Loi Laing

Power Smoothie for Cancer Patients

I sent this recipe to a friend this morning whose father recently underwent chemo. (I read about it somewhere and modified it but can't remember the original source.) Cancer affects taste buds and as a result, there is not much appetite for food, but you still need to get nutrients in. Smoothies are great as a complete meal replacement. This is an excellent recipe for cancer patients as it's only 1 meal worth of calories, but provides the nutrient content of 6 and is easily absorbed. Any health food store close to you should have this stuff.

Power Smoothie (Once per day)

2-4 capsules of a vitamin/enzyme complex

5 drops natural liquid beta-carotene

1 tablespoon cold-pressed oil (choices flaxseed, sunflower, borage, evening primrose, or hemp)

1 teaspoon lecithin granules (or powder)

1 tablespoon soy-free vegetable protein powder

Frozen fruit of your choice

Water or juice to blend

The flax oil, lecithin and proteins act synergistically when combined with the body's naturally occurring serum cholesterol. Together these 4 nutrients make up 95% of he body's cell wall membranes! They help to create new cells, repair cell membranes, and produce a more fluid membrane that is more resistant to stress and free radical damage. (Good stuff for cancer patients!)

Also this is my basic smoothie recipe that can be substituted for any meal:

Water or juice to blend

Frozen fruit (I like bananas, peaches, berries, mango and pineapple)

Any kind of greens: spinach, kale, dandelion, collards

Just combine all of the ingredients in a blender and enjoy!

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Don't Worry. Be Happy.

Completely puts things in perspective. Never give up...

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I *heart* school...

My Mom on the left, her friend on the right and me at my Dad's graduation from Tuskegee

 

 

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Family, Flying, Ice-Cream and Teaching

I grew up in Jamaica with my parents and younger brother. My mom has taught food and nutrition for over 30 years and my dad has taught agricultural science for even longer than that! From my mom I learned how to cook the food that my dad grew and raised. Most of my life was spent living on a farm with chickens, goats, cows, and pigs. As a child I used to get teased at school for being a "country girl" but I loved riding on the tractor while my dad was tilling the soil and watching him help animals give birth to their young. My first venture into business was starting a farm stand to sell fruit with my brother in front of our home in Bushy Park. 

The food we ate growing up in Jamaica was fresh and homegrown; looking back, it was all organic, but we didn't call it that. It's just the way things were. The memories of time spent with my grandparents in Brown's Hall are some of my fondest. Love, beautiful green trees everywhere and fresh, clean air. When we drove to "country" to visit, as we made our way through the mountains, I loved when we got closer to the district and people would stop my father's truck constantly just to say hello or give us some fruits and vegetables.

It was in Brown's Hall that I developed a love for food just picked from a tree (Jackfruit!) and also had my first ride on a donkey! My grandfather grew cacao (for making chocolate) and all kinds of vegetables. I know he would be surprised to know how much of expensive commodity raw cacao is right now. My grandmother I could always count on to have something good to eat and she taught me how to bake when I was 5 years old. I've never stopped, however, after years of practice and using friends and family as guinea pigs, everything I bake now is dairy-free and vegan, but still yummy!

Me at 5 years old in Brown's Hall, St. Catherine, Jamaica

After graduating from St. Catherine Primary, I received a full scholarship to St. Andrew High School for Girls and studied food and nutrition for the entire 5 years of high school. I also sat for the CXC examination in food and nutrition, conducting research and writing a paper on chickens and egg production. My father raised chickens and the "egg money" paid for many things over the years. It was in high school I learned cooking techniques and how to plan and prepare meals; always with the help and advice from my mom on how to make the food look as good as it tasted. Since I was a child I've been fascinated with food, how it's grown, and eventually how it affects our bodies. 

On a trip with my mom, grandma and brother to Washington, D.C. the pilot (Eastern Airlines!) allowed me inside the cockpit and I was smitten. At 5 years old I was determined to do 3 things in my life: be a teacher, sell ice-cream and be a pilot. When I was 16 and had ground school and a year of flight training under my belt at Wings Jamaica, my parents sent me back to the good ol' U.S. of A for school. In my final undergraduate year a friend showed me an ad in the school paper for law school scholarships. The only problem was that the deadline was the next day. I filled it out that night, dropped it off at exactly 5pm, took the LSAT a couple weeks later and the next thing I knew, I was off to the only law school I applied to, Florida State. I didn't even have time to attend my graduation ceremony at FIU.

