Final Cruisin with Cricket Blog Post & Next Chapter for Becky & Georgie

Reflecting on my final blog post of Cruisin with Cricket.  Who thought when I sat down that first time at the computer and tried to figure out how to blog that I would close this chapter with 1, 694 posts!  To me that represents life ... one blog post at a time and before long we have 1,694.  Cricket is in a new chapter in her life.  A friend actually saw her on main street walking with her new family hearing a sweet 'Come on Cricket.'  This past week has been a very busy one for me and Georgie.  Perhaps a good thing as we are making the adjustment to Cricket being gone.  I am reminding myself she is in a wonderful setting with a family that adores her.  She gets five walks a day with some fabulous dog walkers :)! 

 Just as there is a special space in my heart always for my determined Pantera - guide one; there will always be a special space for my connecting Cricket - guide two.  Love her and so grateful we can be in touch with her in her next chapter.  Super grateful and excited to be in this next chapter with my Georgie Girl.  

You can follow Cricket , and we will also share updates .  Forever love this beautiful dog and all I learned from her.

Today Steve and I celebrated our 30-year anniversary!  His love, friendship, always believing in me, and support  in all my crazy ideas ...means the world to me!  Love and thank you so much, Steve.  

I am thrilled with my next chapter with my beautiful guide, Georgina.  Georgie Girl and I have had a week of such amazing bonding and hard work.   Each of my guides I can reflect back on when it 'clicked' in on that deeper level.  For Georgie and I it will be today.   I am so proud of this girl and love her so much.  I am learning so much from her!   We hiked up to Ensign Peak today.  I explained to her this is a nice place to view the city :).   I have hiked up there with each one of my guides! Oh how times flies!  As we walked up there, I reflected on walking with Pantera, my first guide, as a youth leader in our church and again with her puppy raiser.  I reflected on walking with Cricket and friends and family on several occasions.  I loved walking up there today with Steve hand in hand celebrating our 30-year anniversary and introducing Georgie to the area.  

Georgie and I are thrilled to announce our next adventures as we create our Loving Life List.  We are approaching 2 and 50, you know!  Georgie will be there as I cross the finish line of the NYC Marathon in November.   Georgie will take many flights to Washington, DC and other places.  (Love her petite size that snuggles in underneath the seat.)   Resilient Solutions, Inc is celebrating its ninth year in business and growing!  I love working with this amazing group of people! Our next 5K Run for our nonprofit Oasis Center is coming up!  I am having some wonderful opportunities to help others Find their Resilience.  I am working on plans for a retreat ... and mostly enjoying the simple moments in life with family and friends and a beautiful guide, Georgie.

Live like someone left the gate open -- Unknown.  

I love this quote! As I told a client the other day, it is an active daily intention to create joy in our lives.  It can be much easier to find what is going wrong - what is hard - what is negative.  We can turn this around.  The gate is wide open for each of us as we have the intention to see life with gratitude and joy.  It is there each day - even on those hardest days.  Sometimes it takes us to paths we didn't know existed. It often takes us to paths that didn't seem like the path we wanted to go on.  The path can be steep and rocky at times and we wonder if we can do it.  Sometimes the hardest part is believing we can open that gate and take that next step.  Go for it.  I can still recall that first scary step with my first guide Pantera - 17 years ago.  I timidly said, forward, to begin to trust this beautiful, happy dog.  An instructor was behind me ready to help us out as we ventured out.  The love of life was my inspiration to take that step and the next and the next ... 

Thank you for following our journeys.  Sometimes difficult moments have turned into: this will be fun to blog about and then to get a comment from someone that felt lifted from my words makes my day!  

I am so grateful for Guide Dogs for the Blind  for the gift of three amazing guides that have blessed my life in so many ways. It is literally a gift with no cost to the students - including your guide, transportation, instruction and more.  It is through the generosity of others that make this possible.  If you would like to support in this whole process you can donate and help someone have this beautiful gift of independence ... and so much more :).

We hope you will come join us in our next journeys at: Blind Resilience  I am excited to share in our adventures and the lessons I learn along the way.  It is still "under construction" -- just like life, right!  As I am creating this next space, I would love to hear your input!  

(Written on July 19, 2014).