Wow. What a week this has been! I read somewhere that by writing things down, our brains automatically begin to process how to put our thoughts into action. Writing my first blog and reading your words of inspiration have set me on a new path and Im begininng to see everything in a new light.

For example, this morning, as I was taking out the garbage, I noticed an enormous spider web that seemed to float in the empty space between my garage and my neighbor's. I saw this web a month ago, it's delicate, transparent fibers woven so neatly and with such precision that it formed a perfect circle atleast three feet in diameter. And now, it appears again with its tiny little artist sitting proudly in the middle of her masterpiece. She must have worked all night, perhaps harder than before, hoping that this time her web will withstand the next sudden gust of wind. As I stood there, it occured to me that this arachnid and I have a lot in common. In fact, all women might share common threads with the lives of spiders. Could it be? Are we all Spiders?

Take into account the many varieties of our 8-legged friends....There are House Spiders who scurry about, too busy to stop moving.  -Web Spinners who spend so much time working on their web that they are rarely seen away from it. We see them in every color, size, shape and even a few wearing a wild combination of yellow and blue, yet seem to pull it off in public. There are those who mate for life, a few who would like to eat their male counterpart and lets not forget...The Black Widow-beautiful but full of poison and will bite you when you're not looking. However, aside from all their differences, every spider knows what it feels like to be stepped on, brushed aside, and Im sure they all think their butt is too big for their body.

Back in 2002, if one took a drive down Research Forest (then took a right on Gosling), they might find a spider wearing yoga pants and a pony tail determined to spin her web into the Taj Mahal. I was 22 years old, independent, driven and starting my own business. I dreamt of walking into a car dealership on my 30th birthday and proudly driving away in a black, Porsche 911 Twin Turbo (with cup holders). Now, let me set it straight-A Porsche is NOT worth the sacrifice of  family, friends and social life, however, the ability to make that purchase by the age of 30 was. I wanted financial freedom; the freedom that could take me everywhere I wanted to go and I was willing to put in the hours and hard work for it. And... that's exactly what I did. I worked from 4:30 in the morning until 9:30 at night. The extent of my personal relationships never drifted far from an occasional movie with my husband or a walk with my great dane. I didnt have a favorite pair of jeans, a hobby I loved pursuing, or even a haircut. I gained 80 pounds over the next 6 years and just as the light at the end of this tunnel started to peak over the horizon, Im squashed by the foot of divorce; a running shoe, size 12.

Now, one might expect this gut-spilling blow-to-the-thorax to defeat me-but it didnt. In fact, I have always had the strength to rebuild, even after sudden gusts of wind blew holes in my tightly woven plan. In 2008, after putting the divorce behind me, I moved into a beautiful apartment on the waterway with Maximus at my side. All of my hard work was finally paying off and the success couldn't taste sweeter. I made new friends, bought new clothes, and even found a new hobby-Spin class. The financial freedom offered me more than I'd ever imagined but, most importantly, it gave me the chance to be ME again and for the next 4 months I was the happiest I had ever been.

Every delicate thread turned to steel and the very thought of anything being strong enough to blow it down seemed an impossibility. Then, in September, Hurricane Ike hit and brought along with it, a series of events that would prove me wrong. The Hurricane shut down The Woodlands for 2 weeks and some of my clients were forced to leave town. Being self-employed, my income for that month took a major blow. 2 weeks later, my beloved Maximus fell ill and after $6000 worth of treatment I woke one morning just in time to hold his head in my lap as he slipped away. I mourned the loss of my best friend for another two weeks and my life continued to spiral downward as only half of my clients returned to my schedule. The next months brought more surprises; identity theft, recession, a major doctor bill-each blow swiftly tearing down a piece of the life I had worked so hard for. For the first time in my life I couldnt keep up; I couldnt rebuild after the damage and, in what seemed like an instant, my masterpiece was gone.

I am now six days away from 30 and instead of pondering over what continent I will travel to next, I find myself, instead searching for the one thing I never thought I'd lose--my strength. Who would have thought that a simple little spider would show me where to find it. I realized today that I have spent the past eight years spinning a life so big that I have forgotton what actually holds it together. My Mom is most definitely a master web-spinner. She weaves her web strong enough to hold her own weight plus the weight of her children should they ever need it... And even when there's no silk left to spin, she still manages to find a way to welcome the weight of many others. I now know where to find the strength to rebuild and it starts in the core.

To Do list #2: Have my family over for dinner and begin my thirties focusing more on the people closest to me. Start over...from the inside out.