A question from Jared inspired me to share a little of my past here on Gaia.

I grew up in a slightly dysfunctional household; my mother was and still is clinically depressed due to extenuating circumstances in her early childhood years (they call that childhood trauma). When I was college age, I couldn't wait to move out of the house. I relocated to dorm life just a town or two away with no problems, and absolutely no homesickness.

I only attended for a year, and I made the dean's list, but I became disillusioned with life on campus. After that, I moved back home but tried my hardest to get a sustainable ticket away from home! I moved to MA with some friends and we searched for jobs for four months in a small town before any openings appeared. I don't know how we survived! We stayed there about a year and a half and then we moved back to MD.

I still wanted out of my parents house, so after many phone calls, I arranged a job for myself all the way on the opposite coast, as a live-in summer camp counselor for the Boys and Girls Club. I had a blast and learned a lot that summer, and as summer wound to a close, I needed to find a new place to stay.

I interviewed for a place at a group house; a Victorian style home with six unrelated people living together in a co-op sort of arrangement. I became the seventh by the skin of my teeth. This launched me on my new independent life, free of attachments to anyone!

Now, I'm in my late 30s and when I look at the youth around me (namely, my stepchildren and our neighbors), I don't find the same determination and strength that I showed in my early 20s. I wasn't afraid of anything! That enabled me to relocate on my own many more times as I matured. It seemed that God was always with me, that I always had the best guardian angels protecting me as I blundered around on the Earth. I'm thankful for that!

This image is from last year, and I wanted to show you how Eeyore got his tail for Christmas. Straight outta The Tao of Pooh, really!

If you don't know the story of Eeyore, he's kind of a grump! He worries about everything and limits his own achievements through negative thinking. He really wants his tail back and goes looking for it often. Children play birthday games of "pin the tail on Eeyore" instead of "pin the tail on the donkey."

So a friend of the family noticed this very good fit between my son's tiger costume and Eeyore's size, and voila, Eeyore doesn't have to complain anymore. He's thankful that he has experienced the zen of having a tail at least once!