Looking for Paradise? It may be closer than you thought.

words and photos by  Sara Morgan

Most people are surprised to learn that I have never been to Disney World. That’s right – a middle class American mother of three school aged children that has never been to Disney World. Imagine it.

I am actually quite proud of this unique distinction. I am also proud of the fact that even though I have never being to Disney World, I have sunbathed nude on a beautiful, white, sandy, and very secluded beach. And no, I was not in another country at the time and I did not get arrested.  Nope, I was less than 30 minutes from my rural home in South Louisiana.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at a picture I took from a recent excursion to my private/semi-public beach. And no, I am not nude in the picture. In fact, the person way off in the distance is my six-year old daughter, who happened to join me on this particular all clothing outing. 

I included the picture to give you a sense of how isolated and remote this beach is. The only footprints on the beach that day belonged to my daughter and me. The rest of the beach was pure white and the water in the creek beside it was cool and crystal clear. It was a perfect day and there was not another person in sight.

So, how is this possible? And, what did I mean by my private/semi-public beach?

The beach I am referring to is nestled deep within an upscale senior community; a community that prides itself on its well manicured golf course, but not on the spectacular beach that is accessible from one of their overlooked fitness trails. In the three years since I discovered the beach, I have come across only a handful of people out walking dogs on the fitness trail, and no one on the actual beach. 

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Surviving Financial Disaster by Giving Something Away for Free

by Sara Morgan

Last year I had the great fortune to receive not one, but three major personal and financial blows in my life. “Fortune”, you say?  “Are you nuts?” Nah, I just finally realized that it is the biggest challenges in life that give us the biggest opportunities.

Admittedly things have been a little rough. Most of my friends think I have gone mad. No one understands why I will not just give up this dream of mine and go get a “real job”. Some days I see their point, but the bottom line is that all I have left is my integrity. I have sold almost everything else, but my integrity is priceless.

Two months ago, when I realized that no one was buying my book about escaping Corporate America and no one was hiring me for contract jobs due to the Recession, I decided to take a chance and do something I have always wanted to do. You see, I love to help people help themselves. Empowering other people empowers me.

So, I decided to use my skills as a professional technical writer and my 15 years of experience as a software developer and create a do-it-yourself web design guide. The guide would be written in a very conversational style and would only include the bare minimum of what someone needed to know to get a professional web site up and running. I used every minute and every brain cell to pound out what I think is a pretty exceptional guide. My best work yet.

Initially, I planned on selling the guide for $25 each. Certainly a 137 page guide that was this thorough would be worth that. But last weekend, I had a burst of inspiration and decided to go a different route. In the spirit of the Internet and that information should be made free; I am giving the guide away to anyone that signs-up on my web site at www.custsolutions.net.

That’s right. I am giving it away. Most people that have downloaded it so far are amazed that I am doing this, but it makes sense to me. I know this is the only way I can truly reach the most people possible and empower them to reach for their dreams. True, I get no money and I still have no way to pay next month’s mortgage, but I got that integrity. And, that is what life is all about – at least for me it is.

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The World of Imperfection

by Sara Morgan

I don’t mean to get too personal here, but I thought it was worth noting that I am not perfect and neither are you. Like I said, it is nothing personal. I am not trying to put either of us down. I am simply trying to travel through the world of imperfection, hoping to come out the other side.

You see, I spent the better part of my life thinking I was perfect, or at least trying to be. I am your typical highly educated and highly neurotic white woman who has recently become a single mother of three young children. At the age of forty, I have already gone through two marriages and more jobs than I care to admit. I have struggled with the idea of how to find happiness and read almost every self-hope book made. Notice I used the word almost, because no one could possibly read them all. There are simply too many out there.

For the past nine months or since the failure of my second marriage, I have been casually dating myself. Rather than curling up in a ball, which is what I want to do every day, I keep washing my hair and forcing myself to go outside. On the weekends, I sometimes go to nice restaurants and sit at the bar. This is usually followed by a movie and a long ride home to my house in the country.

This weekend I spent the better part of my Sunday sitting on an isolated beach reading, “How to sleep alone in a King-size bed”, and I realized something profound. I realized that I am far from perfect and even though I have made many positive changes which I think will ultimately lead me to happiness; I am still far from it.

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Life: The Greatest Journey

by Sara Morgan
 
The only thing that can ruin your life is death; everything else is just an experience. Seems obvious, now that I read it. But, this statement has taken me years to write and even longer to truly understand.
 
You see, ten years ago, I began a journey which has taken me to where I am today. I am on a quest for happiness and I know that one of the best ways to achieve that is through a proper work-life balance.
 
I recognized years ago that the life I was leading was not working for me. Even though I had a high paying corporate job, nice house, nice car, nice husband, even a nice dog, I was not very happy. I was living my life for everyone else and some image that I thought I needed to project.
 
I was constantly racing around trying to exemplify this idea that my life was perfect. I was volunteering for things I did not respect, throwing parties for people I did not like, and doing jobs that I did not believe in. I was even known to have bought and wrapped all of my Christmas presents before the end of October. All of this, so I could maintain my perfect image, which was perfectly fake.

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Gifts In Odd Packages

by Sara Morgan

Sometimes life’s most precious of gifts can come in the oddest of packages. Little did I know several years ago that the mean-spirited lovebird I was about to take on would come to bring me such joy and teach me a valuable lesson in life.

I have always been a bird person, so it was not that unusual when a friend asked if I would want her peach-faced lovebird. She no longer wanted the bird because it would always attack her other bird. Even though I had never owned a lovebird, I agreed to take in the hostile little creature. And hostile she was. No matter how kind and caring I was towards her, she would take every opportunity to attack me. I ended up having to use a padded glove to feed her because she would viciously bite my hand and cause serious damage if I didn’t. At first, I thought, “what have I gotten myself into”.

Despite the birds bad-tempered behavior, I could not help feeling sorry for her when I noticed that she was laying eggs in the bottom of the cage. Since she had no nesting materials, and no mate, the eggs would roll around on the bottom of the cage until eventually they would become so rotten that I had no choice but to remove them from the cage. That particular exercise required two people since Rainbow, as we would call her, was particularly vicious when her eggs were involved.

Eventually I purchased Rainbow a mate. I admit I was a bit worried, since at first I was not sure whether she would just bite the poor new birds head off. I introduced her to the new bird slowly and luckily for it, Rainbow approved and the bird got to keep his head. In fact, they got along so well, I would soon learn why people referred to them as lovebirds. I bought the happy couple a nesting box and just crossed my fingers; unsure as to whether I had done the right thing.

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