daylight savings time breaks my sleepy heart every year. but it reminds me of the fact that it’s almost spring, so it’s always forgiven.

photo: shona heath, via the littlest blog

on tuesday elizabeth posted marvelous kiddo’s manifesto of encouragement and i wanted to share it over here too. people all over the world are doing what they can do encourage, uplift and help. there is so much intentional good in the world. that’s nice to know.

Right now:
There are Tibetan Buddhist monks in a temple in the Himalayas endlessly reciting mantras for the cessation of your suffering and for the flourishing of your happiness.
Someone you haven’t met yet is already dreaming of adoring you.
Someone is writing a book that you will read in the next two years that will change how you look at life.
Nuns in the Alps are in endless vigil, praying for the Holy Spirit to alight the hearts of all of God’s children.
A farmer is looking at his organic crops and whispering, “nourish them.”
Someone wants to kiss you, to hold you, to make tea for you. Someone is willing to lend you money, wants to know what your favourite food is, and treat you to a movie. Someone in your orbit has something immensely valuable to give you — for free.
Something is being invented this year that will change how your generation lives, communicates, heals and passes on.
The next great song is being rehearsed.
Thousands of people are in yoga classes right now intentionally sending light out from their heart chakras and wrapping it around the earth.
Millions of children are assuming that everything is amazing and will always be that way.
Someone is in profound pain, and a few months from now, they’ll be thriving like never before. They just can’t see it from where they’re at.
Someone who is craving to be partnered, to be acknowledged, to ARRIVE, will get precisely what they want — and even more. And because that gift will be so fantastical in it’s reach and sweetness, it will quite magically alter their memory of angsty longing and render it all “So worth the wait.”
Someone has recently cracked open their joyous, genuine nature because they did the hard work of hauling years of oppression off of their psyche — this luminous juju is floating in the ether, and is accessible to you.
Someone just this second wished for world peace, in earnest.
Someone is fighting the fight so that you don’t have to.
Some civil servant is making sure that you get your mail, and your garbage is picked up, that the trains are running on time, and that you are generally safe. Someone is dedicating their days to protecting your civil liberties and clean drinking water.
Someone is regaining their sanity. Someone is coming back from the dead. Someone is genuinely forgiving the seemingly unforgivable. Someone is curing the incurable.

You. Me. Some. One. Now.

photo taken by me

i signed up for bri’s blog shop class in may. i’m so excited… and soon you won’t have to look at my sad looking blog because i’ll know how to make it look fancy!

photos: bri

a little birdie told me that my blog was lacking pictures of me. pictures of me are not my favorite. most of my childhood pictures have me holding a packet of certs (which was my favorite candy when i was little) because that was the only way they could get me in a photo with me looking at the camera. i was a shy little violet. but i do like this picture that krista took when we went to hearst castle. so there you go, that’s me.

call it a diet, call it detox… whatever it is i’m doing it. i’m jumping back into doing what i did last year and we’ll see how it goes. i’m been sugar/carb free for two whole days and haven’t lost it so that’s good. of course that may just be because since i’m drinking a gallon + of water everyday i’m distracted by my bladder. but so far so good.

this isn’t my first attempt at changing my eating habits and maybe it won’t be my last. some of it’s worked, some hasn’t. some of it has made me feel good and some of it has sent me head first into a bowl of ice cream. but this time feels different. maybe i’m more “ready” for change but also, i think i’ve learned a thing or two.

if you’re changing any habit (eating, smoking, spending, whatever) i think a lot of your success it determined by your own way of thinking. i’m not an expert (clearly) but this is what i think.

changing yourself shouldn’t be a form of punishment. purging your closets simply because you feel guilty about shopping won’t make you feel better. changing your eating habits because you’ve been calling yourself “lazy”, or “greedy”, or “a slacker” is a set up. you’ll end up rebelling against yourself.

i know me. i know my hair is frizzy more often than not. i know i almost always have circles under my eyes. i know i’m not skinny. but i also know i have worth. i know i am a child of god. i know my body (wobbly bits and all) is a gift.

so while i am embracing this change, i’m doing it because i like me. i want to take care of me.

i hope you take care of you too.

and if you have any heathy recipes you’d care to share i’d love to hear them. xo

photo by jen gotch

i know i’m a day late but i’ve been sick. i hope you had a beautiful day filled with love – whether it’s romantic, friend, family, nature, music, puppy, kitty, artistic. whatever it is i hope you love you!

and here’s a little more belated valentine’s day love:

i wish i’d thought of this

a new hoodie with a wee heart from max wanger

in the running for the world’s greatest love story (thanks for tweeting annabela)

a little baby/belly love song from rachel and grant to their little one.

red + pink + white on hi + low (thanks for the link bri

and ps,

thanks for the heartfelt comments to my very frustrated, not so attractive post. a good friend reminded me of a favorite quote: “Comparison is the thief of joy.” hands off my joy universe!

photo by jen gotch

“Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.” – Haruki Murakami

i’m going to risk looking like an a*hole and write this anyway. sorry.

lately i’ve had a difficult time blogging because i’ve been wanting to avoid what has actually been on my mind. but after a few weeks of “sitting on it” i’m just putting it out there in the hopes of getting it off my chest and having done with it. feel free to vacate the premises. and if you do read i fear you will realize what a selfish, ungrateful, miserable person i am capable of being. really unattractive, i know – so i’ll just apologize now with the hope that you’ll forgive me.

i like my life. a lot, actually. but i also feel like in one particular area of life i’m stuck. i don’t like being stuck. i need progress and change to feel like things and life is moving forward, developing, growing. lately it’s a constant inner battle – fighting to stay positive, not to give into wallowing (is that what i’m doing right now? sorry), to not act like a jealous 5 year old. i have so much to be grateful for that it’s silly to focus on what i don’t have and to let it drive me crazy. i feel like this week especially it’s taken extra energy not to compare my life with other’s or to become resentful or basically be such a big baby.

long walks and fresh air help. harlow helps. and when all else fails a little drive and a little cry in my car where no one can see helps. i’m working on it.

or maybe i just need a little fairy dust.

I’ve really been learning that I have to choose to believe that it is not my clothes or my hair or my makeup that is going to make me shine.
-Bethany Galeotti

photos: sophie richards

“Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.”
– Sarah Dessen

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
– Ayn Rand

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
– Shel Silverstein

Each of us are our own greatest inhibitor. And, at the end of the day, if you just get out of your own way and let things come to you, it’s amazing what will come to you.
-Laird Hamilton

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle.

The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
-Ayn Rand

“Bunkum and tummyrot! You’ll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that. Would Columbus have discovered America if he’d said ‘What if I sink on the way over? What if I meet pirates? What if I never come back?’ He wouldn’t even have started.”
– Willy Wonka (Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator)

“Life’s too short… to fight, to be miserable, to let the bitter ones change how awesome you are.”

photo credit: 1, and 2.