Category: change

WE

by worrylessjourney, posted in challenging, change, comparisons

Today I want to talk about a touchy subject. …Gender expression. My granddaughter is in her 20’s and talks with me about friends that want to have as a designation “they.” I have no problem with people expressing their gender any way they want but I do think that there is a problem with they and them.

In our society we tend to divide ourselves into groups of us and them. This definitely puts a negative spin on those designations. Are them and they on the outside?

How people see their gender is only a small part of who we are. I am multiple people. My gender is important for me but the other aspects of ME are just as important. I think of myself in many different ways. Today my persona may be an artist or a writer. I may be functioning from a male perspective. I may be childish and not 82 years old. I may look at people as people I need to help from my years of nursing, or taking on my passion for expressions of God. I am many things, many people, multiples. I am not they or them. I am definitely WE !!

So if people want to address me as something other than she I want to be called WE !

WE and WE

Insights are wonderful

by worrylessjourney, posted in answers, change, common sense

Today I am trying a new way of scheduling my time. What I have been doing isn’t working. I have been spending too much time on meaningless things and not giving myself time to do the things that feed my soul.

In the last few days I realized what was holding me back. When I was living in my old home I did not have to spend much time managing the dogs. Now it is different. In an apartment I have to take Crash out at least three times a day. It’s not that it is bad but my pattern for years was different. I now have to establish a new pattern for my days and let that send me into a better lifestyle.

Now, back on my desktop computer and not fighting to hold the laptop (sitting in a lounge chair) it is so much easier to write and to think.

Thank you, my WordPress family for putting up with me over this long haul to a new pattern and hopefully a richer way of being.

Thoughts from last year

by worrylessjourney, posted in change, grief, growth

I wrote this poem when I was really low. It helps me to see how far I have come. It gives me hope for the times to come.

Grief hurts
It touches
The body
The mind
And the spirit

It’s toll
Can be felt
Everywhere

There is
no escape
no respite
no relief

It raises
I’s head
When least
Expected

And
Wipes away
Peace

Fear
Accompanies it
Casting long shadows
Making the world
Dull, grey

Hope is
Pushed aside
Lost

Will change
Ever come?
Hope ever
Return?

I cannot

See
If light
Is there

I only
Suffer
Each moment
And wait

The journey continues

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, change, moments

What do we do when life changes drastically? How do we learn to live differently? I am still figuring that out. Each day is a new way of thinking a new way of being. I haven’t entirely found myself in this new reality.

I have talked many times with others who have experienced something similar to my journey. They have the same feelings, the same questions, the same puzzling ups and downs. One day everything is so easy and the next is a struggle.

I know that there will be a time when I will know I have found myself. I will find myself whole and not living in several worlds.


Life is a journey and is always new. It is time to embrace it.

Not like “Waiting for God”

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, aging, change, Live!

They used to say that nothing stays the same but death and taxes. I have decided that as right as this is something supersedes these and it is change. Change is always with us. It comes when planned and when unexpected but it always comes.

Since fall of 2020 my life has been the perfect example of change. With two moves, losing my husband and my home (had to sell when moving), living in a completely different state(one that acts as if it is its own country) and living in an Independent Living Retirement place, change has become normal. I just expect it and keep going.

Living with others who have retired and seeing mostly grey hair around me has been interesting, challenging, disturbing and comforting. There is sometimes the feeling of living in the British comedy “Waiting for God.” It can be hard to accept living where (supposedly) you know you will die. You have to develop a different mind set.

In some ways it it like living in a college dorm. As a community, there are rules that must protect us all somewhat like those in a HOA setting. For those who have been independent and masters of their own choices it can be frustrating.

Those are some of the negatives. It is wonderful, however, to have 3 restaurants on site and cook only if you want to. It is so good to have conversations with people who remember the things you do and understand your references to events and people of the past. (Some young people are so clueless it make me wonder what is being taught in school.) It’s a miracle to have my apartment cleaned once a week.

Soooo, although life has been challenging with lots of changes, it has also been interesting, stimulating, and life enhancing. There are so many things to do. We are connected to the University of Texas and can attend things there as we want. Events and activities are fun and improve minds and bodies. Life is good. You just have to reach out a grab it.

Change brings questions

by worrylessjourney, posted in belief, change, growth

Today one of the posts I read made me think about change. Not just about a change of environment but changes in ourselves. Each and every day we have encounters that change us. It may not be a major change and we may not notice it at all. It is like the “butterfly effect.” Anything that happens causes change.

