Welcome to my unique tale of Christmas. From the outset, let me just apologize to Dr. Seuss and Isaiah and Luke from the Bible. Creative license will be taken.

Once upon a time there was Me. I ran Leslie Inc. more or less by myself with my crazy talented board of directors. (More on that in a later post!) And then things, well, they just hit the fan! Conjure up Dickens at this point and Jacob Marley or Mrs. Havisham. Things were not looking good. In fact, as these last two Dickens tales suggest things were downright bleak. In addition to the fan going haywire my doctor took away my driving privileges due to a nasty seizure. How was Leslie Inc. going to stay up and running without wheels? There was Uber of course but what about the “in and out errands” I run every day?

I turned to my intrepid CFO, Cindy, for guidance. Not only did she provide answers… Cindy provided wheels, advice, take-out, doctor’s appointment visits (you can imagine there were a lot of those), running me to all my Leslie Inc. appointments, help settling mother’s estate, cooking occasional meals and company at my favorite watering hole when the days got just a little too long. And those are just the highlights. She was so much better than Jacob Marley! Just like Who-ville needed their Cindy Lou, I needed my Cindy to be the central character in helping me keep going.

But one day, Cindy Lou had to have shoulder surgery. We don’t know in Dr. Seuss’s version whatever became of Cindy Lou after Christmas but my guess is she collapsed in total exhaustion and ended up in the hospital having one of her little joints replaced! Bless her little heart.

It took me a minute to realize, but Leslie Inc. could run okay without Leslie. But its capacity to operate without Cindy was another matter altogether. It couldn’t. It didn’t. Not well anyway. Think about your computer crashing and all your life’s work with it. Gloom and doom settled in my bones! Just like Dickens! But honestly, even Dickens had the foresight to write a happy ending. Maybe not for Mrs. Havisham but because this is a Christmas tale he did reverse the Fortune of poor misguided Ebenezer. Remember little tiny Tim? “A Merry Christmas to us all. God bless us every one!”

So in my daily mantra when I breathe, meditate, pray, and stretch my sacrum (I am definitely a multitasker), I asked for wisdom, love, contentment, and joy to fill my heart. Because, really, what is the point of living if we allow negativity to cripple us. Or if we constantly desire a different life? How truly sad it would be if we are so busy wanting for something else, that we miss the everyday blessings and miracles that offer themselves UP not in a giant bow but many times, offer themselves up to us quietly, gently and lovingly. They are so easy to miss if we are not aware; if we do not go through our day with open hearts and eyes. That is what meditation has helped me do; see those little things, the smiles from others and the many random acts of kindness that are not random at all.

I’m not sure about wisdom finding its way to me but I am here to tell you, without any equivocation, JOY did. I just didn’t know it at the time when I was repeating my mantra and said reverent prayer that she would be a real person in the shape of a 29-year-old mother of two! I’m here to tell you, JOY is real and she does exist! Joy and I have ridden all over Charlotte. We have gone in the mall a dozen times, cut and pasted my novel until Joy remarked that all the cutting was causing her to break out in hives! And we are about to embark on our first ever office party!

While we may not receive physical manifestations of our hopes and prayers in exactly the packaging we have specified or our mind’s desired shape size or color (I’m not sure Ebenezer really welcomed the trip down memory lane nor did I exactly expect this young woman to show up on my doorstep in her Lululemon) it makes me wonder: why do we limit our prayers in that they have to be standard issue according to OUR specifications. If you really think about it, just remember who the true GIVER of all our gifts and blessings is.

I certainly hope Cindy Lou Who will be up and driving before you know it! But more than anything I hope her shoulder has healed and mended so she can return to being the life force in her own “Who=Ville”. And I really hope this 29-year-old can keep up with me and stay warm in my menopausal, “cold enough to cause hypothermia” house. I wanted to keep her alive and healthy so I had to invest in a space heater. Bless her little heart.

And to all my wonderful but tired villagers in Who-ville who have picked me up both literately and figuratively, and to all of you all who have generously read this blog, I wish for you to find your own joy and that the light will shine on the everyday miracles in the upcoming Year. Here’s hoping 2018 will offer itself up to you and each day you will be simply astonished by the beauty that surrounds you.

#EnjoyYourLife

Leslie XO

I’ve noticed this phenomenon over the last few years. I even discovered it in my own household. Is a fresh perky carton of eggnog nudging its way in front of last week’s leftover turkey and dressing ?  Is a fresh block of Fruitcake shoving past a container of some limp green beans? Do your countertops have left over cans of sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce being cast aside by Chex mix, candy canes and Christmas China? Are there rooms in your house that have colors of brown and orange, and big giant turkeys wedged uncomfortably next to red and green Christmas ornaments and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer? Are the flaming oranges and happy yellow mums dumped to make way for tropical poinsettias?

 If so, you may be suffering from a case of SSD, also known as Schizophrenic Seasonal Disorder. It happens to the best of us. Even me. My sweet little turkey towels that have kept me company for two whole months are stacked up right next to my box of Christmas cards awaiting to be addressed. They didn’t do anything wrong. The calendar just changed on them. It’s not their fault the calendar changed on them.

