The Best 20 Minutes of My Life

Things are happening in our world. Lives are being changed. People are being influenced. Families are being helped. 

The world is also seeing suffering. Lives are enduring great affliction. People are pushing their way through tragedies. Families are rebuilding after destruction. 

I viewed this video last week. I hadn't planned to watch the whole thing. I had intended to watch the first five minutes and assumed I would eventually stop after a loss of interest. 

But no such thing happened.

This is an inspiring video of a young boy named Zach Sobiech. He has so much wisdom and a love for life that we can only hope to experience. He's truly a beautiful young man.

I can honestly say this is the best video on YouTube that I've ever watched. The best young man that I can hope to know. The best twenty minutes of my life. Enjoy it all.

Have a fabulous day.

Wordless Wednesdays {Looking Up}

Poetry Mondays: Thanks

I'd like to express

my thankfulness

to those who bless

me with my freedom. 

To those who served,
to those who fought,
to those who are training,

to those we have lost.

To those who have died

on the inside in war.

To those who cry

because their heart is torn. 

In the midst of death

in the midst of power

in the midst of evil

but yet never cower. 

You are my hero

but yet go unnoticed. 

You've been through so much

but can still stay focused. 

Words can't explain

this poem can't portray 

my feelings can't be contained 

I'd just like to say

Thanks. 

The Cat of the Hour

For those of you who are long time readers, you know about my neighbor's cat. She'd often creep up on me during a shoot and I'd always snap a couple shots of her. She's scattered about in my blog, a couple of pictures of her here, a couple more there, she's a regular customer. I believe she hasn't made an appearance in a while, but this will most definitely make up for it.

I saw her wandering around my backyard after a couple of weeks of hiding last night. I hadn't seen her in almost a month and I saw an opening of opportunity. The sun was in the beginning stages of a sunset and the lighting was just beautiful.

It was a fabulous two minutes. Literally. Two minutes was all I spent with her before she sauntered off onto her next destination. She's a mysterious creature, I'll tell ya.

I hate to turn this post into some cliche metaphor about a cat's life, but I just can't help it. She fascinates me, her day to day life, her go wherever she pleases nature. I kinda like it. I wish I could just drop everything and travel, move from city to city, country to country, seeing landmarks and new people and enjoying interesting dishes.

But in all honesty the reality is that it's quite impossible to live like her unless you have some remarkable financial circumstance. But a girl can dream.

And I sure will.

So start your week off right. Eat what you love. Go to the pool. Enjoy the sun. Pet your favorite feline a few more times. Tell people you love them.

Have a fabulous final two hours of a Sunday. 

A Beautiful Mess

My life is a paradox. Or an oxymoron. Or whatever the hell should be the correct term. (Why is public education failing me?!) I'm one "I'm almost ready" moment after another. I can be awfully nice. My room is a fine mess. I'm cautiously optimistic. My future is as clear as mud. I believe in free will. My life is one big beautiful mess.

I kinda like that. A beautiful mess. I break down. I freak out. I cry because there's no way in hell that I can finish that book report and study for my pre-calculus test and make A's on both of them. My rooms a mess. I'm not the best at the things I wish I was. But I make good grades. And I love what I do. I constantly try to find joy in everything. I find happiness in the little things. For every shitty thing that happens, I have something better that totally out does it.

My life is a mess, but it sure is beautiful.

I guess that's the secret. The key to the door of life. Who cares if your life isn't great and it's not how you planned as long as you can find the beauty that I guarantee is somewhere in there. Nobody likes a mess, but a beautiful mess is totally different.

And what makes it even better is that we define what beauty is. We write it ourselves, the definition set by our own personal standards, which can make finding beauty so much more easy. I find beauty in other people's happiness. In a good sunset. In drinking Coke from glass bottles. In birthdays. In a perfect picture. It's all simple things that easily turn my cluttered life into something better.

I'm sure most of you readers have a mess of a life. Now go find the beauty in it. And there you have it.

A beautiful mess.

Have a fabulous Saturday.

Poetry Mondays: The Game of Life

I always loved
The Game of Life
the board game that is
where you had kids and found a wife.

I played it all through
my elementary days
the stiff, hard board
with colors array. 

But now I've grown so much
that the game is real
real people real challenges
the genuine deal.

Setbacks are more
than a few red spaces back
money isn't just
some bright papers in a stack.

You can't make up new rules
you can't cheat your way through
you can't end the game when things aren't going great
you just have to make do.

But wouldn't that be something-
if you could just restart
throw the board up in a fit
when things start to fall apart.

Or your luck could be changed

by a simple flick or a spin. 

