Tag: dailyprompt

Leisure, Mental Health

A positive thing a family member has done for me.

beingmesober

Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.

I’d like to honor this post to my God Mother who is also my Aunt. Aunt Lee Ann. She passed away March of 2025, she was the oldest of 4 children and the sister to my father, who passed a month earlier, in February of 2025. Yes, together they left.

Aunt Lee has a son and daughter. We were extremely close growing up and still are. My cousins became like a brother and sister growing up together like that.

Lee Ann was a strict Catholic and when her 2 kids were older and had moved on with their own lives, she started getting more involved with the church, she did some tremendous work all over the world . She helped many and devoted her life to the church. While she was busy doing her life, no matter how busy or what part of the world she was in, she never let a birthday or Christmas go by without sending me a message. It had to be sent at 12:00am exactly every year so she could be the first to wish me a happy birthday 🎂, or a Merry Christmas. I was also told I made the best tea ever! Ha, til I figured out her game 🤔. Some of my favorite memories throughout my life are with her.

She played a very positive roll in my life. She guided me and helped me get through some of the worst times with my dad and our estrangement. She was the only one who totally understood where I was coming from and kept me sane pretty much.

I miss her, but I know she is up there watching over me, still guiding me. She will always be the first voice I hear on my birthday, wishing her, “favorite niece” the best birthday from her, “favorite God Mother and favorite Aunt”.

Thank You Auntie Lee 🙏🎂🎄

Leisure

What is my favorite restaurant?

beingmesober

What is your favorite restaurant?

My favorite restaurant will take us back to the 70s. Mr. GreenJeans. Downtown Toronto, in the Eaton Center. It was located in the corner of the massive 4rd floor of the mall, I think 🤔.  It was so so cool. My mom would take me when I visited on the weekends. I would have been 9 then. The restaurant had huge high top tables and green chairs. It was set up with greenery and ivy trellises, beautiful flowers, with parrots, fake, in tree branches all over the restaurant. It made you feel like you were in a jungle or rain forest. They served the best burgers and fries with a milkshake! After a long day of shopping we needed a good lunch and Mr. Green Jeans was my favorite.

Fast forward to the year 2012, we had a condo in Ft. Lauderdale and always hung out at a place on the corner by the beach called 101 by the Ocean. My husband and I met so many great people there during our 15 years on that coast.. One evening I was speaking to a gentleman who was from Toronto, ohhhh, where abouts, I asked, he was from Rosedale a very posh area of the city, then he said he owned a restaurant in the Eaton Center, and guess which one???? MR. GREENJEANS! I was beside myself. You’d think I just met God! I was almost screaming with excitement and yelling for my husband to tell him who I actually just met. He thinks I’m crazy 🤪  Take our picture, take our picture. I hadn’t even asked this poor man if I could take his picture. Lucky he was friendly and most definitely loved the attention. I couldn’t wait to send my mom the picture and tell her who it was in that picture…She flipped out lol.

His name is Shelley aka Mr. GreenJeans, and a lovely man. I was so honored to meet the man who built something that I still love today. He had played a part in my happiness as a child and left me with such fun memories that I will cherish forever.

Thanks Mr. GreenJeans

https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2025/08/history-mr-greenjeans-restaurant-toronto/

Leisure, Mental Health

Five everyday things that make me happy.

beingmesober

What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?

Hello fellow warrior’s!

Its hard to narrow down what brings me happiness through the day to just 5 things but here are some that bring me to a happy level.

  1. Waking up is of course the first thing that makes me happy. What the day will bring while my dog Gracie, a golden retriever, is sprawling all over me, or doing the stare from above to wait to see an eye peek open.
  2. My coffee! Aw, the smell and taste of that first sip of brewed coffee. A splash of hazelnut and the warm sensation that perks me up.
  3. Getting my morning phone calls from my kids. Sharing their day from the day before and what their plans are for day ahead. The everyday I love yous to fill my heart and put a smile on my face.
  4. Playing with Gracie in the pool or going for long trail walks.
  5. Ending the day with my husband and Gracie, with a good dinner and movie, a beautiful sunset by the beach or some good conversations under the stars and moonlight.

It doesn’t take much to make me happy. Some good conversations, laughter and love are what my happiest days are filled with. Oh, and maybe a little shopping 🛍.

Whatever your happy is, never stop!

Mental Health

One positive change I’ve made in my life…

beingmesober

Describe one positive change you have made in your life.

There’s so many positive changes I’ve made since the biggest change which was, giving up alcohol.

In doing that I’m becoming who I am born to be. My priorities changed, my view of life changed and my healing began.

