Inspiration from Wishes and Sim City

This past weekend was great to say the least.  I volunteer with Make A Wish Foundation and was privileged to be a part of my first wish reveal.  For those not familiar, as a wish granter it is our job to meet children with life threatening illnesses at their homes and figure out what their ultimate wish is. Once a wish has been approved, it's our job to then to let the child know by creating some sort of surprise.  For privacy reasons, I am unable to give more details than that but it was such a blessing and wonderful experience.  Nothing can compare to seeing pure joy on a child's face.

The rest of my weekend was spent having much needed relaxation.  My boyfriend introduced me to the newest version of Sim City last night and we ended up playing it together for 4 hours and I was shocked at how fun it was!  I'm a constant seeker of inspiration and who knew it could be found in this game.  The goal is to build a functioning city with profits, happy citizens, and businesses.  You start out very small and eventually it grows and grows.  You begin to make money, build new governmental establishments, and lure more citizens into your city.  The catch is you only get to make the roads and "zone" which areas are residential, commercial, or industrial.  After that point you have no control as to how many people or what kinds of businesses come in.  You have to constantly be diligent, flexible, and aware of what's affecting the bigger picture.  Are there enough taxpayers? Adequate fire and policemen?  Are people happy?

You can look at your life goals the same way by having a bigger picture, starting small, then adjusting as you go along orchestrating how you achieve your goal.  The fact that the game only allows you to zone where things should be and after that it's out of your control is analogous too.  We can "zone" what we'd like to happen in certain areas of our life but can never control what actually happens or "develops" just like the game.  A huge component is the happiness factor of the people who inhabit the city.  If they're happy you see bright green smileys on the screen and red upset ones if they're dissatisfied.  This inspired me to re-evaluate my life goals and how I envision the future.  Am I being as diligent in my own life and checking my happiness scale as in the game?  Although I can't control ultimately how my life unfolds am I doing my best to control what I can?  We're all the owners of our own unique internal "cities" and deserve to treat it with as much care, diligence, and awareness.  

Happy Halloween!

No huge plans tonight but I am excited to see all the kiddies in the neighborhood dressed up.  Be safe!  Thought I'd leave a quote for the day:

"When we are inspired by another it is because we recognize greatness within ourselves." - Lolly Daskal

One Step at a Time

So yet another new week and I find myself trying to figure out how to make the most of it.  There's so many things going on in my brain it's hard to know where to begin.  Today I stumbled across Edith Head (thanks to Google's homepage) who was a famous costume designer and the only female to ever win 8 Academy Awards in a lifetime.  I wasn't expecting much when I clicked on the link to her biography but it turns out she started a fire within me.  It's easy to admire someone's story but they too had a moment of not knowing how their life would turn out.

To overview her educational life, she graduated high school in Los Angeles and attended the University of California, Berkley where she obtained a degree in letters and sciences with honors in French.  She then got her Master's in romance languages and moved on to become a language teacher specifically in French.  With a desire to earn more money, she applied to be an art teacher, in addition to French, even though she had no real background or experience in it.   She took a night class to brush up on her rudimentary drawing skills and started teaching.  Somewhere within this time, she discovered her passion in sketching costumes so she applied to the Paramount Pictures costume department and was miraculously hired with no prior experience.  She later admitted to borrowing a student's sketchbook to get the job but has since proven herself a legend in her own right.

Now I'm not condoning taking another's work or pretending to be super skilled to get a job but her path made me realize a couple things.

1. If you want to do something in life go for it and if you don't have the natural skill it's ok.  You can learn it!  Putting time into any art or skill can pay off for a lifetime.  Small steps amount to bigger things.  There's no rush.

2.  Everything you do in life is setting you up for your calling.  The small things you do each day have meaning.

I've been in a rut as to how to spend my time and where to direct my efforts and because of my indecision feel like I'm wasting time.  Just reading her brief bio showed me how small steps lead to the bigger picture.  Her credentials look impressive but I'm sure she went through a period of questioning and uncertainty.  She could've been nervous teaching art (maybe second guessed it) knowing she in fact wasn't even qualified by the world's standards.  Her story is incredible but I wish we could discover how she felt in between each life decision.

It gives me hope that as I find my passions, experiment, and think of where to invest my time that things will fall into place.  It also gives me hope that any job or path I take isn't the end of the road because I can always change.  Every skill I learn, job I take, and passion I discover will lead me to my calling.  I strongly believe that those who have achieved wonderful things had a huge amount of faith more than anything else.  They had the right mixture of courage, skill, and luck to make them successful in their lives.  I imagine inspirational people like Edith Head had faith and also believed she had something of value to contribute to this world.

This week I plan on painting a picture of my ideal life and working backwards from there.  What do I need to do each day to attain the life I want?  I know it's time to start small and build something great. Whether it's 30 minutes of Italian lessons a day or writing songs for 15 minutes a day at least it's something.  Here we go :)

Thoughtful Thursday: Surrender. Let go. Be free.

