About

About the blog

Where did the blog title come from?  I stole it from a favorite song: “If you don’t know what you’re missing ‘cuz you don’t know where to start, follow your wishing heart” (from the song “Wishing Heart” on the album Tails by Lisa Loeb).  But the better question is WHY?  Why did I choose this particular lyric, this particular song?

Well, obviously it speaks to me in some way or I wouldn’t have chosen it.  I think it has to do with something that seems almost universally true for everyone I know: I don’t really, truly, actually know what I want out of life or what to do to get it.  That’s not to say my life has no purpose or that I’m meandering aimlessly.  I’ve chosen a career (two, actually); I’ve chosen a life partner; I’ve chosen numerous other things to fill my life such as a having a child and running a book club and caring for two dogs….  And yet I still sometimes find myself wondering, What’s next?  Because surely this isn’t it, always and forever without end.  I could list endless things I want to accomplish (finding an exercise program I can somehow fit into my schedule, cleaning the bathroom regularly, reading all the books), but everyone has the endless to-do list.  That’s not really what I mean.  I’m talking about something enjoyable and challenging and life-changing and life-bettering and just…something.  I’m not sure what, but there’s got to be something, right?  And I think a lot of people feel that way, no matter how much they love the things currently in their lives.  And that lyric – “If you don’t know what you’re missing ‘cuz you don’t know where to start” – that just nails it, doesn’t it?

So maybe this blog will help me figure it out and maybe it won’t.  Maybe this blog will BE it and maybe it won’t.  But for right this second, this is where my heart’s led me.  I’m following my wishing heart.

About Me

I’m a thirty-something wife, mom, dog owner, nonprofit program director, and utter bookworm living in a small college town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia.  Prior to my current career, I’ve delivered flowers, inspected food can and jar labels, delivered drugs (Rx only, to people who got them legitimately, promise!), archived bank records to microfilm, waited tables, been an office assistant, taught middle school, and processed mortgage loans for a 3rd-party brokerage.  I spend the vast majority of my time working, caring for a preschooler, and running a household (in conjunction with my awesome husband, of course).  In my free time, you can usually find me on the internet or nose-first in a book, listening to podcasts or audiobooks, and occasionally watching TV and cross-stitching.

I have a tendency to be slightly OCD, but I’m also extraordinarily lazy, so I just make neat piles of things and often wander around the house mumbling under my breath and shutting drawers that have been left ajar, pushing the dining chairs back under the table, etc. I tend toward sarcasm and cynicism on the surface, and yet I have a humongously giant heart when it comes to….well, just about anything….and I’ve been frequently known to cry at TV shows, movies, books, commercials, news stories, friends’ problems and pain and happiness, and even sympathy tears for strangers in distress in public places, to the point where my husband just smiles, rubs my back and hands me a tissue, and affectionately calls me a Weeple.

I can honestly say that I am happier than I have ever been in my life, and things just keep getting better.