LaToya M. Davidson-Perez

In the past few days I’ve made a great deal of progress. Personally and professionally. So much so, I’ve been inclined to put 3 days of smiley face stickers on my wall calendar. For those who may not remember, I have smiley and frowny faced stickers to mark the extremes of my moods. I’ve struggled with severe depression much of my adult life and so I’m trying to assess if there is any pattern to my moods and if I can somehow be prepared to really take advantage of when my really good moods come around. Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were phenomenal and this week hasn’t been all the shabby either. Actually, Wednesday and Thursday were also smiley days.

What’s changed? Well, I can honestly attribute a big part of it to finding some real order in my life. This actually is a result of Asana, no not the yoga pose, although it does sometimes feel that way. I’m talking about the collaborative information manager. Asana is a task management tool that was created by a Facebook co-creator and former Facebook engineer. I could gush even more about how wonderful this tool is for individuals and groups and how, like it’s slogan, “teamwork without email.” It’s so much more than that but I’m super stoked about it and it has been so wonderful in getting my life more organized. For personal or professional use it’s basically an interactive actionable to-do list with so much more capabilities. A client of mine started using it and as a result I was made to use it. It became another in a growing list of software that I’ve learned to use and I really like it. Oh, and it’s free. That’s always nice too. Continue reading “Making Real Progress” →

I’m not sure why I always seem to drag my feet when it comes to writing. I’m always composing in my head but I always find that I’m so busy to carve out the little time needed to simply make a post. It’s been a challenging time. I’m still coming to grips with the passing of my grandmother. It still doesn’t feel real. Since her death I have spent an exorbitant amount of time thinking about my mortality. Just the other night I sat in bed and had a lively discussion with my husband about what happens after we die. Granted, this discussion was further fueled by having watched the movie, The Judge, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. I’d already been thinking dark thoughts, what happens in the movie, spoiler alert, made me give it even more consideration.

Is it wrong that when I got home I Googled how physics may explain the possibility of an afterlife. I expressed to my hubby that as much as I’d like to believe that there is something after we’ve died, that I just don’t think that our spirit and consciousness requires the living human body to survive. In a nutshell, I think that the energy that was contained within us simply dissipates and is released and absorbed by the environment. Yes, a dismal outlook but one that I’m actually more willing to accept than the one suggested by religion. My husband and I differ a bit in our belief and limited understanding of what happens after we die. He too doesn’t believe that there is an afterlife as described in the scriptures, but unlike me he’s more comfortable believing that something, rather than nothing, happens to us. Continue reading “The Conscious Uncoupling of Life” →

When life gets crazy there are a number of things that are left by the wayside. For me, it’s my 600+ emails in my personal email box. Sure, I’ll take a look at the ones that seem to be immediately important, thanks to my iPhone and Postbox notifications, but outside of that, they pile up. My moods have dictated the state of my inbox. However, you can look at the state of my inbox as that of the current state of my life. I immediately do the things that absolutely have to be completed, and then I put off whatever it is that I can.

I wasn’t always such a lazy person. But I have become this way as life has begun to really wear on me. I think that as the pounds have also creeped up on me more and more that hasn’t helped either. I’m not so vain that I’m not willing to share my weight. As of today I topple the scale at 248 pounds! Yes, you read correctly. I may not be too vain to reveal my astonishing weight but I do tend to stay out of the mirror as much as possible. My face, to me, looks like it’s been made swollen by bee stings and why is it that I have to pluck facial hair that now mysteriously sprout on my chin?! Much of my weight is attributed to the long list on medications that I’m required to take. Yes, required. Without them I’d be far more suicidal than most, my headaches would return and I would need both sinus and brain surgery again. But it certainly doesn’t help that all the foods that I’m supposed to avoid are the only ones that I eat. Dairy. Pasta. I love you. Continue reading “My Inbox Runneth Over” →