go/do

Mountainside Wonder

2012-01-12T15:56:00.003-06:00

This is a photograph I took the last week of December in Telluride, Colorado. It was my second time visiting there, though this time I was fortunate enough to stay with friends renting a house in Mountain Village. This was the view from the back porch of the A-frame home which was built with floor-to-ceiling windows to maximize this other-worldly winter backdrop.

Watching the sun set, pinks and purples glazing over the snowcapped San Juan Mountains, was my highlight to a day spent thoroughly chilled on the slopes. With a cup of hot tea in hand and a soak in the hot tub overlooking the mountains, I felt that infrequently experienced twinge of inspiration, inner peace, and naturally inspired bliss.

Every Exit is an Entrance Somewhere Else

2012-01-12T15:38:00.003-06:00

“When you stop chasing the wrong things you give

the right things a chance to catch you.”

Quote borrowed from this article: 50 Things You Need to Give Up Today

A few of the entries that I should use:

11. Give up thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.

13. Give up trying to do everything by yourself. – You are the sum of the people you spend the most time with. If you work together, you will be far more capable and powerful than you ever could have been alone.

43. Give up spending your life working in a career field you’re not passionate about. – Life is too short for such nonsense. The right career choice is based on one key point: Finding hard work you love doing. So if you catch yourself working hard and loving every minute of it, don’t stop. You’re on to something big. Because hard work ain’t hard when you concentrate on your passions.

I told myself, "You don't believe in New Year's resolutions."

2012-01-11T16:41:00.001-06:00

As well as a person in denial can, I told myself that I didn't need a New Year's resolution, much less a whole list of things to devote twelve months to conquering. It took me half a second to compile a list of reasons that these little mandates weren't necessary and wouldn't benefit me in the least.

My stubbornness held its ground until today when I was reading a blog posted on the Her Future website. It is a story about Shari, a powerful young woman who weathered a traumatic event in her childhood. Through her past, rather than view herself as a victim, Shari learned instead that there was nothing that life could throw her way that she couldn't handle.

I learned that experiences and circumstances do NOT define who or what I am but rather give me the opportunity to discover my true character when faced with challenges.

Shari Alyse
We are all dealt a certain hand, a hand that is tailor made for us and it is up to us to stand and walk through those challenges with our heads held high and a knowingness of how strong, brave and amazing we truly are!

So you can continue to speak about why it is you can't do a certain something in your life, or why you can't seem to trust people, or why nothing in your life seems to work out for you. You can continue to blame your past for every reason why you can't be happy. Not one of those reasons will bring you any closer to living the life you dream of. So much of what we hold on to from the past has no basis in the present moment. Shine a light on your fears, doubts and worries and you will see that it's all been so scary because it's been sitting in the dark places in your mind. It's time to let all that go! It serves no purpose in your life today except to give you excuses not to move forward in your life. Sounds like YOU are the one holding you back, not your past. (See more of Shari's blog here.)

Strong. Brave. Amazing. How frequently so many of us could gain strength from remembering and internalizing these small, though powerful, words.

That is my New Year's resolution, to remind myself daily of these words.

New Journeys...

2011-05-08T20:42:00.012-05:00

This month I had the opportunity to photograph my baby sister, Lacey Elizabeth, and design her graduation announcements. While her college plans are not yet complete, she has an amazing heart and soul--one that she dedicates to serving others. I am so proud of her involvement in her community, and for serving as the President of the Rockwall High School Chapter of Best Buddies.

2011-04-25T20:33:00.004-05:00

As best I can tell, I am not a person of singularity. I am not truly a business woman, an artist, a designer, a writer, or a photographer. These personas--and their whims, wishes, and oddities--are all to be found inside me at any given moment.

The more effort I commit to containing who I am in one of these titles, the less I am satisfied by the title, or the mundane tasks it entails. Example after example come to mind --as an art major, I loathed the time it took to create art I deemed quality, as an interior design major, the drafting table seemed to be my personal ball and chain. Nothing I touch seems to come to fruition, and truthfully, once I begin the task, I usually do not care for it to be birthed into completion. (Although there is always regret from jumping ship and not finishing what I started.)

