Originally Posted by
SoloMio 
wanttobehealthy,
I don't know why--I started crying when I read your post! I am so happy for all the cool things going through your head right now! I feel like I'm watching a beautiful butterfly emerge from a cocoon.
I think all of your ideas are wonderful expressions of who you are (of course I don't know you, but they sound great!) Go for it! I think you live in a city, right? So much opportunity there!
As for me, I've gone back to my old journals to rediscover me. The peak of my "me-ness" was in high school, where I just completely explored who I was. Back then, I drew and painted (even one a prize in the town art show--haven't picked up brush in years). I also made all my own clothes and I was a CCD teacher, just coming off of my ambition to be a nun (talk about a fork in the road with two completely different paths). During my recent six weeks away, I actually contacted a retreat house run by nuns to find a spiritual director, and I went to several of their evening programs, which were great.
Solo's post on here made me realize that in addition to the things I am figuring out that I love to do and remembering what I used to be good at, there are SO many more things that I still don't know about myself... Reading others' posts, I am finding myself saying "oh right-- that's something I used to love too"... On the one hand it's sad that I have to have my memory jogged but on the other hand it's amazing to read what everyone is sharing bc it's opening the horizon even more in terms of my list of things I love doing and remembering just who it is I am.
I took a jewelry design class in high school and won a state level award in an art show for some of the stuff I made and had wanted to go to college to study either art therapy or nursing (and did neither). I've turned that "skill" (artistic stuff) into making some pretty cool, unique gifts over the years (made clocks out of antique plates-- sounds weird but they look really cool), made handbags that I sewed ...
I was a volunteer with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps after college and went on a number of amazing retreats during that time and Solo's post got me thinking that I ought to explore retreats and find one I'd like to go on...
JRG- your post reminded me that I love making gift baskets filled with tasty things I bake at xmas time for friends and colleagues and maybe I should add that to a talent and try and combine some of the things I do and make a real business of it...
So, thank you everyone-- I re-read the thread as I said I was going to and my mood is about a million times better than it was 10 min ago!