Goodbye to 2014 - 2015 Here We Come!

What I have discovered as the years pass is that New Year's Eve has become a time of reflection at our adult get-together. The kids are now grown and no longer join us.  Life has moved in new directions for most us - some positive and some challenging.  Favourite memories from previous years bubble up to be shared. We laugh.

BUT underneath there is also the shock of how many years have passed since..................  Time flies by quicker with each passing year and there seems to be no way to downshift into a slower gear.

Reflecting on 2014 brings nothing but amazement. To say there were tough, challenging, difficult moments is an understatement. It brought a few health scares and a lot of stressful times that honestly could not be avoided.  I promised to keep my stress to a minimum in 2014, so dealing with those moments that could not be avoided tested me to the limit.  But the journey led to wonderful things.

In 2014 we finally found our perfect new home.  For over 5 years we had been looking.  The home we were in was getting very rundown. It was on what had become basically a building lot over the last few years, so it would have been throwing money away to keep fixing it up. Nothing seemed right.  We also needed to make this move a smart one and pull out some money to top up our RRSP's.  The process was frustrating.

Then one Thursday on a bike ride I noticed a beautiful little subdivision alongside the river with houses built in a cottage style - darker paint with white trim.  The next day I rode through the neighborhood and fell in love. There was literally only one house for sale.  Our wish list said no strata title, no more than 2 floors, transit close by and only a small yard as Glen was tired of mowing the back 40 when no one used it. Everything was thrown out the window except the small yard and the right price.  This detached home was strata title (but only 11 homes) and multi-story. There was no transit nearby. The closing date they wanted was the busiest week of the year for me. I didn't care. I knew instinctually this would be my home.

Friday I talked to the real estate agent, Tuesday we walked through the house, Wednesday we signed papers selling our house (the builders had been circling for years) and Saturday we had our offer accepted.  This must be close to one of the fastest moves ever.

Every morning I wake up with gratitude as I walk through this house I adore. We have wonderfully friendly neighbors and nature nearby when we need a walk. It is the perfect home for us and the price was exactly what we needed to allow us to indulge in some new furnishings and secure our retirement. How can I so love a garage, a refrigerator with a crisper drawer/ice maker and a gas fireplace I turn on with a switch and sit by when I want to read.  Crazy but true. It is the first time I have EVER loved a home and the roots are going down quickly.

The second big event of 2014 was the completion of a life-long dream - I published my first book.  January 21, 2015, I will be holding a Vancouver launch party/birthday celebration at the Vancouver FanClub on Granville Street. It would be wonderful to have each of you there to party with me. There will be cake! I vaguely remember wanting to write the world's best science fiction books when I was a teenager and even joined the journalism club in high school. But writing by hand or on the old manual typewriter made the process way too frustrating. So many things had to come together over the years - computer word processing offering easy editing, my journey into writing that began when I answered a Craigslist ad, that very first interview where my passion was ignited to share the life journeys of others, co-owning a local magazine for 4-1/2 years where I learned my skills and accumulated the material that would become the basis for this book, writing for Raine Magazine in NYC and lastly meeting Julie Salisbury of Influence Publishing.


The year also held many highs such a visiting my extended family in South Dakota where we hugged, talked, ate wonderful homemade food and set off enormous, amazing fireworks. There was also a wonderful trip to Europe to Prague/Vienna/Budapest in the fall. But hands down the new home and finishing my first book stand out for me. I am filled with gratitude and feeling very blessed.

From the bottom of my heart - thanks to all of you who supported me on this amazing journey. I hope each of you can join me on January 21st to celebrate both the book launch and a significant birthday that sees me entering a new decade. Tickets and media registration are at http://bit.ly/1xaK13G.

Want to know more about Life Outside the Box?  Check out this Q and A - http://www.oliobymarilyn.com/2014/09/life-outside-box-presales-are-here.html.

Happy New Year and may your 2015 be filled with amazing new adventures, love and opportunity!