 So if you suffer from Schizophrenic Seasonal Disorder. What can you do about it? Is there a tablet you can take that will ease your suffering. I’m afraid you won’t find the answers during the commercial break while watching David Muir on Nightly News. My first thought is to just turn off the news entirely. The news these days is just atrocious and so awful. Nothing I could write here is as depressing as 30 minutes of news.

 I’m just figuring all this out with you guys. Maybe we should just open our eyes and see all the invisible people. Before you commit me, let me explain. The woman or the man guarding traffic so your children can cross safely. A person standing in front of your local grocery store collecting for Salvation Army. You can give them something for FREE. Give them your ATTENTION and give them your smile. You would be surprised at the reaction you receive from them just to be noticed. NOTICED. What if we did that year round?

 And what if you went and got them something warm to drink at Starbucks. I promise it would make you feel better than it ever will them.  What about if you bring the friend you see day in and day out, a small bouquet of flowers from Trader Joe’s… “Just because”. Remember the story of the widow’s mite?

 NOTICING isn’t easy. It is HARD work. Because we are SO BUSY. Making eye contact requires thought. It requires action.

 One of my FAVORITE sayings is “Listening is the most rudimentary form of Love“.  Part of listening is PAYING ATTENTION with an OPEN HEART. Perhaps it is not an affliction at all, but as they say in the music industry: a lovely MASH-UP? After all, isn’t Thanksgiving the season of giving? And Christmas the season of LOVE? It may not be the perfect Cure. But it’s a good start.

#HOHOHO

#EnjoyYourLife

Leslie XO

I awoke Wednesday morning to the news of David Cassidy’s death. Strange feelings and emotions swirled inside me. Women of a certain age, like me, remember David Cassidy this way: David Cassidy was our FIRST CRUSH! How many of us have vivid memories of David Cassidy in that crushed velvet jumpsuit? The lunchboxes? The bus? And how it felt that he was just singing to you? The song “I think I love you” danced in my head replacing my current soundtrack of Maroon 5, and Sara Bareilles.

The news also conjured up a darker time and place for me. Adolescence. During adolescence BOYS commanded my attention. Unfortunately, because I was trapped in this “bargain-basement body” I did not command the same attention from them. But with David, I was on equal footing with every other girl my age; the chance of any of us getting to touch and kiss David were the same: ZERO. I realized my life was going to be about surgeries, physical therapy and visits to the men in white coats who were nowhere near as crush- worthy and handsome as David Cassidy. It made me think: Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf made death look glamorous and fascinating. Of course, I had to hang around and run Leslie, Inc.

But not on FRIDAY! On Friday night.  I forgot all of my troubles and hummed “C’mon, get happy,” and parked myself right in front of the TV set, so I could practically kiss David while he sang to me. As sad as I was Monday through Thursday, Friday, made it ALL worthwhile! I smiled, I laughed, I swooned, and sang off key. No matter David and I were in perfect harmony. Saturday was just as happy because the new additions of TIGER BEAT came out. I would take my allowance and go to the City Pharmacy, buy a fountain lemonade and purchase TWO copies of the same magazine (extra credit here for those who know why). One copy was to cut pictures of David Cassidy out so I could put them on poster board in my room and the other copy set alongside my bedside table untouched so I could flip through the pages while I was propped up in the “land of counterpane” after surgeries.

To this day I can tell you that David Cassidy’s favorite performer was BB King and that he named his own guitar “Lucille” after Mr. King. I can also tell you that David Cassidy had no chest hair whatsoever because I stared at his bare chest so often it’s committed to my memory. Even now. In recalling these details with my friends Katie and Mary Scott we all decided if I could just spill all these useless facts about David Cassidy out of my little brain I might have been able to do something truly worthwhile with my life like cure cancer. But instead I’m still able to sing so many of his songs by heart.

Today I am in really pretty good shape. Knock on wood. And then the news breaks about David Cassidy. It seems strange to me that I am still here since quite possibly he had a hand in helping me survive the angst of adolescence.

I hope he is on some ecclesiastical cloud singing to his adoring heavenly fan base. Because the point is, some of us are “TRAPPED” by something. Mine just happens to be my body. The trick is finding  JOY even if it’s in the form of a heartthrob once a week. We all have a Friday in our life. Tomorrow will come. And a tomorrow WILL be better. In my mind the song that he would sing the loudest is also the wish I make for all of you; Count your blessings, enjoy your life,  and sing it with me: C’MON GET HAPPY.

#EnjoyYourLife

Leslie XO

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SOooooo….

The inaugural blog was going to be entitled from “Rejection to Resiliency” but UGH….

Rejection sounds like such a downer and resiliency sounds like you just completed a 35 mile marathon. GOOD LUCK with that.

This is about resiliency or maybe it’s about adaptability remaining anonymous…

SOoooo back to the post.

It was October and I had this autumn plate. I had these towels. So everything was hunky-dory. But on closer look they were damn turkey towels. But I am not a LITTLE person with a BIG life for nothing. After pondering the situation and using some language that my mama wouldn’t approve of, I figured it out.

For the month of October, I flipped the towels around. No turkeys anywhere. On November 1, I flipped them back and Voilà there were turkeys everywhere.

Just remember turkey towels. It’s all about figuring things out… Things are doable. It  requires us to look at things just a little differently.

And remember….

#EnjoyYourLife

Leslie XO