A Mother's Strength

 My mother is the best person I know.

There is not enough space on this page for me to express to you how amazing my mother is. So for that reason alone I will not try and prove to you what I know to be true in my heart. I will not fill this page with examples in an effort to persuade you as to how awesome she is. I simply ask you to take my word for it.  :)

 With that settled I am writing this post today to talk about my mom and how amazing she is for taking care of my grandfather. For those of you who know me personally you understand how close I am with my family, and that really begins with the "glue" that is my mom. My grandfather has lived with my mother for nearly 20 years now. He was always a strong man accustomed to doing things for himself. As he became older the normal things occurred- his walking slowed, his sleeping increased etc. All in all he was fine.

  Cut to a few short months ago. Out of nowhere my grandfather took a complete turn for the worst. The culprit- Dementia. The accomplice- a series of mini-strokes that we didn't know he was having.

 Those things lead my grandfather to not be able to take care of himself in any sense of the word. My mother had to feed him, clothe him, shave him ...you get the idea. And she did it all 99% of the time completely by herself. While still working a full-time job. While still maintaining a positive attitude and a smile on her face. As you can imagine even with the most love in your heart, and with the greatest intentions and effort after a while of doing so much by yourself something just has to give. It was with a heavy heart that my mother decided to seek help. After all, that is why we have insurance right? (Sorry inside joke- insurance should be a whole different blog post- that I won't write because I may be forced to use profanity) Well thankfully after all insurance problems got straightened out and after my grandfather spent 5 weeks in the hospital (we were told it was only going to take 3 days) he is now settled into a nursing home that specializes in the terrible disease that is Dementia.

 He has good days and bad days. Some days I look at him and see my grandfather, other days I can tell he is not there. The good thing (if there is one) is that he cannot recall the "bad days". He has absolutely no idea that he has had any kind of bad day or aggressive behavior.

 I know there are other people out there with aging parents/grandparents. My advice is love them, take care of them and be there for them. My mom may not even realize how inspirational she has been throughout this time. She probably doesn't even realize the life lesson that she has taught me. But she certainly laid down the blueprint best example of how to be an awesome daughter.

 To the best mom in the world! Xoxo

I am Sally and this is "Where I Find Myself"

Why can't we cheer each other on?

Just yesterday I witnessed one of the best little dancers I know lose confidence in herself and feel so uncomfortable on the dance floor that she could not finish the routine we were practicing. A dance combination that I know she could have done in her sleep.

Why did this happen you might be wondering… well because one of her classmates chose to say something bad and give a horrible facial expression. To someone who doesn't work with children or doesn't have any young children in their lives this incident may seem minor. Maybe something not even worth mentioning. But as someone who works with children on a daily basis, I'm here to tell you that "moment" if not  addressed and corrected can be life altering.

Think for just a moment about your own life experience and I can almost guarantee that you can recall a moment when someone you know was shamed for being good at something. (Perhaps even you)

Why is that? It absolutely baffles me and saddens me that someone who has a talent be forced to "tone it down", keep it a secret, or worst of all actually be made to feel bad for their talent.

In what world should someone who practices daily, and takes the time to improve have to apologize for their hard work?

How do we change this culture of shaming? How do we get our kids to appreciate each other's talents and cheer each other on? How do we get them to see differences as just differences and not things that make you better or worse than someone else? And lastly how do we as adults not continue to do this very same thing to each other?

Thanks for reading! I would love to hear from you. Please comment and share.

 I'm Sally and this is Where I Find Myself.

Where I Find Myself- Self Doubt

Have you ever felt not good enough?

 That is a really difficult and humbling question to ask yourself ...or should I say a really difficult admission to make out loud to the world. Well I have felt it. I have felt it in my career, I have felt it in relationships and I have felt it in public situations just to name a few.

  I invite you to join me in the effort of letting this paralyzing often self inflicted feeling go. Perhaps a life long, day to day effort to let it go. Please join me and let go of that nagging, pestering, doubt filled piece of you. You know what I'm referring to, that voice that lives in your head, that voice that gets louder as you get more anxious. Truth is everyone has it, some of us are just better at disguising it and keeping it under wraps.

I invite you to follow me on twitter @SallyWIFM where I have posted a clip that I found to be very inspiring.

My name is Sally and this is Where I Find Myself.

Where I Find Myself- Getting Started

One of my personal goals for the new year is to live my life to its fullest potential. I have wanted to create a blog for some time now and have given it so much thought that the planning of it has frozen me right in my tracks. Isn't that funny...how you really want to accomplish something and you can actually worry yourself or plan yourself into doing nothing. So today I woke up and thought to myself- just start. I will learn as I go, improve as I go, and put all the thought and planning to use and just begin. Just beginning something and putting the fear aside and taking things step by step makes a seemingly difficult task much more manageable.

My name is Sally and this is where I find myself.

I hope you will enjoy my blog and all of the places, events, moments, and situations in which I find myself.  I hope that you will just start your next goal instead of letting that very first step freeze you in your tracks!