Celebrating a Very Happy 10th Birthday!

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Ten years ago, Michael Fredrickson called me after I wrote about creating artistic spaces for children for one of his other publications and stated very matter of factly, “Alisa, you are a writer!” I laughed at him and said, “Well, I graduated with honors from the University of Houston!” He then asked me if I would write a column monthly and said I could write whatever I wanted. He asked me to accompany it with one of my photographs, and the rest, as they say, is history. I named the column Living the Sweet Life in November of 2006. The first column was a picture of my daughter, then a little girl, making chocolate chip cookies.

Over the years, I have written about many different subjects such as God winks, magical moments, love, being kind, happiness and family to name a few. I have paid tribute to my friends, who I featured in ten years worth of Hope and Inspiration breast cancer calendars, farewells to children who were featured in my Small Miracles childhood cancer calendars and even to family members gone from us in body but never in spirit.

There aren’t many topics that I haven’t covered over these ten years. Sometimes I was not too sweet about things either. My column has been a place I have shared some of my deepest thoughts and life experiences. There in all of that writing is a window into my own soul. It has been a wonderful platform to give my readers a piece of my mind from time to time and share both my joys and my sorrows as we all are going through our own sweet lives together!

There have been too many times to count instances that strangers have stopped me, church friends have patted my shoulder, all of them telling me they really appreciated me writing about this or that. My family has enjoyed growing up and being a part of this column as well, especially the grandparents and the children. One time a sweet old lady called me, and she said, “I was down and depressed, and you had the wisdom of an old soul. Reading your column brought me out of my depression.” If one called, I have often wondered over these years how many more have felt better after reading me. I hope quite a few.

So the saying, “Time flies when you’re having fun” couldn’t be more appropriate for this month’s column. I want to thank you for reading me and being a part of my life and allowing me to be a part of yours. It has been fun and I have loved every minute of it! If you missed some over the past ten years, you can find them all at www.alisamurrayslivingthesweetlife.com.

Take Care of YOU!

Alisa