While in law school, after a not so pleasant experience with some ground beef, I immediately became a vegetarian. Then as the years passed-vegan, raw food, macrobiotic...I've always used myself as a test subject with different ways of eating. At this point, I don't label myself anymore; I just eat what my body asks for, but mostly plant-based whole foods. Physical activity is also a necessary part of my wellness equation, as well as meditation and mindfulness. My genetic predisposition is to carry weight and I learned the hard way that proper nutrition was not going to be enough for me, so I have to move my body!

After giving birth to my now 6 year old son Kai and reading Martha Beck's "Finding Your Own North Star" I rediscovered my belief that one must follow their passion in life. I enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York and travelled from Florida every month for almost a year to attend classes all the while raising Kai (as a single mother...whew!) and working full time (double whew!) Upon graduation from IIN I moved to Chicago and while still working full time as an attorney, I founded an organic catering company and vegan baking business. I've catered parties and events for individual clients, the raw food community in Chicago and companies such as Diesel Jeans and In Style Magazine.

The cooking is all fine and dandy, however, I yearn for the intimate relationship that I love with food and people. When I prepare a meal for you, I want to share with you where the food came from and how it was grown, the techniques used to prepare the meal and how the ingredients will be good for your health. Food, nutrition, organic agriculture, wellness, green living, sustainability and health are some of the things that I am most passionate about in this life. I am committed to being of service and helping people, especially in the ways we nurture body, mind, and spirit.

 

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Me: 1996 and 2009

   

Click here to download:

Me_1996_and_2009.zip (35 KB)

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Sucking Eggs & Kicking Rocks

A couple days ago my internal dialogue went a little something like this: 

Morning

Mind: I'm so not feeling it right now. Let's leave the morning exercise routine for later. 

Self: You know it's so not going to happen later, but I'm going to trust you on this.

Night

Mind: Oh well, too late. Let's skip it, watch tv and eat some ice-cream. It's Soy Delicious, that's not so bad!

Self: Forget you. I'm walking to the gym to get in the workout that you skipped out on this morning.

Clearly my mind is finding it harder to con myself. 

Like me, I honestly think that every person in America has wondered/struggled/obsessed/been concerned with their weight at some point in their lives. We live in a country that despite all our medical advances, has one of the highest rates of obesity on the planet. Not the Western Hemisphere or even North America people...the entire planet. That is so not cute. Growing up in Jamaica, I had no idea how a microwave even worked until my parents got one when I was in high school. Even then, we hardly ever used it. There was one (1!) Burger King on the entire island and a couple KFCs...3 at most maybe. There was no McDonald's (the lawsuit that prevented the Golden Arches from coming to Jamaica is a whole other story) and my brother and I did not grow up loving that perfectly neat blend of salty/sweet little potato slivers that come packaged in the red sleeves.

Even though (much to my parents' dismay) I was never a skinny child (or adult for that matter), I was always healthy and full of energy. The term morbidly obese was nowhere in my consciousness, though it accurately describes me now. Sheesh! Then I moved to America. Talk about culture shock. The television, magazines, billboards....everywhere I turned was the message that if I didn't look like the women in the pictures, something was seriously wrong with me and I needed to fix it, quickly. Never had I been more self-conscious about my size and appearance until I was living in this country. Then there was the food...everything I could ever imagine was right in front of my face and so cheap! In Jamaica, food from America is sold at a premium. Whenever my parents brought home a couple American apples we were so excited. They were expensive, but they were from America! Whoo hoo!

To make a very long and predictable story short, I started living a very sedentary lifestyle and began eating all the wonderful junk food at my disposal. I disposed of it all right...right down into my mouth! Even when I knew it wasn't good for me, I'd still eat it anyway. Who knew that so much of that stuff is chemically engineered to make you crave it? Oy vey! I didn't stand a fighting chance. Ok, so back to the short story: I gained over 100 pounds since I started living in this country. Not just the cute little "Freshman 15" or the "baby weight" from carrying a child. All my extra weight was like carrying around 2 first graders all the time. (I know since mine weighs approximately 51 pounds.) Reality bites.

