Author: jdavis

A Moment in My Life – Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Jeannie Yee Davis

You never know what could make your heart sing until it happens. For me, it happened yesterday morning during my video chat with my buddy AS, aka Andrew Seid. The topic was cookies. Here’s a little backstory, AS and I met during our early Schwab days and remained buddies long after he left the firm to travel the universe with his father. We’re also fellow Trekkies and X-philes, and recently, we added tax guy to his title. It’s interesting when your buddy is your tax guy. All the usual rules don’t apply here. We’re free to make them up as we go. The best thing about working together again is that we get to kill two birds with one stone (disclaimer: we harmed no birds in this scenario). By this, I mean we get to share a meal while we talk business and catch up with everything going on in our worlds since we don’t live in the same area anymore. 

AS is such a fun guy who is passionate about many things. I loved when AS and Globfly bantered away about all things Star Trek—they were like two peas in a pod—very entertaining and both just as knowledgeable. AS is also such a smile-maker in that I can’t go wrong with him. We’re just two buddies who share common interests, but we got it made in the shade with purple Kool-Aid when food is involved. I say this because it’s not every day that someone volunteers to be your food guinea pig which means, when AS is in town, I get to test drive my latest recipes on him. Little did I know that he would end up loving my dark chocolate chip cookies so much that instead of payment for tax services rendered, he requested payment in dark chocolate chip cookies. How could I say no to that? Especially when he said my cookies were the best he ever had. Here’s the thing about AS, he won’t say something he didn’t mean. Here’s the thing about me and chocolate chip cookies: they are my worst cookie, and I haven’t perfected them to my liking yet. 

For starters, cookies weren’t my thing. I wasn’t much of a cookie eater and never had a desire to bake them either. Now, cakes, on the other hand, that’s my thing. Mm, have cake will travel. One day, I figured how hard baking cookies could be when, after all, kids could bake them. My first batch was a disaster and ended up on the floor. Good thing I test drove with store-bought cookie dough. Although, I later learned the store-bought cookie dough was the problem. Store-bought cookie dough never works well for me, which is fine since cookies from scratch are the better way to go. Since that disaster, cookies and I now have an understanding, and we get along fine.

A week ago, I baked the first payment of dark chocolate chip cookies and mailed them to AS in Southern Cal. I was thrilled when he said the cookies arrived intact and just as he remembered. He put a smile on my face since this was the first time I baked in many months. I was so excited when I finished baking that I packed the cookies and mailed them forgetting to take pictures of the finished product first.

As we talked yesterday, he couldn’t get a word in because I rattled off all the ideas I have on perfecting the upcoming batches, which surprised him. He thought he needed to ration the box of cookies, not realizing that I planned to make more for him. Since we hadn’t discussed the payment amount, I planned to keep him stocked in cookies for as long as he wanted them. Thus, there is no need for rationing. I am so excited I get to perfect these cookies and have someone else eat them for me. With every word that came out of my mouth, I felt my heart sing louder and louder as I realized I couldn’t wait to try my ideas. It is a win-win for both of us. AS floated from the earth after he learned that more cookies are coming, and for me, getting to bake again is the sweetest thing that happened to me lately. 

A Moment in My Life – Monday, August 9, 2021

Jeannie Yee Davis

“Just losing you would be too much to bear. All the things I possess can bring no happiness without you to share, and what would happen to me, darling, if you go?” This is the opening lyrics to Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ beautiful song “Just Losing You” that a friend introduced to me last night. It’s a simple, poignant piece where the lyricist reflects on the depth of his love for his lover and envisions the unbearable life without her. His words hit too close to home for someone who has experienced such devotion. One where you can’t stand a second apart. One where you know that you’ll make up after a disagreement. One where everything will be all right when you’re together again. This is the kind of love many long to experience—some search their whole life for it but never find it—others do but don’t realize what they have until it’s too late. Then, there’s me, one who had it, appreciated it and lost it. This song sent me down memory lane to the ordinary days with my honey of waking up to his sweet face and doing nothing and everything together, just the simple fact we were together—a life I couldn’t imagine without him in it.

Here it is, my new reality—life without him in it, but he is always nearby where his spirit watches over me. I feel his presence as he guides me through the life that he longed for me—a happy slower life. We complemented each other so well, yet we couldn’t be more different in this one area. He was the master of taking time for each moment, while I was the Flash, always in a hurry to get to the next thing. After all, I have a lot to do and little time to do it in. He never gave up on me as he illustrated by his example the importance of enjoying the moment.

