Making the Change!

Every year before I make my New Years resolutions I always take inventory of the previous year. Things that went well and things I need to work on.

This year is no exception. A very wise woman in my life, LILY, asked me not long ago while I was going on about some relationship in my life not working out -“why do you always go to the same well expecting a different result?” This question hit me like a ton of bricks.  Wow! She was so right. This piece to the puzzle has been right in front of me but I couldn’t see it clearly. Was it because that well was so familiar and comfortable, or was it because I just wasn’t up for the challenge to make the change?

Happy 2012! I have my New Years resolution. Make the change!

 LILY is not just any woman asking me this question… LILY is my 90-year-old life coach, spiritual adviser and dear friend. LILY knows my life, she knows about my family, my friends and the stories of my broken heart.

LILY came into my life in an unexpected way. When I first moved into my house 12 years ago I started to see this 4’8” 90 lb Louise Vuitton backpack wearing JEWBU (Jewish Buddhist) walking all over town. I would offer her a ride but she would always refuse saying “walking keeps me young.” She was in her 80s then.

It wasn’t until 2008 in the heat of the presidential election that our friendship blossomed. At my yard sale for the Obama campaign LILY was front and center. She held her own with naysayers that came for a good debate and was her charming self when the Huffington Post interviewed us that day.

I had closed my wholesale handbag biz that year and I had some time on my hands. While waiting to find my next big biz adventure LILY and I started to spend more time together. We would walk up the street and have tea or sit in her living room and talk about mediation practices, the ego, politics and life.

 LILY has lived a very colorful life. She was a stage mother traveling with her children as they sang and danced across the country, lived on an Ashram and studying Shinzen meditation.

When you walk down the street with LILY there isn’t a person that walks by without smiling or stopping to say hello. She radiates energy.

It’s hard to believe that LILY spent a portion of her life with no friends. First as a child because her family was the only Jewish family in town and as a young adult because she married a man in 1944 whose skin was a different color.

What has always stuck me with me about LILY is her clear mind and that she is always so positive. She gave me a book to read that changed her life…Living Love. After she read it she took a leave of absence from her job and drove across the country to study with the author. The book was very clear in it’s message…JUST BE HAPPY. 

                                             

                        

 LILY turns 91 this year on the first day of spring. We spend our time together a little differently now and the topics of our conversations have mellowed.We spend time together on weekly movie outings and I go to her house to do her hair and nails. We tell each other stories of our lives and talk about boys like we’re a couple of teenage girls.

   No one has the Joie De Vivre like LILY!