I have three daughters. The pressure to create three incredible women with the confidence and common sense to overcome all of life's challenges is daunting, not to mention unrealistic. "Practice what I preach, not what I do" is a common and irritating statement that relates well with the parenting challenge. The truth is, they're always watching.

I often remind people the best method when encouraging change in others is to consistently demonstrate the desired behavior. Look at my job, for example. I am here due to researching career development cirricullum while providing staff training for another employer. The art of job applications is daunting, and I decided to go through the process as a matter of example. Who would have known that I would be hired to work for the University of Oregon?

So taking my own advice was ultimately helpful. In considering all the encouragement sermon I recite to my daughters, am I below benefiting from the same presumable healthy choices I encourage them to make? Specifically "when considering your future career, explore something you love to do. That way, work is never a job. It becomes what you love to do with your time."

After almost 15 years in mostly social work/government roles, it occurred to me how much I appreciate helping others. I would like to help people plan their lives and experiences. I have decided to pursue a career as a life coach and travel agent. At this point, I have only the start of a picture of myself: what I do for others each day, how I would spend my time 'working' and what ways I connect with the larger community. This thinking takes me back to the personal mission statement, which I have just now decided is my next blog topic.

I don't yet know all the turns on the path, but I trust the destination. The how now is being back in school this term, continuing to refine the vision, and using blog space like this to map out all the thinking.

Whose to say I am not the weird one?

It has been so long since I have visited my own blog, that I had to access it through my own Facebook page. For someone interested in writing, I sure avoid sharing my work online. The following has little to do with travel and more to do with living.

Life experience is subjective. This weekend, it occurred to me that observation is often stranger than participation.

I attended a local event last Friday named the Bucket o' Blood. This unique side show, sponsored by High Priestess Piercing shop here in Eugene was a spectacle for the strange. After witnessing two lovely girls being stitched together in the cheek, I watched as several men electively suspended themselves with hooks to various contraptions and one another.

In retelling this experience, it occurred to me that as they spent time that evening practicing ritual (and apparently painful) passtimes, I was truly the freak in observing.