Follow Your Bliss... Say WHAT?

Imagine this...

A refrigerator magnet. About the size of a business card. On a refrigerator. Go Figure.

On this magnet is a cartoonish drawing of a lady who is obviously pregnant walking... er, waddling, along.

Under the figure of the pregnant lady are the words:

Follow Your Bliss

I liked it. Actually, I really liked it. The image of a woman living her life and happy as she is about to embark upon the adventure that is Motherhood.

However, it got me thinking.

What does Follow Your Bliss actually mean?

Okay...

Follow your dream... that I get.

Follow your heart... I get that.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road... I can even understand the sentiment behind that... 

But Follow Your Bliss?

Say WHAT?

The dictionary definition of Bliss is:

Perfect happiness; great joy; utter contentment; the joy of Heaven; a state of ecstasy

Alrighty then! 

That clears it up.... Not At All!

I think this is one of those things that is situationally interpretive...

I mean that it means something different to everyone who reads it and it's meaning changes as the circumstances of that person change.

For me... Follow Your Bliss means...

Take the path that leads to my own personal happiness and contentment with my life and the choices I have made.

Would the picture be that of a pregnant woman happily strolling along?

Probably not, at least not at this point in my life.

However, about 15 years ago... yes, yes it would.

Back then I had been told I would not be able to have any more children. 

Back then I wanted to have one with HeMan Hubby... I wanted to create a life with him, a family with him and I believed that I would not be able to give him one of the things that he wanted most in the world... a child.

Of course, miracles do happen and we were able to have not one, but 3 children... and the doctors have no idea how or why I was able to carry those children to term. 

Six years ago the image would have been one of a healthy, fit and trim woman walking along, holding the hands of her children... my health was deteriorating, I was over weight, constantly tired from either just getting off work or getting ready to go to work or taking care of a baby or running one of the older kids here or there; I was ill and in constant and often agonizing pain...

Then I had a hysterectomy, and 3 different types of cancerous lesions and cells were found and removed,  and my body began to heal, the pain to abate and become something that although not gone is at the very least, bearable.

Now? The image that would accompany that statement would be that of a woman who is strong in her sense of self, happy and secure in her place in the world, this woman would look a lot like Katherine Hepburn and give off her aura of self- confidence...

Follow Your Bliss... for me it means finding a way to be the person I want to be, not the one I think I should be, a way of balancing the woman I am on the inside with the woman that I am perceived to be on the outside... 

I started blogging as a way to give voice to my feelings and thoughts and fears and dreams on my journey to finding out who I am and what my purpose in life truly is... I'm working on it and I think that I need to 

Follow MY Bliss...

And perhaps, just maybe, so do YOU!