If your mishaps were forgotten

by the time the next person wins.

But in The Game of life
there really is something to learn
sometimes you make the decisions
and then sometimes life takes a turn.


Have a fabulous Monday.

Ugh. High School. Post #4

New?
Introduction
Ugh. High School. Post #1
Ugh. High School. Post #2
Ugh. High School. Post #3

As I'm swimming (or should I use the word sinking?) deeper and farther into the waters of high school, I've come to a few realizations.

And once again I'm going to revert to the art of making my post into a list as, it makes me look like I know what I'm doing.

1. Give a Little
As much as teachers and parents and friends and our friends' parents and administrators and people in general shove down our throats the message of going to college, you'd think we'd get it. We need to make good grades. We need to apply ourselves. We need to think about the future. It's not necessarily about going to college either, it's truly about whether we're setting ourselves up for what's to come. Most high schoolers honestly don't give a shit (sorry for the wording, but it fits). We want to get by and still be cool and keep our boyfriends and go to the football game and shop and do what we want to do. Our priorities are screwed up. We don't understand that we need to pull our own weight or do more than just barely. All we have to do is give a little. I'm no perfect student, but I got that realization early on. I gave a lot and when I saw people flip over their papers only to receive a bad grade on the other side, I knew that if they just a gave a little more they would do better because I had seen them do better. Honestly, nothings more irritating than smart kids giving up.

2. Everybody Hurts
Why do we as girls, bring down other girls, when we know how hard life can be....for a girl? And not just girls, boys too. I've cracked a joke about somebody, said something I shouldn't have, I've hurt people. We all have. We've also all been hurt. I've been made fun of, laughed at, even cried because of what I was going through. Not only have I hurt people, but I've been hurt. That's where it gets funny. Why do we hurt others, when we know just how it feels? I've even caught myself. As soon as the words tumbled out of my mouth I've been flashed to a time when I was in the other person's position. My guilt then consumes me and I apologize but in reality, those words should've never left my brain. At times you have to be conscious of other people's feelings as hard as that seems.

3. Learn to Play the Game
This one almost contradicts #1. Sometimes you just need to learn how to play the game and play it well. At times this could mean taking the shorter route or the road more often traveled, but you have to find the happy medium between #1 and #3. I can't tell you what that medium is for you. It depends on what your goals are and what you're capable of doing, so only you can find it. But sometimes you don't always have to give 110% in P.E. class if you know what I mean.

4. Get as Much Education as You Can
College is freaking expensive. It's like you get free education for thirteen dagum years and then it's like BAM. We're now going to charge you $25,000+ a year for education. So take advantage of your last four or three or two or how many ever years of free education you have left. Take AP classes which could mean getting a semester or even a year worth of college credits out of the way for free. Free is such a beautiful thing. I love free apps. Free food. Freedom. And while we're at it, free education. So take as much advantage as possible during your years of high school in order to get all you can from this education system.

Have a fabulous Friday.

Wordless Wednesdays {Black & White}

Poetry Mondays: As I Look Up and Stare

I used to write poetry a good bit when I was in middle school. As a class assignment we had to write a new poem at least once or twice a week and I loved it. I loved coming up with metaphors and personifying nature and the way my words flowed. I quit for quite some time, but I'm coming back. Every Monday I hope to bring you a new poem written by yours truly, starting today.


The finger length grass brushes my ankles
like a paint brush on a canvas
although this one leaves me no masterpiece.

The sun beats down
filtering between millions of leaves
as I look up and stare.

The forest encompasses my body
as I lay on a barren piece of soil
as I look up and stare.

Every plant dances with the wind
to the tune sung by a lone bird
as I look up and stare.

I catch glimpses of clouds through the trees
and the warmth of beaming rays on my body

as I look up and stare.

The fragrance of sweet sweet flowers
fill the air and blow with the wind
as I look up and stare.

I close my eyes seeing nothing but black

a scary, unknown black 

then I open them

And look up and stare.


Have a fabulous Monday.

Wanting

There's a lot of life left in my life. It's like a peice of notebook paper with only one line written in and a lot more to fill. 

I see the world as a big place with big opportunities to change it. After I graduate college I just want to drift from country to country, volunteering my time, offering my services, and giving my love. I  want to settle down with my husband and adopt our family. I want to bring in children from our own country and from other countries and welcome them into our home. 

I have so much desire to do all these bigger and better things welled up inside me. I want to do things and meet interesting people and make my time on Earth fabulous. I want to have some beautiful and worthy story to tell my old teachers and old friends and old colleagues when I happen to run into them years later.

