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 :)

Fuzzy Fridays

A small obsession of mine involves fuzzy and cute things.  Namely puppies.

Get ready for cuteness overload!  I can't think of a better way to start the weekend.

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?

The Ultimate Result of Ambition...

I am absolutely loving the transition from summer to fall and wish time would slow down a bit.  This year is rushing by and there's so much to take in.  The goal this year has been to learn more about love and in addition to doing so I've learned a lot about myself, what I want, and my motivations.  Figuring out where to channel my ambition and motivation has been the most difficult part.  I thought my life purpose was to be a big music executive and to have hit songs published.  Although I still love music and like to place songs for fun it doesn't give me that sense of a greater purpose.  My experience in the music business for the past 4 years has jaded me after seeing/ hearing about the ugliest things.  Of course any industry has its bad parts but I haven't felt like I'm really contributing to some greater good by being where I'm at.  Maybe I'll find a fulfilling career in music but as of right now it's important to find what will give me authentic joy and peace.

Fulfillment has been my goal yet outside of music I didn't know myself.  That's all I obsessed about and although I still love music the lifestyle, people, and "game" has me really questioning if it will ultimately make me happy.  Things I enjoy are being creative, having flexibility in my schedule, going outdoors, reading, learning, growing, brainstorming, executing plans for my future, and more.  This year I went to a painting class, sewing class, started re-learning Italian (I promise to pick it up again!), and reading like no other.  Trying to create a new world with a passion other than music was fun yet made me feel chaotic.  Without a clear purpose or direction I felt like my ambition was pointless until I came across this line (from Simple Abundance):

In critical reasoning courses using infinite words like all or none are strongly discouraged because only in rare cases can anyone truthfully use either term (ex: "All dogs have 4 legs" isn't true in all cases so it's faulty reasoning to make a statement like this).  In the spiritual sense it's more than ok to use all because God is the master of infiniteness...He can make anything possible.  So going back to the saying "the ultimate result of all ambition is to be happy at home" is such a bold and solid statement.  Make all your ambition stem from the desire to have a happy life, home, and soul.  Work to support your desire for a welcoming home, pray and spiritually grow in order to provide support and enlightenment to those you love, and actualize your dreams in a way that you can help the common good while living your passion.

Whatever my goal in life, the energy and love put into those efforts should somehow contribute to my happy home (home can mean your literal, physical home or your soul).  I'm my happiest when I'm spiritually in tune with God, when I spend quality time with those I love, or when my actions are contributing to something greater.  This saying has made me re-evaluate everything in my life and question my motives behind why I do or have certain things.  It's so energizing and freeing to act and not be acted upon.  Anything that doesn't contribute to joy will have to change or I must change my attitude in order to receive more joy from life.  

Either way, I can feel the Lord guiding and molding me piece by piece.  I trust in Him enough to know that all He needs is time and an open heart to work with me.  Sure my timeline will be different from others but that's ok.  I have my own story to write and can't wait to see how the Lord guides my ambition.