The hat I have yet to try on is this: going sans-hat. Why do I, or anyone else have to be ONE thing?

A very dear friend of mine, a Fulbright scholar abroad in Bangladesh, challenges me in this each time we speak. This friend, whom I met at age thirteen, seemed fairly similar to me then and we became close friends. He was in junior high and I was as well, but his life soon took a path vastly different from my own. He played the piano beautifully (my fingers still fumble the keys after 8 years of lessons), he went to Pepperdine University (I switched schools twice), made riveting friendships, studied in abroad (I didn't), had an internship Washington, D.C., helped begin a non-profit, was awarded a Fulbright (while I took a full time job), and is currently exploring Europe and Asia. On top of all of this, he feels like his life has direction and purpose.

In his absence, I ran across an article he had written for the Pepperdine newspaper, the Graphic, which I am going to post below for your consideration.

"Step Out and Embrace the Absurd"
Being human in 2010 remains quite a challenge. No, we're not worried about saber-tooth cats or the Spanish Inquisition. But we do suffer from something much more deep-rooted and fundamental— an excess of rationality.
Most derive their rationality from their community of family and friendships. These tribes create the model for our rationality—the model for what is normal and what is weird, for what actions we should take and what we should avoid. Others derive it from logical, scientific or philosophical principles acquired at school. As the great psychologist Carl Jung points out, the "conscious mind allows itself to be trained like a parrot."
If our rationality is trained, though, might it be trained wrongly?
Jung and others— including mystics of all faith traditions throughout history— advocate unlocking our unconscious (that inner realm of the divine imagination), as the enlightened path toward understanding the world and our true place in it. "That doesn't make sense. It's absurd!" you may say with a dismissive growl. But you're in fact quite right— it is absurd. And that's precisely why it works.
In the words of Joseph Campbell and the Hindu yogis, it's "Follow your bliss." For the Christians among us, this idea can be found in the concept of faith. The biblical book of Proverbs states, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not on thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths." It certainly didn't escape the wisdom of Solomon that the heart— not the rational mind— is the vehicle of faith. The Christian existentialist Kierkegaard further elaborates that this interior "movement of faith must be made continually on the strength of the absurd."
Such intuitive faith is not without its enemies, however. Our advanced capitalistic society naturally tries to constrain this absurdity because it is indefinable— and at times unproductive in the material sense. The entire notion of having a "career" or "field" is a modern invention that is still foreign in many parts of the world and stifles creative and cultural revolutions.
Rationality is also the chief cause of dullness within the psyche, of regularity and self-preservation to the point of stagnating colorlessness. Yet another adverse effect of capitalism, corporations create clever models and statistical algorithms to ensure that unpredictability remains minimized and marginalized. Indeed, the ideal consumer is he who is rationally understood, whose entire "utility curve" of desires can be reduced to a simple numeric value.
I therefore encourage you— using all of my unquestionable influence (or lack thereof) as a graduating senior— to not squander this incarnation of your life to rationality. Though all this talk about reason might seem a bit abstract, it has real-world implications. All your life you have been given other people's methods for finding your way. Enough is enough: discover and embrace your interior conviction rather than the framework presented to you as a model from your tribe, Pepperdine or the world.
Taking a page from Thoreau, "Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine" of rationality and its ills: religious dogma with its rationalization of intolerance, capital-driven economics with its rationalization of exploitation … and boredom.
Every morning when we wake up, we re-enter our illusionary "Plato's cave." We gradually begin our transitions back to consciousness, usually in a rather sluggish fashion. It starts with a shower, then a sobering up with a few slaps of the face and realization of a greater awareness of one's surroundings, a succumbing to reality and finally a sigh of resignation as we remember our list of daily chores.
But what if it didn't have to be that way? Throw your reason out the window, and drift along in a waking dream at least for one day. Whether that means going to class or skipping it to paint on the beach, shunning all responsibility or being a master of getting things done— follow your intuition, follow your faith.
I dare you to embrace the absurd. --Keith Cantu, The Pepperdine Graphic, February 11, 2010 (http://www.pepperdine-graphic.com/perspectives/step-out-and-embrace-the-absurd-1.2150354)

Things DONE January-April

2011-04-18T22:12:00.002-05:00

IN a whirlwind of sorts, blog writing fell by the wayside. Why, might you ask, did I close up shop during the last four months?

