Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose – not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.
Anne Sullivan Macy
I am not much of a gambler. Never have been. I get this from my mother.
She believes in thinking things through and making smart decisions. She’s a smart lady in that way.
So I don’t understand why people do it. I know. I know. It’s a rush and a thrill. I get that. I just choose to find that thrill and experience that rush in other ways. Some are below in this week’s Ten Things of Thankful:
For a lovely lunch with a friend. It was nice to catch up. It’s been over a year.
Someone once scoffed at the term “friend” when I referred to this specific person. I am tired of allowing other people’s opinions to bother me.
Yes, this person is my friend. A friend can be any age and for any reason.
I wanted to check in with her and make sure things were alright.
You know how you can sense something’s not quite right, reading someone’s statuses on Facebook, even when they haven’t come right out and said so?
Well, I was nervous that there was something serious going on. I am glad we could have lunch and I learned that it was nothing like I was envisioning. I was relieved to learn it wasn’t cancer. It runs in her family and I was afraid for a while there.
I’m thankful she is doing better because she is an important person in my life and has had a huge influence on me, from a very young age. With all she has gone through, she continues to inspire me with her love of life.
High by the Beach – Lana Del Ray
For another late afternoon drive to the beach with family.
My nephew would not even set foot in the sand when we arrived, instead clinging tightly to his father.
By the end, when it was time to leave, he did not want to get out of the water.
For my short story, One Last Kiss, being out in paperback.
After the Scars: A Second Chances Anthology
I was just saying to my friend, when we were out at lunch, that I was waiting, not so patiently, for this. Then I get home and later that night I get the notification.
I am so excited because this will make it real for me, in a way nothing else yet has. I can’t wait to hold the actual print book in my hands. It’s not all mine, but my story is in there, down in print, for everyone to see. This is as close to my dream as you could get.
I feel like I’ve hit the Jackpot.
For the PBS/BBC series I’d been eagerly anticipating for weeks:
I absolutely loved watching this three-night event. I was thrilled to learn more about my favourites: humpbacks, orcas, great white sharks, and sea lions and seals.
My favourite part was the blue whale segment. They track them along the California coast, from Monterey Bay Aquarium, and I marvel at the biggest animal on our planet.
Wait! Is it too late to become a marine biologist?
For this most recent friendship:
6 Reasons Why Having An Older, Fearless, Female Friend Is Empowering
She is adventurous and that’s just the sort of person I need in my life right now.
For a deal found by my friend and a cheap day trip to one of my favourite places in the whole wide world.
For $15 we got a bus ride to Niagara Falls, to Fallsview Resort and Casino, just minutes from my #1 spot.
For yet another rainbow!
Again with the rainbows, I know, but I consider it a sign of good things to come. I’m told a rainbow is quite common, over Niagara Falls, because of the mist and when the sun is just right. The sky was so blue and cloudless otherwise and although most rainbows over Niagara usually only last minutes, this one went on and on, as I imagined what it might look like.
Lucky me that this friend loves to take photos, or maybe not as I am not the most comfortable when asked to smile on cue, but I love my Niagara Falls rainbow.
For the help and advice I’ve received from many people, most recently from this friend in particular.
I don’t always like what I hear and sometimes I find some advice hard to take, but mostly because I know it’s true.
It’s coming from a place of concern and good intentions.
How To Live Passionately, No Matter Your Age
This TED talk, by Isabelle Allende, is inspiring, funny, and real. I want to live passionately.
I am sick and tired of my modesty. I want to grow into the person I am meant to be. I don’t want to allow my fears and negativity to stop me anymore.
I know we all age, I certainly am, and death is imminent and inevitable, so I want to make the most of my life. I want to hold the past in my heart, live in the present moment, and strive for my dreams going forward into the future.
For yet another chance to be featured on a site other than my own:
Lost and Found: Finding My Way Out of the Fog
I am proud of this essay and I wrote it about a very difficult period in my life, one I still struggle with every day, but the fog has definitely lessened.
This was one of the times I was approached, by pm on Twitter, to write for Blu Sky. Often I email someone and see if they are looking for guest writers or contributors. It’s nice to be asked sometimes.
And, finally, for all the wonderfully strong and inspiring women in my life, those who are a part of my history, my present, or hopefully my future.
To those who’ve left a lasting mark on my life and helped me become the woman I am today.
To those who I hope to meet, in person, in the future. They make me want to grow and learn, from afar.
I’m ending this week’s TToT with a Facebook status from a woman who is quickly becoming one of my biggest travel writing inspirations. Everything she says here is true and I’ve just got to begin to live her words.
“When people tell you you cannot do certain things, what they mean is not that you cannot do them, but that you cannot do them via the routes they envision them being done. So in some ways, it’s a good thing, because it forces you to think outside the box. This is something that has come up many times in conversations this weekend. Many people here have done things that to one person might seem extraordinary, and to them simply seemed like the thing they must do. Get rid of the box you are in.”
Explorers summit, Ireland.
Here’s to thinking outside the box. Thanks Amy Gigi Alexander, for this reminder..
Her Headache 
