Defining Moments in Time - Paradigm Shifts

When Naomi in the bible lost her 2 sons and her husband, she told her close ones to stop calling her Naomi and call her "Mara". The name "Mara" means "bitter".    The ironic notion of this is that her namesake, Naomi, means the exact opposite.  From Hebrew, it is translated to   mean to be pleasant, sweet, delightful, beautiful. Very few times in life,  do we have paradigm shifts and defining moments  that force us to face who  we really are on the inside. This year has been one of those moments for me.    You know that do or die moment?  The one where you realize you are all in and there is no other choice? So, how I have been feeling this year! 1st, it was the exhilarating feeling that the biggest transformation of my life (260 lb weight loss was about to occur). 2nd, I am at the highest point of my career, dating regularly, traveling the world. I mean, your girl is doing it!  Or, so I thought. And then, the paralyzing fear came. 

    So, I absolutely loved my trip to Italy, Spain, and France.   It made me see and experience a part of the world I never knew existed.   I had a blast traveling alone.    It gave me a renewed sense of self and purpose.   The only thing that would have heightened my experienced was doing a little research and knowing the items below before leaving the States.   So, I made a checklist of things to consider when traveling abroad.  Bookmark this page as I will probably be adding more to the list: 1.         Louisiana hot sauce, seasoning salt - I recommend this no matter where you go.   I felt like the food was really bland, and this would’ve intensified my foodie experience. 2.        Plan your hairdo - I am 5’0, black, voluptuous, lively woman who generally wears my hair in some type of braids, locs, twists, or some type of fly curly Fro style. My rather eclectic hairstyle presented some interesting situations where I had perfect strangers coming up and touching my h