Sometimes you feel like the world is just raining down on you. Like this isn’t your day, week or month. Sometimes it can be so bad that it feels as if this isn’t your year.

I remember when I was having some health issues. It seemed that once they found something wasn’t right, I seemed to start falling apart. My blood pressure became too high, I broke out in a random rash, I had dry patches of skin, I was having stomach problems and the list could go on. I was falling apart.

I was seeing so many doctors that I was a pro at filling out all the medical forms. I thought what was going on!!

Finally everything settled down and everything went on as if nothing has happened. It has been years since this time in my life and I have a hard time remembering all the details now.

I do remember that I was not enjoying the time and I would have given anything to be a good health again. Once it happened, I forgot all about how bad it was because life moved on.

Life moves on and it always gets better.

No matter if it is your health, career, family, and/or relationship. When you feel like you will never know what it is like to be normal again, it happens. Life gets better. It turns your way.

Maybe it is because this is the ebb and flow of life. Maybe it because someone believes in you and always turns things around.

Maybe that person is you.

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It is never easy to face disappointment. Sometimes life just doesn’t turn out the way we thought it would. Things do not always go our way. People do not always act the way we expect them to act.

We get disappointed.

A TV show I loved for many seasons ended this past weekend, LOST. I was so looking forward to the finale. A lot of fans hated how it ended. They were disappointed.

I wonder if the disappointment comes because the show let us down, or because our expectations of the show were not met?

I notice that most of the time when my expectations are not met. Doesn’t mean that I every told anyone what they were. I just set them myself and assume an event, person or experience will meet them.

I have no doubt this comes from my need to control. I want to be able to control how my life goes so I set up clear expectations to make sure life follows the exact plan I set out.

There is a famous saying, ” Life is what happens while you are making plans.”

When you try to control life and reminds you over and over that you are unable to control it. You can only live it.

If we let go of our expectations to just lived in the moment and enjoyed what was, would life be disappointment free? I am not sure this would be a guarantee but I have a feeling we would be less disappointed and more surprised than ever before.

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When I was working at a restaurant, a friend and I went out for lunch and shopping. We spent most of the time laughing and sharing stories. We also spent a lot of time flirting with boys.

My friend found a boy she liked at the GAP. As young as we were instead of talking to him, we just followed him around hoping he would talk to us. Of course, this could be considered stalking but when you are young, who cares.

He never did pay attention to us and we grew tired of this game and just went off shopping. We ended up dropping by the GAP one more time to see if the guy was still there. This doesn’t seem to make sense now back then it seemed possible.

When we arrived he was no where to be seen. My friend decided to buy chap-stick before we headed to work. The girl at the counter rang is up and said, “Red Lobster. YES!”

My friend and I both looked at each other stunned and said, “Yes that is where we work.” The girl then shared a guy checked out earlier and asked if she knew where we worked.

My friend looked at me with excitement in her and eyes and I screamed at her, “ZOODO-DODO!!”

Of course she said, “What!”

…

I was so excited about the situation I didn’t know what to say. That was what came out of my mouth. ZooDo-DoDo. I guess it is something you say when you are excited about a freaky situation. I can not tell you where these words or phrases I come up with come from but it has something to do with the moment and my enthusiasm.

…

We headed back to work all excited wondering if the boy would show up that night. He didn’t.

A few days went past and I was working in the same station as her. I remember walking with her to the kitchen when we past the front bar and noticed a guy sitting there looking around. My friend turned to be and said, “ZooDo-DoDo!”

…

Weeks later the whole restaurant was using the phrase ZooDo-DoDo. Everyone seem to know the meaning and when it was the correct time to use it. People would be overhead correcting others and who said it wrong or used it at the wrong moment and time.

I even started hearing people say it to their tables and customers.

Zoodo-DoDo was taking off.

With time this faded of course and a new silly phrase or word was invented and used again. All through my life I have always had this Michaelisms that I created. Never know when one will appear, how long it will stay and when I will move on from it.

My friend reminded me of this story recently and said how she missed all my Michaelisms now that it has been years since we have worked together.

…

I think this is what all the letters have been about as we moved along. They have been about just being you.

I know that some of them work for you and others do not. That is because we are all different and at the same time, all so much alike.

I want you to remember the best thing you can ever do in life is just be you. When you are at your best, that is what people remember. They remember all the little things that make you fun, happy, silly, freaky and different.

When you love yourself, others will love you. When you accept yourself as is, others will accept you as well. When you embrace who you are, others will see your light shine bright!

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As we wrap up this alphabet, I have to use this letter for something VERY important.

You.

Everything I share with you from stories, experiences, my tips, activities and thoughts are all based on the principle of you.

You have to want to make a change.

You have to be willing to look at your own life.

You have to be willing to make your own changes.

You have to be willing to self reflect. You have to be willing to put all of this into action.

You have to comfortable knowing what will work for you and what will not.

You have to be willing to go from liking to loving your life.

You have to be willing to have fun.

I write this blog for you. I know it is not always going to speak to you or connect with you. I just hope when it does, you are willing to do the work needed to get what you want.