I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management from Texas Tech University.
Moved to Rockwall, Texas, with the rest of the family.
Accepted a position in a Fortune 100 company.
Worked 8+ (emphasis on the +) hours every day.
Experienced 2 ice storms that allowed to me stay in a luxury hotel for a week.
Moved into a condo in Uptown.
Got a dog, lost a dog.
Made major relationship changes.
Joined a church.

.... All of this and I still don't own flatware that isn't clear plastic.

A few friends have suggested before and after condo pictures, however:

A.) That entails cleaning my condo.

B.) That also means I eventually have to decorate.

So here I am, promising, again, to update soon. Health and happiness until then!

R.W. Emerson

2010-11-14T13:02:00.001-06:00

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of ...children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

1940s and a job offer.

2010-11-11T20:03:00.004-06:00

Check out this photo from 1943. I stumbled upon (literally, yes, using the Firefox add-on Stumble Upon) this collection of color photographs from the 1930s-1940s. Apparently these are some of the only color photos from this period.

The point of the photograph was to announce that after over 15 interviews, I have a job offer. The pressure is now starting to fade away even though I'm not quite through interviewing yet. Hooray! Every day is more and more exciting as I'm shown another part of the path my life will take.

"I pondered the direction of my life, and I turned to follow your laws.

I will hurry, without delay, to obey your commands."

Psalms 119:59-60

Just breathe.

2010-10-15T11:20:00.004-05:00

We're halfway through October and one month in to autumn. Stores have switched to American fall staples of candy corn and oddly shaped squash that none of us would dare to ingest. Tentative holiday plans are forming and for some of us, our days have assumed a pace that could outrun any of Santa's reindeer even if every family in the world had a chimney.

Yes, it's interview season and midterms month for us lowly college students. Though I'm positive those of us at university are not the only ones who could really stand to add just one more day to the week. Nor are we the only ones who willingly choose to wear running shoes each day because, yes, those few steps we gain by power walking through our daily errands really do save time. Right?

For this season, I want to stress the importance of going "off the grid" emotionally and allowing yourself to relax--NOT turn on the TV, but engage in true relaxation: body and mind.

While I was in summer school this summer, I took a whole semester of college in 2 months. It was mundane and mind numbing, harried and haphazard, but it's over, and my classmates and I have semester 4.0s to prove it. Every single morning, when the alarm went off I woke up stressed. I fell asleep to my own subconscious to-do lists being committed to memory. My brain was in overdrive. In desperation, I joined a yoga/pilates class at Texas Tech to release some of the stress my body was carrying around in my super-tight achy muscles in my back and in return, I got much more than my $30 worth of instruction.

In yoga, other than poses resembling warriors, cats, and very unusual trees, the importance of breath is stressed. You are urged to flip the switch on your brain for a while and think about the way you are breathing. Here's a typical way this is done, which I just copied and pasted from another website:

Pay attention to the experience, the physical sensations, of your breath, noticing the flow of air as it moves in and out of your body.

What do you notice? Is your breath deep or shallow? Is it slow or rapid? Is it smooth or jerky? Is it quiet or noisy? Is it regular or irregular?

As you pay attention to these qualities of the breath, begin to allow the breath to gradually become deep, slow, quiet and regular.

Allow your belly to become soft, and let the breath drop all the way down into that softness.

Notice -- and hesitate for just a moment -- at the "still point" after you breathe out, before you begin to take in the next slow, gentle in-breath. This still point between the breaths, between the out-breath and the in-breath, is a place that can gradually deepen and lengthen as you allow yourself to "float" here.

Allow yourself to ride the waves of your own breathing, moment by moment, breath by breath. Feel how the breath breathes you.

That sounds slightly ridiculous to most of us, particularly to us West-Texas residents. Let me take this a step further.

Try this, but try and turn your brain off. Turn the lights out, close your eyes and try to stop your flow of thoughts. The moment that "Oh my gosh I need clean the kitchen before so-and-so come over," runs through your head, say, "I'll do it later," and bury the thought. Do the same for, "Ugh I looked so unkept when I ran into the goregous co-worker," "I can't believe I forgot my boyfriend's birthday," and "My fall wardrobe really needs so revamping." Stop the thought flow.