I'm grateful for the ways the Lord shows me he's listening.  This week it's come in the form of friends saying exactly what I've needed to hear.  Below are the two things that have touched me this week.  If you have any quotes or thoughts that have touched you I would love to hear them!

#1:

My friend Jessel and I were catching up on the phone recently and I mentioned to her my current journey of self-discovery and how at moments it's been tough, uncomfortable, and unsettling.  What she said really hit home: 

"Look at a forrest of trees and how beautiful they are.  Now imagine if we replaced their limbs with plastic ones and added different parts.  It wouldn't look right or as beautiful.  People are the same way.  When we're natural and comfortable with ourselves everyone else around can be too (and will see beauty)."  

She then continued to tell me that she's noticed me becoming more comfortable in my skin and how it makes me look even more beautiful.  What an inspiring, uplifting moment!  I'm grateful.

Surrender.  Let go. Be free.

#2:

My other friend Julia is someone who's so in touch with her spiritual side it's a blessing to get her insight.  This morning she sent me a piece of scripture that help create peace in my soul:

“For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.”  2 Corinthians 3:11

Surrender.  Let go. Be free.

You Only Live Once

There is a list of things that I've been wanting to learn or accomplish and what better way to do it than make a tangible declaration.  This list will forever grow but hopefully I can look back at this and say I did every single one:

1. Learn Italian
2. Travel to Europe
3. Learn to paint (take classes)
4. Learn to sew (take some more classes)
5. Write a book
6. Take dance classes regularly
7. Place a song on the radio or have a famous artist sing a song I wrote
8. Learn to do a backflip (I used to take gymnastics and stopped right before learning this)
9. Learn another language after Italian
10. Bake a cake
11. Interview people who inspire me and document their words of wisdom
12. Buy a nice camera and learn to keep a photo journal
13. Visit an Ashram
14. Visit one new place a year
15. Spend a week in a cabin in the middle of a forrest with no phone or connection to the outside world
16. Go through the temple and regularly do sessions
17. Learn how develop my peacemaking spirit
18. Be a part of a movement or organization I'm passionate about
19. Contribute to a column or online newspaper
20. Take a class on the constitution

What are some things on your list?

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Hello!  So I've been on an inspiration/ self growth kick and came across this wonderful article about a nurse who recorded what her dying patients regretted in the life they were about to leave.  I've copied it below (with the original link at the bottom) and hope it inspires you in some way:

"There was no mention of more sex or bungee jumps. A palliative nurse who has counselled the dying in their last days has revealed the most common regrets we have at the end of our lives. And among the top, from men in particular, is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'. 

Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. 

Ware writes of the phenomenal clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives, and how we might learn from their wisdom. "When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently," she says, "common themes surfaced again and again." 

Here are the top five regrets of the dying, as witnessed by Ware: 

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 

"This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it." 

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard. 

"This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence." 

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings. 

"Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result." 

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 

"Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying." 

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. 

"This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again."
What's your greatest regret so far, and what will you set out to achieve or change before you die?"

Original Article from The Guardian

Note to Myself

• Live for something greater.  
• Respect yourself enough to make joy your top priority.   You won't be happy holding yourself back or thinking less of yourself in order to keep certain people in your life.  They will stay if they're meant to.  
• You can choose what inner dialogue affects your life.  Is fear and insecurity overwhelming you?  You don't have to believe it.  If what you feel doesn't inspire you or make you feel good about yourself then ignore it.
• Let it go.  You can't change how people feel or how your life unfolds.  You can control your thoughts, your actions, your reactions, and your relationship with the Lord.  Focus on those.
• Be gentle to yourself and allow the authentic you to develop.  Don't rush through the process of change or growth.  There's room for improvement but it's a life long journey not a short stop along the way.  Love yourself for who you are in this moment.
• Jump and cling to faith in Jesus knowing He can perform all miracles and make what seems impossible possible.  I've had numerous situations feel impossible to overcome yet, through faith in Christ, I was led to a solution that wouldn't have crossed my mind had I not prayed and trusted.  You can't be strong on your own.  Only the Lord can provide the strength you need.
• When you see other people living a life you want, who look incredibly happy, don't feel sorry for yourself and wish that was you.  Celebrate that someone found their joy in life...they probably took a risk to get it.  Take it as a manifestation of the hope that someday you'll have enormous amounts of joy and others will wish they had your life.  
• Refuse to be a spectator.  Jump fully into your life and live as if time is the only thing you have...because it is.  At the end of the day your occupation, money, things you own, and health won't matter.  What will matter is how you feel about the life you lived when you're really old. Did you love as fully as you wanted to?  Did you spend your time wisely?  Did you go after your dreams big or small?