Naivety & Cynicism: Finding a Balance.

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I can remember sitting in some sort of church service when I was really young and hearing a missionary talk about starvation across the world.  Hearing statistic after statistic about kids who die from starvation made me incredibly sad, and I remember lying in bed that night wondering what could be done about it, when I had an incredibly idea.  What if everyone in the world boxed up our leftovers, then we could all send our food to the starving people so they wouldn't be hungry anymore.  The thought made me so happy, and I truly believed that at 7 years old, I had figured out a solution for world hunger.

As a child, that's just how I thought.  If enough people gave a homeless man money, he would save it and wouldn't have to beg for money anymore.  If I was nice to a friend that was sad, they wouldn't be sad anymore.  If I helped my friend clean her room, then her parents would be happy and they wouldn't get divorced anymore.  In the mind of 7 year old me, you could do something to fix anything.  Every problem had a solution.  That's just what I thought.

And then, I didn't.

Be the change you wish to see.  I don't think anyone accomplishes this better than children, without even knowing they're doing it.  As a kid, you just do what you want.  If you're tired of playing with one toy, you stop playing with it and get another. If you're tired of hanging out with someone, you call your mom to come get you.  If you don't like where something is, you move it.  Due to innocence and naivety, you don't worry that something may go wrong, that it may not work, that other people may think less of you.  You just recognize that you want something to be different, and you do something about it. You come up with solutions to problems--both your own and others--and act on those ideas.  Why?  Just because.

And then, you don't.

Somewhere along the way innocence is replaced with knowledge, optimism for realistic expectations.  You realize that you can't fix everything, so you decide to stop trying.

A box of leftovers isn't going to stop world hunger, but you know what might?  A group of adults who choose to think like the kid-version of themselves every now and then.  People who look at a problem and don't think about how big it is, but instead think about what they can do about it.  People who know it may be naive to try to change things, but who choose to try anyway.

Can you imagine how full of life you would feel if that's the way you chose to look at the world?

Happy to be Alive, Because: You're Mine For Life.

23 years ago today, my favorite human being was born.  Happy birthday to my babe!

1.  I have someone to take these types of pictures with:

And these types of pictures with: 

2.  I get to wake up and see my best friend every morning.  Cliche?  Duh.  Absolutely true?  You bet.  And he brings me coffee every morning.  Boom.

3.  No matter how many times I tried to imagine what this season of life would be like (a lot of times, by the way), I never thought it would look like being married to the hardest worker who is just as passionate about my dreams as his own, living 17 stories in the sky downtown, and spending nights adventuring and then coming home to a little fox.  It's nothing like I thought it would be, in all the best ways.

4.  I get to do life with someone who knows me, pushes me, makes me laugh, brings me flowers, knows just when to bring home pizza and wine, and walks my sissy dog.  That, my friends, makes a good life.

5.  I am about to have the best weekend ever celebrating the love of my life.

Cheers to 23, my love!  It's gonna be a good one.

What made you happy to be alive this week? 

How To: Make the most of Your Writing Process.

For me, writing comes in waves.  Some days I'm killing it--can't get the words down fast enough, having to pause and jot down ideas on my phone because I'm having so many and I don't want to forget them, absolutely killing it.  And then there will be weeks at a time where there's just n o t h i n g.  No ideas.  No inspiration.  Weeks where I stare at the page and wonder how in the world I've ever managed to write anything in my whole entire life, much less a book.

What I'm learning is that if you want to make the most of your writing, you need to treat both of those times the same: the days of inspiration and the weeks of drought.  You do this by having a process.  What works for everyone is different, but these are a few things I've found that work for me. 

Start things off already inspired. I have a pinterest board full of words and quotes that inspire me.  Taking the time to scroll through those or read a chapter in a book I love gets my mind in a creative place.  I think, "I want to write words like that!"  And so I do.  Or, I try to.  Which, for the purpose of this post, is quite good enough. 

Set goals.  Have some sort of idea about what you want to come out of this writing session.  Whether that's a certain amount of blog posts you want to write, a number of pages you would like to fill, or a set amount of time you want to write for.  Having something to strive for will keep you from slamming the computer shut or throwing your notebook at the wall.

