Meri's Musings

fall morning sun casts her spotlight on you time for your swan dive  This week's Haiku My Heart offerings can be found at Rebecca's place . p.s. There were over 400 visits to FinallyMe.com yesterday. Please check back often to see what's new.

Today, my dear friend Adrienne and I are rolling out our new website FinallyMe.com. As you can see, our target audience is women of substance, intelligence, wisdom and experience  who are continually growing and responding with grace  (at least most of the time)  to life's challenges and rewards. . . . in other words YOU. We're posting articles on relationships  (marriages, live-ins, friendships, family) ;  transitions  (empty nest, menopause, deaths, divorce,  caring for parents, having kids come back home,  mid-life dating, and so on);  and mind-body-spirit stuff. We're concentrating on women's passions --  like travel, books, films, photography. . .  you name it.  We're featuring discussions in a column  called "Speaking Freely" and the first one  is a humorous article by blogger extraordinaire  Beth McWilliams of "Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Taken." Who knows. . . we might even tell the truth abou...

I love finding joy in the details of life: water droplets hanging on leaves and branches trees putting on a fashion show birds with happy feet What gives you JOY? To play along and share the joy: 1. do a post that tells and shows us  what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post  and paste it into the  Mr. Linky box along with your name. 3. Then click the NEXT box If the "next" box doesn't pop up, click the link to go to the page to select your image -- choose one from your post so you'll entice people to visit. (If you just can't get it to work, email me and give me the URL of the post you're adding and I'll take care of it). 4. visit other players -- as many as possible --  and let their joy infect you.   5. Leave them a comment about their post because everyone enJOYs getting positive feedback. Let's start an epidemic of joy!

“   i will not allow myself to be less than I am   to meet anybody's   expectations.   ” ~ terri   st. cloud

I got a hit of JOY from this quote: Be yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements of your happiness are already there. There is no need to run, strive, search or struggle. Just be.             - Thich Nhat Hanh It's as simple as that, if you don't get all wound up in expectations and shoulds.  Just be. Bloom. . . even if it makes you feel like you're a show-off.  So what? Shine your light.  You never know who'll find her way because you shared your light. Where did you find JOY this week? To play along and share the joy: 1. do a post that tells and shows us  what gives you joy. 2. capture the URL of the specific post  and paste it into the  Mr. Linky box along with your name. 3. Then click the NEXT box If the "next" box doesn't pop up, click the link to go to the page to select your image -- choose one from your post so you'll entice people to visit. (If you just can...

Yesterday I showed you two cover designs and asked you to choose which you liked. I had started from scratch and redesigned the cover because I didn't like the graphic designer's proposal. But in order to use the image I chose, I had to re-title the book. A couple of you left comments (or emailed me) asking why I didn't use my own photos. And a dear friend objected to changing the REAL title to match the image I'd chosen. SO. . . . back to the drawing board. What about this instead? and just to muck up the waters, I've done a second design using another cover photo. Feedback, please. . . 

I need your help.   The graphic designer came up with a cover  for my poetry volume,  but I didn't like it. So I've chosen new cover art and tried my hand at layout. # 1  # 2 Which one do you like best? I need your comments on the "Comments"  background color preference and whether you like the title ascending (as in # 1) or horizontal (as in # 2). p.s. The white box is where the ISBN goes and of course the watermark will disappear when the photo is purchased for use. The photographer/artist is Elena Vizerskaya .