We can’t be afraid of these changes. Sometimes the change may cause problems because we no longer fit with people that we have connected with over years. Our change may be unacceptable to them and we no longer fit together. The person may be unwilling to accept that your view is different than it used to be. This will be painful.

I have drifted away from friends because we no longer have much in common. Others remain because they have also continued on a journey of growth. This is life. I know that I have changed enormously over my lifetime. I am a different person. I am not static and am still growing. I intend to keep on growing until I am no longer around.

Hope for change and lesson learned

by worrylessjourney, posted in change, hope

It will be interesting how this “time out” for the world will be viewed in the future. The big question is has it made enough of an impact to force us to change. Change is a word that can strike terror in the hearts of many. We don’t like change. Somehow we tend to focus on what has changed and lost instead of what has been gained.

Will there be more similar problems coming? Will we learn from this about our world and take better care? Will we revert to our old way of life and finally have the next crisis be destroying the world?

I imagine that there will be some of each of these things. I pray that enough will change to make things better. It has been enlightening and joyful to see creatures not seen for decades or centuries suddenly reappearing. I hope we can keep this trend going. There is hope.

I will hope!

by worrylessjourney, posted in acceptance, change, hope

I have been off blogging for almost a week. Last week all my belongings were packed and I moved to stay with my family until my apartment is ready. For some reason this move was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I dropped into panic mode and suffered with IBSD. It took medicine and much coping to bring myself back. I am better but I have realized just how much has happened in the last year and 1/2.

I can’t say enough about how I long to be done with all of this. Will it be over soon????

A blast from the past

by worrylessjourney, posted in change, moving on, the past

Lately I have been watching streaming programs from Britbox. Many of them deal with live in the 50’s and 60’s. It has brought back so many memories.

I grew up in the time of poodle skirts, penny loafers, saddle oxfords, sweater sets, blue jeans lined with flannel and rolled up to reveal the lining, long pencil skirts and so many other things.

Films were strictly censored….there was little violence or nudity…no foul language. Life was really different. It was kinder in some ways and not in others. Anyone getting pregnant in high school had to leave and go to a different school. They were considered beyond the pale.

We wore “bobby socks” and had sock hops. Socks were worn to protect the gym floor. Proms were held in the school gymnasium and were highly decorated by the students. A king and queen were crowned. Punch was often spiked by boys wanting to show that they could.

During my college years was the era of the folk singers. The Kingston Trio, The Limlighters, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Mamas and the Papas, Joan Baez. I loved that music. Songs like Tom Dooley, Blowin in the Wind, and all the ones that came throughout the sixties. had learned folk song early in my life and absolutely loved those songs. We went to concerts in gymnasiums and sat on the floor.

In 1962 I graduated college and got married. This was the time of mini skirts, knee boots and psychedelic colors. A real change from the fifties. I saw people become “flower children” and live in communes. Birth control pills gave women the freedom to choose to have sex if they wanted and free love was the thing of the day. Women felt freed and the Women’s Liberation Era began.

Things have changed a lot since then. Some good some bad. People in general were kinder and more mannerly but women had more set roles and received less respect in the man’s world. Some people from my era have moved with the times and some not. It is a different world and interesting to live in. I would love to see the future ahead but know that I won’t. I am in the waning years but I will enjoy them fully.

Time goes by

by worrylessjourney, posted in aging, change, memories

Today memories have taken over my thinking. I have taken myself back to my childhood and remembered lying on the floor in front of the fire at night and listening to the radio. You heard me right. There was no television. The radio was our entertainment and I can tell you scary programs and worse when it is your own mind conjuring up the villain. There was “The Shadow” and one with a creaking door. Less stressful programs were “Let’s Pretend” “Fibber McGee and Molly” and many others.

Television didn’t come into my life until sometime in the 50’s. My grandfather bought one for his office. He didn’t worry about those of us a home. (he and my grandmother lived with us) I used to go to his office just to see this magical thing.

Later we were able to get one for our home. It was a small oval screen and the picture was black and white. There weren’t a lot of programs and I don’t remember many of them. Strangely enough I remember the radio programs more.

In the late fifties I remember going to a teacher’s home to watch something from Disney in color. That seemed truly amazing.

The world has really changed in my lifetime.