Like many people over the years, I've tried diets and workout plans and all kinds of ridiculous nonsense to make all the weight that was not there when I went to sleep the night before, go away. Yeah right. Every day, every month, every year, every decision, in some way added to my extra first graders. There was the time on Atkins when I lost almost 50 pounds in 3 months without 1 day of exercising. Carbs were the enemy. Or that time on Weight Watchers counting every point like food comes out of the ground knowing that it's worth exactly 2 points in X category. Whatever! I've been so over it for a good while now. I'm one of the biggest health nuts you'll ever come across. The granola crunching, tree hugging, green juice drinking, raw food eating kind...with the occasional splurge here and there, of course.

Since last August I've lost close to 60 pounds (not sure what the exact number is because the scale is still my mortal enemy) and have gained a whole bunch of muscle. I wake up in the morning and check to see if my biceps are still there. I can hardly believe I can actually see them with my 2 eyes! However, all the healthy eating in the world was not enough. So I started off very simply doing little 10 minute walks here and there. Every week I pushed myself a little bit more. Even the skinny girls at the gym can't keep up with me on the elliptical machine now and I'm STILL heavier than them. Hee! Hee! There are days I don't feel like going and I have to talk myself into it. There are also days I don't feel like going and I talk myself out of it. However, I haven't stopped. Last year I read that if you stop working out, after 11 days your body goes right back to where it was before you started. That was all I needed to hear. On 2 occasions I came "thisclose" to crossing that 11 day mark, but I didn't. No siree Bob, not happening. 

Mark Twain said, "Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.” Discipline requires training yourself to do something in a controlled and habitual way. Willpower, which most people associate with trying to lose weight is just going to get you to decide to take action. You cannot count on willpower to carry you through. That is where discipline comes in. Nowhere in the dictionary does it say that you have to like it or agree with it. Neither does it say that you're just going to be perfect overnight. Did you get that? There is no one, nobody, nothing to blame if you're not comfortable in the skin you're in. Training is of course going to take some work and it's most definitely not easy, but the decision and the responsibility are ultimately yours. It's going to take time. I tried and tried and tried, then failed and failed and failed; too many times to count, but finally got to the point where I've had to make moving my body a habit. Working out sucks eggs, big time; but just like taking a shower or brushing my teeth, I don't have a choice. Well actually, I do. However, I'm not about to mess up my 11 days and start all over again.  

After all these years and all this time, I'm following a very simple credo: Be disciplined. Eat less. Move more. But I'm sure you already know how that works...

In case you're wondering, here is my super duper top ten list of things to ponder if you think working out sucks eggs and willpower can go kick rocks:

1. Do 1 thing at a time. Losing weight should not be on your list of New Year's resolutions. There's just too much going on. So whether you're going to commit to walking 10 minutes 3 times per week or drinking 8 glasses of water per day, just do 1 thing at a time.

2. Don't beat yourself up. If you mess up, just start over...immediately. Not after the weekend or on Monday morning bright and early. Give yourself 21 days (which people think is some kind of Jedi mind trick to form a habit) to make that commitment a habit. If you can make it past the 3 weeks my friend, you're pretty much official.

3. Stop stressing. Whether at work, home or school. Stress produces cortisol which causes fat, the not cute belly kind. Meditation, visualization, prayer, woo sah...whatever you need to do to keep your stress level down.

4. Sleep. Our bodies do amazing things when we're sleeping. All kinds of cool rejuvenating stuff that's not going to happen if you're exhausted. Get some rest.

5. Don't pay attention to other people. Especially the ones in the magazines. Photoshop is amazing...they don't really look like that.

6. Food is not religion. There is no food heaven or hell. The more you tell yourself you can't have it, is the more you're going to want it. 

7. Stop looking for the magic pill. There is none. It does not exist. There are no quick fixes, pills, or weight loss in bottles or packages. (Even though I'm still waiting on "Exercise in a Bottle".)

8. Write your plan down. Look at it every single day. Even the days you just know you're not up to it. I have sticky notes up in my closet and bathroom, on the fridge...you get the idea.  

9. Don't treat yourself. No extra slice of whatever or new shoes because you've been good, or any of that nonsense. If you need those things, go right ahead but don't tie them into your efforts. Do you treat yourself every time you take a shower or brush your teeth? I don't think so.

