Be well now.

Once upon a time, there lived a happy family comprised of a mother and a son, who both enjoyed a comfortable existence. Mother found satisfaction in her job and studied hard for her full load of university classes. Son was extremely well behaved, had lots of friends and liked sports, chess and skateboarding. Their pristinely manicured neighborhood was situated on a lovely lake where playful children roamed and parents felt secure. Their days were pleasant. Life was good. Mother was soon to graduate from college, so there would be more goodies to come.

Sound pleasant? Yes, I know. This brief generalization represents the life of my son and me only a few short years ago.

Two days after I earned my B.A. in English, I started graduate school and immediately lost my income. Financially broke and emotionally spent, I left school to focus on my son’s well being and to find an income replacement.

The day before we were actually going to be homeless, a family friend offered up his carriage house where I was to pay rent when I was able. Winter arrived and the carriage house was soon rented to a new tenant. I sold my car and pulled together enough money for a moving truck and first month’s rent for an apartment home.

I eventually landed a part-time writing job, thanks to a VCU college professor, who I admire greatly. I still have that job today.

I continued to scrape together enough money to meet our basic needs, but it wasn’t enough. Five months later were facing homelessness, again. I was worn out from worry and stress. We were falling apart.

Today, my son and I exist in a multigenerational household comprised of family members who were all affected by the tanking economy.

I admit that on occasion I was tempted to sample the tang of bitterness. I suspect it would be a rather effortless surrender. But it didn’t sound like a pleasant way to live the rest of my life.

The lesson – if you can count on nothing else, you can always count on change and while we own our stories, we must not allow our stories to own us.

So I continued to look for work, hoping to reignite the spark of self-sufficiency that I once took for granted.

Recently, I was offered a job as a financial adviser. I was excited about the prospect of anyone willing to hire me, despite of my inherent lack of knowledge on the subject and my thorough dislike of number crunching.

I informed my dad of the prospect.

He said, “Think bigger, Sara.”

Huh?

How could he say that to me? It wasn’t long ago that my son and I had existed in severe poverty. It wasn’t long ago that I couldn’t even land a job at a grocery store.

“Don’t settle for something that you don’t want to do,” he said. “Even if it makes you money, it won’t bring you happiness. Follow your passion, do what you know.”

His words resonated. I felt like I had been given permission to give happiness another shot.

I started to collect ideas. Having always been fascinated by holistic practices, I went online and searched countless web sites on various aspects of alternative health and wellness.

I found impressive newsworthy sites that do a thorough job of reporting on negative aspects of eating meat and the bad things big companies do that pollute the earth. The emergence of these sites illustrates humanity’s increasing desire to live more consciously and intelligently. Congratulations to us!

But I am no watchdog, nor am I an authority in any subject relating to alternative health and wellness. With my confidence still bruised, doubt settled in and tried to get comfy.

I thought, “Why would anyone care about what I have to say?” I told myself to get real.

“Get real, Sara,” I said.

Then a memory surfaced.

I was sitting at my desk in my first grade class, when Mrs. Hendricks asked her students to answer a question by a show of hands.

“Is it better to know a lot about one thing, or to know a little about lots of things?” she asked.

I thought to myself, “Oh! I know the answer!”

She said, “Raise your hand if you think it’s better to know a LITTLE about LOTS of things.”

My hand shot up. I looked around. I was the only one holding up my hand. I kept it up high, waiting for everyone else to get with the program. No one did.

I walked home from school that day, feeling dejected. I couldn’t imagine the thought of living my whole life only knowing about one thing. What a depressing thought. I decided on my walk that I would never live my life that way. I vowed to know about a lot of things.

I am not an expert on alternative health and wellness. Journalists are often what I like to call provisional experts on the countless topics they research. I can’t predict that I will become an expert in this area by default, but I look forward to at least knowing a little.

With this project, I’ll be exploring different ways to achieve a higher level of overall wellness and thereby residual peace. I really want to find it.

For the next year, I will research an assortment of alternative wellness practices and explore a new topic each week. Schedule permitting, that’s one new article each week for one year – and the extent of my commitment as of today. May 11, 2010: As I have discovered, personal growth cannot be rushed or placed on a schedule. One thing I have learned over the past couple of months doing this blog is that I am not in control of everything, nor do I have to be. Whew!

After articles post, I’ll share my experiences with each technique. This offers you, the reader, access to an honest, first-hand account of the possible benefits or drawbacks of every technique covered.

Finally, welcome to the beginning of my personal quest. I invite you to take this journey with me – and hopefully, you will find the information useful and we can both learn in the process.

If you find that my articles and experiences offer value to your life, two things happen. You benefit from my first-hand accounts and I benefit from your camaraderie.

Articles will post each week, following blogs about my experiences. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question for others to see or send me a personal e-mail at, bewellnowjournal@gmail.com

If you find enjoyment in this site and news you can use,  please tell others. And if you feel so inclined, you can also make a donation in any amount, by visiting the Donate page.

I dedicate this blog to all who inspire.

I hope you enjoy. Happy reading!

Love and light,

Sara

“We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we are so deeply interconnected with one another.” –Ram Dass, author of Be Here Now.