“I love words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.” — Anne Rice

I very well could have been the author of this quote. It’s true, even though I can’t sing well, I love words. I love to sing them, if you know me at all you know I love to speak them and am head over heals in love with the joy I get from writing them. That’s what this blog is all about. It calms me to write. It brings me peace, it makes sense of things that don’t make sense at first and it gives me an outlet to think. As Isaac Asimov said, “Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.”

Maybe I’m good at writing, maybe I’m not, either way, I recommend to anyone to write down their feelings, their thoughts, their emotions. Just try it once. See how you feel. Get yourself a journal and keep it all to yourself. It can become an extension of you that only you know about. I’d like to think you will find pleasure and comfort in this type of mental or emotional release. It’s like words hug me, like this picture, comforting my soul and all that I believe and feel; taking me to a place where there is no judgement and no consequences to your feelings and your thoughts. A place where it is okay not to be okay.

I have linked this picture to an awesome Jessie J song that reminds me of the last thing I just wrote. This is an awesome version from a New York  subway before she made it. Check it out!

“Laughter is an instant vacation.” – Milton Berle

I love the way I feel after a long hard laugh! It’s like I just worked out for HOURS! My face hurts, my stomach hurts, but I feel like a million dollars.  I feel like I just got back from an amazing mini vacation, and that’s exactly what it is. Laughter takes you away to a euphoric place, even if just for a moment, in just an instant, where nothing else matters in this world, where you have no obligations and there is no pain. Laughter cures even the hardest of days!

When you feel yourself getting worked up, stressed out, upset or overwhelmed, stop yourself. Take a moment to realize how unimportant it all is in the scheme of life, and, if you have to, watch a funny video on YouTube. Actually, watch the one linked below! I PROMISE, after you step away from what is troubling you for just a minute or two, you will feel refreshed, like you just got back from a vacation, and can approach your issues with a fresh start.

And, I mean it, click on this girl laughing! There is NO WAY you want laugh 🙂

“Even though we’ve changed and we’re all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we’ll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we’re not all still friends.”

I think we all have friends from growing up that will never go away. And when we use the term “best friends” the longest lasting of friends will always take the cake.  I know that I have a group of girl friends from home that will be there FOREVER, for the rest of my life, whenever I need them and that will support me no matter what.

You four girls know who you are. For the rest of my friends PLEASE do not take this post personally. I love ALL of my friends dearly and am truly the luckiest girl in the world to be able to call all of you my friends. That being said, if I may, I’d like to talk about them for a second. The memories I have are endless, they go back to being 12 and 13 years old. I still laugh about them and share them regularly. But there is one week of my life that will NEVER escape me, that I literally think of EVERY day.

I got a phone call while working on August 28, 2009 that I needed to fly home because my father was passing away. I immediately got a flight home and was on my way. When I landed I was picked up at the airport by these girls and then they went with me to Hospice to sit with my father, went and got my family food, picked one of them to stay the night with me, were there first thing in the morning with coffee and breakfast and they didn’t leave my side for the next 4 days. They missed work and put their lives on hold for me. They came to my side when a tear was shed, regardless of what was going on in their own lives! Their families were there as well and the support has never stopped.  That, my friends, is TRUE love and RAW friendship, in the purest and most sincere form. And for these 4 girls and their families I am FOREVER grateful.

I can hardly wait to spend the weekend with all of you, adding more memories to my book! I Love You Niki, Ashley, Melissa and Christy, and THANK YOU!

(And Happy Birthday today to Melissa, Amy and Blaine!!!) Any of you BHS folks remember the song linked below???

“At the end of the day faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don’t really expect it. It’s like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And it’s not so important happy ever after, just that it’s happy right now. See once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you , and once in a while people may even take your breath away.”