10. It's not about losing weight. It's about being healthy, energetic and comfortable in the body that YOU have. So even though I'm not my "ideal size", the less I've focused on "losing weight" is the more I've lost and the healthier I've become.

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Lawyers, Biggie Smalls and Life After Death

As I was preparing discovery documents tonight, I was listening to "Life After Death" which was the final studio album by the late Notorious B.I.G. (whoo hoo, just a regular party night at the Laing residence!). Also known as Biggie, the rapper died in 1997, two weeks prior to the album's release, and it is considered one of the best selling rap albums of all time. When Biggie made the album he paid homage to many rappers and artists in the industry who came before him, but he also ventured into unchartered territory in the music business. Tired of "gansta rap", people who listen to this "buggu yagga" music as my parents so lovingly (not!) refer to it, were now hearing a more commercial, mainstream sound that opened hip hop doors to people who never took the time to listen before. It was a calculated risk that worked, because the time was ripe for change and Biggie listened and acted. Life after death also refers to the phenomena in which people who have medically been considered dead are resuscitated. This belief stems from the survivors who having come so close to death, believe that their soul survived the physical and biochemical processes that had practically destroyed their bodies.

Now, you don't have to like rap music or even believe in esoteric concepts of "life after death", but hear me out on this one. The very definition of change is to make or become entirely different, or have a new or refreshing perspective. When Biggie was recording Life After Death, he was in a different space mentally and emotionally. He had finally made it into the rap game, his music was on the radio and he was making money. Life was good. He didn't rap about the things he did on his first album and he smiled a whole lot more. When interviewed he always made a point to say that his life was different and as a result, he was different. He was having a new, refreshing experience. However, the old Biggie had to die. Not the essence of who he was, but his old thoughts, ideas, and approach to life. What this did was create a whole new space for him to exist in as a person and as an artist.

At times I feel the same way about the legal profession. There are some outdated modes of practice that will have to die in order for the profession to exist in the world we now live in. Lawyers are among the highest sufferers of depression and substance addiction. Much of it stems from the belief that we have to choose between our career and our lives; that the two must be mutually exclusive. Based on an über traditional approach to the practice of law, many of us are getting burnt out and not thriving in our lives. When our biggest concern is putting in face time at the office and charging clients for a 6 minute phone call, many of us will suffer as a result. Don't get me wrong, if that's your cup of tea, go ahead and drink up. However, many of us have gulped it down and it burned.  

We need to look at ways to incorporate individuals and methods that don't fit into traditional standards of practice. (Duh...that includes me!) Yes, I know you're thinking that I believe "traditional" is a dirty word. I don't, really. For example, I love all the tradition, pomp and circumstance of the English monarchy. Sorry, I digress...However, I think many attorneys are not so much concerned with tradition, as much as they are opposed to doing new things and opening up their perception of what it means to be a lawyer. Especially with all the Twittering and Facebooking - you didn't think I was going to let my little habit slide, did you? As the legal profession is struggling to keep pace with technology, the world is changing right before our eyes. In a utopia, we would have instituted change before being forced to. We would have embraced much of this technology and not be scrambling to understand what business and technology people have known for a couple of years. Seth Godin who was talking about Web 4.0 in 2007 (the same year I joined Twitter!) talks about the fact that "the ability to change fast is the single best asset in a world that's changing fast," and as lawyers we need to change. Fast.

Our place in society as counselors and advocates of justice is not threatened by adopting new modes of thinking. Abraham Lincoln eloquently said, "If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which...when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause." It is virtually impossible to lose the soul of our legal profession. Yes, we have to sacrifice a certain amount of anonymity and be more accountable in cyberspace, but people need to know that we are real people too. As consumers right now, our clients and potential clients are actually demanding it. I don't like being considered lower than used car salesmen on the professional totem pole. Changing perceptions is one of the things that we are able to accomplish by looking at our profession in new and refreshing ways. After all, it is called practicing is it not? We have to keep working at it, engaging and applying actual methods as opposed to just theorizing.

You and I know that there are aspects of the legal profession that need to die. *Queue the "Tales From the Darkside" music.* But you know what, there is life after death. Let's move toward the light lawyer people.