A hot drink.  Or a cold drink, if it's too hot.  Either way, something that tastes good that you enjoy, but that isn't going to be distracting.  For me, food is incredibly distracting, but a mug full of my favorite coffee inspires creativity. 

Set the mood with scents and sounds.   Find a candle that makes you happy and buy five of them.  I mean, just one works too.  I just bought this pretty thing and it's kind of like having unlimited candles in whatever scent you want.  Vanilla really inspires me, but it has to be vanilla-some-kind-of-cake, not just vanilla.  If I'm going for a relaxed environment, I mix vanilla and lavender.  And in the fall, I can crank out some serious pages to the smell of pumpkins and cinnamon.  

As far as sounds go, you just have to figure out what works for you.  A lot of people can write along to music; I cannot.  The words just distract me too much.  If you're like me in that sense, here are some resources you may like: 

Ommwriter.  This pretty much blocks off your entire computer and allows you to write without distraction.  They have a selection of neutral + inspiring backgrounds and noises you can choose to write along to.

Coffitivity.  If writing in a crowded coffee shop inspires you, you can bring some of the ambience home with you.  There are a few apps and websites for this, but this one is my favorite. The conversation is muffled and they also included realistic sounds, like clattering spoons and clanking mugs. 

Noisy Typer.  You can make your keyboard sound like a typewriter.  And that's just fantastic. 

While this is by no means a magic formula, I've found that if my process is the same when I'm inspired as it is when I'm uninspired, the inspired days seem to come along more often. 

How do you make the most of your writing process? 

Dreaming, Failing, Glory & Glitter.

"Don't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling." 

I've seen those quote around forever, from canvases in Anthropology to inspirational pinterest boards.  I love it, and it does inspire me to think about my dreams.  But I don't think it's the size of my dreams that scare me.  For me, dreaming is the easy part.

Don't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.  Or a lot bigger.  Because you can, and you should.

Don't be afraid of chasing those dreams publicly.  Because the opinion here that matters the most is your own.

Don't be afraid to tell people about your extraordinary dreams.  They will either respond with belief in you or by telling you it's impossible.  One will warm your heart and the other will warm the fire in your soul, fueling you to prove them wrong, prove them wrong, prove them wrong.

Don't be afraid of stepping outside of your comfort zone.  You will never be able to chase the adventure of your dream until you do so, and the alternative is living with bitter regret at what could have been simply because you were scared to get a little uncomfortable.

Don't be afraid to be unsuccessful.  Don't even be afraid of failure in epic proportions.  Because when you do fail, and you and your dream crash and burn in a spectacular cloud of glory and glitter, you will do so having tried, having tried, having tried.

Spectacular failures don't exist without spectacular efforts and spectacular experiences.

So don't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

And don't be afraid to chase, to tell, to prove, to step out, to fail spectacularly, to try, to succeed.

Because you can, you can, you can. 

Happy to be Alive, Because: Jason Street & The Magic of Beginnings.

1.  It's Friday.  This has been one of those weeks where I've had to put the tips I talked about yesterday intro practice many times.  I'm so glad it's the weekend.

2.  This beauty lives on my counter now.  

That's a wax warmer that looks like a mason jar with a gold lid.  In other words, someone, somewhere has designed a wax warmer just for me.  Now my house smells like lavender and vanilla all day long.  Win, win, win.

3.  I've been watching Hart of Dixie.  How did I not know about this show?!  I started watching it because Jason Street is in it and I will watch anything that has anyone from Friday Night Lights in it on pure principal.  I'm kind of just pretending that it's his life post-Friday Night Lights.  AKA, I'm just waiting on Tim Riggins to show.

4.  Trips to Hobby Lobby and new fabric. 

I'll be back on Monday with some new headbands, and I'm pretty freaking excited about them.

5.  This:

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Cheers to Friday and the magic of beginnings!  What made you happy to be alive this week?

How-To: Turn a Bad Day into a Good Day in 30 minutes or Less.

1.  Take 5 minutes and just have a terrible, no good, awful, bad day. 

In LOST--the greatest show of all time--Jack has a unique way of dealing with fear.  He allows himself five seconds of being terrified.  He counts to five, letting the fear consume him as he does.  But when he gets to five, he doesn't allow himself the privilege of being afraid anymore.