In the end, it is all about you! Doesn’t that feel good? It feels good to know that it is all about you. You get to be empowered to live the life you want.

I couldn’t talk about you without saying thank you. Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for joining me on Facebook. Thank you for referring your friends here. Thank you for becoming my wonderful clients. Thank you for laughing with me. Thank you for making me smile. Thank you for your wonderful notes and emails.

Thank you for just being YOU!

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Seriously, what else could I have used?

When I am talking about XXX, I am meaning your freaky side. We all have those little things we do which allow us to wave our freak flag proudly.

I want to talk about allowing people to have the right to fly their freak flag. It is too easy for us to want to pass judgment and make people feel they can not live their lives the way they want because we believe what they are doing is wrong or freaky.

Well let me tell you, there are things you do that I probably think is freaky. It goes both ways. It is time we stop worrying about other people and focus on ourselves.

Today I encourage you to instead of thinking of others and their freaky habits, you think about your own. Not only do I want you to think about your own, I want you to celebrate it!

I love what makes people unique. I love when people embrace who they are and celebrate it no matter what anyone else things. This is your life and it is time you be proud you have your freaky side.

I think Christina Aguilera celebrated it best with “Not Myself Tonight”

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Life Sucks

The sooner you understand this, the easier life will be for you. Life is full of opportunities, adventures and excitement but sometimes there are moments that just suck.

I woke up early in the morning with pain in my back like I had never felt before. I knew something was terribly wrong. I started pacing back and forth in the house and didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t want to go to the ER because I was hoping it would just go away. I realized after a good 15 minutes that this was not the case and I needed to head to the ER.

I was so scared and I kept wondering, “Why is this happening to me?” The pain was bad and I just wanted it to stop. I kept pacing and rocking waiting for it to end and while I waited for the pain medicine, it stopped.

As suddenly as it had started, it had stopped.

I found out I had a kidney stone. Of course I was not overjoyed with the news and this now required I see a new Doctor and get tests and x-rays to check on me. Even though the pain had stopped, I was know still having to run around for more days and weeks all because of a small kidney stone.

I didn’t understand why this happened to me. I questioned what I could have done to cause this. Was it because I didn’t drink enough water? Was it because I didn’t eat right? Was it because I didn’t exercise enough or even at all? Was it because I rented that movie in the hotel 4 years and they didn’t charge me and I never said anything? Was it all the nachos I have been eating for all these years? Was it because I invited a guy over once to play with edible body paint?

Why did this happen to me?

The problem was I forget one thing. Life sucks.

There are moments in which there is nothing you can do but say life sucks. Things do go wrong, things do happen to you. A lot of the times we do not know why it happens to you and not other people. It is just how life is. Sometimes it throws you a surprise and you have to handle it.

Looking back on my kidney stone woes, I can see how small it really was in my life. I honestly do not remember all the details and it seems like it was over in a flash of time. I have so many better memories and experiences that out weigh that one moment.

That is the ebb and flow of life. There is the good and there is the bad and it is our role to tip the scale towards more of the good.

When the bad moments happen, do not beat yourself up wondering why it happened to you and how you could have prevented this. Simply take a deep breathe and know that at this very moment, life sucks.

The good news is that you know how to make it better once again. This time will not be long and soon, you will move on to better things.

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I was at Starbucks the other day (I seem to learn a lot about life there) and was waiting to make my order. There were two women ordering in front of me and I was standing behind waiting.  As the women were leaving, they were touching everything and taking up a lot of space so I had to move to make room for them.

As I returned to the register to order, the girl behind the counter said, “I am sorry sir but she is next.” I replied, “I have been in line waiting.” She rolls her eyes at me and says, “Ma’am how can I help you?”

The woman behind me, looks at the girl and says, “He was next. He has been standing her the whole time. ”

The girl then, looks at me and says, “What do you want?” I am embarrassed and upset that this girl is being rude to me. I didn’t do anything and it wasn’t my fault. There was a simple mistake made by the girl but she is acting as if nothing is wrong and is even still being rude to me.

I ordered my drink and headed to pick it up. The woman behind heads to the counter, orders and tells the girl, “You were rude to him. You need to say your sorry.”

The girl said, “People jump line all the time. I was doing my job of good customer service to check. This is not my fault. He should understand.”

…

Sometimes someone will say something and it upsets me. I tell them how it hurts and they says, “I didn’t mean it that way.” This is supposed to make it all better. Well, it doesn’t. It sucks!

Just because you do not mean it or it was not your intention, doesn’t mean my feelings are not valid. I am hurt by what you said and I deserve to be validated. A simple sorry would be nice, wouldn’t it?

When we are upset about something, others try to push the blame on us. We misunderstood, it wasn’t the intention, we are overacting or we shouldn’t be so sensitive. These could all be true but it doesn’t mean our feelings are not real and it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be allowed to feel that way.

I believe people push the blame on us not to be mean but they feel guilty or ashamed on how they made us feel. They want it to go away and they want us to feel better. They think if they give us excuses, we will justify it and still look at them in a positive way.

Saying I am sorry is not about saying you are guilty. It is letting the other person know you didn’t have the intention of upsetting them. That you know their feelings are real and you recognize it.

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