Flying Fresh

When a great adventure is offered, you don't refuse it. 

Amelia Earhart

As this new year begins, we don't always know how our next adventure will unfold. We might dream, we anticipate, we might plan. But the Universe has a way of teaching us, leading us and guiding us to what we need to do first. Our paths are not usually directly to our goal, we have been known to wander through routes, not of our choosing and still find our way. We are determined and relentless, because if we want something with unwavering commitment, we will get there.

Our destination might not look like what we had envisioned, it will be better! Because the side streets that we have navigated along our way, will have widened our experience, broadened our understanding and taught us more about ourselves, if we have allowed it.

Whatever your goal is for this fresh year, a fitness program, a volunteer offering, a learning of a new art, a leaving behind of something that does not serve you any longer, commit and let's do this together.

Let the adventure of the new year begin, let it make you strong and courageous, let it make you a gentle warrior. Someone, who as each day passes, you will like and respect.

Banking on Memories

For over a decade, I have had a financial relationship with (let’s call her) Natalie. As you are probably aware, having any kind of long term relationship with someone in a bank is a rarity these days. Workers are prone to and often encouraged to switch branch locations, and even cities to jump start their careers. You start to feel some trust and quickly they are gone.

Natalie and I met so far back, I don’t quite remember the circumstance. However, I know that I immediately felt that this was someone who would return my phone calls/emails, and provide me with solid guidance. I knew that I could turn to her when my marriage ended and I needed to move forward in my planning.

Over the years, we learned a little more about each other, about our growing children and our new residences. We had however, never spoken about where we had each grown up. And each time we met I thought, Natalie is someone who knows her stuff, everyone should have a Natalie!

In my most recent appointment to meet Natalie, she mentioned that she had noticed a particular government id number that is specific to a province in Canada. It seems that Natalie had grown up there too. Did you go to John Rennie High School? Then the questions flowed and we were able to discover that Natalie and I lived within blocks of each other as children/teenagers, hung out at the same community swimming pool and knew some people in common. All this in a small sub-division, in a large city some 3500+ kilometers away (depending on whether you take the “scenic” route north above the Lakes or dip south through the US) on the other side of the country. A city that I left 36 years ago.