The harder I tried to throw the breaks on my freight train of thoughts (most of which are NEGATIVE!) the more I became aware that I entertain and encourage negative thought patterns. Normally, my brain will attack with something like "Ugh I looked so unkept when I ran into the goregous co-worker," and I respond with, "Yeah, I better look really put together tomorrow so he doesn't write me off." Similarly, "My fall wardrobe really needs some revamping to be up to par" can so easily turn into an online shopping spree that ends in 0 purchases and 100% frustration since I can't tell if I'm truly a 29 or a 30 in J. Crew jeans from the online size conversion chart.

Just like a computer, your brain has tons of subconscious activity going on to support your OS (operating system). And just like any computer, many of them are useless, causing pop ups, adware and just slowing you down. It's time to press the mental Ctrl+Alt+Delete buttons and stop these useless, damaging thought processes.

Try the breathing exercise I suggested, and when those thoughts come--because we all know they will--address them POSITIVELY and drop them.

"I can't believe I answered that interview question with such a poorly constructed answer."
Response: "Well, you gave it your all, and you did fantastic. The rest isn't in your hands."
End of discussion.

"My boyfriend/husband/fiance is really going to be upset when he finds out that I forgot to take care of __________."
Response: "That's okay, I can talk to him about it. I am a fantastic communicator."
"What if this causes an argument? That's going to ruin my day. I need my relationship with him to be smooth right now."
Response: "I am wonderful at diffusing situations. This I can handle."
End of discussion.

So much of our brain activity is needless. By taking time to address that those subconscious thoughts are not healthy or even helpful and redirecting them, we are able to "re-wire" ourselves to worry and stress less. Keep eating healthy, stay hydrated and give your brain a few minutes off each day. I promise you will have more productive and useful thoughts as a result.

Have a great weekend.

Details, details

2010-09-21T15:36:00.006-05:00

"The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do,
and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things
like home, and love, and understanding companionship."

Amelia Earhart

As many times as I could tell you that I used to be an Interior Design major, if you took one glance inside my bedroom door you wouldn't believe me. In fact, you'd probably roll your eyes and thank the hand-full of professors that led me to change majors.

Do I appreciate details? Yes.

Do I have an eye for creating them in my own living space? No. No. No.

With that being said, when I moved in the place I am to spend the last semester of college, I couldn't contain my excitement. It felt like walking into your completely hip and artistic grandmother's house for the weekend. I've been here over a month and it still feels like I'm waiting for someone to waltz out of the kitchen with a plate of cookies to accompany the book I'm reading. It hasn't happened yet, but I have been cooking some very "home-y" meals of my own.

Here are some of the things at my house that I love every day..

The funky yellow kitchen phone only telemarketers and my boyfriend use.

The sassy lady that helps me with my parmesan cheese.

Daily reminders

Sunlit rooms..

With shutters I am always adjusting..

..and a chandelier.

Vintage glass lamps

Practiced cookbooks featuring West Texas cooks..

Beautiful decoupage and the bookcase begging for free time

Apartment life is far gone in my memory at last.

It's study time for my Honor's Strategic Management exam tomorrow, and I might even contemplate performing a little organization of my own.

Good afternoon, all.

P.S. New Mexico

2010-09-20T10:34:00.009-05:00

The last month has granted me one of the most wonderful surprises: a chance to revisit the past with my neighbor, Jewel, from the dorms at St. Edward's University. We've seen each other three times this month, and have some really peaceful Santa Fe vacation plans cooking.

Catching up with her in the fall breeze over J&B tea and coffee makes me feel as if time has stood still. She and I didn't miss a second. (Aren't friends like this irreplaceable?)

Jewel always has the right words to share that just wake me up and make me remember just how important it is to love others and to love yourself.

She was telling me about a poster on her wall last night... I happened to find it on her tumblr and wanted to share.

This morning feels much cooler. We're two days away from the first day of autumn. It's time to go to Lost Maples and watch the leaves change colors.

