Am I Qualified for Giving Advice?

Tomorrow will be my first scheduled post ever.  I did not remember, when committing to this challenge, that I would be gone for 5 consecutive days.  I am hoping I get it right.  If not I shall return (hopefully) on Monday to post what I have missed.  In the meantime wish me luck as I embark into the brave unknown this morning.  Babe has planned a surprise trip for our anniversary!! 3 years today!!!

Today's challenge was advice for others. 
Advice for others?! I need advice for myself! So I think I will start there and maybe the advice for myself will work for you too?!
  Cherish life! Every minute of it, even the challenging ones.  Maybe especially the challenging ones.  Those are the teaching moments.  Learn something new everyday, even if it is only something small that you learn from the little moments.  Remember to tell the people you love how much you love them.  Care for people, even when it hurts.  Learn to understand that sometimes you have to let go of certain things, including people. Learn to realize the sometimes caring for the people you have been entrusted to love means setting boundaries, backing up and not doing everything you can to "help" the situation. That is not helping it is enabling.

Embrace everything about yourself; embrace the flaws and the areas where you fail.  Understand and come to terms with your past, tell it good-bye, thank it for what it taught you and move on to the present.  Try not to live in the future either.  You can look forward to the future, you can try to plan for it (though that whole tell God your plans and hear him laugh thing comes into play at least for me), but living in it robs today of it's beauty.

Just live! Breathe, embrace, take it all in and live.  Be content, yet always push yourself towards great things!

These moments, the little ones (like this day right here)... Cherish them!

Fearing Fear'

It's day 7 of Jenni's challenge and looking back I think I may have used some of the things for this post, things we are afraid of, in the post for things that make me uncomfortable. 

I think I kind of suck at being afraid of things because the things that scare me the most are things that are ultimately unavoidable.  They also aren't very tangible and therefore harder fears to destroy.  I love a scary movie.  I will scream as everything and love each scary moment at the same time.  I sometimes scream in kids movies (yes, I have been laughed at).  However, I know that after I scream the fear is gone; the scene changes.  I know that the movie is just a movie and I pretty much know walking into it what to expect (duh, I done seen the trailer).  What scares me the most are those unseen things; the "demons" that hide in the clear light of day.

I fear change and I fear the unknown.  I like knowing what to expect. I fear loss; of any kind really.  Death is, for me, the hardest form of loss; at least in earthly terms it's permanent. I would like to think if I was more prepared for it I wouldn't fear it so much but I was somewhat prepared for my Mimi's passing and that rocked me in a way that I have never been rocked before.  Loss outside of death scares me too though.  I fear losing friends.  I fear not having those relationships that I care so much about.  I fear that changes in lifestyle, in growing up, in timing will create valleys and trenches between me and the people I love.  I know that this is irrational.  I know that if the relationships are really as strong as I trust they are it won't matter.  I fear it anyways.  I fear loss even when it is something (or someone) I should probably let go of anyways. I still have no logical explanation for this and I am working on letting it go.  I fear letting things go, giving over control and letting someone else take the wheel. 

Sometimes, I fear myself.  This was a tough thing to learn. I fear the things I sometimes want (the above quote is one that I found not long ago that spoke to me on so many levels).  I fear my strength and my own ability to keep the people I love safe.  I fear the ability within myself to keep my life happy.  I believe that we are each given what we need to embrace our lives and make them happy ones. That belief scares me because in the end, if I mess everything up with choosing one path over another, I have no one to blame but myself.  At the same time I don't think I would have it any other way.   It is like driving in a car on an icy mountain road in the middle of a blizzard (yes, this Florida girl has done that... once). I would much rather be the one in the drivers seat because if I die, I am going to be the one to take me out.  I think I fear placing my life in someone else's hands.  This may go back to why I fear loss.  If I have put stake in someone to the point that losing them would cause me great pain, then I have given them a part of myself, a part of  my life.  I fear that in losing them I not only lose the relationship but I lose a part of me, as if somehow piece by piece I will be left with nothing but the shell of the person I once was. I ultimately know this is untrue.  I know that I can be myself on the other side of loss, that I can overcome fear; but in moments I am utterly terrified of these things, of myself and of my inability to control them.   

Doing Me

It's Day 6 of the blogging everyday through May challenge with Jenni and much of the blogging world. What do I do if I can't write about what I do (job wise)?

 

Well, my job is kind of about doing what I love right now because I have an amazing husband who is giving me the flexibility to pursue my passions. I do photos; when I am working and when I am not working; with my DSLR and with my iPhone (though poo on those photos because I still haven't gotten the iPhone thing down, I just joined that revolution a few months ago); of anything and everything.  I am blessed that I now get to explore taking that love to a new level.  I am loving doing that; even though sometimes it still fills me with a bit of anxiety.

 

I love kids. This is also done when I am working and not.  I do love my kids I nanny for, just as I do love spending time with my nieces and nephews.  We had my niece over the weekend and I spent my time doing the Aunt Mel thing.  I love being called Aunt Mel (to date it is my favorite name in the world).  I do nails, I do stories, I do lullabies and I do night-night and good morning hugs and cuddles. Love!