As I listen to this song, I appreciate what it means to stop and smell the roses more than ever before. Flowers are beautiful, but they wither and die. If I wait to smell the roses, they may not be there when I am ready. It’s the same with people. People are here for a flicker. Life changes, and people move away or move on to greener pastures. The old saying that you should tell someone how you feel before it’s too late is spot-on. The other day, I kept running into a casual friend whom I hadn’t seen in a long time. It caught me off guard, not expecting the chance meeting, but after seeing him, I realized that I appreciated his kindness towards me over the years, and I planned to tell him that the next time I saw him. I was too late, our paths suddenly stopped crossing, and I missed the opportunity to express my gratitude.

It’s never too late to let your honey know they mean the world to you. It’s never too late to begin living. The most important thing is “just do it,” as the Nike commercial says. It becomes easier. I now excel at taking long leisure walks with a calm spirit, not worrying about the next thing on my to-do list. When I am with someone, I immensely enjoy being with them where 3-4 hours vanish in a blink. Now, it all makes sense to me. I’ve been doing it all wrong. My goal has always been reaching the finish line, which is essential but not the main event. The main event is the process of getting there—taking my time and savoring each step, each experience, each person I encounter on the road to the finish line. The only time I was never in a hurry was when I was with my honey. Little did I know, that was him preparing me to live without regrets. I know he’s smiling because he finally got through to me—I’ve slowed down, and I, now, am living in the moment.

A Moment in My Life – Monday, August 2, 2021

Jeannie Yee Davis

One of this year’s birthday presents was something I had been recently borrowing from the library, the “Ally McBeal” TV series. I’ve seen only some episodes of the series when it aired on primetime TV. Occasionally, some scene from those episodes I’ve watched pops into my head. Like earlier this summer, I kept seeing the one about Ally coming up with a theme song that she’s supposed to play in her mind when she needed a distraction. In this scene, Ally is trying to induce the song while waiting for the crosswalk light to change. Unbeknownst to her, her shoulder began bobbing to her imaginary music, which started the people waiting with her to move their bodies to her rhythm. When the light turned green, she was bemused by the crowd dancing, instant of walking, across the street with her. The memory of that scene always cracks me up, making me want to watch it again. Now that I own the series, I began watching from the first episode. 

It’s a series about a junior law firm comprised of young lawyers. It’s well written with witty one-liners and quirky, dysfunctional, but lovable characters who deal with heavy-duty topics at work while achieving the personal lives they dreamed of living. There’s music and dancing in every episode, and not to forget the humor. After watching just one episode, I laughed more than I had in years. I love this series. It’s becoming my “smile” therapy. If you are not familiar with the series, smile therapy is one of the methods used by the Cage character.

Since I’m catching all the episodes, I came across one episode where the topic was outdated. This series ran from 1997-2002. I was blown away by how different the times are. In this episode, they overly simplified sexual harassment. I don’t care to go into the details, but the topic of “no” inspired today’s writing. 

It’s too close to home for me. Like everybody else, the word no haunted me most of my life. We live in a society where nobody likes the word “no” in any capacity. Nobody likes saying no. Nobody likes hearing no. Society conditioned us to say yes whether we want to or not. For the longest time, my motto was “damn if I do, and damn if I don’t.” Either way, I lose. If I say no to someone, they feel bad, and I end up feeling horrible and guilty for disappointing them. If I say yes, they’re happy, and I still feel awful because I betrayed myself. It’s a lose-lose situation for me, whichever way I cut it. So, I always said yes, then at least one of us would be happy. 

It took years of reconditioning to get off that bad habit because responding against your grain is neither healthy nor beneficial to anybody. Sure, the person you said yes to gets their way, but you’re not helping that person to grow as a human being in the long run. All you’ve done was help that person know which button of yours to press that would get a “yes” out of you. It’s a form of manipulation, which is not healthy or beneficial. It’s like telling a child that they would get their way if they pout and throw a tantrum.

I’m not saying that we should say no to everybody just to say no. I’m talking about those moments when you sincerely don’t feel it’s a proper fit to say yes. If saying yes will leave you feeling negative about yourself, or makes you feel you betrayed your values, then that’s the time you need to exercise your boundaries and say no. It’s better to say a sincere no and offer an alternative or help find someone else who would be the right fit than to say yes and be disgruntled about it. After all, the rule of life is to do everything with joy in our hearts.

