Oh Goodness Me
April 1st, 2011 § 3 Comments
Day Ninety-One
It’s been a really good week.
I don’t want to say that I haven’t had a good week in recent months, but something about this week was extra good. You know, like stop and realize how on top of the world you are good. Smiling all the time and letting trouble roll off your shoulders kind of good.
See, I’ve been trying this new thing lately where I stop worrying so much and start living a lot. When my thoughts play hopscotch and try to make it too far ahead, I grab the stone, throw it on the first square and reel them back in. And it’s nice here in the beginning of the sequence where I know I’ve got a lot of ground to cover, yet I’m not really worried about when and how I’m going to get there.
And if I take a second to stop looking at the broad spectrum of life, there are the little things, too.
Like how three coats of OPI Metro Chic can leave me unable to stop looking down at my hands. Or how I can’t help but try to figure out the mysterious air Adele’s buttery voice as I try my best to sing along.
Maybe it’s been knowing all week I’ve got a date tomorrow morning with a stylist’s chair and the familiar paint, trim and straighten of a hair appointment.
Maybe it’s the date I have later in the day with my camera and a beautiful mother and daughter.
Or I could attribute this good to seeing doors opened, watching people chase their passion wholeheartedly and feeling that freshness that can only come with it being a new month.
Maybe I should take my own advice, stop trying to pinpoint life and just go with it.
Yeah, I think that’s what I’ll do.
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Happiness In Bloom
March 24th, 2011 § 6 Comments
Day Eighty-Three
If I had one motto that I could share with all the world it would be this: always have fresh flowers.
I seemed to have forgotten just how delightful such a small addition to a home can be. Then a few days ago, I found myself wandering around the grocery store in search of almonds and bananas and suddenly I was smack in the middle of a beautiful display of blooms. Immediately I was taken back to Sunday trips to Trader Joe’s where the first task was to stop and choose which bouquet I’d be taking home to welcome me into my kitchen every morning for the next week.
Tulips are one of my favorites if for nothing else than their clean lines and slow progression to open. White tulips just scream new, clean, fresh which at this point in my life are the three words I could best use to describe my taste in decor and styling. Although they come with very long stems and leaves intact, I prefer to cut them short and put them in a square glass vase. My Mum added the rocks and I gotta admit, I really like ‘em.
As is the routine with most photography mornings, I hopped from sitting on the counter top, stretching and leaning backwards to standing on a chair and finally crouching until I got eye level with these beauties. I clicked away without even looking at the preview screen. After my initial round of snapping, I uploaded, edited and went back to take more. I just couldn’t get enough. It’s funny, that’s the appetite I have for life lately.
Maybe it’s because I realized last night just how perfect the weather is right now in Texas, maybe it’s because I finally got an issue resolved at work that’s been a thorn in my side for six months, maybe it’s because I got a phone call at 9 p.m. from a friend who was going to stop by on her way home just to say hi, maybe it’s because we stood in my driveway for over 30 minutes and laughed so hard we were wheezing through words – you know the kind where you catch your breath, sigh and say oooh my goodness and let out one more small giggle.
Maybe this is the beginning of finally feeling settled. Whatever it is, I’m giving credit to the flowers.
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Take on a Tumbler
January 24th, 2011 § 5 Comments
Day Twenty-Four: Jan. 24, 2011
I’m a firm believer in attitude. Having one can make or break your day, depending on where it falls on the positivity spectrum. It’s always been easy for me to be a “half-full” glass kind of gal for anyone other than myself. More recently, though, I have been working to make that mentality the one I apply toward myself. Every day on my way to work, I get psyched up for the day ahead. I’ve found the best recipe for this combines blaring (and belting out) of music, a few prayers and a lot of self talk. What is self talk? It’s basically just telling yourself all the good things someone would tell you if they knew you needed a little encouragement. Self talk has amazing powers to completely change your attitude.
Does it always work? Of course not. Yesterday I had to pull everything together to keep myself from walking our of work. It was just that kind of day. I made a physical attempt to turn the negative thoughts I had toward the situation and the people involved into positive ones. I prayed for forgiveness in how angry I was. I prayed for those involved to act with decency in the future. I put a lot of positive thoughts back into the atmosphere; I’m just as firm a believer in the power of that.
This morning, as is the case with many Mondays, I logged onto Twitter to see many of my friends were starting off their week on a bad note. As habit would have it, I wanted to immediately send out messages of encouragement, telling them it would be OK and to look for the positive in the situation. After the day I had and the general unhappiness I felt yesterday, I’m going to take that energy and focus it inward.
So that glass up there? It’s definitely half-full – for you and for me.
What’s your general disposition toward life and having a good attitude? Do you strive or struggle to maintain the “half-full” mentality?
Free falling
August 23rd, 2010 § 13 Comments
Since I have more than once thrown myself into the “healthy living” category in blog world, I was actually going to post about something health-related today. Instead, I’ll save that for another day. If you’re interested in reading more than just my random musings on life, though, check out Healthy Living Blogs a website designed to enhance the positive community of the healthy living blog world that I am a member of. Last I checked it was over 700 blogs strong!
This morning I was reading through a thread of messages on Facebook between eight of my girlfriends from high school. Since we are living in several different states now, we periodically update each other this way and before we know it, there’s a thread is over 30 messages long. Everyone is at completely different points in their life – one is married with a little girl, another is married and remodeling her house, another just had a baby, three are in serious relationships and three of us are single. There have been so many times since we graduated that I’ve had a big moment of realization around just how much change each of us has endured in different ways and at different times, and yet we all still maintain a very strong friendship. For that, I consider myself to be very lucky.
