rejoice in the now

"Rather than appreciate where we are, we continually struggle to nurture our dissatisfaction. It’s like trying to get flowers to grow by pouring cement on the garden." - Pema Chodron

In an effort to appreciate where I am right now, here's a list of a few things I'm grateful for this morning:

I woke up today. a miracle in and of itself.

I woke up next to the love of my life, Robbie. what a gift he is to me. every single day.

I have a warm bed.

I have hot coffee to enjoy.

I have nothing to do and no where to be.

the sun is shining.

I have money in the bank and a roof over my head.

I feel inspired and abundant.

I'm able to freely enjoy this day physically, mentally and spiritually.

ordinary courage

I was introduced to Brene Brown by my father who suggested I watch her TED talk on The Power of Vulnerability. Her talk moved me. Her poignancy moved me. Her willingness to be authentic and real moved me. She inspired me to think about authenticity and what it means to be vulnerable in a world that expects perfection and breeds fear. Needless to say, I love her blog entitled Ordinary Courage. She uses the blog as a space to talk about her family, her career, her powerful work on shame and vulnerability and her daily life. I find her work completely fascinating and her blog is a good reminder to choose to be my wholehearted, authentic self.

o dear brother, you are a poet

My brother is an artist of all sorts. One part musician, one part filmmaker, one part poet, one part writer, whole parts dreamer and bringer of joy. He inspires me to connect with my creativity. I love how he grapples with death by writing poetic lyrics and singing it loud and proud. Talk about brave. I am so proud of him.

oh darling, let's be adventurers

Greetings friends! Robbie and I arrived safely back in the US of A on March 1st. Since then, we've driven over 3,000 miles, found a place to temporarily stay and are getting lots of work. Things are going well and life is good. We were very sad to leave Australia (especially our friends and the warm weather) but it was great to see old friends, visit our families and (maybe best of all) eat at some of our favorite Chicago restaurants! Mexican food nor Chicago style deep dish has ever tasted so good :)

We thought we'd come back and immediately want to throw down our roots after traveling for more than six months. Interestingly, we both loved the idea of doing some more traveling at home and ended up living out of suitcases again for the first month we were home. We've decided that we both like the idea of being lifelong vagabonds...not sure how that'll transpire in the future but it sounds exciting!

Unfortunately, our car broke down and we're having to shelf out some serious cash to get it fixed. We've decided to rent out a spare room from some friends for the month of April just to get our feet on the ground and figure out the next step. It's a good lesson of reality: you can't control what happens to you, only the way you react. I've chosen to cultivate a grateful spirit and to focus on all the wonderful opportunities that have presented themselves and the strong support system we have in our lives.

Speaking of opportunities, I got a paid internship for the summer through the Chicago Botanic Gardens with a program called Green Youth Farms. I'll be spending my summer teaching youth how to farm in the city! I couldn't be more excited for this opportunity. I think it will propel my career in the right direction and will allow me to use the skills I learned in Australia to empower young people back home. I feel like getting this internship was a big 'ol wink from the Universe and I'm so very grateful.