Wallow.  Pity yourself.  Think of all the reasons you're having a bad day and how you'll probably never have a good day again.  Throw the biggest pity part of the year.  But when your five minutes is up, stop it. 

2. Change your perspective, literally. 

Change locations.  If you can't move to a new location, move to a different spot in the same room you're in.  If that's not an option, take a quick walk.  If you're stuck at a desk, rearrange the things on your desk to give yourself a clean space.  Just do something that will make your view different for at least a few minutes.  

3.  Make a list of 5 happy things.  

This can be a mental list, but I like to physically write down a list of happy things.  It doesn't have to be serious; no one else is going to see this.  Just list the first five happy things that pop into your mind.  

4.  Have a process that you associate with being happy and calm. 

Drink a cup of coffee or tea. If you're at home, paint your nails or put of comfy slippers.  Light a candle.  Take five minutes to do something small that makes you happy but doesn't interfere with the rest of your day. 

Since some bad days tend to strike while I'm working, I always have a mug and teabag in my purse.  It takes less than two minutes to fix a cup of tea, and then I can be back at my desk doing something that makes me happy without disrupting my work.  

5.  Keep on going with your day. 

The worst thing to do when you're having a bad day is to simply write off the rest of your day.  It's not time for yoga pants and wine yet; the day can still be salvaged.  Treat it like a new day and get stuff done.  It's hard to have a bad day when you're too busy being a productivity beast. 

And when all else fails. . .there's always the humor section on pinterest.  

What do you do to turn a bad day around? 

Some Things are Non-Negotiable: 3 Movies You Must Watch.

"Certain things leave you in your life and certain things stay with you.  And that's why we're all interested in movies-those ones that make you feel, you still think about.  Because it gave you such an emotional response, it's actually part of your emotional make-up, in a way." 

-Tim Burton

I love movies.  I love everything about them.  I love going to the theatre and getting popcorn and watching previews.  I love renting a movie and curling up on the couch.  I love that you can become completely attached to characters and lost in a story that lasts only an hour or two.  I just love movies.

Because of my love for movies, I have a lot of favorite movies.  But there are three that you absolutely must love if we're going to have any chance of being friends.

1. E L F .

Let's just go ahead and get this one out of the way.  Christmas and Will Ferrell. . .hello.  What's not to love?  If you are able to let the Christmas season pass without watching this movie, I feel very sad for you and I'm sorry that you have a sad life.  And if, for some insane reason, you haven't seen it yet, don't worry.  I will be back the day after Thanksgiving to remind you that it's time to watch it.

Best Quote:  "You sit on a throne of lies.  You don't smell like Santa, you smell like beef and cheese." 

I actually think it's impossible to pick a best quote with this movie, but that's the one that makes me laugh the most.

2.  R E M E M B E R   T H E   T I T A N S . 

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Oh, this movie.  I think that everyone should have to watch this movie at least once.  I'm not a football fan, but this isn't just a movie about football.  It's about hard work and racism and teamwork and joy.  It's also the reason I cry every time I hear the song, Ain't No Mountain High Enough.  

Don't be tricked into not seeing this because you think it's a movie about football.  Because really, it's not.

Best Quote:  "People say that it can't work, black and white.  Here, we make it work every day.  We still have our disagreements, of course, but before we reach for hate, always, always, we remember the Titans."

3.  E L I Z A B E T H T O W N .  

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This is my favorite movie of all time, ever ever ever.  It's a beautiful story about life and failure and death and love and pretty much everything else in-between.  It also has the most incredible soundtrack of any movie I've ever seen.

It's one of those things where I don't even know how to begin telling you why you should watch this movie, because it's so amazing that it blows my mind that you may not want to watch it.  So please oh please do yourself a favor and watch it immediately.  There is no time to waste here, people.  It's time for your life to truly begin.

Bonus:  It's on instant-watch on Netflix.

Best Quote:  "No true fiasco ever began as a quest for mere adequacy.  A motto of the British Special Air Force is:  'Those who risk, win.'  A single vine shoot is able to grow through cement.  The Pacific Northwestern salmon beats itself bloody on it's quest to travel hundreds of miles upstream against the current, with a single purpose.  Sex, of course, but also. . .life." 

What are your non-negotiable, must-watch movies?