JonBenet Update

Back in August the story of JonBenet was back in the news because of a man who confessed to her murder. It sounded so concrete in the beginning but his story quickly fell apart and he was never charged for the murder and his entire confession is believed to be a hoax for him to return to the United States and avoid the charges he was facing in the country where he had been residing. Last night John Ramsey was on Larry King Live due to the upcoming 10th anniversary of his daughter's untimely murder. The interview went pretty much as expected but then on Anderson Cooper 360 the subject matter was discussed and several handwriting specialist stated that they had compared the ransom note left on the night JonBenet was at first believed to have been abducted before learning she had actually been murdered and compared them with known handwriting samples of Patsy Ramsey (Jonbenet's Mother) and that they would state professionally that both were written by the same person to a 95 percent certainty. They showed photos zooming in on words from both handwriting samples and I must admit that they looked identical. This just goes to show that we will never know what truly happened to this precious little girl especially now since her mother has died of Ovarian cancer earlier this year. Another senseless crime gone unsolved and murderer(s) gone unpunished. Sad, just sad. I am not saying that I definitely believe the family somehow was involved because I remain torn on that issue just as much of society. I just wish for justice for this little girl which should be enjoying her teenage years.

Emerging in life

When we are faced with obstacles in our life or serious trials and tribulations we may feel as though we've been stopped dead in our tracks. Not knowing which way is up and definitely not which way is out. At first where ever we are stuck is the place where we go around in circles emotionally. Some people get stuck in a denial stage while others may be stuck in a mood of anger or sadness. Everyone reacts differently and there is no right or wrong way to respond to difficult circumstances. We have so many different thoughts going through our minds and as a result we are confused and often very frightened. However the time we spend lost in this emotional wilderness help us to dig deep within our souls and find our true self. We get in touch with who we are and we get in touch with our strength. I've came to the conclusion that this chaotic adventure is necessary in order for us to get through whatever it is we are facing. I believe that this is what gets us on the road to hope. We soon 'emerge' from this emotional wilderness into the full light that brings us hope and we 'emerge' as a stronger person with an attitude of acceptance and the determination to push on and get to the next level in store for our lives. It is just the road we must travel in order to reach the beginning of our new life.

What do you think you have control over? What do you think you don't have control over?

I have control over only my own actions and reactions. I can't control my health, with the exception of eating healthy, etc. A person cannot control whether they get a chronic illness or an illness that becomes life threatening. I can't control the actions of others. I can take control of many aspects of my life but by the same token there are things that happen that I have no control over. I guess my point to this is that we have to accept the things we cannot control and not make ourselves sick with worry over trying to control those things. Of course, we should take the reins and control the aspects of our lives where we can but we shouldn't allow our need to control things to become so huge that we can't accept that some things happen by chance and enjoy the surprise that life can bring to us. If we were able to control everything about our lives I think we'd end up bored to tears. I can choose to live every day to the fullest, never knowing what tomorrow may bring or I can sit each day worrying about tomorrow and forget to live today.

If you were a pencil, what would you write?

Considering how clumsy I am more than likely I'd roll off of a desk onto the floor and have someone step on me and break me in half, . All jokes aside, if I were a pencil I'd keep myself sharpened and write many new laws to support health care reform and to bring about regulations to limit the control HMO's and insurance companies have over the choices of our health care. Too often they determine the amount of care we need such as how long we stay in the hospital after a procedure, they determine often whether we get a particular drug or must take one that is cheaper. These sort of decisions should be left to the doctor we've chosen to be our partner in our health care. These sort of decisions should not be made by a pencil pusher in some insurance company. Yes the pencil pusher was a punt .

I firmly believe that a serious change to our health care system is urgently needed. I have read and heard a lot of political pundits debate the issues pertaining to the health care system that is now in place. Some are for change and some are not. In society I feel you would have to look high and low to find a person who has experienced chronic illness that wouldn't agree that a change is necessary. Those who depend on the health care system the most are the ones who know just how dire the situation truly is. We are going to have to bind together and descend on Washington and demand a change. Until we begin to stand up and put the pressure on the politicians nothing is going to change.

Stress Management

WOW what a doozy of a topic. Stress management in my opinion means that a person attempts to find ways to cope with their stress or to alleviate stress all together or at least minimize the stressful situations in their lives.

How does this pertain to me???? Hmmmmmm, Let me think. Well for one I can be a real stressed out, wound up, ball of nerves. I can get myself tied up in a frenzy over the least little thing quicker than you can blink. I also do not function well when things in my life are chaotic. I tend to shut down emotionally and at times physically. Chaos brings about the strongest of the stressful events for me. So organization is my best tool for reducing my stress to some degree. My organizational skills have been somewhat hindered in recent years for a reason I really am not sure of. I've just had more trouble concentrating and applying organizational skills. At times I've found myself experiencing a shut down when I can't get myself organized. Of course this is a control issue and there are always situations that are out of my control and when those situations come at me one after another, piling on top of one another it is difficult for me to keep from getting all stressed out over it all.

At some point I have to attempt to cope with the situations because dealing with them, putting them behind me then will give relief to some of the stress in my life. The majority of what I'd consider most stressful for me is related to health issues. Those type of stressors are harder to be able to put behind you because they are recurring and oftentimes long lasting. So I've found that alleviating fears, concerns or questions I have about a particular health issue helps to reduce some of the stress elements of those situations. I've found that education to obtain knowledge on something stressing me out is a powerful tool in teaching me how to cope with that situation. Sometimes I'm stressing because of a fear or perhaps a perception I have about a particular health issue, once I research it, educate myself on it I often learn that my fears are unfounded. Once I realize that the fears I had are not likely to happen then I find that I can put that individual stressor to rest.

Addressing the stressors in our lives one by one can be very tiring and in itself can become a stressor. Keeping our lives as simple as can be is another way I've found to minimize stress. Not taking on too much responsibility is something I've had to learn the hard way. I tend to take on way more then I should and I'm slowly learning to cut back. It is very hard for me to not commit myself to something when I'm asked to participate in some way. Saying No is a big problem for me. I'm getting better but it is still a big problem.

I do not believe there is a clear-cut way to rid our lives of stress and personally I don't feel we'll ever be successful at eliminating stress from our lives entirely. All we can do is try to keep our lives simple, calm and not over obligated. We can't do more than we can do and often we think we can do more than we truly can.

Guess who?: Yep you ain't dreamin LOL.

Surprise, surprise, surprise, LOL. I know it has been too long since I've posted on my blog. I just hadn't had the chance to post. Ok, that isn't true really, I just haven't took the time to post. I have missed blogging though. I really enjoy reading blogs and sharing my rants. So I am going to try to get back into it. I may not be as prolific as I was before and only post a few times a week as not to burn myself out. I won't bore you with all that has been going on since I last posted in this first note but you can bet your bippy I'll catch you up a little at a time over the next few weeks. I hope you have all been well.