Good day.

Suitcase Status: Unpacked

2010-09-01T11:21:00.004-05:00

When my dad is out of the country, I hear from him every two days or so. Naturally, I forgot that this is only because his job provides him with international phone usage and allows him to purchase internet, whether he's in Africa, Russia, China, or Peru.

Needless to say, I didn't really have that luxury. The price of internet was more than I was willing to pay ($40 for 1 gig of usage--for Americans, that's about 1 hour of some quality YouTube time) and it wasn't as easy as just picking up a wireless network and paying for service in most areas.

Though I failed to blog about my days, I did manage to keep a journal of all the things that happened at Eagle's Rising while we were in South Africa. As soon as I am given access to the massive hard drive of photos that our team and the students captured I'll post a day-by-day recap of all the amazing things we experienced together during our insanely blessed week there.

Until then, a few snapshots from our free days:

Packing

2010-08-03T18:44:00.005-05:00

The weekend (Friday through Tuesday at 2:34 pm, or the moment I entered the Lubbock city limits) is over.

The highlights include:

- Moving Craig from a 3rd story apartment to a single story house. The house is nice, though hot and dark due to a lack of electricity. ---oops.

- Having a few classically Austin meals--Hut's, El Polvo's. And just enjoying Austin in general--KGSR, yummy Whole Foods snacks, Half Price Books.

- Shopping, and having an incredibly experienced traveler friend select this jacket (in a different color) for me to wear on the trip:

Hooray for having an alternative to North Face pull overs!

- Fleshing out my more "grown up" cosmetic collection at Sephora with lipstain and peony pink blush!

- Getting to spend lots of time with Craig's family, even if it was while we were all sweaty from moving.

Today Mom comes to town to visit my grandmother and me. So, coincidentally of course, today the packing begins. :)

Why Do You Go?

2010-07-26T15:25:00.008-05:00

Summer school is winding down. August is approaching with my last semester at Texas Tech, books to be bought, a schedule to be perfected, organizational duties to resume, and a job search to begin. I can't think of any of these things.

Here is what is on my mind instead: "Ah, well, should I fly take my internal frame backpack or a suitcase? What does 60 degrees with 87% humidity feel like--I'm from west Texas!"

My destination? Capetown, South Africa.

My reason? To serve.

I've caught planes to see relatives, experience New Years on Times Square, for holidays, music festivals and college visits, though never to do anything for a purpose larger than myself.

August 8th through 22nd, I will be joining a group of 6 people to travel to South Africa. There, we will be teaching classes at Eagle's Rising on a farm outside the city of Cape Town. Our classes will range from Photography, Web Design, Art, Graphic Design, Music, to Drama. We're a slightly creative team, to say the least.

Watch the video below (it's a bit dated) to get a feel for where we're going.

As of yesterday, it's now slightly less than two weeks until we leave, which means lots of planning, packing, and preparing. Please keep our team in your prayers and follow us in our preparation and journey on my blog.

Have bags, will travel.

2010-07-20T12:28:00.024-05:00

If globe-hopping were a day job, I would have probably skipped college and applied a very long time ago. Sure, Anthony Bourdain attended The Culinary Institute of America, became top chef at Brasserie Les Halles, and wrote Kitchen Confidential,--he truly earned his host post on No Reservations, but what about Samantha Brown? She is from Dallas. She attended a casting call for a travel show. Fate was in her favor. When the Travel Channel needs a replacement, I may just have to forgo the long hair in hopes of getting a bob for, what I see to be, one of the hottest jobs around.

Look at the your bookstore's travel section. Is there any place location not covered? Likely not. From Kerouac to Emerson, Twain to Augustine, everyone has something to say about packing their bags and saying au revior to wherever they call home.

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
– Saint Augustine

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
– Mark Twain

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes.”
– Marcel Proust

“Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.”
– Ernest Hemingway

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”
– Martin Buber

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
– Lao Tzu

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.”
– Mark Jenkins

I love traveling..

....to New York

....to New Orleans

....to Scotland(!!)

All of these trips were amazing .... but in August will the be the trip that tops them all. I'll post on this next.

