Taking action, seeking happiness...

I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for the incredible upsurge in visitors that I've experienced here in the last month! Sometimes I get so bogged down in my little life that I forget the good things... Like the fact that there are real people out there who are interested in the things I'm expressing through my poetry. I've had so much fun getting back into the web side of things lately, and actually hearing from you and getting your feedback is the best part!

I thought I'd sit down today and give you an update on what's been going on in my daily life. I'm a very private person and I tend to keep all my emotions locked up tight, but blogging helps to draw me out of my shell and it gives me a place to talk about my feelings and hopes for the future. :) When I finally get the full website up, this will really be a haven for everything creative that I do, and a place to express who I really am.

In the last couple of months I have hit some financial snags, so right now I am very focused on getting the cash flowing again! The bills must be paid. That's the one thing we all have in common, right? LOL... I wish I could pause the bills like TiVo pauses live TV, but that's nothing but a really nice fantasy! Haha...

What I realized is that my avoidance of beginning new paying projects was about more than just laziness. There are many parts of my life that I have been neglecting. Balance isn't something I've ever been familiar with. I eat too much, I don't sleep normal hours, I waste a lot of time, and there's more clutter than simplicity in my life, even though I've pared down a lot of my junk...

I read something the other day that triggered an epiphany for me. It said that we spend too much time in the past and future and not enough in the present. That's nothing new, and it definitely describes me. But thinking about it in relation to my actions on a daily basis WAS new for me. The actual actions I take every day are always related to fixing something from the past or acquiring something in the future. They are never--and I mean NEVER--geared toward my happiness in the present. Oprah would say that's an "Aha!" moment, right?

I wrote previously about my cluttered office, but really my entire home is filled with things I don't use and don't need. It's disorganized. Even chaotic. It's a source of daily stress. Pretty much everything in my life follows that same pattern, because of things that I don't choose to face or deal with in the present--my diet, my body, my relationships, my career. It's all the same. All neglected, numbed by temporary distractions that don't fulfill me.

I also read recently that the meaning of life is happiness. We all spend so much time searching for our purpose. If you make your purpose happiness, all the questions are suddenly answered... I mean life's never going to be easy, we all have our issues to face and our problems to deal with. But if your focus is to be happy in the present moment, you can achieve it. You can do that. I can do that.

But it's not about happy thoughts or affirmations or mantras or any of that, though that can all help too... It's about ACTION. Simple and straightforward action. So I'm going to take some major action in all the main areas of my life... Career, relationship, home, diet, fitness, whatever else... I've watched the last ten years of my life slip by in what feels like just moments because I didn't take enough action, and I don't want to do that with the next ten, the next twenty, etc.

I'll end this here--I'm about to take some ACTION here in the office. :) Stay tuned for some poems this week, and to those who took time out of their busy days to take my blog survey, you'll be getting your exclusive poem shortly! Thanks for everything... and stay tuned.

A new poem: Eight Thousand Days

6000 Poetry Lovers Can't Be Wrong! ;)