Changing Lives Issue #1

Welcome and I look forward to sharing this journey with you!

Are you ready to change lives, starting with your own?

I am, which is why I’m so excited about starting this new venture. I’m grateful to those of you who have subscribed. If you like what you read, please share it with others; if you don’t like it please let me know how I can improve it!

My goal is to publish a new issue every Friday.

As I mentioned in the earlier article announcing the launch of “Changing Lives,” I hope to establish an interactive, supportive community in which we encourage each other as we seek to change our lives and help others who want to change theirs.

While I will often write articles in which I share my own experiences, tips, and opinions for us to discuss, I want to start out by learning more about you and the content you are most interested in reading.

Several of you know me personally, but not everyone does, and you don’t know each other, so please introduce yourself in the comments. Share your name and anything else you feel comfortable mentioning; some suggestions are where you live, what you enjoy doing, how the pandemic has changed your life, and what motivated you to read/subscribe to this newsletter.

Here are my answers to those questions:

• My name is Wendi and I live in Texas.

• I enjoy reading, writing, tutoring young children, and walking in the park.

• I also love to travel, especially to beaches and National Parks.

• The pandemic drastically changed my life. My husband and I both lost our jobs and had to move to a new city. The dream vacation to Australia we had planned to celebrate our 30th anniversary got canceled. My best friend’s sister died from COVID-19 before vaccines were available. I experienced severe depression and anxiety throughout 2021. Thankfully, I’m doing much better now!

• I’m writing this newsletter to connect with kindred spirits who may also be struggling to adapt to changes in their lives and the world and/or have wisdom to share about what helped them make it through hard times in the past.

I hope we can talk honestly about our mental health challenges (not just major issues like depression and anxiety, but also things like low self-esteem, how to deal with rejection, difficult relationships, etc.) and personal development goals.

I hope we can encourage each other to do whatever we each feel led to do to make positive changes in our lives and the world.

I hope we can talk about our spiritual beliefs and how they affect our opinions about what we need to change and our ability to make those changes.

I am eager to learn more about each of you and your hopes for this newsletter and the community we will create together!