Recently, a friend of mine went to Paris. As we were messaging while she was there, she asked me what I wanted from France. I told her I couldn’t think of anything because French clothes were far too expensive for me to ask anybody to buy for me.
Then it occurred to me: the French are known for their pastries. So I told her if she could figure out how to get me a pastry without it getting stale or destroyed, then a French Pastry would be divine.
This woman didn’t just get me a french pastry. She got me a Basque French Pastry. From the Basque region of France. And she managed to get it home from France INTACT, and not stale. I was duly impressed.
I just want you to know that I read each and every one of the posts that go up on here. Each post makes me feel an array of different emotions and I wish I could reach through the screen and hug every single one of you. You are so strong and courageous for putting your stories up for the world to see.
Now, having said that. I have a few things I want you guys to think about.
Life is too short to continue doing things that don’t make you happy. If you are in a sour relationship that you don’t foresee going anywhere, get out! It may be hard at first, but you will be so much happier once you drop the dead weight. You and only you hold the power to your own happiness. Why waste months or even years with someone who doesn’t make you happy? Each day is a gift. A gift that shouldn’t be wasted.
Are you sick and tired of doing the same thing day in and day out? Change it! Have the courage to jump out of the endless cycle you’ve found yourself in and start something new! Whether it be a career change, or a new hobby, just do it!
I don’t want you to look back at your life years from now and wish you had done something different. Now is the time to do that something different.
Want to go back to school, learn a new trade? Do it! What is stopping you? If it’s money that is holding you back, look into all of the grants and loans you could get. Start somewhere.
Surround yourself with people who love and care about you and want you to be happy. If there is someone or multiple people bringing you down, let them go. All they are doing is holding you back from who you want to be.
No matter how long you have traveled down this road you are on, there is always an escape route. You can turn around at any point and find a new way. It will be scary to travel into the unknown, but I know you can do it!
If you suffer from depression, know that there is a way out. Talk to someone, maybe even get on to a medication if you can. You don’t have to suffer any longer. Get out and change it. Find something you love and do it! Do what makes you happy. Always.
If you have been knocked down in life, get back up! You may feel like your life is in pieces scattered all over the floor, but you can pick them up and put them back together. You can heal. You can overcome anything that comes your way. You got this!
Happiness is achievable, you just have to work for it. There isn’t a little fairy that will come around and sprinkle happy dust on you, you have to get out there and find your own happiness. You are all worth it and all deserve happiness. If you sit back and look at your life and find that you aren’t happy, find the problem and fix it. Life is far too short to waste precious moments doing things or being with someone who doesn’t make you happy.
You are worth it.
You are strong.
You are courageous.
You can do this!
I believe in every single one of you. Now go find your happy!
I live in a tourist town. Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass sometimes: giving directions, acting as the tourist information booth, all the strangers, the noise, etcetera etcetera etcetera …I suppose that’s a small price to pay for living in one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
It starts getting all touristy here in March, when the fish start biting. It stays all touristy here until about the fourth of July, when it gets too damn hot to do touristy things. We get a brief uptick around Halloween from biker rallies in the area, but otherwise it is nice and quiet around here throughout the autumn and winter months.
It’s about to officially be autumn, which means it is relatively quiet around here.
AAAAAAAHHHHH
I woke up this morning to silence. No tourists, no weekenders, just us locals that don’t make much noise. It was also in the low seventies (fahrenheit, low twenties celcius). It’s finally starting to think about cooling off. We’re still looking at 90-ish for the highs, but it seems as if the malice has left the afternoon heat. (That’s actually rare around here–usually around this time of year, we’re still looking at near 100F for daytime highs.) With any luck, I’ll actually be able to wear clothes again soon, maybe even a light sweater!
Now that the heat has broken, I will get to enjoy the benefits of living in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I stood by the river this morning and just stared in awe at the wonder of it all.
Days like today, when there are no tourists and no stupetaculous heat, I can remember the meaning of life. This moment.
This moment is all we really have–yesterday is gone and I can’t change it, tomorrow never really arrives. I have to take time to be in the moment and truly live it, as it’s happening. I can look back on today with fondness tomorrow, but I can never relive it.
So today, I’m going to go enjoy this moment in one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
I live in a swamp. Every spring, the turtles emerge from their hidey-holes near the water, cross the street, and lay their eggs. Sadly, other swamp critters often dig up and eat the eggs before they hatch. I see white eggshells scattered around holes dug in the ground throughout the summer, and it always makes me sad.
This year, turtles laid eggs right under some neighbors’ campers. Today, those eggs started hatching and turtles started crawling out, following their internal compass toward the water. My neighbors gently started digging up the hard ground and collecting the turtles so that they had a chance to survive without getting run over trying to cross the road. See, while folks around here slow down for turtles crossing the road in spring, those babies are much harder to see as they head toward the water.
At least two turtles’ babies have a chance this year, and that makes me happy. Life–be it turtle, dog, human, or whatever–is worth celebrating. Knowing that my neighbors gave some tiny baby turtles a chance to make it to the water without getting crushed or eaten is definitely something to be happy about.
