Category — Mindfulness

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. -Henry David Thoreau

Photo by katlovestock : on deviantart

It’s a beautiful quote. But so often it’s easy to get off track. We get caught up in the little details of life. Bills, obligations, laundry, work, and endless others. But when we simplify it leaves room for the dreams. It leaves room for the dreamy life that is in our imagination. For me, that means happiness, fullness, creativity, accountability, balance, fun, learning. This is a bit vague. But I’m happiest when I have a balance of fun activities, getting out of the normal routine, connecting with people in a meaningful way, and when I’m doing creative work. If it’s meaningful creative work that’s even better though that is often difficult to come by.

So what do we do when our schedules are overloaded, our children are pulling at our legs, and our bills are piling up? Take 5 minutes. Take 10 minutes. If you’re lucky, take an hour or two or three. And do what you love. Write, paint, sing, dance, practice yoga, read about economics (if that’s what does it for you), immerse yourself during that time, and take it away with you throughout the rest of your day. Let it grow. Cherish that time.

What do you dream of doing? What makes you happy? What makes your heart dance? Take the time today to do it!

Okay, time to go practice what I preach. Today: yoga and design mingled with the normal every day life stuff. Anyone know of a great yoga routine to practice while you have a cold? Enjoy!

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Look at my new red shoes! I am so loving them!

Yes, they are awesome! And yes, I’m posting on my blog about my new shoes. It sort of sounds ridiculous, but for the past few years, specifically the past year, we have been living very frugally. We had a baby, I gave up working as an art director, we moved and pay higher rent to live in an amazing house (we love our house), so we have been close to broke (American close-to-broke – I realize there’s a big difference between American broke and rest-of-the-world broke) off and on. So, buying a nice pair of shoes… well, it’s sort of a big deal. But this post isn’t just about shoes. It’s about freedom and choices and luckiness.

Dave, Indira, Darwin, and I are on vacation right now. (Molly is staying at a “spa” in Nutley, NJ with her extended family!). We left a day early. Because we felt like it. We’ll be back around the 16th. ONLY because Dave is running a Mud Run in Philly on the 17th. It’s summer and we have FREEDOM! We don’t have to squeeze things that we want to do into a three week or four week (or, gasp, two week) time period. You see, Dave is a professor. And I build websites and design things from the comfort of our home. This means that I get to stay home with our daughter, which is, at times, incredibly difficult and exhausting, but pretty much one of the most rewarding things I could ever imagine. AND I get to work from home. Yes, it’s difficult squeezing it in but I’m not dealing with anything resembling a 9-5 schedule. I work during naps (when they happen; Indira has never been a great sleeper) and at night and on weekends. And in the summer, Dave gets to work on his art and I get to work on whatever it is I’m working on every day. During the week we tend to swap hour by hour during the day and have evenings and weekends for us and for fun. It’s great. We’re lucky. We chose it and I’m thrilled with our choice.

Now, if only we could get our asses out of Pennsyltucky… but that’s for another post and you’re probably tired of hearing about that anyway.

Okay, back to vacation! And my new red shoes.

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Five Things I’m Grateful For

1. A certain guy who I live with
2. Warm weather and sunshine and open windows!
3. Freelance work (I’m working on a rush job right now and it’s daunting in a way, but still fun, and I’m definitely uber thankful to have the work!)
4. My rockin’ friends and family
5. New experiences, new challenges, new successes

Four Things I Can’t Stop Thinking About

1. Choices
2. Getting back into a regular workout schedule
3. Vacation, how much I need one, how much we need one
4. Finishing up (which includes starting basically) my website redesign

Three Things I Want To Accomplish This Week

1. Freelance list of to-do’s
2. Make some yum smoothies
3. Keeping in the patient zone even when it feels impossible*

Two Things I Am Working To Be Positive About

1. This lame-ass state. I mean, this wonderful state.
2. The future (wow, that’s big and vague).

One Random Thing

I’m in a funk. That’s why I decided I needed to do this countdown today.