On the flip side, we should respect others to be comfortable with us to say no if that is the answer in their hearts. If we do things right, anger should be nowhere near the equation. If we could let our yes mean yes and our no mean no, we could get along so much better without animosity between us. I know I’m sounding Pollyanna, but I can dream. After all, we have one life to live. Why must it be so complicated?

Also, why can’t a no mean no? It’s just like my telling this guy no when he asked me out. Why do I have to repeatedly say “no”? I’ll say it again. We need to respect each other’s responses. Pushing for the wrong answer creates disharmony and stress. Sometimes, there is nothing more we can do when others aren’t playing by the same rules. Then, all we can do is to state our boundaries and stand firm. In those cases, all we can do is all we can do because it is what it is when no isn’t enough.

A Moment in My Life – Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Jeannie Yee Davis

I’m not sure how it happened, but it did—my life took off without me, leaving me trailing behind—overwhelmed. The next thing I knew, I had way too much to handle and no idea what to do with it all. It turned out that back in early February, writing a “Dear Future Me” letter to read on my birthday in July was a grand idea. The premise for a “Dear Future Me” letter is a letter to oneself years in the future. I wrote one of those for 2026, but I want this project to be productive, so I composed one for six months later to assess my objectives. I remember a few items in this letter. It was an eye-opening revelation of the other things I forgot in a mere six months. As we gallop along through the months, who has time to think about where we were heading—especially when unexpected people and events pop into your life?

At the beginning of 2021, I listed projects I wanted to achieve this year. I did good in breaking them down into work-related, domestic, and personal plans with a timeline attached to each, more or less. I was excited and eager to hit the road hard and fast. During one of our phone chats, my friend Noreen and I shared what we planned on achieving in 2021, and the more we talked, the more excited we got. It felt like such a sure thing that we planned a celebratory trip together for the spring of 2022.

I knew that Shelter in Place was nearing the end, and once the world around me reopened, I would lose my freedom and have to incorporate the outside world into my day. Sure, I looked forward to hanging out with people and doing things with others, but something has to give when that happens. We exchange our time for something. During a video chat with my friend, Andrew, I suggested a creative project that I thought was right up his alley when he mentioned all the distractions that he faces. His words flipped on a lightbulb in my mind because that was the exact thing troubling me lately. I’ve been feeling like the days at the office where as soon as people showed up for work, people pulled me this way and that, and I spent my day putting out fires and never getting to the mounting pile of papers on my desk. How is that possible when I’m my own boss now? I’m still in hibernation, meaning I have all day to spend however I see fit. How is it that I have no time to even stay current in my planner? This is alarming, people! What’s to happen when we return to “normal” life?

My letter reminded me of the priorities I had at the beginning of the year. The good news—I accomplished a couple of my goals, but the majority—the important ones require way more fleshing out. Here it is July, more than half the year is over, and I barely touched what was most important to me when the year began. Why? What happened? It was such a sure thing six months ago. How did I fail? Life happened. I added more people and projects to my world that weren’t there when I wrote my letter—all distractions. Distractions don’t necessarily mean negative. Distractions can be positive. Bottom line, a distraction is a distraction, which can make or break best-made plans. I’m not going to mention what those distractions were because, like my sister would say, “it’s neither here nor there.” The important thing is how to get back on course with the amount of time I have left. 

As long as I am constantly reassessing my goals, I stand a fighting chance of success. Once I identified my distractions, I began a plan to eliminate those that create no value in my life. For the distractions that add positivity and joy, I reduced the amount of stimulation from them to maintain a healthy balance.

Falling off course this far into the year is alarming. I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t lose sleep and didn’t have anxiety over this, but it is what it is. Freaking out doesn’t solve the problem. I prayed to God for direction and to fill my soul with His peace, and it’s incredible how quickly He answers our prayers. With a calm demeanor and a few good night’s sleep, everything looks hopeful again.  

I’m a firm believer that timing is everything. And, I am a big believer in taking time off in the summer. When I was working in the office, I always took two weeks off in July, but I never remember to take vacay when I became my own boss. Last year, I took my birthday off, but it was such an overwhelmingly joyful but busy day that I decided to take two days off for my birthday moving forward. This year, I planned for the two days, but after July began, I suddenly remembered about vacay, so instead of taking two days off, I took two weeks off to get my act together and to enjoy my birthday. This year, I spent a few days celebrating with dear friends who helped make this a wonderful birthday considering all things. It turned out, the celebrations with different people were a pleasant and welcomed distraction that was just what God planned to help shake me out of my rut. However, without knowing it, all those previous months of distractions exhausted me beyond belief. I ended up needing a third week of vacay to overcome the burnout I was experiencing.

