart and I want to be able to give love freely, even if I never find that romantic love again. 

That's most of it. I had a blast creating this. I hope to make time to love at it every morning and absorb it, believe it, meditate on it. Thanks for the great inspiration Michelle.