 

Outside of those two loves I do me. I do movie nights with Babe.  I do dinner and drinks with friends.  I sometimes do a night out (though not very often; I am also doing the getting old thing). I do church. I do a good book while basking in the sun on the patio, or at the beach, or in the tub (though obviously the tub part wouldn't be in the sun because well, ain't nobody gunna wanna see that).  I do too much TV when I sit down to catch up on just one show, which then turns into just one a few more. I do the wifey thing (though that is the hardest role to learn), the friend thing, the sister thing, and the daughter thing. I do the alone time thing which consists of either, a sometimes two hour, bath or some Audrey Hepburn movie watching.  I do movies to put me to sleep on nights when my brain just won't stop running, usually Harry Potter or some Haley Mills movie because they both soothe me (Harry because I love it and it comforts me and Haley Mills because something about her voice and demeanor lulls me like a lullaby). I sometimes do a little bit of the cray and a little bit of the worry thing, I mean I am a woman, it seems to be ingrained. I guess I just do life. I try to embrace the little moments, I cringe at the ones that could provoke change, and I mourn the ones that bring lose. It all adds up to life though so I guess I just do the living thing; just living my way. I do me!

She had me at Harry

Jenni's topic for day 5 is going to be about, well, her!! She is my go to gal (and no this is not just in thanks for this awesome challenge and the fact that because of it I have found many new great people to enjoy). Today we are suppose to publicly profess our love for one of our blogger friends and I couldn't be happier to get the chance to talk about how great I think she is.

I still for the life of my can't remember how or when I stumbled across her lovely space (maybe through Sarah at Fairy Tales are True, who also rocks my socks) but I was smitten from the start.  She truly did have me at Harry (yes, Harry Potter, could there be another one?!).  She talked about her love affair with those books the same way I have always talked about mine.  Most people don't seem to get it, but she did.  I think it started with a simple post about what her hubs had gotten her as a surprise and then spanned into me proceeding to read all her Harry linked posts. I also figured that since her about me post included a statement that if I didn't like Harry Potter we couldn't be friends, I took it upon myself to assume that because I love him we automatically could.  Harry was hook number one.

Hook number 2 was her gorgeous photos. Seriously stunning!  I have never seen food or a restaurant look so good through a computer screen.  Someday I will find my way to Austin with the soul (yes, soul not sole) purpose of eating my way through it (and meeting her wouldn't be half bad either, total understatement)!  Then after I had been following (unofficially) for a bit I found the greatness of one of her photography posts and it all made sense.  If I lived in Austin I would totally be hiring her to take any pictures I may need in my lifetime. Jenni, if you ever find your way to Orlando again then hit me up girl 'cause I want photos!  

Hook number 3 was this post right here.  I love the term marital blish (yes, blish), she coins some good words huh?! The open honesty in her post was so endearing and reached me at a time when I needed to hear read words like that.  Her writing is beautiful and the outlook was very similar to the way I view relationships in general.  And the words read at her wedding?! I love them.  Maybe if I had known of them before, my reading selection for our wedding may have changed.  I couldn't find the words that seemed fitting and wrote my own.  Those would have been amazing! 

I had followed Jenni for probably about a year before I actually had an official blog to follow her with.  It was quite an exciting day to be able to post a comment un-anonymously. I think at some point through facebook I told her I felt we were "certainly simpatico" (I love that term! If you haven't seen The Trouble with Angels, with Haley Mills, you probably should. Love it!).  I still believe it to be true. I love her insight and her stories and what seems to be a genuine open-hearted kindness for others and the things/people she loves. The girl gives some great advice and life tidbits and really knows how to help a sister out! So Jenni, thanks for your great words and lovely photos.  Your writing truly makes you feel like a dear friend to me and I am excited to get to follow your journey. 

Albus Dumbledore, Oprah and the Dalai Lama

I knew that Jenni's topic from day 4, your favorite quote and what you love about it, was going to be a tough one for me when it came to making a decision.  So... I decided not to.  Rebel, I know!  I have two books full of quotes and while there are some I love more than others it could take me hours upon hours to figure out which ones I really wanted to share. I am excited to read others posts and add great finds to my books.  

While these aren't necessarily my favorite quotes I thought an easy place to start would be with one from my favorite books first (or book series anyways).



Albus Dumbledore is one smart man!
I love the above quote but I think I love this one more, 
"The truth.  It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution." -Albus Dumbledore, via J.K. Rowling
This one speaks to me on so many levels.  I am a firm believer in what I don't know can't hurt me.  If the truth is something that won't do anything (change the situation, help the situation, or change my viewpoint) but bring hurt in the moment, then I would prefer to just be left in the dark.  The truth can be freeing but it can also be damaging and destructive.  It should never be treated with anything but caution.  The truth is words and words have power; be careful with them.

In skimming my books for more Harry Potter wisdom (which I couldn't decide between and thus decided to save for a later date), I stumbled across this one that jumped out at me.  It is fitting for my current state of mind.  

"Not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck." - Dalai Lama
At this time in my life I have been trying not to focus on the what-ifs.  I am where I am in my life and there is a reason for it.  When I think back on some of the things I had wanted, or even the things I still want but had wanted at the wrong time, I can't help but be in awe at how blessed I am that I didn't get them.  My entire life would be completely different.

Here are some more snippets of wisdom from others that I found while scrolling my time away on Pinterest (which I enjoy, wholeheartedly).  I have also gone ahead and attached my Pinterest account.  It is still a pretty unorganized mess of all my mind comes across (most things are just liked not pinned) but I am working on making it a little more spiffy~ Enjoy!

And I just had to share this because it is oh so perfectly me...