Once I corrected the distractions and executed my new plans and good habits into my daily routine, I am finally back on the main road. Hopefully, with the months remaining, I can achieve my goals this time. After all, what better time to reassess than after a birthday? This is the best time to get back on track.

A Moment in My Life – Thursday, July 1, 2021

Jeannie Yee Davis

Lately, it seems everything I’m doing I’m doing for the first time. That reminds me of the old saying, “There’s always a first time for everything,” and it’s true. It’s true. That’s why someone probably said it, and someone coined it, and the rest of us repeat it.

For the first time, I unplugged from FB over the weekend. I’ve been so socially active on FB that it became overwhelming, and I needed to dial it down. I didn’t know what was wrong at the time I decided to unplug. The only thing I knew was that it was no longer fun because it felt more like a job. When FB begins to feel like you’re reporting into the office for a job, you know you’re burnt out. The weekend of silence was just what the cyber doctor ordered. It gave me clarity that my system had been overtaxed by cyber-stimulation. Removing myself from the cyber-world identified what wasn’t working and what was. It also revealed everything about FB that I cherish. Unplugging was a huge success. I returned refreshed as if I had come from a weekend spa retreat with a new game plan in hand.  

I’ve always loved drums, but not until recently did my enthusiasm come out of the closet. I have my buddies from the FB Doo Wop (DW) group to thank for that. The members from DW have such exquisite and diverse taste in music. They tickle my musical fancy every time I visit. And, who knew that I’d meet a real live drummer there? When I first shared my love for drums with Edmond Toy (ET), I felt this connection between us—I got this vibe from him that I couldn’t explain. One day, it clicked. It was our mutual passion for drums that connected us. And, then, I discovered he’s a drummer—not only that—I learned he’s the drummer from the renowned Chinatown Soul Band, Jest Jammin’. Holy moly, you can imagine how embarrassed I felt learning that a nobody like moi, who knows nothing about drums, was carrying on a conversation with a real live famed drummer. ET, not only being a talented drummer, but he’s also humble as cherry pie, and I mean that in a good way—I love cherry pie. He never once let on who he was or made me feel smidgen-size. Instead, he took me under his wings and had broadened my horizons with his drum expertise and musical knowledge. I adore the man. He’s just the sweetest and kindest guy.

I have never enjoyed as many “drum” songs as I have lately, thanks to a couple of my other DW buddies, Michael Mar (MM) and Dennis Yee (Big Bro), who, after noticing my drum fancy, enlightened my world with delicious songs heavy on the drums. There is only one path with them—Do not pass go, go directly to drum heaven. MM spoils me rotten. He feeds my “more drums, please” request. What a guy! Big Bro introduced me to Hal Blaine, the father of all drummers, who has been like an old friend to me, doing nothing but filling my world with joy in the music I grew up with.

Another DW buddy Warren recently took me under his wings and taught me what I call “dance and song pairing.” I love his comments, which center around his passion for dancing. He’s a talented dancer, and I’m grateful to learn from him. I think it was meant to be that I’d connect with him now because I forgot that one of my birthday goals was to learn line dancing this year. Birthday quickly approaches, and I forgot about this goal until Warren brought up line dancing and a lightbulb turned on. Thanks to him, I’ll get to check that one off my list.

My niece, Kathy, and I hold a standing phone chat every other Wednesday evening. This week, we did a first—we baked a new cookie recipe to critique on our call.  She and I are fascinated about living a healthier lifestyle, so when “Giada’s Chocolate Chip-Quinoa Cookies” popped into her newsfeed, she passed me the recipe, and the game was afoot. The “quinoa” caught her attention. 

It was so fun baking these cookies knowing that Kathy was doing the same thing in San Diego. We compared notes, which turned out very similar. It was hilarious that we both thought to do the same thing—bake only six cookies first and freeze the rest. What are the chances we’d do that? That’s my baby niece! We are family!

I look forward to experimenting with new recipes with her. As for this recipe, we both agreed that these cookies were a bit too sweet. As I scooped the 1 cup of coconut sugar, I thought that was a lot of sugar, and I was right. I plan on baking these cookies again with some modifications. For starters, I’m cutting the coconut sugar to ½ cup and see if that makes it more palatable for my liking. Baking time was 13-15 minutes. I went 13, but I’ll go with 14 next time because the cookies came out incredibly soft. Maybe a little longer would firm them a tad more? The problem with coconut sugar is that the product looks darker, appearing burnt, but they’re not. That’s the tricky part. Otherwise, I would follow the rest of her recipe exactly. Since quinoa is a complete protein, these would make an excellent protein bar replacement, so I’m hoping to make these cookies work for me. I included the recipe link if anybody wants to try it. If you do, please comment back and let me know how they worked for you.