"Do's" #1

2010-07-19T21:32:00.009-05:00

Following the blog's theme of "going and doing," I'm going to share a few activities that make the soul happy but fall into that "Other"-category of life. The "Other" category for me is the catch all for the things in life that don't fall into the "Work" or "Play" category, so here it goes..

#1. Go Grow things.

Even if it's flowers from your local grocery store. A morning outside with coffee, fruit, and a watering can is the best transition from asleep to completely awake that exists. My grandma taught me this in my early days, although her weakness was hot tea and delicious oatmeal, not coffee.

#2. Go Fall in love with a food blog.

My forever-favorite is Kath Eats Real Food. Her posts are photo and recipe filled, and so positive! She posts little things about the meals throughout her day that are easily read in a minute--so it's the perfect "I need a break from life but I don't need to be totally distracted" tool. Please visit her!

#4. Go Make and devour food from your newly favorite food blog.

Spinach in a smoothie sounds like a pretty minor food accomplishment, but it was my first time to toss it in my blender! I was surprised it was so delicious; it gave my smoothie-in-a-bowl (SIAB, as Kath Eats Real Food likes to call it!) much more flavor than fruit alone. Although, fresh OJ, strawberries, blueberries, and banana did help some. On top: Homemade granola with my grandparent's pecans from their backyard. I've never found store bought pecans that were anywhere close to as large and meaty. Yum!

#5. Go Put your favorite color in a strange place...

.... Like your toes. Then feel like a 6th grader every time you glance down... but love it, all the same!

#6. Go Tell someone just how you feel about them.

What stops an artist?

2010-06-19T12:51:00.037-05:00

The last few days have been filled with creative change. The house has been rearranged. Curtains are being hung. My bedroom is being updated into a space more conducive to thinking, reading, writing, and painting. Instead of the tv, reading, cooking, and reflecting have been occupying my free time.

This morning as I put down the novel I was reading to make coffee (Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, loaned to me by my wonderfully Mississippian aunt) and check email, a book I had purchased this winter caught my eye from the bookshelf: life is a verb: 37 days to wake up, be mindful, and live intentionally by Patti Digh.

On October 24, 2003, Patti's stepfather, Boyce, "a 6-foot, 5-inch-tall man with a southern accent, a golfer's tan, five World War II Bronze Stars, and a forest-green Lincoln Town Car" was diagnosed with lung cancer. Thirty-seven days later, Boyce passed away, and Patti was questioning herself--"What would I be doing today if I only had thirty-seven days to live?" Patti says,

"My answer to that question wasn't about uprooting my family to take a world tour. It wasn't about climbing Mount Everest or learning Urudu ...or seeking enlightenment in a faraway land. Instead if was about living each individual, glorious day with more intention. It was simply about saying yes, being generous, speaking up, loving more, trusting myself, and slowing down. It was about more fully inhabiting the life I have, not creating a new one. It was about leading my every life with a lot more (chocolate chip) pancakes."

She chose simplicity. This book finds itself open at my house fairly frequently. Wherever I am, it seems to have a "day" full of insightful quotes, images, and a story devoted to the issue I am wrestling with. Today, I thought I would post a story from Patti's book. (Page 66)

"The book Art and Fear [by David Bayles and Ted Orland] brings us the story of a pottery teacher who tells half his class they'll be graded solely on the quantity of the work they produce. He'll even use a scale to weight their output and determine their grade. Fifty pounds of pots would rate an A, for example. The other half would be graded on quality and need only produce one pot-a perfect one-to get an A.

"The works of highest quality," the authors reported, "were all produced by the group being graded for quantity... while they were busily churning out piles of work--and learning from their mistakes--the quality group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

...I know I am guilty of trying to produce THE pot, frequently in the form of a painting, poetry, trip-taking--only to result to paralysis and inaction. (I'm pretty sure this is why I quit interior design!)

Before rearranging furniture yesterday, I was struck with the idea to get out my measuring tape, measure my room, my bed, my shelves, dresser, desk, lamp and storage boxes. With these measurements, I would draw a diagram of my room on graph paper and cut out little replica pieces of furniture that I could move around in different arrangements just to ensure that everything would work before I expended the effort to manuever furniture in my tiny, tiny room.