Other changes I’ve made have been to analyze my relationships. I had to let go of certain relationships to continue healing. So that I could be a better person, mother, daughter and friend. That was a very difficult change. Letting go is never easy, especially when it’s family. But, in doing that we grow.

I finally needed and demanded to be treated with respect as a person, as a mother, as a daughter and as a friend. If I want to live a full life and be truly happy inside and out, its up to me to make the necessary changes.

If you don’t like something, change it. The outcome is almost always a positive one ✨️

Be good to yourself and those around you.

Leisure

What animals make the best or worst pets?

beingmesober

What animals make the best/worst pets?

Hmmmm, I personally think dogs are the best , but I do love all animals except rodents. Yikes.

Animals are very intuitive and can be amazing support/therapy partners or just companions.

Birds are the worst. Although I love them, just not for a pet. They screech and make a horrible mess. The feed attracts mice and their feathers go everywhere! If you’re not with them constantly they pick their feathers off and you end up with a very unhappy bald bird. Did I mention if they’re flying loose they land in your mashed potatoes 🥔 🤔.  I know this from having a cockateil named Peppi. He would fly into my father’s dinner. Not fun! Its funny now but Peppi made dad real mad.

We said goodbye to Peppi and gave him to my grandfather who had the time to give and Peppi grew his feathers back. Peppi still was a frequent flyer and he learned to sing and stayed on gramps shoulder. They had a great bond. For gramps a bird was great, not so much for me or my dad, lmao 😆

Leisure

How would I improve my community?

beingmesober

How would you improve your community?

Our community consists of probably 30,000 people in the winter and jumps to over 100,000 in season. My husband and I live in a beach town just north of Toronto. The beach is beautiful, nature trails are so rustic and calming, a few restaurants, a few big box stores and lots of people with not much to do to  accommodate them through the winter months. Ghost town.

The main beach is being restored and revamped which is exciting. Its been the same for so many years and had gone down hill.  That is a huge improvement for our town. The next thing that needs improvement are the hotels/motels around town. I would consider getting volunteers to help bring life back to these places. Beautiful gardens. Donations to revive the interior finishes. Age limits on renters, no monthly rentals. I understand people need places to go but the upkeep has to be mandatory as well. Noone wants to drive by and see garbage, mattresses on their front porch, old ratty furniture outside. We need more people in our community to lend a hand to those less fortunate and help repair, rebuild and keep the community beautiful.

I’d love to have boutiques in our community.  Somewhere to shop for unique items. Maybe a cool coffee shop to visit after, other than the original Tim Hortons or Starbucks, one that you can’t wait to visit to sit and enjoy the atmosphere and delicious coffee.

There’s always improvements to be made in any community but what really matters is how the community bonds together and are proud to live there.

Do your part to help with the community you live in, together we can all make it better. Reach out to your neighbor and be kind to the people around you.

Together we win 🫶

Mental Health

How I’ve adapted after the Pandemic.

beingmesober

How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?

Covid! What a time. Strange and scary. So many changes.

I was really always a home body but since covid I believe I’ve become more of a home body.

I loved going shopping. Outlets, malls, the bigger the better, but now find myself ordering online, I feel overwhelmed in some stores because there just so packed. I don’t have the patience to be going through all the racks like I used to. Is it age or due to the fact we spent 2 years indoors and got use to the convenience of online shopping?

Although, Covid helped me discover art and the creative side of myself on canvas. That was a blessing. It gave some of us time to just sit and get uncomfortable and absolutely bored, but opened up areas of yourself that were hidden because we are a rushed society and have no time to spend on ourselves.

We are forced to adapt to our surroundings at times. We have to otherwise we’d go crazy or be left behind. We adapt quickly and carry on as best we can.

I’ve adapted to fist pumps instead of hugs when friends or family are not feeling well. I’ve adapted to seeing more masks on people and not finding it strange.

The one thing, several things, that are hardest to adapt to are the price increases on everything! How do we adapt to that when some don’t have the means necessary to adapt? The struggling I see with so many, my own adult children trying to make a life like we had up to 2020. Buying a house for 20/30 somethings is almost impossible to do on their own. Rent! Ha, shoe box for 1500-2000/month and getting paid min wage.

Somehow, we all adapt whether we like it or not. Forced to adapt to a new normal.

Art – “Pandemic and Politics” – Kelly Petrie -Kpz Art

Leisure, Mental Health

My favorite type of weather…

beingmesober

What is your favorite type of weather?

Let me start by saying my husband and I are Snowbirds, so I guess my favorite weather is sunny and warm with the smell of the ocean air. Sweet smell of cut grass and dewy mornings. Amazing sunsets by the water, wrapped in a shawl when the nights cool to a comfortable 70°. I love the way I feel in the sun and warmth. The smile and hellos from strangers because the weather has lifted their spirits.

