Ann McKenzie-Whole Life Expansion Guide

Happy Pride Month!

You start dying slowly ;

if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.

You start dying slowly :
When you kill your self-esteem,
When you do not let others help you.

You start dying slowly ;
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.

You start dying slowly :
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.

You start dying slowly :
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain
If you do not go after a dream
If you do not allow yourself
At least once in your lifetime
To run away from sensible advice

Don't let yourself die slowly
Do not forget to be happy!

~ Pablo Neruda

Chilean poet who was awarded the Nobe Prize for Literature in 1971

Just had to share this . And yes I was born in Raleigh and find this pretty much on point. Love the part about guys pulling your car out of the ditch .

🚨 Public service announcement 🚨

If you are new to North Carolina we are about to experience “NC Winter”. This is 6 or 7 days of cold, maybe some ice and snow. WRAL will threaten snow. It may snow, it may not and if WRAL says 2 inches it could be 10 or it could be 1/2”. It doesn’t matter how much snow it is, we’ll all freak out because we don’t see snow often.

The threat of snow (or ice) from good ol’ WRAL is your prompt to head to the grocery store and buy milk, eggs and bread. It doesn’t matter if you need these items. It’s just what we do.

Everyone in town will be there.

You’ll also need to make a mad dash for faucet covers and finding them and getting out of the store will be like an episode of the hunger games.

You’re in the redneck district.

Don’t look for a sled. You won’t find one. In the rare chance we get enough ice or snow to sled grab some cardboard or a trash can lid and go find the nearest hill.

Just go with it.
You’ll be fine.

We don’t have equipment to handle the winter and weather. The roads will be a mess and even though the state has been telling you for a week they’re ready, they’re not and it won’t work. Just stay home if you can and if you can’t just come to terms with the fact that nobody here knows how to drive in snow and ice.

Whatever you do, DO NOT talk about snow tires.

If you happen to slide off the road or get stuck, turn your flashers on, take a deep breath and wait. Two guys in a four wheel drive truck will be along in no time to offer assistance. Don’t try to help them, they live for this stuff, and will do what they can to get you back on the road. If either one of them screams “hey y’all watch this” just get back and get your phone out and start recording, you’ll probably have a viral video.

Also of note, when they offer you beer and deer sticks, don’t be rude, take them and smile.
No matter what you do, don’t talk about how they did it back home in any of these scenarios.
Nobody cares.

You live in North Carolina now.

When we act like we’re going to die and start to complain about the 7 days of winter just shut up, we’re serious and we don’t care how much you love it.

We don’t.

You’ll be back in shorts and flip flops in a week to ten days, tops, and it’ll be nice until right around Easter.

NC will have a “second winter” and it will be 2 or 3 days and will hit right around Easter, usually the week before or the week after. This will hit right around the time you plant flowers and a garden.
We know you’re not from around here when we see you’ve planted flowers before Easter and before the “second winter” has hit.
This is why all the people at the nursery don’t sound like us when you’re shopping for plants.

We know better.

During second winter it’ll go from 70 to 25 and you’ll experience all four seasons in one day.
This too shall pass, get used to it and when second winter is over you can enjoy the 3-4 weeks of “spring” before summer gets here and it’ll be melt your face off hot until sometime after Halloween.

😂💀 (C&P'd)

This is hilarious and so true!

Let the birthday celebrations begin ; High Tea Fearrington NC thanks to
my clogging buddy and adopted sister Carol Yates Day and my natural born sister Jack Connie Hussey. Then gifted with a beautiful necklace from Priss Grass , my clogging buddy, for many years - we traveled to Europe dancing . Finished off with a veggie pizza from Brianna Roberts. Great way to lead into the weekend for my Monday birthday!

Episode 1 - Legs, Cars, and Goals | Solving Me In our inaugural episode of Solving Me!, we talk about the connections we tease with in our opener. How does a knee or ankle problem and a flat tire possibly connect with what stands in the way from getting that job you'd love to have, or to accomplish a big goal you have in your life?