Shifts in thought

Image

Roots.

Leave a comment

If you celebrate a birthday in September, chances are you were conceived in January, sometime. Certainly, a fresh way to think of a birth-day (yes, I’m thinking of you, sister).

All that possibility. The idea of you. I wonder if you September babies have an affinity for January. Do you feel new?

My own beginnings took place in March. I can enjoy an extra celebration of myself every year in March, if I choose to think at it this way. When I do think of March, I think of the wind. In like a lamb, out like a lion. A change of season. In the “January” of life back then, I do not exist.

This March, though, I can ponder with fresh perspective. It’s a blessing to know where you come from. When you begin. How it can renew your spirit, even now.

 

Image

Influence.

Leave a comment

There’s this thing making the rounds on social media lately. The Top 15 Movies or TV Series That Have Made an Impact on You Challenge. I am simply not able to let it go. So … here’s my list and the reasoning behind it:

Dances with Wolves – makes me so very humble and truly present
Star Wars – gives me unexpected joy
Out of Africa – resonates with my heart
Beauty and the Beast – perfect in every way, plus I know all the songs by heart
JFK – who was assassinated on my birthday
Cinema Paradiso – the essence of movie magic
Being There – my kind of humor
Murphy’s Romance – the law of attraction
Picket Fences – three words: David E. Kelley (and the funniest fart scene I’ve ever seen on screen)
Northern Exposure – hooked from the first promo, for the first time
CBS Sunday Morning – Charles Kuralt is the reason I work in media
That Girl – young girlish goodness
“The Joy of Painting” with Bob Ross – my introduction to meditation
Food Network – Barefoot Contessa/Tyler’s Ultimate/Michael Chiarello’s Easy Entertaining in particular – brings me out of a burnout stupor
Rocky & Bullwinkle (especially Fractured Fairytales) – understanding that a brilliant mind can be crazy, too

Here are a few extras (Only 15? Come on!):
The Shawshank Redemption – definition of hope … and the discovery of Zihuatanejo
The Way We Were – opening scenes shot at Union College in Schenectady, NY
Sophie’s Choice – the power of a single, unflinching camera angle
The Flying Nun – I look so much like Sally Field as a young girl, folks call me “Gidget.” And they are spot on, only I relate to The Flying Nun a little more -what, with me wanting to be a nun at the time
Lonesome Dove – I am a cowboy in another life
Xena: Warrior Princess – laughter all day, every day, whistling while I work

These, I keep coming back to … for now!

  • Janet Muniz is an award-winning professional writer known for informative articles, inspiring blog posts and engaging video content. Currently a Creative Content Strategist with EverEffect | Internet Marketing Agency & Consulting Firm, her personal blog is devoted to filling the well with poetry, pictures and originality.
Image

Skybreak.

Leave a comment

Somewhere between Seattle and Portland, on a train.

  • Janet Muniz is an award-winning professional writer known for informative articles, inspiring blog posts and effective video content. To hire her, contact her here.

The new normal.

Leave a comment

Sun rises later, now
lower in the sky
Shards of light cut deeper across fertile land.

Just after High Noon peaks
End of Day squeezes the brightness down
into tight fists of Never Enough.

Yet,

What once delights mellows with old love,
potent and pure in its remains
ripples in satisfaction more subtle and soft,
stepping back from the heart to the gut without regret.

Feeling in the bones a release of grit and sweat,
moving with ease and shine

into a season of slowing down and letting go.

  • Janet Muniz is an award-winning professional writer known for informative articles, inspiring blog posts and effective video content. To hire her, contact her here.
Quote

Pattern.

Leave a comment

“They wondered nonetheless about the curious net of obligations, failings, coincidences, and events that seem to tie everything together, even for those who think they are free … maybe there are laws of obligation which bind us to patterns that we can’t see and to tasks that we don’t perceive.”

-Mark Helprin, Winter’s Tale

  • Janet Muniz is an award-winning professional writer known for informative articles, inspiring blog posts and effective video content. To hire her, contact her here.
Image

Bucket list.

Leave a comment

  1. Choose wisely, silly human.
  • Janet Muniz is an award-winning professional writer known for informative articles, inspiring blog posts and effective video content. To hire her, contact her here.

Let it be.

1 Comment

“It’s your job,” my husband cries out, waking me from a good stretch of slumber.

“Are you awake?” I ask.

“No.”

I am, and I don’t fall back to sleep for hours.

Later, when my husband is awake, I ask him about his late night outburst. He tells me about his dream … he is getting ready to host the Beatles at his hotel, and he’s summoned the staff together for a pep talk. He tells them what needs to be done to make the place ready. “It’s your job,” he says …

“That’s funny,” I say. “I woke up this morning singing, ‘Let it be.'”

He nods, and knows how I feel.

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
From this, our mantra for today –for many days- is revealed.

And when the night is cloudy there is still a light that shines on me
Shine until tomorrow, let it be
I wake up to the sound of music, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

  • Janet Muniz is an award-winning professional writer known for informative articles, inspiring blog posts and effective video content. To hire her, contact her here.
Aside

Timeline for life.

Leave a comment

The comings, the goings, the ups, the downs, the beginnings and ends of life.

This is how I learn to conjugate verbs in French. Funny thing is, I can’t remember how the phrase relates to speaking the French language … it’s become more meaningful to me in English.

  • Janet Muniz is an award-winning professional writer known for informative articles, inspiring blog posts and effective video content. To hire her, contact her here.

Wow That’s Fantastic.

Leave a comment

On the drive to my yoga studio, I pass a billboard advertising a local fitness center. I don’t ever look at it, but I do today.

The very affordable “$10 A Month?” message hardly registers, given the huge-front-and-center “WTF”. For me, the real eye candy is the fresh explanation for this particular acronym: “Wow That’s Fantastic.” As I smile, thinking to myself, It’s all in your perspective, I also wonder, Is the world ready for a new meaning of WTF?

Go travel the “WWW” for an answer. This billboard has been seen across the country for at least six months or more. There’s a Facebook page devoted to it, a YouTube video, television news stories plus a plethora of blog posts having this conversation. Apparently, this WTF gets people talking. Or is it Planet Fitness? I can’t tell.

It appears that a Florida-based agency called Anson-Stoner is responsible for the bold purple-and-yellow ad campaign –although they’re not taking credit publicly (i.e., on the website) for this, the most outrageous creative, which is not out of line with the rest of the messaging (see example to the left). It’s a pretty attention-grabbing campaign, Anson-Stoner.

But I digress.

It really is all in your perspective. “Give me a break, WTF has been around a lot longer than the abbreviation used for potty language,” comments Trevor Michael Rogers on Facebook. “WTF stands for World Taekwondo Federation where I come from.” There it is. On the Planet Fitness, it means “Wow That’s Fantastic” … and Janet Planet agrees.

  • Janet “Planet” Muniz is an award-winning professional writer known for informative articles, inspiring blog posts and effective video content. To hire her, contact her here.

Rewarding opportunity.

Leave a comment

No power. No internet. No phone. No cable. Emergency-only cell phone service.

Yes silence. Yes loving up my kitty-kids. Yes crackling fire and candlelight. Yes losing myself once more in the words of Mark Helprin … in the movement, the memory, the song.

Awesomeness-only from Mother Nature.

No greater yes reward.