Family matters

Hi everyone,

I want to thank everyone who commented on my Monday Musings post about blogging. Your comments were thoughtful and loving and helped me realize how much I truly enjoy being part of this community, so I am not giving it up any time soon. I just have to find balance, as with everything else in life.

Wishing you all a very wonderful weekend. I have two singing gigs, one today and one tomorrow, and then I must get ready for a trip back East next week - family matters. I won't have access to internet and will need my energy and attention focused elsewhere, so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers and I will connect when I return on February 6. Till then...
Blessings,
karen

Telling the truth Tuesday - Introducing Celery Tree

Introducing Celery Tree


Karen Jones Gowen is brilliant. Not only a great writer, she's a creative entrepreneur as well. Here's why:

It began when she realized how much writers like to gather, meet (even virtually), read and review each others books, assisting in promotion and even buying their books.

She thought, What we need is a central location where we can gather, network, post reviews, and also sell our books. Somewhere that doesn't take a huge cut of the profits, that puts more money into the hands of those who actually create the books we love to read.

She was fortunate to find some talented people who got excited about the concept and donated their time and talents to designing, programming and making it a reality. 

The realization of that dream is Celerytree.com. 
  
The more writers who join the more they benefit, because Celerytree.com is designed to be a united front, a community. The more people posting and linking to it, the faster it will happen.

If you want to help, please post this button on your blog and link it to Celerytree.com. Below the button is a summary/list for copying and including in a blog post if you would like. Anything you can do to get the word out about this innovative online bookstore! 

WHO SHOULD JOIN CELERYTREE.COM?

1. Those with published books to sell (print and/or ebooks).

2. Those who believe in the pay-it-forward philosophy of authors supporting authors. 

3. Those who don't mind paying a small membership fee for the privilege of being part of a supportive, ad-free community. (Free memberships available for a limited time.)

4. Those who want a place to interact with others, post reviews, network, and to sell their books all in one location.

5. Those who believe in writers receiving fair pay for their work.

If this sounds like you, then go to Celerytree.com and click JOIN.  More information can be found on the Celery Tree blog, Twitter account, and Facebook page.


Karen Gowen will be available at karen@celerytree.com to answer your questions about Celerytree.comduring the Big Blog Tour. Feel free to email Karen about any questions you may have at this time on joining, registering, buying books, submitting books or any other issues. 


I am happy to be one of the original authors to agree to participate and am very excited about this new project. Please help in any way you can.
Blessings,
Karen

Monday Musings

I feel like I have no reason to blog anymore. My memoir is almost out of print. Still a few copies available on Amazon. You can still purchase as an ebook on Smashwords. But I'm doing nothing to promote it anymore. And I'm not sure I'll ever finish, let alone publish, the novel I'm working on. So why blog? Most writers blog to build a platform to sell their books. That's why I did it originally. But it soon became something else. It became a place for me to share my ongoing journey towards healing. And it became a place where others share their thoughts and feelings about my journey as well as their own. I love those connections. So I guess the answer is the reasons why I blog have changed. I guess now the question is, how important is it?

How about you?
Blessings,
Karen

Managing weight loss

That's me, front, left - 50 lbs ago in 2006

Many of you may not know that I struggled with being overweight for most of my adult life. I yo yo'd up and down from my high of 194 pounds in the 1980s, to my current low of 130. I am only 5' 3 1/2", so 194 was obese for me. I did every diet imaginable: Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, the grapefruit diet, Atkins. I lost weight on all (except Atkins), but always put it back. Since the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, I decided to do it differently this last time. Instead of dieting, I hired a nutritionist to teach me how to eat. For me. With my particular food issues (i.e. I cannot do dairy of any kind, or soy). Each step of the way, she worked with me on how many complex carbs, proteins, veggies and fruit servings to have each day and taught me appropriate portion sizes. I went from 183 to my current weight and have remained there for 3 years now.

Me on Mykanos this past year

The reason I am writing about this today is that it is not easy. I have to manage my food. And sometimes that means telling friends I can't come for dinner because I've eaten out several times already that week. You see, I gain a couple of pounds every meal I eat that isn't in my control. Then it takes several weeks to take it off. If I don't manage it, it will be 2 pounds, then another 2 pounds, then another, and I'll be right back where I started.