Check out Bookish Penguin’s Monday Five Countdown here.

*This patience one is really being tested with a teething, cranky, crappy napping one year old.

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Morning coffee

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“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

I came to this realization a few days ago: for the past few months I’ve been treating my life as if it’s temporary, in between. Wow. I then realized that yes, it is temporary, but it always is. That is the nature of life. This day, week, month, year is no different from the others. Change is always happening. Can you imagine how boring life would be if it wasn’t? So, this is my life. In all of its imperfection and chaos and boringness and love and light and fun. It’s all life. It’s not any more or less temporary than any other part of life. Well, except for vacation. I would say that’s the one exception. I think since I adamantly decided that I hate Pennsylvania and wish that we never moved I let myself get into this mindset that this was like a little vacation. A pretty boring one, but I suppose I almost thought of it as not part of the rest of the path of my life. How crazy is that? So it’s time to accept that this is it. Right now. This is it. Is it temporary? Yes, of course it is! But that doesn’t make it any less real or important. It doesn’t mean that important things aren’t happening. I’m starting my business! I’m out of the 9 to 5 world! That’s big. That’s good. I don’t have to deal with bosses (I have had boss issues since I’ve entered the world of full-time job-ness)! Clients, yes, but no bosses! Indira and Dave are the closest thing I have to bosses. And, come on, that’s just laughable, right? That’s even great. And there’s more. More real life stuff that’s good. Dave is teaching at a kick-ass job and getting paid way more than he got when he taught at two different schools that were an hour and forty minutes away from each other (? I think). And he loves his job! And our daughter is almost one! How the hell did that even happen? I mean, I know. I guess it happened while I was living in temporary life lala land. Waiting for something else to happen. So yes, she’s going to be one, she’s going to be walking soon, she’s been trying to talk and she’s been charming the pants off of everyone around her. Okay, well, maybe not the pants, but you get the idea.

And, no, this hasn’t been happening for the past year. My haze. It’s not like I haven’t appreciated, noticed, and relished in the beautiful little moments that weaved their way through our lives in the past year. I have. I have just been sidetracked for the past few months. Time to change that. And look on the bright side. Spring is coming, our house is amazing, our daughter is crazy awesome, and soon we will be hiking on the weekends (there’s plenty of hiking here), visiting museums in the city (as in NY), and then it will be summer break! Life is pretty good, huh?

Indira's first photo! She needs her own DSLR!

And, to conclude. Here are some things that I am loving/excited about/grateful for:

• Yoga classes that I have yet to take (I have a gift of five classes for the cute studio in our town)!
• It’s nice to have a winter with constant snow-on-the-ground
• Reconnecting with old friends and feeling them fill my cup
• Evening alone time for Dave and I (even if we both are tired by that time)
• New things (teeth, words, standing, laughs, faces)
• Our kitchen rocks. It makes cooking so nice. Granted, three glasses of wine would make cooking even better (but, alas, breastfeeding), but we’re focusing on the positive here
• Design work leads
• I lost a whole crapload of emails from my inbox (long story) – it made me sad, made me stressed, and then made me feel FREE of clutter
• Mondo Beyondo ecourse even though I’m behind!
• iphone arriving on Thursday (awesome gift!!!)
• Had breakfast and snacks and dinner and relaxing hang out time with a bunch of family members this weekend (something that I couldn’t easily do last year)

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So, I admit that I hate for this to be the answer too often, but this was a  gigantic accomplishment. Well, actually, more like 6 pounds, 15 ounces. But it was such an amazing journey getting there. The road there was so incredibly special for D and I. I think we felt closer than we ever had before. It wasn’t easy but it was magical. And then, the prize at the end! This little person with pieces of both of us that turned our world upside down and shook it up. She’s still doing that! It’s been happy and sad and natural and difficult. There were times where it seemed impossible. I recall the first two weeks or parenthood when we had this realization that this was constant, unrelenting, always there. It’s a giant thing for two independent people to realize. It’s left us changed. And I’d say it’s an accomplishment that keeps on going.

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