On to O – my life is an Open book. You’ve heard that saying before, I’m sure. Well I may be naturally shy and quite but I choose to be open, publically open. There were times I wish other people would have been more honest about their struggles and imperfections, I know I would have benefited from them. I think I wouldn’t be so hard on myself and I would be more relaxed and even more hopeful. And that is the reason I choose to be open, so if you are going through some struggle that is throwing you for a loop, you will know you are not alone and you will get through it. When I started being more open, relationships got stronger, people responded more openly in return. Open is better than closed: open allows the fresh air to blow through, closed gets stagnant and stuffy. Open you can see what you’re doing because the sun shines in, closed you trip and fall because it is dark and you’ve left stuff lying all over the floor. So even if I occasionally embarrass myself by being open, I would rather have a good laugh with good company than cry alone.

O is also for Organic. I do attempt to buy as many organic products as my budget will allow. Fortunately, it is just me and my husband so we are able to afford more than when we had kids in the house. You can find lists of produce that are listed by importance of buying organic. If I can’t buy organic, I try at least to buy local and seasonal; this ties in with free-range, pastured, and grass-fed. I want my health to be good, so I want to start with the healthiest food I can find. If my produce is free of chemicals and pesticides then I will be free of them, too! Also, I don’t know what you think, but, if the people raising the animals and produce are caring about the environment, isn’t some of that love showing up in the food supply? It also makes me feel good to support an industry that is watching out for the future. I remember growing up in the 70’s; when we weren’t sure if we should even bring more children into the world, with all the pollution and over-population.

More O’s: Order and Organization. This is both positive and negative to me. So the change is looking at these two and deciding if I am being overly compulsive or if I am just making things easier. I told you how I couldn’t make a meal unless I cleaned the kitchen, well, on occasion I do books at the store and if I have to do things out of order, I find myself short tempered and frustrated. If you have ever worked in retail, you know that things don’t always go smoothly, and interruptions are just part of the job. That’s one of the areas I’m learning, order can be a good thing, but it is good to be flexible. It takes some awareness to see, when what I see as a positive, actually becomes a hindrance. I sure wish life were neat and tidy!