Against my initial idea of planning everything down to the inch, I threw out my reservations and performed a feat of master impromptu maneuvering (no room-mapping or AutoCAD involved), the result of which I am very fond of.

I want to leave you with a few quotes I found in Patti's book:

If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished? --Rumi

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin--real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. --Alfred D'Souza

Challenge yourself: Where are you holding back waiting for the right time, trying for the perfect thing to say, looking for the "right" person, striving towards something that might just be easier to find by failing first? What's the harm in having to fire another pot?

Have a lovely weekend.

Global Athletic Awareness Month

2010-06-15T18:55:00.014-05:00

Attention world leaders, I have a proposal: that June and July be internationally labeled as "Global Athletic Awareness Months" so that we can all just concede that, yes, we're at work and in class, but we're really not paying attention to you, Mr. Twice Tenured Professor or you, dear dear manager, we've been wholly consumed by football.

It's World Cup month, and I know, you're probably glued to ESPN like the rest of humanity. As an American, I find the surge of knowledge of and attention paid to other nations heartwarming--we're taking time to, even if it is virtually, observe and learn about the cultures around the world. For many of us, I know the images we see, the languages that enter our ears will stick; Our interests in other cultures will be forever piqued.

The sense of global kinship is electric. We hope for victories together, we cheer together with our voices melding and sounding out as one cry, all our hearts extend to family of Nelson Mandela, we're all huddled around televisions biting our nails and watching the matches.

If you look closely, so many visual artists are being given the spotlight through commercials and advertisements. Below is my favorite advertisement so far:

.. Read some of the comments below the video, like this one:

"[This video shows] the true meaning of having fun and pride without fame and fortune."

Cool, right?

Opening day.

2010-06-13T19:55:00.012-05:00

One's initial blog post is historically important,...right?

Rather than, "Hi, I'm Makenzie," I thought I'd elicit a bit more creative response and tell you my goals for this blog, invite your input and friendship along this journey, and tell you exactly what "go/do" is really all about.

This blog was birthed from the idea that something, something of monumental importance, was absent from my life. Through a good bit of digging through potential pieces to the puzzle, I threw many answers by the way-side: diets, therapy, Americanized religion, strict schedules, and corporate-star career goals--these things are not and could not be the missing piece for me.

What I decided was for me, are new experiences, places, flavors, cultures, friendships, and traveling out of the bubble that I know to be my life and sphere of comfort. To put concisely, my life needs more "going" and "doing." Seeing this on the page of my moleskine my spirit quickened and my new journey was set before me. Go. Do... Go/Do.

The next week, while reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog on the back porch, the need for music arose and so I put on Jónsi's new album, Go, in an effort to catch up on a few missed album releases. I was pulled into the enlightened feeling that the music Sigur Ros often arouses. My ears perked at track number one. As I glanced at the name of the song, I felt that little quickening feeling again,--the name of the track was Go Do; the lyrics to which couldn't speak louder:

Go sing, too loud
Make your voice break- Sing it out
Go scream, do shout
Make an earthquake...

You wish fire would die and turn colder
You wish young eyes could see you grow older
We should always know that we can do anything

Go drum, too proud
Make your hands ache - Play it out
Go march through crowds
Make your day break...

You wish silence released noisy drummers
You wish white noise surrendered to summers
We should always know that we can do everything

Go do, you'll know how to
Just let yourself, fall into landslide

Go do, you'll know how to
Just let yourself, give into flood tide

Go do!

Tie strings to clouds
Make your own lake - Let it flow
Throw seeds to sprout
Make your own break - Let them grow

Let them grow (Endless summers)
Let them grow (Endless summers)

(Go do endless summers)

You wish surprise would never stop wonders
You wish sunrise would never fall under

You wish surprise would never stop wonders
You wish sunrise would never fall under
We should always know that we can do anything

Go do!

As if fate had intervened, my journey was confirmed and laid before me.

I invite you to guide me and to share with me in this journey of trials and failures, inspiration and creativity, hopes, discoveries, dreams, and the peace that comes with a heart filled with contentment. May you find encouragement, health, and happiness in my words and the wisdom of those also traveling on this journey.