However, I do love the odd rainy day to light my candles and have a zen day, to feel the calmness rain brings. Snow for Christmas and Fall for the colors and crisp mornings. The rejuvenation we feel when Fall has arrived awaiting what waits for us in the coming of a fresh start with nature and a new start for some of us.

Weather can be depressing at times and for long periods of time due to months of rain and/or cold, fridgid temps and isolation. Its important to have hobbies or distractions when weather isn’t ideal. There are options for getting through the cold, rainy, snowy months. Light therapy is a very helpful alternative to the actual sun. Join a gym, arrange a get together once a week, weather depending, to connect. Stock up on books and games.

Whatever your favorite weather is, soak it up and say Thank you to Mother Nature ✨️

Mental Health

How do I deal with negative feelings?

beingmesober

What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

We all have those days. The negative ones. Some are triggered and some hormonal and some from lowered dopamine.

When I was first experiencing these negative feelings as well as intrusive thoughts, it was after my first born. Hormonal and lowered dopamine that affected everything in me. I would be sitting there thinking of ways to die, thinking of destruction and just so miserable and negative. I was never that person. Never wanted to destroy things or drive into a tree and hope to die. I was so confused and unhappy. I shouldn’t of been though. I just had a new baby a beautiful home and lots of support from my in laws. I spoke to my mother in law who spoke to her sister in law and made a visit to me and suggested I go to the doctor. I was so scared. What the helk was wrong with me. Where was the happy bubbly person that use to reside in me? I made an appointment and was diagnosed with severe depression with under active dopamine, and was given an antidepressant, Prozac. At that time Prozac had a very bad name. Suicides were being blamed from taking this drug. I was nervous but I had to try. It worked! Before I knew it I was back to being me. Happy, adjusted and enjoying life and most of all my baby boy. Trees were spared!

I have been on the antidepressants for 32 years now and I am so grateful for them. If there was no solution to this diagnosis I can say without a doubt, I wouldn’t be here. So today when I do have negative days, of course, I sit with the feelings. If I know why I am experiencing these feelings then, I sit and replay every detail, every word and tell myself it’s okay. I will get through this. If I wake one morning and don’t feel like me, I am quiet and stay to myself. My husband notices right away and always asks what’s wrong, having a bad day? Yes, I would tell him and just by talking and saying I felt horrible I felt a bit of relief.

Talking is so important when you are in a negative head space. Express what is happening, get a hug, call a friend who understands, let your feelings out, meditate. Communicating is not easy for everyone especially when feeling this way. Just remember you’re not alone and it’s temporary.

So sit with your feelings, analyse your feelings, talk about your feelings, journal your feelings, but always know, it’s gonna be okay.

Leisure, Uncategorized

From failure to success

beingmesober

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

Fail! Who wants to see that on a paper or class grades! Who wants to think of being a failure.  No one, but we do at times and it can be a horrible feeling.

When I knew I wanted to sell real estate my children were still young and I wanted to be there for them and knew that real estate would be a demanding career. So in 2009 I paid and signed up for the course. I was super excited to finally start my career.

I was still actively drinking at that time and failed the first phase 3 times! I quit and gave up and thought of myself as a failure and did the whole self sabotage thing.

My husband and I went on a trip with our good friends 3 months after I failed my exams, but I was also 3 months sober. Ugh, what a hard time that was as I look back. One evening when we were out my friend asked what was happening with my course and I told her I failed. She asked if I was enrolled again. I said no, I can’t do it. She turned to me and told me to sign up, to do it again, that I can do this if I really want it. You can do this she told me.

After returning home I signed up once again. I passed the 1st phase the second exam, the third phase on the first shot!! Whoohoo! The third phase took 2 tries, then the commercial side of it, I almost quit again after the 4th attempt at the exam. My daughter told me not to give up, that I’d come this far and that that is the advise I would give to her. Hmmm, how can I quit, I couldn’t.  If for nothing I had to keep going to show my children what determination and commitment looks like.

I finally did it!!! 2010 was the year I was a licensed Realtor!!! My dream came true. I was so proud of myself for sticking to it and not giving up. My kids were proud, my husband was proud and my friend was so proud.

My career was very successful and I did well. I loved the opportunity and experience of helping people move towards their dream. I felt like I had made it. I was something, I was smart and capable of anything I put my mind and effort into. Even after failing all those times it made me love and appreciate it more.

Failure isn’t failing. Its experience and allows us to do better. Failure gives us appreciation when we succeed, ✨️ its about not giving up, and getting back up, it shows how strong we are and how capable we truly are.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.