Today's Lesson From The Hotel Room...Still Too Far Away From The Craft Room: Identify What You Know To Be True About Yourself

I feel like I've been having a bit of an identity crisis lately. I seem to have forgotten who I am and what I stand for. I have once again gotten lost in the sea of Gold Medallion and 1K status. I seem to be defining myself as a Starwood Preferred Guest and a Hilton Honors VIP. Oh how lost I have become. And I know that finding my way back to who I am is about beginning to identify, once again, what I know to be true about myself. Some of what I know to be true is what this card pictures - that I love my dog; that I love to be outside, and that I do not like heels (even if the girl on the card appears to be walking her dog in them!). I am on a quest to find my way back home - my way back to the person I seem to have lost on my journey into the corporate world these past 2 years. I know that the woman I am - the woman I want to free again - is waiting for me to find her. And I will - one truth at a time.

Today's Lesson From A Hotel Room...Much Too Far Away From The Craft Room: You Never Know Where Wisdom Will Come From

I was on my way to Dubuque, Iowa with a stop in Chicago's O'Hare Airport. I stopped in a small store - I think it was called Ciba Express - to try to pick up something to eat. I went with a cheese sandwich, some waldorf salad and an Honest Ade Orange and Mango drink (I usually go with water, but this called to me...). I used to drink Honest Tea whenever I stopped at Whole Foods and I loved that they always had a quote or saying printed on the inside of the lid. When I removed the plastic lid from my Honest Ade I was disappointed to find no message in the lid. So I began to drink (it's pretty good if you want to try it) and as the level of liquid went down in the bottle, I saw a message starting to appear on the inside of the label - I could see it through the clear plastic of the bottle. And there, looking right at me was the following quote from Gandhi: "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are all in harmony." You never know where wisdom will come from!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: It's All A Matter Of Perspective

It happens so often that I now laugh about it. I mention my next work trip to someone who asks me what I do and they say "Wow! That's really exciting! You get to go to some wonderful places!" I have to laugh because I realize that from the outside looking in, it does sound exciting - heading off to Kuala Lumpur and places like Barcelona, Amsterdam, Osaka, London...and yet, as I live the experience it is often exhausting and I also frequently see nothing of the location I am at except for the inside of a hotel, an office building and an airport. So "exciting" is not really the word I would use to describe it. Exciting for me is spending a day in the craft room!!!! But I realize, it is all a matter of perspective. My grandmother used to say "One person's hangnail is another person's amputation." I'm finally understanding what that means. That what seems devastating to one person, seems to be just a bit of a "glitch" to another. It really is a matter of perspective.

I hope I can take some of the energy and excitement from the person who looks at my travel and concludes it is a wonderful adventure and try to make it a bit of an adventure for myself. After all, I am the one living it and the more I continue to think "there's no place like home" when I head out the door on my next trip, the more difficult it becomes to get on those planes and enjoy whatever I might experience on the trip.

This card was made using the black magic technique with a twist of white - I learned the technique on Karen Barber's blog at www.karenbarberstamps.blogspot.com (Thanks Karen!). It's a lot of fun to stamp with white craft ink and then color the stamped images with color pencils. The white gel pen is a great finishing touch - it makes everything pop! Give it a try - you might become addicted :)