Me & Dr. Robitussin

This doctor doesn't wear a white coat, though he has a white cap. This doctor comes in a plastic bottle and I've had a lot of meetings with him this week, thanks to what my husband unaffectionately calls "the Newville crud".  I understand that it's not limited to my town, however.  Apparently people all over the U.S. have it.  Fever, chills, some nausea and a bad cough.  Thus, Dr. Robitussin. (or Dr. R).

No matter that the bottle expired 10 years ago, I was desperate and decided to use what I already had in my cupboard.  It tastes as bad as it ever did so it must be legit.  By the way, how is it that you can't taste anything else when you're sick, but you can still taste that old Robitussin?

I smile when I take it (well, sort of) because it wasn't too long ago that my husband and I had a joke between us about my mother who would offer us medicine from "Columbus".  That simply meant that it was medicine she had from back before I was born when my family lived in Columbus, OH - like, the early 1960's!  Now here I am, using medicine that is 10 years old.  I guess I'm gonna be like her.

I knew things were bad when my cat, Missy (who is very nervous anyway) came over to me on my bed, took one look at the white kleenex in my hand, heard my abnormal very deep bass voice call her name and with big wide eyes, turned around and ran off the bed in a hurry. This was NOT the owner she was used to.  Some alien was lying in her bed.  I sighed.

I discovered this week that it's much more effective to be consistent with taking your medicine when they say you should.  Every 4 hours.  Yuck! But at one point I thought I was feeling better so I stopped taking the medicine.  That's when things got worse and I realized that I wasn't really getting better, I had simply been consistent with meeting with Dr. Robitussin and therefore, I thought I was getting better.  When I quit, it revealed my need to continue on my path of consistency.

There's a few things in life that I've discovered I need to be consistent with in order for them to really work.

Exercise

Yep - and it goes down just about as easy as Dr. R. sometimes.  But I always feel great afterwards and the more I do it, the better I feel.

Prayer and scripture meditation

The more consistent I am with it, the better the results for me.  I can tell when I haven't been as faithful.  My soul and my mind need it.

Healthy Eating

It doesn't do much good to exercise if you aren't going to eat healthy at the same time.  The two go hand in hand.  I'm certainly not a health expert and I'm not promoting any diet or exercise program - just promoting eating well as a life style.

Adequate Sleep

Everyone is different, but we all need sleep.  I try hard to go to bed at the same time every day and make sure I get adequate rest.

So there you have it, my prescription for life.  And oh yes, sometimes we are thrown off that routine and a little bit of Dr. R becomes necessary.  But I'm glad that's not the norm!

Living On The Edge

It's 4:00 a.m. and my alarm goes off.  I don't usually need the alarm because for the past 3 years or so, I've been waking up naturally at this time and I have hated it.   But now I have embraced my body's time clock and I am putting it to use.

I find my way to the kitchen and make a pot of tea.  Some for my thermos and some for my mug which I will enjoy on the couch as I sit by my little Christmas tree and spend 10 or 15 minutes in quietness. After that, I pray, meditate on scriptures and do some journalling.  My cat, Missy, is always by my side.

Then, I get dressed in my athletic clothes and I leave the house at 5:15 a.m. and head to Harrisburg to the local ice skating rink where I skate from 6:00 to 7:45 or later, depending on what my day holds.  It's a 45 minute drive (if the traffic is good) and I use that time to pray.  I pray about needs I am aware of in people's lives and I pray over my dreams for a Christmas show and the music journey I have chosen and whatever else God leads me to pray for.

It's a brand new year.  I have a new CD, a new website and a new face to this blog to match my website.  With all that happening, I think it's a great time to express my vision for the new year and how I see this blog taking on a more defined personality.

After talking with a couple of readers and pondering this evolution, it is apparent to me that people have enjoyed the transparent sharing of this musical journey.  They too have felt inspired to tackle something big in their life one bite at a time.  I'm not going to keep up the Day # whatever theme of the elephant diet (my producer will be happy) but I am going to keep blogging (he'll be even happier).

After a year of blogging and not really knowing how it would go, I think I have started to find my voice.

The purpose of this blog, this year, will be to inspire.  I think that's what was happening last year, but I didn't realize it until people began to give me feedback.

I want to inspire you to reach for things you never thought possible.  You already know that you can do it one bite at a time.  Apply it to every area of your life.

Plans for a 2014 christmas show are already in the works, but there is something else evolving here that I want to share with you. But before I do, I have a question for you.  What is something you have always wanted to pursue but never have for a long list of reasons?  I'd love for you to leave a comment!

I have begun living on the edge in a whole new way.  For me, it is figure skating.

....and with that, I begin a new page to this blog.