I took the picture above at a local garden a couple of months ago.  Do you see dead flowers or a heart?

I wrote about this once before, in another space and time, but it’s worth revisiting.  

One day many months ago, I was going for a weekend morning run with the dog when it suddenly occurred to me that I could call myself a “runner”.  Being a life long couch potato, that was quite an amazing thing to realize.  When I started running about two years ago, I always gave excuses for why I couldn’t define myself as a “runner”.  Either I didn’t run “far enough” or “fast enough” or something else “enough”.  But finally, I accepted fact that I run several miles a week so therefore, I can be a runner.

It got me to thinking about how we talk to ourselves in our heads and the labels we assign to ourselves.  Married, single, mother, father, son, daughter, fat, thin, lazy, hard worker, accountant, manager, etc, etc, etc.  We also assign label to almost everyone else we meet or know.    You’re thinking now, aren’t you?

One day last year, I was talking to an attorney in California who is defense counsel on several of the claims I am handling.  We talk or email on a fairly regular basis and have been for several years.  Anyway, we were chatting one day and I mentioned either writing for the cupcake blog or singing in the choral group and he was a little surprised.  He said “you’re about so much more than being a claims adjuster”.  Indeed.

I had lunch with an attorney last week who I barely knew before – we had one case together before she left on maternity leave and then left the firm.  She is now in Orlando and started her own practice.  It had been well over a year since we spoke but she apparently took her list of contacts with her when she left Tampa.  Over the course of lunch, she mentioned that she remembered I liked to bake because I had given her a really great recipe.  I had forgotten about that!

So I mentioned the cupcake blog and mentioned I also wrote on a personal blog and also the singing.  She was amazed that I worked full time, wrote for two blogs (well, trying to write more for this one), sang as a hobby, and took care of a dog.  Yes, I do have a life of sorts.

There are many times when I feel like I’m not doing enough of something or other.  I hear people talk about their amazing lives and mine seems so mundane.  But then I thought about how I spend my nights and weekends – doing odds and ends of writing here, cupcakery, singing, taking care of the house, etc.  I spent over two hours this afternoon trying to take a blog worthy photograph of a cupcake for dogs.  Yes, it’s true.

So back to the topic.   A few years ago, I would have defined myself as a single, female, claims adjuster who was overweight, average looking and a smartass, animal lover.  I think the words are different now.  Now I can say I am a writer, singer, runner, food blogger, sexy female who is a claims adjuster to pay the bills.

It’s all in how you look at things.  What you see might just change if you look at things a little differently.