After 11 weeks in some sort of a cast on my right foot, I am finally free. Free!

What a relief… But now the work begins. I got the okay to not sue my air cast any longer on Monday and yesterday I jumped right into PT. I’m done with laying and sitting around and ready to be outdoors walking and enjoying Mother Nature.

Right before I fell, I had been walking 3 – 4 days a week, mostly on the trails at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, and I am itching to get back on those trails.

Years ago I walked 4 – 5 days week, when my daughter was young and it was so healing for me: body, mind and soul. I was just starting to feel the endorphins kick in after about 3 – 4 weeks of walking when I fell.

My physical therapist asked what my goals were yesterday and I told her walking. As we talked more, I explained to her that I have a dream in the back of my mind that I would like to see come to fruition in the next couple of years and that is to walk The Camino.

I explained that I had recently watched The Way, and it renewed my desire to make the trek:

Click here to view the embedded video.

One day at a time for now… slowly, steadily building up strength, flexibility, balance and agility. Walking The Camino is no walk in the park, it is in fact a pilgrimage or spiritual adventure, depending on your religious views or lack there of.

I can honestly say now that I am starting to build up my strength again, the past 11 weeks were truly a very difficult time in my life. I am grateful to have had a really good orthopedic doctor who immediately recognized my injury as a Lisfranc sprain. it’s a complicated injury, that will takes weeks of PT to finish my recovery.

And then… Well, there’s trails at Parker River, Maudslay and elsewhere where I can make a type of daily pilgrimage to feed my body, mind and soul with the healing, loving nature of the Mother.

And so… the Mid-Life Crisis Adventure continues…

(Photo: Hellcat Swamp Trail ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)

It’s hard to know where to start with my thoughts on Tom McNeal‘s new book, To Be Sung Underwater.

As a women who’s own mid-life crisis adventure placed her back at her roots a couple of years ago, on so many levels I could identify with the main character in the novel, Judith Whitman. In To Be Sung Underwater, Whitman’s life took her from Vermont to Rufus Sage, Nebraska and then California, where she ironically ended up living in Toluca Lake, CA, the area of Los Angeles that I lived in for 19 years.

I could not help but wondering when reading the book if there was not something in Los Angeles, that for small town people like myself and Judith Whitman’s character, drains the soul for lack of nature. Because surely in reading To Be Sung Underwater there was a sense in my opinion, that as Judith Whitman returned to Rufus Sage to meet her long lost love after 25 years, she returned not only to a relationship she left behind, but to a place where life was simpler and far more serene. A place that where simpler truly connected the soul to the earth, sky, air and water.

In our youth the idyllic notion of love is far more simplistic than the reality of adult life. Marriage and children bring responsibility that can be difficult at times to settle into and often as the years pass by, leave us wondering about that simpler time in our lives. This time when we start to wonder, mid-life, for many brings a strong desire to reconnect with our lost youth.

Judith Whitman’s wake up calls in mid-life, triggered a series of round-about events that brought her back to her past. And what she found there was profoundly heartbreaking yet enlightening. In the time spent reuniting with her lost love, Willy Blunt, Judith Whitman was given a chance to grow, and make peace with the past. I finished reading To Be Sung Underwater and felt that in time she would.

I was immediately captured by the characters in To Be Sung Underwater. I felt the author, Tom McNeal was at his best in describing scenery in the book only in writing about Nebraska and looked for more about her surrounding in Toluca Lake which were vague. Perhaps it was the parallel of my own life spent in Toluca Lake, but I think it was more of interest in Judith’s life there.

Once immersed totally into the book, as the story deepened I could not put To Be Sung Underwater down. Then when I knew I was nearing the end, I needed to step away to breathe deeply before I finished it. I was glad I did.

If you’ve been through your own mid-life crisis, or long to rekindle with a lost love, you’ll feel this powerful book very deeply as I did. In truth, To Be Sung Underwater is book to get lost in at any stage of adult life.

I may just have to read it again because it’s one of those books that I know will cast a different light the next time around. So much to absorb, so much to feel. So good to read.

I lead a busy life. I enjoy staying busy. Work to me is fulfilling because I always feel as though in my work, from my business to my blogs I am making a difference in the world.  

In a couple of weeks, I’ll add a new aspect to my busy life — a job. I’ve been self-employed for 13 years. The recession has taken a toll on my business, so I felt it was time to make that leap back into the work force while the business rides out the recession. Thankfully the job hunt was painless. I found something quickly.

This Friday, I will be moving again  – back home to the Newburyport, MA area, where I grew up and lived for 33 years.

I love living in Maine. I love Eastport. However, job opportunities are sparse here. I didn’t think when I moved here that the recession would hit even harder than it had when I made the decision to move to Maine late last summer.

It’s all good. It’s my “Mid-life Crisis Adventure 2.0.”

As a wholesale supplier of natural bath and body products to small retailers, I wasn’t at all surprised to read the news this morning that “Retail sales fell for a second straight month in April.”

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that retail sales fell 0.4 percent last month, much worse than the flat reading economists expected. The April weakness followed a 1.3 percent drop in March that was worse than first estimated.

Cottage industries like my own have taken a big hit in this recession. My clients are all lagging in sales, as am I. Which brings me to another piece of news…

I moved to Maine about 7 months ago, hoping to save some money living in an area that is cheaper to live than Los Angeles, where I had lived for nearly 19 years. Unfortunately my daughter has been out of work since we got here, and there isn’t much opportunity here for her, or me for that matter. I find for the first time in 12 years, I need to find work to help supplement my business income. So… I am moving again — on May 22.

I’ll be packing up and moving to New Hampshire for a bit to stay with friends and then the ultimate destination is Massachusetts (the Newburyport area).  The good news is, we’ll be back in home in Massachusetts in short time and I’ll be officially a constituent of my 2 favorite Senators — Kerry and Kennedy!

Stay tuned… I’m taking all this change in stride — it’s the next chapter in my great Mid-life Crisis Adventure, fueled by the recession!

[Originally posted at The Democratic Daily]

The past few weeks have been interesting… When I started my journey last fall, to move cross country from Los Angeles to Maine, I considered it to be my “mid-life crisis adventure.” I knew I needed a change and it was important to me to be living back on the East Coast where my roots are and to live near family.

Perhaps it is the long hard first winter here, but I think not, there are days when I wonder where the light is at the end of the tunnel. Spring is here, warmer days, longer days, but the sun is not the cure all, for I feel often still that I have not found that missing piece (or peace) I seek.

I’ve been sorting through what I want to do next with my life, like many who have been affected by the economic downturn we are in, I am looking to re-invent myself. Come what may… For now I continue to keep looking…