This morning, one of my friends was sharing her decision to quit her “real job” and instead work full time at what used to be her part-time job. She had been considering going back to school for her third degree but decided against it when she realized her heart may not be fully into it. Then she said something that resonated with me.
“It’s weird; I have nothing – I have nobody, don’t have a real job, but I’m happy. I just think that it’s amazing that we can still have these threads and let each other know what’s going on. We may not talk everyday and all of our lives are changing so much with babies and weddings and live-in boyfriends and serious boyfriends and ‘the ones’ but we can still at least have these threads. It makes me happy.”
I don’t know how it’s possible to feel even closer to someone who’s over 1,000 miles away. I never imagined I could feel more ingrained into eight lives that I already considered to know as well as I know my own, but somehow I do.
Aside from it being a comfort to me as I come to fully realize what a physical distance I’ve put between myself and everything I know and love, what she said made me think a lot about happiness.
I know I’ve talked a lot about it. I’ve talked about my pursuit of it and knowing what I am doing will bring it to me. I know a lot of bloggers talk about happiness and how it relates to health and well-being. I know it’s something we are all in constant need of. It’s something that takes a different shape in every mind that formulates an opinion of it. Lately I’ve been telling myself that it’s not something that’s months or years away. It’s got to be in every day.
When my friend said she has nothing – meaning no assets, no relationship, no “dream job” – yet she is completely happy, it made me think about my own life.
Everything I own was just packed into the back of an SUV. Every relationship I have ever had is in the past. My “dream job” is still a dream I’m working toward. My closest friends are spread across the continent. Aside from my parents, my family is, too. Where does that leave my happiness?
Sometimes I think we feel like happiness can only be found in the shape of something that’s attainable but out of our grasp. “If I didn’t have a terrible boss,” “If I could just get that promotion,” “If I didn’t have so much debt,” “If I had a boyfriend/girlfriend,” “If I ever get married,” “If my kids would just behave,” “If we could just stop fighting,” “..then I could finally be happy.” How easy is it to fall into that trap?
I fall into it all the time. I keep feeling like there’s so many “If’s” and “When’s” right now that are holding me back from being happy. I’ve been impatient since I got here. I’ve wanted everything that I think will make me happy to happen right away.
The truth is, I’ve been so busy focused on the things that I want that I have forgotten about the things I already have and can enjoy every day that do make me happy:
- my humor
- my health
- my morning runs
- my dog
- the support under my own roof
- music
- books
- the power of prayer
- coffee
- good food
- sunsets
- the love of friends, near and far, old and new
To me, the focus now is to find the happiness in these things, and whatever things come my way with each new day. It’s kind of a freeing feeling. Happiness will certainly be there within the things I want to have someday, but the not so big secret here is that it’s in everything I already have. Now that I realize that, it’s time to dive right in.
What are your views on happiness? Where do you find it everyday and where do you hope to find it in the future?
I’m still here!
January 13th, 2010 § 9 Comments
Oh my lovelies! What a terrible writer I am, leaving this blog on the back burner for a week! I think I must have finally smelled the smoke coming from the stove today – my apologies it took so long! One thing I struggle with is having content to put here on a regular basis. As a writer, I find that some weeks I am bursting at the seams with things to say, while others I feel quite boring. I refuse to post just for the sake of posting, but I wanted to share a few things with everyone!
First, I have been doing a lot more cooking which is a huge feat for me. I’ve used two of the cookbooks I got for Christmas (“200 Under 200″ and “Make It Fast Cook It Slow”). Both books are packed full of great recipes and are serving their purpose in making me more, ummm, domestic? (I think it will take more than a cookbook for that though.) I have also discovered I am a huge fan of this:
Sorry it’s backwards – I took the lazy route and used Photo Booth and not my camera. But seriously?!?! I LURVE this stuff. So much in fact, I wrote a little ditty:
Ode to Cous Cous
Many a time I passed you in the lane at Trader Joe’s,
Oh how, how could I not know?
The love I have discovered for you is so strong,
I don’t know how I waited for you this long.
Cous Cous you make my tummy happy,
I love that your cook time is only five minutes – you are so snappy,
Especially in stir fry.
The end.
See? How can I possibly have time to blog when I am obviously so busy writing odes and sonnets to my food??
In other breaking news I met up with two local bloggers Jessica at How Sweet It Is and Abby at Just Another Day for brunch Sunday at my favorite little spot, The Square Cafe.
Sorry no pics for y’all. Just imagine three lovely, intelligent women (if I do say so myself) talking and laughing over french toast and pancakes. It was so refreshing to talk to people who actually understand this whole crazy blogger thing. There must have been a dozen times one of us would say something and the others would go, “OH my gosh! Me TOO!!” It was great. If you know of other bloggers in your area I strongly suggest you connect and meet up. Speaking of, we are thinking of doing another Pittsburgh meetup with more people. If you’re interested, comment or shoot me an email: thetwentyfifthyear [at] gmail [dot] com.
And speaking of meeting people, I am pumped to announce I will be attending Fit Bloggin’ 10! The lovely ladies I had brunch with will also be attending as well as the hilarious and witty Heather at Then Heather Said and the inspirational Julie at Savvy Eats. I can’t tell you how excited I am – and we all are! If you’re thinking about attending you definitely should! I mean, who wouldn’t want to meet me us?
Other than that bit of excitement – I know you all have held your breath waiting for a post, I hope you didn’t turn blue and pass out too many times – there is nothing else too new on the home front. This year has been nothing short of great so far and I am just in a really happy place right now. Last weekend, I was driving in my car – no doubt blasting some sweet tunes – and I just felt so at peace and content that I thought my heart was just going to burst. Which is totally gross if you think about it literally, but totally wonderful if you think about it figuratively.
