She Chooses

Top Ten Sights I Have Seen in My Second Life

 A Ten Sights guest post for She Chooses(R) by Debbie Felton.

1.  My daughter waiting for me at the airport in Boston after a long time apart. I  cried. The Museum of Fine Arts, dinner at Legal Seafood, the first time ever for both of us seeing "The Nutcracker," performed live by Boston Ballet with the shimmer of Christmas enveloping us in a mystical, transformative night.

2. My brother's fairy-tale wedding.

3. The acceptance letter from the University of South Florida telling me I would be enrolling as a junior for Spring 2010.

4. Standing in front  of Van Gogh's "The Bedroom"  at the Art Institute of Chicago.  I cried.  It was a visceral experience of the presence of the artist.

5.  Chicago in spring, with the tulips a riot of color and the weather so perfect it was magical. The view outside our room at Hotel Burnham as J.H.  and I people-watched the fascinatingly endless parade of passers-by.

6.  The interior of the Chicago Cultural Center, formerly the public library and also known as "the People's Palace."  The mosaics, the domes, the quotes of great writers and thinkers - and to think such a beautiful and wondrous place was built to hold books and was there for everyone. Where has that spirit of civic-mindedness gone?  Yes, I cried again.

7.  The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, and a most fantastic day spent in the company of a friend and mentor helping me learn that life is worth the effort.  On the drive home, a rainbow that flew up into the sky **from the hood of my car** as we drove through sun-shining-through-rain, and the most apt metphor for smiling-through-your-tears I have ever experienced.

8.  The grounds at the Tallahassee branch of the Taoist Tai Chi Society USA in the spring when everything is blooming and fresh from rain.  Walking among the foliage with B.D. and sharing her love of all things of nature.  Peace reigns here.

9.  My friends, I.W. and G.R., who keep the memory of our dearly beloved alive because they are unafraid of talking about him, who help me understand it wasn't all a dream, and who make it possible to cope with the fact that it wasn't.

10.  The face of an amazing young tubist receiving the gift of an instrument he could never afford because of a mutual friend who has been the link between my first life and my second.

Debbie Felton is a lover of books, music, art, food, and friends who make life worth living.

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Please read more Ten Sights.

Would you share your Ten Sights list for possible publication on the She Chooses blog?  If so, feel free to choose your own life description - for example, Top Ten Sights I Have Seen in My ________ Life - then send 1) the list with its title, 2) an accompanying image, 3) a one-line bio, and 4) a link to your website or LinkedIn profile to shechooses@handshake20.com.

Women everywhere are invited to read women's stories in the Her Choice(TM) series, share their stories with She Chooses, submit images to She Chooses and to join She Chooses.

Top Ten Sights That Make Me Smile

A Ten Sights guest post for She Chooses(R) by Gail Billingsley.

I automatically think of things that made me smile then, and make me smile now just thinking about them.

(1) The first flower of spring.  Every spring, I just get giddy.

(2) A Little Blue Penguin in Dunedin, New Zealand.  You've never seen anything quite as cute.

(3) Ed Weathers's mischievous smile!

(4) The view from Ptarmigan Pass in Montana.  The "green side" is awesome!

(5) My cat Spot when, at the age of 20, she caught a chipmunk.  She died the next day.  What a way to go!

(6) Standing on at the top of Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand.  Wow.

(7) Sunrise from my bed on the porch

(8) A perfectly hit golf shot!  (It so rarely happens!)

(9) Watching the gardeners at the Hale-YMCA Gardens

(10) A beautiful waterfall - anywhere, anytime, anyplace

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

Gail Billingsley is a senior marketing and strategy executive.

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Please read more Ten Sights.

Would you share your Ten Sights list for possible publication on the She Chooses blog?  If so, feel free to choose your own life description - for example, Top Ten Sights I Have Seen in My ________ Life - then send 1) the list with its title, 2) an accompanying image, 3) a one-line bio, and 4) a link to your website or LinkedIn profile to shechooses@handshake20.com.

Women everywhere are invited to read women's stories in the Her Choice(TM) series, share their stories with She Chooses, submit images to She Chooses and to join She Chooses.

 

Top Ten Sights I’ve Seen in My Introverted Life

 A Ten Sights guest post for She Chooses(R) by Lizetta Staplefoote.

