Attention Cheese Movers!

I know that I am quite behind the curve in reading the book, "Who Moved My Cheese?"” but, for my birthday, my co-worker Elijah gave me the book and I read it on the train home the other night.

For such a basic, simple book, I found it to be immensely insightful - one I would like to read again. Shoot, it only took an hour to read the entire thing; I could read it several more times!!

For those of us (actually, I am pretty sure ALL of us) who have, at one time or another, had life throw us a curve ball, I highly recommend this book. How many times have we had Change just whack us in the back of the head only to find that our very best efforts at dealing with "the relocation of our cheese"” is to sit there dumbfounded saying, "“But this isn'’t the way it was supposed to happen"” or the ever-popular pounding our fists on the table declaring, "“This is not FAIR!"”. Been there. Done that.

So this little book really made me think about the things which I have taken for granted, especially in my relationships and career. Things with which I have become all too comfortable and taken for granted. And then, in what seems to be the blink of an eye, those things change, or go away all together. This is where the fist pounding comes in.

But, as this book suggests, if we are aware that change happens -– and happens often - we can be the master of those changes instead of just being dragged along by them, while trying feverishly to hang onto our quickly disappearing past. That is not to say that we chuck everything we know and start from scratch every time, but we should do our best to make sure that we are not stagnating.

The book has a great catch phrase in it. "“What would you do if you weren'’t afraid?"”. A pretty powerful concept when you stop to think about it. Do we stay where we are because the unknown is just too, well, unknown?

So I challenge each of you to go out and move your cheese today, even if it is just a little bit. Life is not for wimps! Carpe Diem!

Oh, Crop!

I just had a terrific weekend in the (much less hot than Santa Clarita) city of Camarillo. My friend (and Robert's daughter), Jennifer and I went out there for a scrapbooking weekend. A couple of the Creative Memories ( a scrapbooking company) consultants put together a get-away where those of us who have the scrapbooking addiction (or "cropping", as it is known "in the biz") , could get together and work on scrapbooks, get new ideas, socialize and, of course, buy new STUFF!

My friend Beth got me into cropping several years ago and I really enjoy it. I have absolutely NO artistic talent to speak of, so it's kind of nice to be able to have a creative outlet like this. Thank goodness I did well in paper cutting while in Kindergarten - it has come to serve me well.

I do like the idea of being able to chronicle the special events in my life - family, holidays, vacations, special times. It's nice to look back to remember those times and to share them with other friends and family members. In cropping, we try to add momentos and text that enhance the descriptions of the events and the memories we have of them.

So, this weekend, despite the fact that Jenni and I spent a good amount of time yacking in the Hospitality Suite; eating Brie cheese and sushi; and lounging by the pool, we managed to get quite a bit of work done!

So, for anyone who might be interested in moving away from the shoebox method of photographic storage and would like to join me on a crop get-together sometime, please let me know; it should be a lot of fun. I'll bring the Brie.

We all have to start somewhere...

Well, after much inspiration, and a bit of much needed nudging by my friend (and fellow blogger), Gina, I have decided to try my hand at blogging. At a time when I am astounded at how much we all take on on a daily basis, it is nice to have a forum, of sorts, where we can hopefully take a few minutes to chat with each other, to discuss, to catch up on life - when life does not often slow down enough to allow for long visits.

As far as the title of my Blog goes, I have a feeling there may be more postings that lean more toward "ramblings" than "ruminations", but that is OK. I just liked the fact that when I looked up the actual definition of "ruminations", it told me that it meant "acts of pondering or meditating" and, as a second definition, "acts or processes of chewing cud". Perfect!! That was just what I want this blog to be about... pondering, meditating and chewing cud!

So come chew with me...see you out in the pasture.