It’s been a hectic week. I’m grateful to get on the page today. A few other firsts kept me occupied, but none were as noteworthy as the above, so I’ll spare you the details. And that’s pretty much the highlights I have for you regarding the one about firsts.

https://www.today.com/recipes/giada-s-chocolate-chip-quinoa-cookies-recipe-t223097

A Moment in My Life – Thursday, June 24, 2021

Jeannie Yee Davis

Word of advice—be careful what you wish for. That was from someone who didn’t take this advice—yours truly. The other day I watched the new Hallmark movie, “Her Pen Pal,” which was a delightful movie that left me wishing I had such a story to reminisce.

Wait. I did have a pen pal, briefly. His name was Thomas. Thomas from Malaysia. Whatever happened to him? How did we become pen pals? Gosh. Darn. I don’t remember, but this was back when I wrote actual letters with stationery and pen and supported the USPS system. I had a few pen pals–both guys and gals, but Thomas stood out during my teens. When I think of him, I think of riding horseback slow-mo on the twilight beach, just like in the movies. I’m not sure why since we never met in person, but something we talked about in our letters triggered this memory. Had we continued corresponding, who knows, “Her Pen Pal” might have been my story. Wouldn’t that have been interesting?

Not so interesting was another memory triggered by this wish—an old suppressed memory of my first major crush. He was EY to me, and to protect his identity—we’ll refer to him as EY. EY floated like an angel as he passed in front of me on Pacific Avenue in San Francisco just as I stepped out of my house that first morning of junior high school. We locked eyes, and that was it—I gave him my heart. How long had he lived up my street? Why hadn’t we crossed paths until that morning? I would’ve noticed this tall, lean guy with exquisite features and a gorgeous head of black wavy hair. He even stood apart from all the other guys wearing the same navy-blue Derby jacket. He made desert boots seem like the coolest shoes. 

I trailed behind him down to Stockton St, where I timidly stood hidden yet close enough to gawk at him without him seeing me while we waited for the 30 Stockton bus to Marina Junior High, where I started seventh grade. I later learned that EY was starting ninth grade. Ugh! I was a sophomore. He was a senior! He’ll be gone to high school at the end of that school year! On the first day of junior high, I fell in love and broke my heart all on the same day, and that’s a tragedy.

Nothing changed since day one. I spent the whole school year watching EY from a safe, hidden distance. Although we locked eyes that first day, I don’t think he saw me. I was “in crush” alone. At the end of the school year, I went as far as to spend what little money I had to buy a yearbook to cut out his senior picture and carry it in my diary, which I did for the next four years. 

I couldn’t wait to go to Galileo High, where EY was, but when it was my turn for high school, they started busing, and I ended up at Mission High instead. I should’ve picked up on the signs telling me it was never meant to be. I remained faithful, though, and my eyes blindly saw only him still. I don’t know what I was thinking. We had no connection or familiar anything where we might run into each other. We lived on the same block and managed never to bump into each other, ever. 

My resolve to remain faithful to EY began withering with time and distance. Then, suddenly one lovely spring day when I was in eleventh grade, my girlfriends and I were on the N Judah streetcar heading home from school when EY hopped onto my streetcar. My heart thumped so hard I couldn’t breathe or think, but I knew this was my one chance to do something, and I took it. I ditched my girlfriends. I approached EY and asked if we could talk. He said yes. He also agreed to get off the streetcar so that we could talk in private. We stood at the bus stop on 10th and Market, where I poured my heart out to him, and he seemed to welcome everything I said, but he didn’t indicate any reciprocation. He neither let on that he ever noticed me or not. He had a good poker face.

EY was just as handsome up close as I imagined he would be. He still towered over me now that I’m wearing heels instead of flats when I was twelve. From the exterior, he remained everything I dreamed he would be.  However, he was way chattier than I imagined. As he spoke, I realized that EY was merely a gorgeous man shell that I filled with who I wanted him to be. Not on purpose, but rather out of necessity since I knew nothing about him. So, I gave him a personality, character traits, and the whole gamut, making him my perfect dream man. The only thing terrible about doing that was meeting the real EY and discovering he’s nothing like my dream man. That’s still fine, except I was too naïve to dream up some things like values, which it turned out we desire very different values. He was more interested in marrying for money than for love. I don’t roll with money being the priority.    

