Windmill Musings

Last week, about this time, I was wondering where I was really going. You don't make huge life decisions while emotional; nor should you make them when you are unsure of your current circumstances. The few of you who have read this know that I think I'm truly in a mid-life phase - and I would now venture to call it more of a pruning, but I'll explain that later. To set up what I want to share today I have to go back two summers. I returned to Indiana for the first time in the seven years since I left it in June 2019. I was able to get some needed relaxation for a lower cost than any vacation I could've taken and I was able to see some of the best people on this planet - my friends! It was such a fun trip - but I left Indiana knowing that I wasn't interested in moving back. You see, I was literally afraid that if I visited I would want to go back - and though I didn't want to move again, I also was growing very tired of California and my life here. That trip thou...

I was to spend this next weekend - Saturday at the least - with a friend in Calistoga. She has been planning a weekend there to relax and enjoy the spas and hot springs, and maybe do a winery. I was going to join her afterward (yes, I was invited even to spend the night). But both logic and being a good friend won over and I just cancelled joining her.  I really wanted to go but two things held me back - the shortness of the trip in regards to the possible cost, and her really needing to relax. I know what her job has been like for the last year or so. Being in the position she is in with the city or county, her job all of the sudden flipped its script and she became a helper in checking people in for first I believe Covid-tests then vaccines (she'll correct me if I remember wrong). It was a stressful job to say the least and not really anything in her job description. But she did it, she pivoted as long as she was asked to, and she learned something new in order to do her job but ...

 I stand by whatever I post and say - even when things change and I need to apologize for wrong thinking or judgements. It was revealed to me this morning why I'm so introspective, or for lack of that being the best word, and having to post about all my thoughts in the past week. First I need to share a few things - then I can reveal to you what was revealed to me. I had a wonderful weekend. It started out with washing/drying half my laundry and cleaning my bathroom, then I headed out for a church service at my friends church. It was very free flowing and small. But it was perfect for me that day. We sang (well, I didn't know the words), and one of the regular members lead our study that day of a passage. It was on God's sovereignty. Such a timely message for me and really for a lot in our world today (but that's, again, a post for another time). Anyway, it was a great way to start my weekend, really getting into God's word first. After that, I left to go help someo...

Today marks a first for me - a new church. Well, not really. I'm going to visit a friend at her church today. I'm getting out of my comfort zone and going somewhere that I'll be with people my age with a "newer" friend - about six months before the pandemic she and I were only on a text stream for another friend and texted with another friend to coordinate helping someone. It was good timing, too. I would need her wisdom and experience soon, and then I had the opportunity to get to know her some more through actually spending some time together.  Its an adult kind of friendship - like we have our very different lives and schedules but when we can find time to have dinner or do a short day trip I always feel uplifted and liked for me 100%. There's no expectations or judgements. Just two Christian sisters hanging out. Today, I will get out of my comfort zone of my currently lazy behind of watching my church service on the TV, and visit another church service to ...

Do you ever re-read what you wrote, like a thousand times? Yes? No? Well, I do. It can be both comforting and un-nerving. In any moment, we can change what we thought the moment before. Guess what? There's a few things that have changed for me since my first blog post this week. I'm not taking those posts down though - why? Because they were me authentically at the time.  And, I still agree and stand by what I wrote, as good or bad as it was. As I grow and learn, and become more of who I am - with a few wrong turns on the way - I am growing to be uniquely and beautifully Tiffany Ellen Pereira. Though most would say I'm young - truly I'm halfway through my life if God lets me live to be 90. My grandfathers have passed before their 90's; my grandmother in her early 80's; and my remaining "Miracle Grandma" I hope to see live at least the next 10 years (she'd be 91). But right now, at 45, I figure I'm halfway through my life. That's where all t...

I didn't sleep well last night. I sit here almost ready for work (minus make-up) and I can't stop thinking about something that happened yesterday. Writing is mostly cathartic to me so I think that's why I'm blogging so much this week. I have to get out of my head what's in it so I don't dwell or agonize over it as much as I am, and start to let it go. Here goes. I think I killed someone's dream yesterday - well, at the very least its on life support. In any service business, an information call or inquiry is the first step to a potential client. We are trained extensively on how to handle and help this type of call. Yesterday, it started well but it ended so badly. With all my training and all my knowledge, I couldn't close it. It shouldn't have been hard to close either. Closing something is not about selling truly. It's about telling someone that the reason why they called is valid and good and its time to take that first step. But we are all ...

 My franchisees, Juan de Dios and Cari Jo, are finishing a much deserved vacation with family. They have withstood so many things in the last year - I'd venture to even say the last two and half years - that have tested their strength, wisdom, determination, and life-changing goals. Owning two studios in the most legalistic county in the state and arguably the nation, has really tested our ability to stay afloat. Too many restrictions where there didn't need to be really should've closed us down. That was not an option for them. They didn't make it an option, because it just isn't in their eyes. They pivoted.  More so, they encouraged us to pivot, and opened up possibilities in themselves to expand to realms they only dreamt of. In fact, they EXPANDED themselves personally and professionally. Who does that during a pandemic? Well, the most successful of people do. They don't lay down; they don't say 'well, since I can't do business the way I'm us...