Getting it Out There.

I am a woman in the middle of my life, happily married, raising with great joy and effort four children. I'm a busy part of a large family - the youngest of seven close siblings.  My parents are entering their 80s with a feisty and pragmatic attitude.  I love to write and have been privately blogging for more than 7 years. I love big ideas, big dreams. Nothing is ever small. So that's me.

Parenting is a hugely cerebral part of my life right now.  No one told me how hard I would work, or how much I would think about how my actions are laying the ground work not only for my life but for the lives of these kids that I'm raising.

My kids taught me to see clearly, terrifyingly clearly, how we impact each other for better and some times for worse. So I work hard, very, very hard to do my best at being the kind of person I'd want my kids to become.  My kids are in the dawn of their lives - everything growing brighter and shining out from them.

Aging and how we deal with it is another huge part of my life. I volunteer with families who are dealing with Alzheimer's Disease and other kinds of Dementia, and I am discovering how hard it is to talk about the end of life not only at the very brink, but in the leading up to it. How does it feel to age? How do we want to be treated? What are we able to control? This is fascinating to me because it matters so much.

I am a reflective person and examiner.  Not everyone is - specifically when we hear from my mother lovingly referred to as The Arch Mother - ("No One Cares About Your Pacemaker" or "Stop Acting So Damn Old"). But my hope is that this can be a place for the practical as well, a place where we can offer suggestions and ideas to help with the day to day of care giving on both sides of the perspective.

This blog, Being The Horizon, is a reflection of the wonder of being in the middle of things.  It is about living deliberately, actively, intentionally. These words and collections are about how to approach life with humor, optimism and faith. I'll talk about kids, transitions, faith and aging.

So growing up and getting old might seem like they aren't related, might seem like too big a scope to tackle together, but to me they seem like both sides of the horizon, equally important and equally illuminating. 

Some of it might be funny, some of it might be tender, but all of it will be true. So you're invited to join me as readers, writers or commentators. Tell me what you think, what you're interested in talking about, I'm hoping to build some sort of community in words that will be bigger than words, as big as the sun.