I am not very good at technology any more. I kept up for the first 20 years, but I'm pretty sure it's passed me by now. I have all these great images to put in the photo at the top of these blogs, but simply cannot figure out how to make them the right size. At any rate, the whole statement is "life begins at the end of your comfort zone." That speaks to me today, having realized that I haven't climbed out of my comfort zone lately. When I turned 60 I promised myself I would do at least one thing every year that was outside my comfort zone. One year I went skydiving. Another year I appeared in a community theatre production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" as the evil Mrs. Meers -- I even had a solo (and I really can't sing). Another year I (and a number of family and friends) tended a dying friend in my home. When I turned 66 I was 17 days into this quit (and that was waaaay out of my comfort zone.) But I turned 70 a few months ago and I've spent more time trying to be in my comfort zone (sometimes even trying to find my comfort zone). I would like to plan something for this year to keep the "out of the comfort zone" tradition going. I'll have to give it some thought.
Oh, some of you may remember when I posted in March about having a migraine and going to the ER and having a miserable experience. Well, I got the Medicare statement for that 7 hour torture -- over $10,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They did one CAT scan and gave me one shot that didn't contain any pain reliever!! As you can well imagine, I am stunned.
So, that's what's going on these days. Oh, I took my first yoga class last evening. My wonderful church has a free class every Tuesday night, and that's now on my calendar (although I must say, I don't have a busy social schedule).
And how are you all? I know most of you who are on here are wondering who is this lady who has already written three paragraphs and hasn't even really mentioned smoking? Four years ago I was four months into my quit, and blogging every day. And for those of you who are inclined to write, I really suggest that. I've never been good at journaling (I have many beautiful books that have three pages written in) but I seriously blogged for the first year virtually every day. This community opened its arms to me and gave me a safe place to be, where people understood how scary it was to commit to quitting; how thinking of quitting meant giving up your best friend, how getting through the first day, the first week, the first month was an actual triumph each time. I mentioned once that I had come to this site about 9 months before I started this quit, and boldly stated that I had quit that day. That was my last "attempt" to quit and it lasted 3 hours. But people responded to my blog, and when I did quit 9 months later, I remembered those responses and managed to finally remember the name of the group and get back to it. Those of us who measure our quits in years keep coming back to help the new quitters AND to maintain our quits. And on any given day you might write a blog that is responded to by someone with more than a decade quit, and somebody who just quit this morning, or is planning to quit next week. And everything in between. That's a big part of the beauty of this place. To come full circle in this blog, our quits take us out of our comfort zones, and EX becomes the place of comfort.
