Reflection

“Everything that happens to you is a reflection of what you believe about yourself. We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth.”
~Iyanla Vanzant

Reboot

I was still up at 3 a.m., beyond frustrated by my lingering tooth/earache combo (who is the culprit here??), just drowning in that life overwhelm that sometimes descends—with a thud—in the middle of the night when sleep evades us. How do things sometimes get so distorted in those dark, wee hours?

Thankfully, today’s a new day. So I remind myself of this:

Maybe its a reminder you need to hear today, too. Have a good one.

Intrinsic Parts/ (Extra)ordinary

Isn’t it funny how sometimes glimpses of euphoria sneak in during those moments of the seemingly ‘normal’ and ‘mundane’? Often they slide their way onto the scene when you very least expect them, when there’s not much of anything particularly remarkable going on around you, or so it seems…

I had one of those moments today, as I paused in a cafe, my bag getting repeatedly caught in the cotton “spider web” that outlined the window in which I sat. I had just finished a lovely espresso visit with a wonderful, newish friend (that had organically grown into a coffee/chat/hangout session with more friends), afterwards kicking my way through piles of golden leaves on the long, sunny walk into Ballard. Once there, I’d run some errands, gotten lost in the bustle, picked up a concert ticket at a friendly record shop (beating the system by not paying extra fees, wahoo!), bumped into two friends I hadn’t seen in AGES and finally landed myself at this delicious, casual eatery.

Here I feasted on a tasty sandwich stuffed with oozing pepper jack, crisped turkey and chipotle-mayo-with-a-kick. I truly savored the flavors, the sounds overhead (Reel Big Fish, ahhh the memories), the sights out the pane (a flurry of activity—the breaking down of the weekly famers market). For those few moments, I was completely present, completely there.

And it was ordinary—and extraordinary—all at once.

La luz!

In between these kinda-cool-kinda-eerie-getting-old-now bouts of fog (I live in a cloud, apparently!), we’ve had glimpses of amazing, amazing LIGHT:

How’s fall goin’ out yer way?

Night Owl

Recently for me, daytime has been a series of ebbs and flows of energy peaks and lows. I’ve felt a bit stagnant, a bit bogged down by the fog (literally and figuratively speaking). Sure, I’ve still been savoring moments, sometimes hours, (sometimes even entire afternoons or evenings), finding a million things for which to be grateful. Yet, still. I feel there’s so much more. I feel held back. Not fully unleashed.

For some reason, these past days it’s late at night when I seem to finally come alive—when I feel the most motivated, the most inspired, the most on the cusp of hopeful, fulfilling, on-target momentum.

I get easily absorbed in the beautiful words of wise and poignant writers and lost in magnificent images like these:

 

There is so much I want to do, so much I want to be and so damn much I want to see. (Can you believe that skies this vast and star-streaked even exist??)

It’s in these wee quiet hours that I am most aware that I am on the edge of something I cannot quite yet put my finger on.

I’m en route. It’s en route. (I don’t even know exactly what that means, what that entails…But in the very best of moments, I believe it with every ounce of my being.)

*Now, if I can only just remind myself of such thoughts tomorrow as I sip my morning cuppa…:)

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.
~Soren Kierkegaard

Socked-in Tunes

We’ve been socked in with fog here for days on end, and let me tell you, people, it takes conscious effort to mentally rise above it. This girl needs a glimpse of the sun stat!
Music like this helps, though.
(Thanks, Megs:)!)

Technology is A-mazing!

Thanks to some tech-savvy geniuses and the beauty of live-streaming video, I was just transported via MacBook to “attend” Carly and Daniel’s wedding on a sun-soaked Virginia winery. (Does this stuff blow your guys’ minds, too?)

(It’s so fun to think back on that fateful night these two met; on an electrically-charged fall evening in 2008, I had invited Carly along to a random election-viewing party I’d heard about at Bohemian Caverns on U Street. The rest, as they say, is history…You just never know how life will unfold eh?)

Happy wedding day, guys!!

Happy Friday, anyone who actually reads this!

I feel ya, buddy. (I’ve felt similarly this week.)
Have a good one!

Today, that’s me

Some days, we feel alone in the world.

Sometimes, it’s the….

…little things:

*I walked a different street in my neighborhood. (Just ever so slightly different than the usual route, yet what a new perspective it gave.)

*I pulled out/dusted off my old-school clock radio, so I will now listen to KEXP in my kitchen on a regular basis.

*I scored my lamp a new lil’ table-home from a going-to-Goodwill-if-not-claimed pile in my lobby.

*I discovered that Trader Joe’s stocks awesome 99-cent cards. (I love sending real mail; I hate paying $5 for Hallmark cards.)

*I finally donated a mound of favorite clothing pieces that carried with them such wonderful memories but also too much wear. It was time.

*I said no to that thing (those things) I just didn’t want to do. Just cos.

*I called back those friends I’d been meaning to ring. For forever.

*I went for a bike ride (after ages of not) on a leaf-covered, tree-canopied trail.

How have your weekends been?