– Meredith Grey, Grey’s Anatomy

Some of you probably expected this post to be religious while some of you know me well enough to know that it would have a different twist. When I think of the word “faith” I don’t personally think of religious faith. By definition, other than religious faith in a deity, faith is “allegiance to duty or a person,  fidelity to one’s promises, sincerity of intentions; firm belief in something for which there is no proof: complete trust.” That’s what I think she is talking about in this quote.

Faith is a funny thing. You just have to keep it, with no backing, no validity, just because you believe in your heart of hearts that what you believe in is real. Because you want something so bad you can’t imagine not having it. Faith is belief in the fairy tale we have always dreamed of for ourselves. I think we feel like if we don’t get the exact picture we painted when we were younger, that the fairy tale was all a facade, but I think it’s the exact opposite. Blessings come in disguise, your “fairy tale” will appear different than you ever imagined and you will be surprised to see how it all pans, what its true colors are and where your life takes you. Because, I believe, if you have faith in your own happiness, that it comes to you when you least expect it, through people you never gave the benefit of the doubt and in a way you never imagined. And the thought of that takes my breath away! The belief in knowing that when I least expect it, my life can be perfect because of its imperfections.

Finding happiness, love, trust and contentment in the unexpected is what I have faith in. And it’s what keeps me believing in ME and the life I lead! I have complete trust, with NO proof, that when I leave this world I will have a smile on my face and an amazing legacy to leave behind with no questions left unanswered and no doors left unopened.

“Because you gotta have faith…” (Who doesn’t love a little George Michael?)

“Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that’s just fabulous.” Carrie Bradshaw,- Sex and the City

I was just speaking with my neighbor last night about how much I love people, how much I love all of my friends no matter how often we talk and the joy and fulfillment I get from all the relationship in my life (big or small).  It is amazing what I have learned from my best friends all the way down to total strangers. I think it is very important to realize the role that each of these relationships plays in your life and what they bring you. Do they open you up to new things? Do they bring you questions, to somewhere unexpected, far from where you started, or back to step one? What do each of them teach you about life, about yourself, about people?

That being said, Carrie is right. The most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. Where does that relationship take you? What do you learn from it? What’s the role it plays in your life? If you can figure this out, if you can work daily at self-awareness, I think  that you are one step closer to the key to your own life. Loving yourself is the first step to any level of happiness and if you can find someone that loves the you that you love, the real you, the only place to go from there is up! And until you find that, I see nothing wrong with just loving yourself in the meantime instead of settling for anything less.

Here are two links to help you truly love YOU! Sounds funny, but I think we all have A LOT to learn from these tips!

10 Really Easy Ways You Can Love Yourself More Today!

How To Love Yourself In 17 Ways

And, of course, I little song linked below to remind you how beautiful you are 😉

“And if we’re lucky, we realize, in the face of everything, in the face of life, the true dream is being able to dream at all.” – Meredith Grey, Grey’s Anatomy

A friend of mine sent me this slide show today and it really got me thinking. It was about how lucky we are to live how we live, have what we have and to be as healthy as we are. It was a PERFECT way to start my Monday so I wanted to share it with all of you.

Count your blessings, be grateful for all you have, be aware of what others don’t have and know that it could always be worse. Put yourself in the shoes of others and reevaluate when you say or think that life is hard. Yes, sometimes it is hard, I’m not saying that it isn’t, but sometimes our hard is only relative compared to what others have to endure. After all, “in the face of everything, in the face of life, the true dream is being able to dream at all.”

I have linked the slide show sent to me below. Enjoy!

“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.” –  Christopher Robin to Pooh

I caught up with one of my bestest of friends tonight and this quote came to my mind when we got off the phone with one another. Sometimes we all need a reminder of how brave we are, how strong we, how smart we are. We didn’t specifically say this to each other, that’s what is so funny to me about it all. Just catching up with someone that knows you so well, that understands you, that is always on your side, that loves you and that respects you can re-spark a fire in you that you  don’t mean to let blow out. This is why our friends are so important.

