I'm beginning this blog to share a lifetime of experiences and what I hope is "wisdom." I have a large family that includes women of all ages who are moving through their lives much as I did years ago, and it is to all these women that I dedicate this blog.I began married life (so I thought) as a pretty good wife, housekeeper, mother and Christian. But it wasn't long before I was lost in a sea of overwhelming demands and duties which kept me from being anywhere close to the "woman I wanted to be." So I began a search for what Sarah Ban Breathnach calls the authentic self: I wanted to be the best wife, the best housekeeper, the best mother and the best Christian I could be. If that sounds easy--it hasn't been!
I was going along with a husband, Richard, and three daughters--Paula, Lisa, and Donna-- when I experienced extreme pain in my back. There was a year of doctors and hospital stays to determine the cause, but to no avail. My husband saw my depression and decided that I needed something to divert my attention. He talked me into going to college. I absolutely loved learning, but it was a miserable time for me and my family; however, we got through it. My success was mainly due to my husband and his unflagging support and care throughout those years. The cause of my pain was discovered six years after it began. And so we entered another phase of our lives.
I am explaining all of this to create a background for much of what I will be expressing in my blogs: that while we're planning our lives, LIFE gets in the way and takes us on a path we never expected. While moving through my own life, I added some new ways of becoming a better person: I wanted to be the best writer, the best artist, and the best person in every way that I could become. I have read many books and listened to many talks on changing my life. Sadly, my husband died in 1996, so I'm a widow who views life differently for many reasons.
Where am I now? I'm still moving toward my goal: being the woman I want to be. That still includes being a good mother and now a good grandmother and a good great-grandmother, but it also includes--most importantly--being the best Christian I can be. Toward that goal, I am writing Bible lessons for my brother's website. These lessons are being written mainly for people in foreign countries who don't have much access to Bible teaching. I take the words on the page and put them into my own words, making the message easier to understand. This may sound easy peasy, but it is hard work!
I pray that my thoughts on living in a world of chaos, while doing my best to be a good person, may help you move further in that direction. I have just had my 70th birthday; I'm hoping to make the next 10 years of my life the very best years of my life! And I hope you'll help me with that goal.
Also, along the way, I have improved on my cooking and sewing and housekeeping skills, so I want to share those moments which make me happy to be alive and thankful that I kept on struggling with that recipe, or that zipper, or that paragraph I was writing. I try to remember that everything I'm seeking is out there somewhere and I just have to find it. How to go about that is a subject for another blog!
Love and blessings to everyone who reads my story.
Mimi
P.S. Because I had requests to separate my regular/personal blog from my religious writing, I started a new blog: http://biblememosfrommimi.blogspot.com/.