1. First glimpse at the ocean at 15 and every sight since to scope the vastness of the world and the beauty of constant motion.
2. The universe from the top of Crabtree Falls soundtracked by running water to provide an easy-access route to sanity. 
3. The lifeless face of a child, a brother, and a mother to break me down and build me up stronger. 
4. The smiles of pride on my sons’ faces at my college graduation to make every second of the struggle studying worth it.  
5. The Cure, live, three times, to put me in the same room with Robert Smith, the man who wrote lyrics that still stir my soul decades later. 
6. The grounds of Bonnaroo (10), Lollapalooza (94), and Woodstock (94) serving as food for the spirit of a shameless music addict. 
7. The inside of a jail cell to kick start life changes to prevent ever seeing those bars or orange jumpsuits again.  
8. My name in print associated with the word writer. 
9. The Desiderata, a poem that hung on the wall of my childhood home and on my wall today to remind me not to panic because I am a child of universe and the universe is unfolding as it should.
10. The clouds clearing this morning to sprinkle sunshine on my morning walk.

Lizetta Staplefoote is a Senior Copywriter and closet novelist who loves long walks and beautiful views.

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Read more Ten Sights.

Would you share your Ten Sights list for possible publication on the She Chooses blog?  If so, feel free to choose your own life description - for example, Top Ten Sights I Have Seen in My ________ Life - then send 1) the list with its title, 2) an accompanying image, 3) a one-line bio, and 4) a link to your website or LinkedIn profile to shechooses@handshake20.com.

Women everywhere are invited to read women's stories in the Her Choice(TM) series, share their stories with She Chooses, submit images to She Chooses and to join She Chooses.

She Chooses Is Mobile!

Exciting news! The mobile version of She Chooses(R) is in the iTunes App Store!  

At the heart of She Chooses is Feel. Think. Choose(TM).  She Chooses is both a personal awareness and a social sharing app - we developed the personal awareness side of Feel. Think. Choose. for our first mobile release and look forward to adding social sharing features in future versions and updates.

Here's how She Chooses works:

• In the 1-to-5 minutes per session smartphone users spend with mobile apps, members of She Chooses take a moment for themselves.
• Members check in with themselves about what they are feeling.
• After choosing from the "feelings wheel," a member is asked to select what she thinks she needs from the "needs wheel."
• Now aware of her feelings, thoughts and needs, a member views a list of choices other members have chosen to share, listed in rank order by community members.  She can choose one of their choices or choose her own. 
• She has checked in with herself and with her community before making a choice.  She has fostered the personal awareness that leads to choices that are true to who she is and wants to be.

We invite you to celebrate with us and enjoy She Chooses mobile!

We welcome feedback!  Please let us know what you feel and think about She Chooses mobile. Help us give it all the features you would choose to have!

And thank you to all She Chooses members and supporters - look at the vision you are helping make happen.

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She Chooses(R) mobile was developed by Alex Edelman using Titanium Appcelerator and designed by Kelsey Sarles for Handshake Mobile, a division of Handshake Media, Incorporated. 

Sight Lines

A Ten Sights guest post for She Chooses(R) by Lura Burnette.

1. The Milky Way, always. 

2. Sampans on the Yangtze River, with green and blue mountains beyond. 

3. Dawn on Sanibel island: pearl sky, and Sandpipers running in the waves. 

4. The Grand Canal in Venice, at twilight, with the lights beginning to glow. 

5. Inspiration Point at Yosemite National Park. Breathtaking.

 6. The view from the top of the Empire State building, late at night. The city glitters and sparkles, to the horizon. 

7. Tall ships from all over the world, in New York harbor, on the Bicententennial Fourth of July, 1976.

8. Fireworks over Paris on Bastille Day.  

9. Paradise Meadow on Mount Rainier, in the spring. Wildflowers in pinks, reds, blues, lavenders, golds, as far as the eye can see. 

10. The Great Wall. Walking along on it and imagining Marco Polo's footprints, emperors, thousands who died to build it.

And there it is.  

Lura Burnette is a transplanted Floridian now in the Northwest, who survived the 1960s (!)  and whose loves are photography, writing, the ocean, and the snow-capped mountains that surround Seattle.

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Read more Ten Sights.

Would you share your Ten Sights list for possible publication on the She Chooses blog?  If so, feel free to choose your own life description - for example, Top Ten Sights I Have Seen in My ________ Life - then send 1) the list with its title, 2) an accompanying image, 3) a one-line bio, and 4) a link to your website or LinkedIn profile to shechooses@handshake20.com.

Women everywhere are invited to read women's stories in the Her Choice(TM) series, share their stories with She Chooses, submit images to She Chooses and to join She Chooses.