The Beginning

As Julie Andrews once sang as she sat on a beautiful mountain top in Austria in The Sound of Music, "let's start from the very beginning, a very good place to start", I couldn't agree more! This is truly my fourth blog and I am devoting it to pure writing just like my first one.  The second time around I changed my original (Northville Domino) to a jewelry blog (JK with MJ) for a direct selling business.  The third, which is still very current and active, is for my yoga business (mj-yoga).
I promised  my grandmother, Louise Carol Storm Kesleay, who just passed last year at 96, that I would continue my writing.  I was writing, or journaling, the day she passed and I have had writer's block ever since.  At least for some truly inspiring content.  I journal frequently to my children and even to my grandmother, but the beginning of this new year has brought a clearer focus to my inner thoughts.  Or, at least they are back to spinning wheels like a vortex or chakra, illuminating energy radiating outward through the spokes.
Just yesterday I was scanning my bookshelves and noticed a book called The Shack by Paul Young; a book which I loved and cannot put down!  I think my entire family read it, too!  I thought to myself how many books are there on not only my own shelves, but others that have been unread, enjoyed perhaps more than once or have been forgotten. Books take us on journeys that we often never will in our lives and it is this fantasy or simple entertainment that we pay for.  We desire the need to be taken away form our daily grind and everyday lives, but then I thought about a quote I also saw a verse saying something about being happy with our lives instead of trying to run away from them (like on a vacation).
My own father cannot escape daily stress without being on vacation or on his bicycle.  The bicycle is the only thing that he does not have to leave town for that brings him peace.  Or, you will find him on a live-aboard dive boat off the coast of Fiji each  year at age 67. Even though he enjoys his reading (right down to historical biographies to the Reader's Digest) his utopia cannot be found locally.  Take him 100 feet below see level and across a continent or two and there, he has found his peace.  I often worry about him on these extravagant trips, but I know he is in a good place for him.
Like in The Shack, there is a simple cabin that turns out to be a good place. A magical place that takes you on a journey through life offering new and life changing circumstances. Do these pages of literature gives us the inspiration we need to change our sorrowful lives? I gaze again at my shelves and find The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.  Where do I begin?  I read this masterpiece two or maybe three times.  The author encourages you to choose a partner or group to hold you accountable for each daily reading or chapter.  I shared it with some very special people and each time I processed the information differently.  It truly depends on your life at the time and where you are spiritually.
To ensure there are no misconceptions of the content of my bookshelves I have to share that others stacked high and low consist of such various titles: Mocking Jay, Fifty Shades Freed, Mandela, Chakra Meditation, The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, The Alchemist and so many more!
So this is certainly a beginning for me, but not one of pure organization. The books that I love so much just stood out and prompted me to get back in the game!  That promise to my grandmother has been on my mind daily and her mother once wrote under the name "Stormy", thus my title's inception. I suppose my true beginning will begin with her, Louise.  I will make it blog post number two so there is a clear separation from my rambling.