So, all that being said, short and sweet, thank you, Lucy Vinnicombe, for being such a beautiful, loving and life-long friend. You re-lit my fire tonight and you probably didn’t even know it. I think just being reminded how brave, strong and smart you are helped to remind me why we are so close and such good friends….because we have those traits in common 😉 Love you! And in other words from Pooh, “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.”

The song linked to our pic will always remind me of Lu!

“You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.” – Oprah Winfrey

This quote reminds me of Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She wants EVERYTHING and she wants it NOW.  What happens to her? She goes “where all the bad eggs go, down the garbage chute,” that leads to the furnace. What a great moral we can all learn from this bratty, needy, high maintenance character.

As I’ve gotten older I notice that the things I want are different. It’s not just toys, clothes and candy anymore. I want all the stuff we all dream of in life: success, happiness, love, trust, financial stability, maybe children one day, etc. There are some days when I get down thinking that since I don’t have some of those NOW, I’ll never have them at all. How false is that. Oprah is exactly right. I can have all of these things in life, just not all at once. And where would the fun be in that anyway? Spreading out all the things I want in life helps to fill my days and allows me to enjoy everything individually. Yes, many of these will overlap and I will get to enjoy them simultaneously, but then there are the things I want that I will get to experience in different ways.

What I thought was “success” before will change as I get older, throughout my career(s) and relationships. What I know to be “love” will change as well and will feel different each time I get a shot at it. My reasons for happiness will also transform over time and I know that I will continue to find happiness in different things and ways. So instead of focusing on what I don’t have, I have to focus on what I do have, right now. Feel and experience every feeling and experience to the fullest and cherish it while I can, knowing that tomorrow I may just get a shot at something new, that I’ve always wanted, not getting to ever have again what I have today.

I can have it all, that is for sure, I just can’t have it all at once. And I am coming to peace with that! After all, I don’t want to end up in the furnace for being greedy!

Wanna see Veruca Salt flip out old school Wonka style? Click on that bratty little face below haha

“Love”

“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin.
Beginning makes the conditions perfect.”
– Alan Cohen

I am the queen of saying, “I’ll start tomorrow,” “It’s just bad timing,” “We need to plan that.” Well, that has to stop. I need to start things today, the timing will never be right (I don’t care what anyone says) and I need to plan right now for the rest of my life.

First and foremost, Happy New Year to all of you! Funny holiday isn’t it? Just another day of the week. Some of us get it off of work, some don’t, but it’s just the first of the month like any of the other 11. But we treat it differently, like the beginning of a second chance almost. Well what if we stopped looking at it that way and just viewed it like any other day. Making resolutions gives us a chance to break them. Getting a chance to break them allows us the chance to be upset with ourselves, which, in turn, creatives negative energy within ourselves. How about this, let’s avoid letting ourselves down, no need to ever get down on yourself. When you veer off track just readjust your wheels and jump back on. It’s really that simple. No emotions, feelings or thoughts have to be permanent, you have control over them, remember that.

So, starting today I will begin to do the following, that won’t change when we ring in 2013 or 14 or 15. For the rest of my life I will live this way and just regroup when I seem to have gone astray, allowing myself the chance to be human:

Leave time in my life for myself.

Focus on the positives not the negatives.

Take care of my body through what I eat, exercise and mindful thinking.

Treat everyone I meet like a friend and help others anyway I can.

Love those that I love with every bit of love I can give and always remind them that they are not alone.

Treat my bucket list as if my life ends tomorrow.

Be grateful, for everyone and every thing in my life and make sure to voice that.

Remember what is important in life and take emphasis off of the material things.

Smile!

TRY my best to let go off the past and just “let it be”!

And travel to Bali…Woh, not sure what happened there 😉 That seems like a resolution. I shall call it a “goal”!

So here’s to a new beginning, a year of good health, strong love and personal along with professional success. Here’s to doing what we always said we would and starting what we said we would start when the time is right. Well the time is right right now, it was right yesterday and it will be right every moment you put it off. A day we are alive is a day of perfect conditions. Carpe diem!