My best friend’s 17 year old daughter just got her first car recently. I somehow got talked into going to Jefferson, TX with her. This girl, who I’ll call Jenny, and I worked together in the same restaurant last summer, and actually get along rather well. We both enjoy the same anime cartoon, and find the same things amusing, and we both have a serious weakness for cuppity cakes. Now she is, in many ways, an old soul and a pretty cool chic to sit and talk to. So really, it wasn’t any kind of torture to go spend time with this kid just so her mom could have some peace of mind knowing that an an adult was around if something went wrong with the car or whatever.
We went to Jefferson, TX, which is this little historic town that used to be a major shipping hub in the plantation days, but is now a tourist trap with antique shops and ghost tours and such, along with the occasional four day long biker ralley. Jenny and I wandered into some of the cuter stores and looked at funny teeshirts and weird pocketbooks with pounds and pounds of fake gems pasted on them and looked at all of the historic architecture, and train cars, and such, and had a great time.
As we were wondering around, we wandered into the local drug store. I had never been in there before, and Jenny thought the place was cool. The first thing I noticed was the old timey soda shop inside this drug store. It was OLD, and it brought back memories of my dad taking me to the local drugstore in the town where I grew up and having lunch or ice cream at the soda shop counter there.
It was a powerful wave of childhood memories, and for a moment I wasn’t my 44 year old self. For just one moment, I was a little platinum-haired kid, and I think I actually looked around for my daddy.
Now, rather than make me sad that my daddy died when I was only 14, these memories made me feel so connected to the daddy I lost so long ago. I actually felt the joy of a child as I walked up to the counter and started to read my ice cream options on the wall.
I sometimes think that, as adults, we get so caught up in all of the busy-ness of our lives that we forget that kids are onto something. Kids don’t forget to laugh and play and enjoy the moment. Kids don’t forget to live life.
I think I’ll have to ask my friend if I can borrow Jenny again sometime soon so that we can go back to that drugstore with its soda shop counter and sit down a moment and enjoy life.
I once had this guy friend who was as obsessed as I am with shoes (and clothes, but we’re talking about shoes today). He was smokin’ hot, too, but that is an issue for another post or my sponsor or something. Anyway, back to my friend who loved shoes. When his birthday rolled around, I gave him the most perfect birthday card I have ever seen (except it was probably created with woman in mind and he was most decidedly a man). It said something to the effect of “the feeling of wearing new shoes while you’re on your way to buy new shoes” was what I wished for him on his birthday. He totally got it and he loved it.
At the time, I thought I got it. And I suppose, given what I knew at the time, I did get it to some extent. New shoes make me happy. In the pants. Wearing new shoes on my way to buy more new shoes? Is kind of a shoe-junkie’s idea of nirvana. It was a card that wished great happiness on my friend. We all deserve to experience great joy, right, but birthdays should be even more joyous.
However, recently I gained some new insight into the idea of “the feeling of wearing new shoes on your way to buy new shoes.” I’ve been having ankle problems after a mild injury, and had been buying some new shoes with flat-ish heels. Those who know me know how devastating this was to my psyche.
However, I wound up with several bad-ass pairs of boots, so I was ok with it because boots generally convey a certain attitude that says “get outta my way or these boots are gonna walk all over you,” and who doesn’t like feeling like queen of the universe every now and then?
I also had broken out an old, much loved pair of oxfords that I wore to death last summer while working on my feet all day. Those oxfords saved my feet last summer, and they looked far worse for it. The soft leather was gouged up in several places, and I asked my Sunshine if I could have a new pair of flat heeled shoes.
Being the bright and shining Sunshine that he is, my Sunshine handed me his card and told me to order some. I went to my go-to site for online shopping (same site that blessed me with the oxfords I wore to death) and found a beautiful pair of loafers on sale. I ordered away and waited with anticipation for them to arrive from Italy.
I’m glad my boss was away on vacation when those shoes arrived. I’m also glad that all of her hotel guests were out doing other things off the property. I’m pretty sure the noises I made when I opened that box would have rivaled the noises Meg Ryan made in that infamous scene from “When Harry Met Sally.” These loafers are made of the softest leather I have ever had the pleasure of touching, and I have touched some fine leathers in my life. Hell, I have tissue-thin leather leggings that feel oh-so-good on my legs that didn’t feel this soft and buttery to the touch, but I digress…
Those loafers were made of some seriously soft leather. Even the soles were made of quality leather. They were beautiful, too. I couldn’t wait to get these shoes on my feet.
When I got home and actually got those shoes on my feet, I almost cried. Not only were these shoes beautiful to look at, but these shoes felt better than any other shoe I have ever put on in my life (and I’ve put on many a pair of good shoes in my life). Even after I wore them all day to run errands, my feet did not hurt.
Now, that’s saying something. I have freakishly high arches and now I have the ankle problems. For something to make my feet feel that good even after hours of running around town and running through multiple stores was amazing to me.
It made me realize how right my Sunshine actually is when he says that your feet have to be happy for you to be happy.
My feet didn’t hurt at all for the first time in months.
When the physical body is comfortable, it makes it much easier for the emotional body to be comfortable. When the physical body is comfortable, it opens the door wide for the spiritual body to experience joy.
So, today, on this Monday, I would like to say that I wish you “the feeling of wearing new shoes on your way to buy new shoes,” but I can’t. I have to take it a little further and wish you the feeling of wearing beautiful AND comfortable new shoes on you way to buy beautiful AND comfortable new shoes. Because you deserve to have physical comfort and spiritual joy.