Not everything that I want to accomplish is big. I want to learn sign language and how to knit and how to ride a unicycle and how to write with my opposite hand and how to solve a rubics cube and how to sew. I want to read fifty books in one summer. I want to go a whole month where I write a blog post every day. I want to save up $500 and gamble it all. I want to get a tattoo. I want to write a book.

I want to save someone's life. I want to play an integral part in someone's personal world. I want to loosen someone's burden. I want to make someone feel loved.

I never want this "wanting" desire to flicker out. It fuels my character and the decisions that I make and the paths that I travel. It brings me blessings and memories and an excitement for who I could become. It makes me want to take leaps as big as the Grand Canyon and give so much of myself to others. It makes me want to be that change, be that person, be that movement that inspires people.

I want to change the world, would you like to join me?

Have a fabulous day.

Love

I thought I'd try my hand at poetry. Enjoy.


I love mowing grass

and the purr of my cat

and the way light flows through elegant stained glass,

and the lull of crashing waves

and getting back good grades

and the sweet smell right after it rains,

and reality TV

and the optical illusion of a never ending sea

and the seemingly foreign tune sung by the first bird of spring.

I love the word love

a paradox when thought about;

it grows stronger with the things that one would think would break it down.

Ugh. High School. Post #3

Yea I know. I'm like super late on posting this. But whatevs.

Intro
Ugh. High School. Post #1
Ugh. High School. Post #2

This goes out to the rising ninth graders. The freshmen. The freshies. The freshmeat. The newbies. I could go on. And on. And on.

My first day of high school seemed like ages ago. I remember going to open house and leaving thinking I'd know where everything was. Then add approximately 1,100 more people in the hallways, guys who had deeper voices than Darth Vader, and girls with bigger boobs than all of the freshmen combined. Yea. It was a little difficult.

I was late for my biology class. (One that was filled with ALL upperclassmen except for three people. Can you say embarrassing?) I wandered the lunch room aimlessly trying to find my friends for a solid two minutes. Doesn't seem like much, but it was. I walked to each class like a total dweeb with my schedule in hand, the universal sign of a freshmen.

When I entered high school I was all like, "Bro. There's no drinking or partying or sex or drugs or bad things. High school is going to be totally cool, bro." (If you didn't read that in a hippy's voice then read it again.) But I was wrong. Don't get sucked in. Know it's happening. Be a good friend to the friends who are engaging in said illegal things. Just don't become one of them.

Them being the good kids. The kids who were smart. The kids who were strong in athletics. The kids who wanted to be nurses and lawyers and president. And then they started sliding down the hill. A hill that was built on good grades and supportive parents and a clear and bright future.

A couple sips. A pack of cigarettes. One party. That's all it takes before you lose your grip and start sliding. It may seem like a bright area to travel down at the time, but it'll come back to you. I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy yourself every once in a while, but be conscious of what you're doing and know when you need to stop. Set boundaries with your friends, with your parents, and with yourself.

If any parents are reading this, I've got some words of wisdom to share from my mom to you. I remember in seventh grade I went to my first "sketchy" party. My mom had heard me talk about the girl hosting the party, but she had never met her parents or the girl herself. After much pleading and promising, my mom allowed me to go and I will ALWAYS remember what she told me as I got out of the car.

"I know you're a good kid. I know you make good choices, but things happen. If somethings going on you don't like, if you want to leave early, if you get uncomfortable, you can call. I won't ask any questions, I'll just take you home. When you start driving and you take yourself to parties, the offer still stands. If you're uncomfortable driving home, if you know you're not capable of driving home, call. No questions asked. Just remember, you can always call."

Now, no worries, there was nothing illegal going on at that middle school party, but it brought me to a wonderful revelation.

I could call.

It grew our trust and although I've never used the offer, I've come pretty close. It's a beautiful thing to offer your children. You'll probably get a, "Mom, it'll be fine." or "Mom, no need to worry.", but that statement will stick with them, trust me.

Back to my freshmen.

Don't do anything ridiculously stupid, especially your freshmen year. I know a girl who was a senior my freshman year, who did something very foolish and naive when she was in 9th grade ( I'd rather not go into detail) and yet they were STILL talking about it my freshman year. Four freaking years later and the tale lived on. Moral here is, please, don't do anything stupid.

Also, if you ask for directions and somebody tells you it's up three flights of stairs, next to the pool and the stairway to the roof, they're probably lying. Unless your school has three flights of stairs, a pool, and a student accessible roof. But I still wouldn't take their word for it.

Have a fabulous day.


Want to continue on with the series?
Ugh. High School. Post #4