I always imagine a fairy tale ending after meeting EY, but reality never resembles a fairy tale. My heart was heavy-laden that afternoon as I processed everything when my friend Anna called me. The first thing she said was, “Are you out of your mind?” From there, she repeated every word verbatim that I told EY. I felt like she slapped me in the face repeatedly. It turned out EY is a mama’s boy, and he tells mama everything. Mama is best friends with Anna’s mother. That was not the way I wanted to discover a connection between EY and me. 

I may be an open book. I share a lot, but I am a private person. I try to exercise discretion on what and how I communicate. I was embarrassed that my girlfriend repeated what should have been a private conversation back to me. All of the players in that scene were older than me, but none were mature. Granted, Anna was trying to be a good friend, and I appreciate that. In a warped way, and not at that moment—but in hindsight—I’m glad she told me. After that, I was finally ready to let EY go. That night, I shredded his photo and moved on.

Although I gave EY my heart when I was twelve, he never accepted it. Eventually, I met my dream man in the man who became my husband, and he wholeheartedly took my heart with both hands and kept it safe forever after. My first crush and my pen pal may not have worked out, but as it turned out, my wish came true, and I did have such a story to reminisce, just like in the movie “Her Pen Pal.”

A Moment in My Life – Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Jeannie Yee Davis

A funny thing happened on my way to today. I ascertained an enemy as a friend. Well, a perceived enemy, that is, who surfaced at all the wrong times, turning my world upside down and plucking me from my comfort zone. It was most apparent back at the Schwab office, where it felt like it was someone’s job specifically to see how much damage they could do by turning everything topsy-turvy. I know that’s not true, but at the time, while it was happening, it felt like it was.

It never made sense to me when everything seemed to run smoothly why we needed to change. I was a dedicated employee who thrived at doing not just a good job but the best job I could, and intermissions of change disrupted my productivity. Selfish—I know, but ask anybody resistant to change, and you’ll hear the same story. We’re all in the same boat. Sometimes, I felt guilty of being a hypocrite since the company’s motto was diversity and change, and I was resistant to change.

“Resistance is futile,” as the Star Trek Borg would say. They were right. I knew that the powers above me at Schwab knew more than I did. If the company deemed it necessary for change, who was I to argue? I kept quiet and acclimated with a little grumbling—just a little.

Not all change is bad. Sometimes, it’s surprisingly a blessing in disguise. Like the recent text alerting me that I depleted my high-speed data on my phone plan. Seriously? This is a first. Since the inception of my plan, I’ve constantly rolled over data and barely used any of it. I supposed regularly listening to music cost me my data, and that’s worth it. In reviewing my plan options, I couldn’t believe my eyes that there was another plan for $40 with 15 GB of data and unlimited everything. My current plan is $45 with 6 GB of data and unlimited everything. I rubbed my eyes and scrutinized the details, trying to see the catch—there was none. Guess what? I’m switching to the $40 plan. This change was not a bad one.

Remember I said I was resistant to change? Well, as time goes by, I noticed that I’m a hypocrite for my hypocrisy. I say that because, at work, I didn’t care for change, but if I stood back and looked at my bigger picture, I would see that I live a life of constant change, daily—by choice.

Mark used to open a cupboard door and say, “Every time I get used to something being somewhere, you move it.” That became a resounding joke between us because it was true. I constantly repositioned things to make things better. My motto is to be the best person I can be and make my home the best it can be—achieving these goals meant constantly changing for the better.

I couldn’t grasp the necessity for change until I personalized it, then it became logical. Since I was calling all the shots, I knew what needed to change and why. Change is imperative for wellness, along with other reasons. I started writing my column, ‘A Moment in My Life,’ intending to write every weekday. However, as a one-person business, I realized that I couldn’t write my column daily and work on other projects, so I had to make a change. Occasionally, I need to skip a column, or two, to address other priorities. Sometimes, the other priority meant giving my muse a break—a necessary evil.

God intended change as a key in growing us as people and spiritually. He constantly challenges us out of our comfort zone—my favorite place. Hiding in my favorite place stagnates me, and that saddens God. I want to please Him; therefore, I need to change my attitude towards accepting the change that is out of my control. It’s all a matter of perspective. Once I have the right mindset, nothing will seem that bad—my working towards change instead of against makes for a better outcome since change is inevitable.