Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Unprepared and Willing

A lot of times we are afraid to commit because we are afraid we will fail. The truth is, it’s only in making the commitment that we receive the energy to overcome. In fact, the best commitments we can make are in areas where we are the weakest. We’re often afraid to go for the things we long for because we think we’re unprepared. We don’t want to charge into action unless we personally feel “ready.” But a lot of times, if we wait until we feel ready, we are missing opportunities.

It’s when we are willing to do things, even though we don’t feel prepared or that we are the best person for the job, that we are revealing the most amount of Light possible into our lives and into the world.

Today, know that when you don’t understand how you are going to overcome – but press on with your commitment anyway – is when the impossible becomes possible. -Kabbalah Daily Tune Up

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

just breathe

It was 2006, I was sitting right outside the breakers in the Pacific, gazing in the distance towards the sandy beach full of sun soaking on-lookers. They weren’t watching me of course, they were there watching the semi-pro surfers that graced the San Diego beaches as part of their religion every morning, noon and evening. I admired their dedication to the sport. As a serial spectator, I finally decided this day would be the day I was going to brave the ocean alone, board in tow (this was after a grueling 20 minutes of trying to fit myself into an itty bitty piece of rubber they call a wet suit) I had a deep desire to understand what all the hype of surfing was about. Sure, it looked cool, but to do it every day and live by it seemed intense and yet, intriguing. Plus I was working my way into becoming a bonifide San Diegian and surfing was step 2 on my list (step 1 obviously being the actual move to San Diego).

As busy as the beach was and as busy as the lineup of surfers were that day, I took a few moments out there, rocking on my surfboard in a place that was completely unfamiliar to me, and I closed my eyes. All was silent, calm, the only thing I could hear was the air moving in and out of my lungs. I paid attention to the control I had over making my shallow breaths deeper. I was fully aware in that moment. I opened my eyes and I knew at that time what it felt like to just ‘be’. No thoughts, no worrying, just breathing.

Life is always bigger, better, faster. I know because I hear it, I see it and I feel it myself. I have noticed in my 30 years that the truly, genuinely, happy people are those that breathe… Those that become aware of their surroundings, live in the moment and apply priorities on the intangibles. They seek out the meaning of life, the power of now; stuff aside from being rich, skinny or famous. The moments that matter most to my heart are always met with three similar surroundings, my family, my friends and togetherness. Music comes in at a close fourth, if not a tie for third. I want to always make sure I practice being fully aware, shaking free of any expectations. I want to continue to sink my teeth into the endless dessert that life is serving up every moment of the day, week and years to come.

I want to breathe deep and live richly, with my mind full of blissful memories and my heart full of acceptance, forgiveness, love and a complete sense of happiness and being.

Thank you Jamie, for showing me all of this, without showing me anything at all.

Thank you for bringing the ocean into our home.

I cannot wait to marry you and to share this wild ride of life with our families, our future children and our old wrinkly selves.

Monday, January 9, 2012

we are going to be millionaires

After much anticipation I finally got to work on my “Less is More” life project over this past weekend (baby steps). I went through 3 of my 4 closets and have managed to start a small bag of clothes that I will hand down to my little sisters to look through, and then Ill let them do the donating of whatever items they deem not suitable (pun master flex) for them to wear in front of their friends... I threw away 4 pairs of shoes (because let’s be honest, who wants used shoes?) and I started to finally get rid of all my half used bottles of shampoo (if any of you are FB friends of mine you may recall the issue I had last year with my semi-hoarding of half used bottles of everything). I did finally figure out how I actually end up with this ridiculous collection though (which was a major breakthrough for me), I figured out that I hate half empty bottles laying around, so I stock them away and bring out the full bottles for viewing and using… Apparently doing this for a year at a time will give you a pretty hefty hoard-like collection of half used bottles. Its weird, I know… I’m working on it (possible 2013 New Year’s resolution: Stop hoarding half empty bottles of everything)

Next on the list is getting rid of our cable! I am actually quite excited about this one… We pay $130 bucks a month for cable and other than my nasty addiction to terrible reality TV, I only use cable for sports and now that the Steelers blew it Football season is over I am completely ok with ridding myself of the cable box (that damn thing only works half the time anyway). With this kick we will save $1560 bucks this year!! Pretty freaking cool if you ask me =)

I am also all about some repurposing and refurbishing! I found this adorable desk online (super cute huh?), but this beauty would break my wallet of a whopping $1,095 buck-a-roos (Its cool to say “buck-a-roos” right?). So instead, I took a different approach. I bought this 1940’s cutie on Craigslist for $17 bucks:






















Along with this chair for $5 bucks at the local flea market:




























I then turned it into my own little adorable desk:




























{process of this refurb soon to be released}












Altogether I made this "knock off" for about $23 buck-a-roos (there I go again, I need to stop that, it sounds ridiculous)!
Sure it’s not set up in a cute pink room and may not look exactly the original one (which was a tad too whitish for me anyways), but what do you expect when you just saved yourself $1072 bucks! Jeesh…

So basically what I am saying here is that I have already saved Jamie & I $2,632 bucks this year(that’s how it works, right?) and it’s only the second week of January! At this rate we should have exactly one million dollars saved up by 2013. That’s my projection and although I am no mathmetician, I am pretty sure that’s a number is 100% accurate.

WOOHOO!!

How are your New Year’s Resolutions coming along?

Its ok if you don’t answer me, it’s really hard to top mine. Unless you are curing cancer or fighting world hunger, in that case, you win.