Time to Clean the Pipes & Clean Up the Life

You gotta love being a home owner. It's empowering and gives you a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes when I am cooking or cleaning, I pause to take in the fact that this is my home. I am so grateful for it and I find myself thanking God a great deal for this beautiful place. It's so wonderful to sit in it and say, "this is mine".

Along with all the wonderful feelings of it being mine, comes the challenges a house brings to my life. The issues and little things that give the house character are equally mine. From the yard, the basement, the landscaping, the crevices and the pipes...speaking of the pipes, mine are kind of old. I've only been in this house a little over two years and I've had a plumber here about 5-6 times...For everything that uses the pipes, I've had a maintenance call. Kitchen sink, bathroom sink, toilet and most recently the shower...

I believe there is a lesson in everything that happens to us and when I had a stopped up shower, the plumber had to come and snake the drain. He did, cleaned it out and now there's a leak. I called them again and the owner said something that was profound; sometimes when we clean old pipes, there's a leak. The only thing that was keeping the pipe from leaking before was the old stuff that was stuck. Something like that, I'm paraphrasing.

That hit me harder than thinking there was a clog in my life. See, I've recently started studying Feng Shui. They say that Feng Shui experts can visit a person's house and see exactly where people are doing well in their lives and where they are not doing so well. My own experience; I see what I don't like and I can draw my own conclusion. No need to pay someone to tell me what I already know.

I have gook I need to clean up and clear out of my life. I think this has to do with some anxiety about the future. Many people may not tell you this (or maybe they will) but getting laid off of a job, even one that you hate, is an emotional roller coaster. I still believe it is a great opportunity to find out something new about yourself and try a new field, but it's also a test of what you're made of.

In the quest to be open and available to learn new things, I have gotten away from my goals; my specific and tangible goals. What I've been putting on random pieces of paper are too general and most of all, unfocused. This pipe cleaning experience has awakened my soul. It has put a new fire in me to clean up things in my life and in my mind and truly go after what I really want. I took a lesson from my college self, where I was the most goal-oriented, achievement driven person on the earth. 

I remember my goal sheets then were divided into sections of my life. There were goals, action steps and deadlines for each specific target. So, I decided to do the same thing now. I broke up my life into 8 sections with 5 goals each and working to accomplish these 40 goals in the last 40 days of 2011. They are the following in no particular order:

- Health & Beauty

- Spirituality

- Family

- Career

- Home

- Friends/Socially

- Travel/Leisure

- Creative

I am a firm believer that you don't have to wait until January to make up resolutions. You can resolve to be THE BEST YOU any time of the year; in fact, it should be EVERY TIME of the year. Are you truly living your best life? Do you have a clogged drain in your life? Do you fill your life up with junk and get lost in the mess? Are you afraid to move forward? If you answered "yes" to any of these, perhaps you should pull out a pad and jot down your goals too. We can do this!!

Oh yeah, can't forget the affirmation(s),

My respect & Love for Life reflects in my actions & reactions toward Life.

and

I know my Life has meaning and I make it meaningful every day.