Body Soiree

I love my town, I really do. It has a bad reputation and I truly believe it does just because there are a lot of ethnic people that live here. It is a suburban town that sits perfectly between two lovely cities; Chicago and Milwaukee. My town is like most small cities, high to low income, issues with the school district and the politics that surround everything; but, I love my town. I love walking down the street and seeing people working in their gardens. On one side of the street their is a man and woman working in the yard, and he has on a kilt, a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and sneakers. On the other side of the street there is a Black man wearing karate pants and a rice paddy hat! Really? All I can do is giggle as I watch the Vatos locos in their low riders, am I back in California? They give me the peace sign and I nod my head in acknowledgment and we both keep movin'. When you live in a town of different ethnic groups, there is always the lovely food to try. I can walk down th...

Besides me trying to be the most positive person EVER ! I have really been working on forgiveness. Oh Yes, the F-word.  Holy Crap! it's hard.  I read a book that requests that you list all of the people that have crossed you, every last one , then write how they have wronged you. You will be amazed at how long this list can get. Then, when you have done all of this, here is the kicker: YOU MUST FORGIVE THEM! Incredibly difficult and mind blowing. Why? Because as you are writing all of this stuff down, you start to notice a pattern in your behavior and in your interactions with other people. If you are willing to recognize it for what it is, great change can happen for you! There can be no excuses, because the Truth will be staring you right in the face, all in black and white. The questions I started asking myself, once I noticed my patterns were: 1. Why did I attract these particular people into my life( Family we can do absolutely nothing about.. sorry!)?  2. Why did I ...

This is a true story. Names have been changed to protect the innocent... and the not so innocent.  On Mothers Day I received a text from someone I used to date. Not anything special, just a "Have a happy Mother's Day" and wishing me well.  I didn't think much of it, until I started getting responses from unidentified numbers.  I just assumed that these women were relatives of his. No problem. Two days later, I receive a text from an unidentified number, again! Asking the question " Are you at work?" by the "tone" I knew this was an intimate question and I most certainly knew it wasn't meant for me. The response, when it came, was "Yeah, what's going on?" Sounds innocent enough, right? Well obviously by all of the irate responses to this most innocent text, a lot of the ladies on that thread from Mothers Day didn't think so! Mr. "think things through" Mr. TTT for short, had created and sent a text thread to all of his...

It has been a long time since I have gotten into an argument. And I hadn't planned on getting into one, but there I was, defending myself.  It was all over me not agreeing with something this person said and they stated that I am judging them. Well, first let me say, to a certain extent we all judge.  Yes, we do. One of the definitions for the word judge:   to form an opinion about (something or someone) after careful thought . Don't we all form opinions? Is it safe to say with careful consideration? I haven't been  prone to make "snap" judgement's, or I don't believe I do.  It seems to me that you can't disagree with folks without them calling you judgmental. Do they realize that they are using this word out of context? Or are they? The second definition to judge:  : to regard (someone) as either good or bad. Is this a bad thing? Or is this just common sense? Some things ARE bad and some things ARE good. To call something out as one or the other does...

As a Personal Trainer you will have all types of clients and hopefully you will at least like most of them. But there are those clients that stand out and insert themselves into your heart without you looking, Patrick is one of those clients for me. Patrick is a tall, gangling young man who happens to be Autistic. His observations on Life and weight loss are simple and direct. I call them: The Patrick Rules- Eating too much candy will Kill you, especially chocolate. Now mind you, Patrick loves chocolate. Rated R movies shouldn't be watched, because you never know what you are going to get. His words exactly. Don't be mean or grouchy, it will steal smiles. Patrick works hard and he is steadfast. He never complains! And I love how he will say to me, when something is new for him and a little bit difficult " Dawn, this is challenging, but I have faith in Me, I can do it." Wow. Patrick is also his own "hype man" whenever he does well, he will say to himself, ...

As I have gotten older I have realized what a know-it-all I have been. I say "have been" because I also realized that I don't know squat about a lot of things. I just turned forty...something, and as I look back I am a little bit ashamed of how I didn't like to take advice or listen to people who actually did know what they were talking about. Is that youth or being a know-it-all? Or are those two intertwined? It was a point of pride for me to be able to figure things out on my own when I was younger. I felt that by asking for advice or seeking help made me immature and that people would think me weak and unprepared for life. How insecure and wrong I was. To ask for help doesn't make you weak, it makes you wise. There have been so many times throughout my life that I have needed help and couldn't bring myself to ask for help. If I had, it would have saved me a lot of heartache I am sure.  One of my friends has a saying "A closed mouth, is a hungry mouth....

I love to see people doing kind things for other people. The opening of a door, picking up something that someone dropped, or paying for someone's coffee. All acts of kindness that back in the day would have been rote; not so much in today's market, huh?  Bad news and bad behavior seem to be king and the king is doing big business. We have two types of people here: The naughty that are never nice and on the other hand the self-aggrandizing, bloated ego and oh, please stroke it! Look at what I did club. The naughty but never nice people I can deal with. We all see them for who they are, because they don't try to be anything else. There is no pretense; they are jerks. It is the other group that bothers me. I started this blog by listing a few kind things that I have seen people do for others, now imagine the same people, after doing these kind acts, running to their computers to  immediately  post, tweet or blog about what they had done? I have seen this happen, on a bigger...