From our New Year edition of The Loop (Follow THIS LINK to read the full edition)
(also, adopting)
I am not special, yet I am special. This is true of us all.
My mom, Lynette Louise (The Brain Broad), steps into
the lives of people around the world - via film, book, interviews,
speaking engagements, and as a practitioner in our homes - and helps us
explore the dynamics existing in this paradox: we can honor our
special-ness while learning from others who have experienced it before
us.
Also, we can honor our special-ness while adjusting our behaviors along the way in order to thrive in existing environments.
She herself has done this more than many. As a child she wanted to
become a mom (or a missionary) to save children. As many as possible, at
least twelve. She became a mom, but a hysterectomy meant adopting in
order to become a mom to so many. Eight of us kids were legally hers,
but she also invited others to stay temporarily along the way. Others
who needed saving. Eventually she adapted that desire: instead, she
wanted to help children, in order to stop seeing them as needing to be saved.
She had careers and businesses, they were successful in her mind so long
as they were good for her and us kids. When they weren't, she changed
them.
Everything mom chose to do incorporated her special-ness, as well as
ours. But, also, we all had to transition and change to make them work
in existing environments.
Mom is now retired from her most recent work as a neurofeedback &
BioPlay practitioner in homes around the world, but she still speaks and
writes.
(In fact, she will be speaking at the upcoming YOUniquely YOU women's retreat in Bermuda - April 23-26 2026)
But, she is retired. And this has led my wildly busy (some might say - okay, I might say - inexorably busy) mom to reinvent and rediscover.
As all of us in The Loop know, that has included spending more
consistent time with my brother, Dar. Together they have worked
creatively on communication and shared some videos with us.
[follow THIS link to revisit our communication edition of The Loop]
For me, as mom's personal assistant, her retirement has given me reason
to transition deeper into my writing self, which in turn has
transitioned into diving deeper into my personal self. Who I am, who I
want to be now that my children are adults and most of my family lives
faraway.
I am not
special. People my age (in our 50s) are similarly engaged. If I narrow
it down further, women my age who were stay-at-home moms who now have
adult children, we become even more similar. Yet, my journey, my
biology, myself is unique.
As we move into this new year I hope everyone will find the type of
courage and beauty I see in this paradox: We are not special, yet we are
all special. Our struggles are not unique to us yet we do experience
them uniquely. Hence, we have unique insights to share.
This, I think, is why I keep discovering there are places to go when we
choose to leave where we are, and those places are prepared to welcome
us.
Sometimes this will mean adapting to a retired lifestyle, or adapting to
a home with no small children requiring all encompassing focus;
sometimes it will mean adopting new beliefs, adopting new habits, maybe
even adopting children. I do not know where you are in your journey, but
I do know there are others who have been similarly where you are, where
you've been, and where you're going.
I do know transitions and transformations are in your life.
Because they are in all lives.
Happy new year wonderful friends in The Loop!
I hope you are finding pleasure on your path.
Hugs, smiles, and love!!
________