At this point, I think my really close friends understand and actually admire me for what I've done. But it isn't easy saying no to dinner invitations, or going out to eat with friends and ordering a cup of tea. However, the way I feel about myself, which is better than I've ever felt in my life, makes it all worth while.

I guess it all boils down to a motto I came to understand a long long time ago: being willing to do whatever it takes. If something is really important to my growth and well being, that is the place I must come from in order to make it happen. Being willing to do whatever it takes.

Are you?
Blessings,
Karen

Telling the truth Tuesday - changing my mind

I've posted recently about the joy dancing brings me. I'd given it up for a long while because I have no cartilage left in my knee and I want to postpone knee replacement surgery as long as possible. But here's the thing. When I dance on a regular basis, my knee hurts constantly, even when I'm not dancing. It hurts every day and wakes me up at night, too. When I don't dance, and just walk everyday for exercise, no pain. I don't function as well when I'm in pain all the time.

So I'm back reconsidering my decision to keep dancing because truly, I don't want to be in pain every day and night. And my knee isn't bad enough, so the surgeon says, to replace it right now.

It's an interesting dilemma when something that brings one great joy also brings with it great pain. What's a gal to do?

Do you share such a dilemma? What do you do?
Blessings,
karen

Monday Musings - a Sugartime success story

A big thank you to everyone who stopped by here on Friday and left such beautiful comments. I'm glad so many of us are working on little things to make a difference in peoples' lives.

As part of my Monday musings, I need to direct you to the Arlee bird's website, where I am talking about Karen Gowen's astounding new concept, Celery tree, a new website where authors support other authors. Please take a moment to head over there (after reading this post, of course, LOL). http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/

I want to tell you about my experience on Friday singing. One of the ways I try to make a difference is with my group, Sugartime. We don't charge a fee when we perform at retirement communities, senior centers, nursing homes, or even at private functions. We accept donations and tell people if there's a budget, that's fine. If there isn't, that's fine, too. We'll sing anyway. On Friday we were invited to sing at a grand re-opening of a Senior Center here in town. We said yes, not knowing that it was going to be a pretty major event. Two days before we were to sing, we found out the Mayor would be there and could we please change the time we were to sing and shorten our program. We said yes. When we arrived on Friday morning, one hour before show time to set up our equipment, we found out we had to sing earlier than we were told because the Mayor changed the time again. Okay. We sang our shortened program to a really nice crowd and then stayed while the Mayor re-dedicated the center. Then the organizer realized there was a 45 minute lag in entertainment, so we were asked to sing some more. We did.

Afterwards, the head of the Department of Senior Affairs came up to me and said, "Thank you so much. You were wonderful. You set the spirit of the entire event for us."

You cannot imagine how wonderful it is to hear that you did what you set out to do. Bring joy!
I will be getting together with her to talk about how Sugartime can perform at more of these kinds of events. We had an absolute blast!

Saying yes, even if it means extra hard work and a bit of chaos and having to "go with the flow" can be hard, but oh so rewarding.

Do you say yes, even if it means some sacrifice on your part?
Blessings,
Karen

Little things

Years ago I realized I would probably never do or create anything magnificent. I was not a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King or a Joan of Arc. I wasn't really "great" at anything. But does that mean I'm insignificant? No. because it's the little things we do and say that make a large impact on those around us. When I realized I wouldn't ever be famous or "great," I made a decision to be the most loving Karen I could possibly be. That became a long, difficult journey to uncover the reasons I hated myself and and then finding ways to overcome that hatred and learn to love me. As I am able to do that, I am able to love others more as well.

So each day, I am working on the little things. Like not flashing "irritable" when something happens to annoy me. Or responding with kindness to rudeness (this one's hard, I must admit). Or smiling at a stranger even if I'm hurting inside.

Can you share some little things you do that make a difference?

Blessings,
Karen

P.S. I won't be able to respond to comments or visit you today as I am singing at a Senior Center today and then taking a friend out for her birthday. I'll check in some time over the weekend.