Sharry Miller

Year of Fear: FOMO

Often when I start to focus on something, that something begins to appear in front of me more often, surprising me with synchronicities. Of course, those things were there to begin with, they just slipped by me unnoticed. I worried a bit when I decided my focus word for the year was going to be fear that I might be conjuring things I didn't want to conjure. Is my life going to become more frightening... Read more →

Year of Fear

Choosing a word to define the upcoming year has become a popular New Year's activity over the past decade. Typically, these words are intended to focus the individual's attention on manifesting something they want to foster in their life: gratitude, creativity, love, or other positive attributes. To jump on the bandwagon, I, too, decided to choose a word to focus on in 2019: fear. According to Merriam-Webster's online site, the noun fear is defined as... Read more →

Gainful Unemployment

I am counting today as my first day of "gainful unemployment." I made up that phrase because I'm too young to retire, I am no longer working a regular job, and I have no intention of sitting around doing nothing of utility, whether to me or others. So, I am not retired, I am gainfully unemployed. Technically, my last day of work was December 19, 2017, but since we immediately went to Hawaii for Rowan's... Read more →

Freedom with Fear

As our group of 11 women walked down the Wagon Trail in Valdez, someone commented on the number of bear scat piles we'd seen. I hadn't thought it was that many, six or so in two miles, but I suppose if you're not used to them, that's a lot. Another asked if we should be worried. I replied, "None of them were steaming, were they?" Later that evening, at the final dinner for this Adventures... Read more →

Chasing Winter

This weekend officially ushered in Spring, and with temperatures in the 40s and low 50s, Valdez was primed to play along. What did the Miller family do? Headed north. After two days of finally getting to ride my bicycle, I kept saying, “It’s just wrong to leave this fabulous weather and go chasing winter.” Thane and his snowmobiling buddies had no sympathy for me. They were set on heading to Summit (the one on the... Read more →

Fireweed 400 - What the Heck am I Thinking?

The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Such experiences are not necessarily pleasant at the time they occur. ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Flow I'm having a crisis of faith...in myself. Yesterday I drove 160 miles round trip to ride Madeleine somewhere other than on the same stretch of highway out of Valdez. I parked at Squirrel... Read more →

Cycling Psychology

I am a quitter. I am a master of psyching myself out. The two are related. I know these things about myself, and I battle them constantly. It's like I have those good and evil angels sitting on my shoulders, except for me one is saying, "You can't do this. You're too weak and out of shape. Just who do you think you are." The other one is saying, "That's just self-defeating nonsense. You're stronger... Read more →

Old Friends, New Lives, and Guilt

High school friends having a mid-winter indoor beach party in Alaska. That's me in the black and white polka dots. Pretty scary, huh? Thane leaned over to me and whispered, "Isn't that..." while subtly leaning his head to left. I glanced down the bleachers and nodded. "Yes," I whispered back, "that's L." He scooted down the bench and starting talking to the woman while I walked over to her other side. I saw the light... Read more →

Leaping

My heart is palpitating, my stomach is fluttering, and my hands are shaking. I just took a big leap in my creative life, and now I need a stiff drink. I also now need to apologize to you. I'm going to leave you hanging and not tell you what this leap was. I should be able to in about three weeks, but for now I'm going to keep mum and not jinx myself. I promise,... Read more →

Rescues

Monday morning dawned clear and sunny for the first time after a week of rain and ice. It looked to be a perfect day to mount a helicopter rescue. I guess there's no place to start but the beginning. On Sunday, January 12, my dear hubby Thane was caught in an avalanche. I haven't mentioned this adventure before now because Thane asked me not to. I think he was hoping to keep it quiet, but... Read more →