Amanda's Musings

(Originally published 3 June 2012)  "BLESSEDBEING is now officially at my original goal weight of 150 = 65 pounds lost! I've got my Amazon shopping cart standing by!" That was my status from this morning. I don't move my weight tracker the first time I touch on a new weight level. Once I've reached a new low weight (rounded to the pound) and maintained it for 3 days, then I consider it official. I probably didn't set a goal weight when I first joined Spark People in the summer of 2009; I probably did it in the fall of 2010 when I started my serious solo-Sparking (before I discovered the power of Spark teams). 150 seemed really far away from 215, where I began. 65 pounds, a 30% weight loss is significant. I went from a size 18 or 2X in Women's sizes to a size 12 or Large in Misses. (I've even bought one size 10 pair of pants!) I look better and feel better. My joints rarely hurt and I don't get as tired. Why am I not more excited about this? I...

(Originally published 2 August 2011)   Yosemite National Park has some of the most glorious scenery on Earth, in my opinion. I always buy myself a Yosemite wall calendar, so I can enjoy its beauty throughout the year. I was rather disappointed when I turned the page for a new month and beheld a single tree standing next to a boulder. My sarcastic reaction was "Oh whoopee, a big rock!" But at my choice of phrase, I had to laugh. Have you heard the story of Big Rocks? Supposedly a man leading a workshop on time management began with a demonstration. He had a glass cylinder into which he put several rocks, until they reached the top. He asked the class if the container were full. They agreed it was full. He then poured several scoops of gravel into the container, where it settled around the rocks, until it reached the top. This time when he asked the class if the container was full, they were divided, and none were certain what the answer should be. So he took a bag of sa...

(Originally published 6 April 2011)  I’m reading The Spark [by Spark People founder, Chris Downey] and in chapter 2, CORNERSTONE: Focus, he says on page 20, “Locating your purpose and your deepest life intentions can help you move with greater clarity each day of your life.” This definitely struck a chord. As a budding radical, I gave a high school graduation speech on the themes of relevance and organization. Yet I have sensed for some time that my life has been lacking a sense of true meaning. Years ago in California, I was working with an alternative therapist who spoke of creating a statement of your purpose with an active verb. To illustrate, she quoted a friend’s purpose “to midwife the Goddess.” That phrase has stayed with me for well over a decade. Sometime later, I was walking across the street to my apartment building, and picked a penny up off the asphalt. I looked at it as I continued crossing, and for the first time ever, registered the word minted there: Liberty. My...