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Twitter, Fists, Thin-Slicing and the Law

Twitter and lawyers. Those two words in the same sentence have recently begun to stir up quite a controversy on and off-line. I really had to pause, pry my fingers from the keyboard and think about where I fit within the spectrum of people who utilize the medium, especially as an attorney. I've been reading that approximately 6% of the population of lawyers are on Twitter. I'm not sure what the numbers are for Facebook. If you happen to know, please do share. There are some in the legal profession who have made it very clear (you know that lawyer-type does not equal quiet-type) that certain forms of social media such as Twitter are a complete waste of energy and that it's not worth the time to engage this powerful (free!) tool that we now have at our disposal. (Maybe those $2000 half-page ads in the phone books are really worth it?)

I respectfully beg to differ. In observing a recent argument discussion among lawyers heavily laden with rhetoric, it made me think of that 6%. Just because the other 94% of us are not on board, does that mean it won't eventually happen? When I was accepted to law school, I was the recipient of a fellowship whose purpose was to increase the amount of minorities in the Florida Bar because the number barely hovered close to 2%. Should I not have gone to law school because, heck, there's only 2% minorities in the Florida Bar so let us just not disturb the status quo and leave things the way they are. Yeah, yeah, yeah...you may think it's a stretch but I do see a comparison. Besides, I can do that since this is my blog. (Here is where I stick my tongue out if you disagree.) This is life and life requires change. The legal profession and practice of law are no different.

I've met many attorneys (in real life) who within the space of 2 minutes, I could easily tell that they were a you-know-what. It's funny because I can also do the same thing just by reading a letter I've received from opposing counsel. Of course what the words convey is strictly business, but I can tell by the way the letter is written that I've just met another you-know-what. Twitter for me is no different. I've crossed paths with a few lawyers in this brave new Web 4.0 world and it's not hard to determine what kind of person the individual is.

In his book "blink", Malcom Gladwell talks about the concept of "fists". In Morse Code dots and dashes have a particular length which no one replicates exactly. Similar to speech, everyone has a different voice. In the Second World War British interceptors could listen to the fists of the German soldiers and even though they couldn't understand what was being said, they knew who was saying it and could establish an entire profile for an individual based on this limited information. Soldiers revealed a "fist" in the smallest bit of Morse Code and back then, you only had to listen to a few characters to know who the individual was.

What's interesting to me, is that you can get a person's fist just as easily in the Twitterverse. We may only have 140 characters, but it is enough for me to determine a great deal about someone's personality. People buy from who they can trust. (What? You didn't think the law was a business?) Recommendations for attorneys come many times in the form of word-of-mouth which usually goes something like this: "My cousin had this real you-know-what for an attorney and I would never go to him/her, but there's this other one I've heard of and you should definitely give him/her a call." When we express ourselves using Twitter, it's not so much for the 94% of lawyers who are not fellow tweeps, as much as it is for the rest of the people (and potential clients) out there in the world.

Gladwell also discusses the concept of "thin-slicing" where our unconscious plays a huge role in our determination about people and relationships. There's really no need to "get to know" someone over a period of weeks, months, or years if you "thin-slice" them based on small clues that lead to their personality. He states "What you avoid when you don't meet someone face-to-face are all the confusing and complicated and ultimately irrelevant pieces of information that can serve to screw up your judgment." The characters may be few and the conversations may be brief, but not for one millisecond do I discount the nature of the connections that I've made as a result of Twitter.

Just as in the "real world", emphasis is placed not so much on what someone says but on how they say it, which makes all the difference in thin-slicing a person and figuring out exactly what their fist is. As lawyers, people are thin-slicing and seeing our fists on a daily basis. The entire premise of Social Media rests on being, dare I say, social. If your objective as an attorney is to bum rush the Twitterverse in an attempt to "make it rain" like Lil Wayne, you're missing the proverbial forest for the trees. We are having a conversation and yes, it may eventually lead to clients but it is not a means to an end. What I've been observing in thin-slicing my fellow 6 percenters is that we're a different breed. Many of us had no idea that there were so many other attorneys who think along similar lines and whose approach to practicing law is in line with our own. 

Old and moldy Traditional models of thought, especially within the legal profession, do serve their purpose. However, as the world evolves and technology continues to change our lives at a rapid pace, we are going to have to evolve and grow with it as individuals and as a profession. Twitter gives us global reach and as humans (yes, even the lawyers too) we are social beings who have a basic need for companionship and a sense of community. There are many (even in the 6%) who write off social media as a fad or plaything. However, for me it serves a very basic function in that the people who I interact with are constant reminders that the times are changing and I am not alone.

