A Charmed Life... Is It Possible?

I have a little book called Creating A Charmed Life by Victoria Moran. The book is made up of suggestions... sensible, creative strategies for coping and thriving. I find inspiration in many of these suggestions. Suggestion number 12 says "Enjoy Your Eccentricities", encouraging the reader to "unearth the whimsical wonders inside you". That appealed to me right away. Just the term "whimsical wonders" inspires me.

Perhaps the most relevant to my current situation is number 16: "Live Your Life in Chapters". It reminds me that I can't have everything at once; my life in Philadelphia was one chapter, and my life here close to my family is another chapter. Realizing this helps me to concentrate on what I am doing now rather than concentrate on what I am missing from the previous chapter of my life. (An exception to this is the friends I made when I lived there; I still cherish them and talk to them and see them as often as I can. That means a lot to me; I wish they were still a part of my everyday life.)

Suggestion number 33 follows logically from there. It is "Seek Compatible Frequencies". What does that mean? She explains it is "finding places where you recognize yourself" and suggests that "we are happiest when surrounded by people and places that are in sync with us". In Philadelphia, this was true for me. I felt in sync with my surroundings. I loved working in the city. I had a job that was ideal for me. I had friends who were soulmates. After I moved here, I felt out of sync. Culturally, politically, socially out of sync. Now I have to work to find places where I can recognize myself, in this different environment.

I am still working to find these places. I grew up near here, and my family is here, but I am a different person now. I no longer recognize myself here. That's a very strange discovery to make. I have found a favorite bookstore, and a favorite coffee shop, but they are both far from my neighborhood. I have made a lot of progress inside my home, making it feel like "home" to me. But, I still need to find more places outside of my home where I feel comfortable. The search continues.