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Our Culture of Cancer

When I step into the library or a bookstore, the volumes lining the shelves speak to me in a way that is hard to convey with words. I browse the aisles using all my senses until one calls out to me and I pick it up. The process is usually the same: I check out the front cover, back cover and the book jacket to determine if it will be a good read. Just because they call out to me does not mean I'm always interested in what they have to say. However, on a particular day last week at the library I heard the still quiet voice of "Bone: Dying Into Life" by Marion Woodman and I was interested. 

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Life as a Jigsaw Puzzle

Having gone to school in Jamaica, I graduated from high school at 15 years old and migrated to the US to start college that same year; Maryland to be exact. I remember my classmates saying I was a little too young to be there, but thought nothing else of it. Where else would I be? Wasn't this the natural progression of things? Hmph! I took one year off and attended flight school in Jamaica, in hopes of pursuing my dream to be a fighter pilot in the Air Force. At the year's end, my parents wanted to know when I would be ready to head back to the US for school. Huh? Didn't they see I was living my passion and doing the flying thing? Oh well, I ended up living on my own in Miami and back in college. I was all of 17 years old.

By the time I graduated law school I was ready to take on the world. I hung out my shingle and started my own practice doing entertainment law. I was living another passion because I love, love, love music. Did I mention that I love music? I was flying by the seat of my pants, but was living life on my own terms and I loved it. Then I got pregnant. Having my son Kai forced me to re-examine my priorities and I realized that I'd have to settle into a more stable practice of law. He brought a whole new dimension to my life and in nurturing him I started learning more about myself.

Growing up with agricultural science (Pops) and nutrition (Moms) teachers for parents, I was always around good food. From the ground to the table, food was always a part of my life. However, I never grew up thinking of food or nutrition as a viable career choice. There was nothing magical about it. That was just the way things were. I was so wrong. How food and nutrition integrate with health and wellness are huge passions of mine. Something I rediscovered being a mummy. So I went back to nutrition school and graduated as a Certified Holistic Health Counselor specializing in nutrition. 

Here's where it gets funky...as an attorney, I'm in a profession that has a very "traditional" approach to the way things are done. There are many times during these past 9 plus years of practice that I've been made to feel that all the things in my life should be mutually exclusive. I've been criticized for not wearing my hair or dressing in a lawyerly fashion (and that's coming from my own parents). So I can only begin to imagine what my fellow attorneys think when they see me with my green nail polish. The average age of an entering 1L (first year law student) is 26. When I graduated I was almost 24 years old and my approach didn't quite fit with the "good old boys" or the "good old girls". (That in of itself is a whole other story!)

In establishing my presence online, I've been very conflicted about letting people know who I really am; especially with my other passion - social media. Hurling oneself into cyberspace like I have so eagerly done, means that people will be examining me and my personality. Which brought me to my “Aha!” moment while driving down I-75 today: I’m a young woman whose approach to the law and life does not fit into a standard navy blue suit with sensible pumps and pantyhose.

The things I am passionate about form the pieces of the puzzle of who I am. They are not mutually exclusive and I'm at a place in my life where I'm truly ok with that. In practicing law, there were times when I used to feel like I was wearing a "lawyer mask" and would just explain it away as: lawyering is what I do and everything else is who I am. Total hogwash. I'm ALL of it. The lawyer, mother, educator, nutritionist, chef, baker (no candlestick making, yet...), techno-geek, social media enthusiast…just to name a few.

Kevin Houchin, who is an attorney/artist/teacher/author, (sounds familiar?) told me this today: "Yes, you'll turn off some potential legal clients, but those aren't people that will fuel your spirit anyway. The people that "get it" will be the ones you're supposed to help anyway, wearing all your hats at once and truly just being yourself with them. There's nothing better than being 100% confident, and as long as you're just being yourself, it's easy to find that place."

Those words meant so much to me. Kevin totally gets it. I don't want 12 different Twitter accounts, 15 Facebook pages and a billion blogs in trying to be all things to all people. This is who I am. A puzzle is an enigma where one has to put together the puzzle pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired shape or picture. The shape of my life as jigsaw puzzle makes perfect sense to me. If it doesn't to you, there are a whole bunch of cookie cutter types that I'm sure will be happy to serve you.

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