What makes you come alive

I've been pondering the same thought for a few weeks now, I haven't come to any conclusions, but thought I would share. One of my friends has the following quote in her automatic email signature;

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." -Howard Thurman

Cool. Ok, so that is inspiring, but what the heck are you supposed to do with that information? When I first read it I immediately was excited.  We are supposed to be living in the NOW, seizing the moment, living to our fullest potential, helping humanity and the world; all while creating a substantial enough income to live and play as desired. 

So, what makes me come alive? The shocking part when I thought about this was it took a bit of thinking and I still don't know if I am fully satisfied with my answer. Hmm, so now what?  Darn. So have decided a laundry list of rambling items would suffice for now, to get my thoughts flowing. The following things make me feel truly alive

• exercise, my own and leading group exercise
• being in nature, hiking, skiing, walking, running
• helping others
• appreciating things I see and smiling
• chocolate
• learning new things about fitness & health
• working on projects
• TRAVELING!!! TRAVELING!! TRAVELING!!!
• eating (eating while traveling!)
• being organized

Cool, so I can help others exercise and I can eat and travel for my occupation.......

...

Excellent...

...now I just have to figure out how to do that.

That is where my thoughts get jumbled. How do I transform what makes me come alive into a tangible career. I do think it is possible. Not sure where to go from here, but I am enjoying my current job and it is introducing me to all sorts of other people and professions. I guess the answer for now is keep researching and exploring until life leads me somewhere...

Hmm... 

That's all I've got. Sorry, no answers today. 

It was a beautiful sunny day in Seattle here. Lots to love and appreciate here. =)

It's getting warm =P

I think I am adjusting to Seattle and I think it fits me well. First of all, I am so happy the weather predictions are almost always wrong. The forecast Tuesday was straight rain for too many days. Yesterday turned out to be a blue skied beautiful day. I also thought it was "warm" outside at a nice 50F. HA! I must be getting used to it here. I am starting to feel like I truly fit in here in many different ways...including I passed someone on my bike going UPHILL! A few months ago people were passing me going uphill (and downhill), I know biking to work isn't a race; but man did it feel good to pass someone! :) I think I can attribute my new found speed partly to the awesome bike panniers my aunt and uncle from Elk Grove got me for Christmas! They must have super powers built in.

I am so thankful to the friends that have come into my life. Last weekend was full of music, painting, happy hours, and a day trip out to West Seattle. It is so much fun to explore the details of this city with them and watch the sunset over Seattle from a little restaurant on the water in West Seattle.

My friend Melissa and I have decided we are going to be painters. Mostly for fun and because it is therapeutically relaxing, but also to make great (hopefully) artwork for friends and ourselves. We went to a sale at an art store and went a bit crazy purchasing canvases, but now we are prepared and the creativity is flowing! I think my house mates are no longer surprised to come home to the dinning room table covered in newspapers, paints, canvases, and of course snacks.

Speaking of snacks, today was an awesome work day because we had a meeting. Let me explain, we always get lunch at meetings so I look forward to them. I think they do this to keep the employees happy, and I would say it is working.

Not sure what else to write today, my thought seem kind of jumbled and not too insightful at the moment. Until next time :)

Blessed Assurance. This is my story, this is my song...

This was a difficult weekend. My grandma Virgina passed away at almost 91 years old, she passed away Dec 21 on the lunar eclipse and her birthday was January 5. She was such an incredible woman and impacted so many lives. My sister and I flew down to California for her memorial service last weekend. I didn't realize the magnitude of her impact until I was there. Wow! What a woman, what an example for life, what a humble existence, what love!

What is the purpose of life? I have not figured that out and am not sure if my grandma did either, but I think she was on the right path! She lived my morals, lived by God's word, loved her husband for 55 years on earth, and now they are reunited in heaven. She taught so many people to cook and sew and believe in themselves. She wanted to be a teacher, she worked with 4-H in Stanislas County for 40+ years, taught classes, and served as a superintendent of the board.

I could continue with the wonderful things she did, but that makes me miss her, so I would rather pose a series of questions. I feel like I need to slow down. Appreciate the joys and live for a greater purpose, not just my own interests. How is this accomplished? What talents can I employ so that I help humanity? How do choices I make affect not just me but others? How to be steadfast to those deepest strongest beliefs that get   cloudy with daily life?

Appreciation, humility, love, sharing. What a joy it would be to embody those to he extent my grandmas did.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." - Martin Luther King

image from: http://lxixixl.com/keyword/clipart%20of%20a%20dove/0/16/

Monster Love

I have a mini weekend every Wednesday. I am becoming quite used to this mid-week break and am not sure if I will be able to work full time after this first job experience. I teach a class at 6am on Monday and Wednesday, then after 7:30am I have the rest of those days off! I know you are probably wondering how getting up so early could be fun, but it's not so bad. Naps help, and for some reason those naps after working out really feel so amazing! I wake up feeling so refreshed, alive, and happy.

Yesterday's weekend Wednesday was probably my favorite since I've moved up here! I had six people in my 6am class, which is a record for numbers! I'm so excited for New Years resolutions to kick in. :) We had a fun class with free weights, body weight, and big yoga balls. After my class I came home and had my normal morning hellos and conversations with my awesome housemates! I found out I sort of act like Matt's alarm clock, when I come home and he hears the door, he knows he should get up! lol I was headed back to bed for a nap and they are just getting up to start their day!   For some reason this little irony makes me quite content.

I was lucky enough to hang out with the Stolz family one more time before Cassie and Lisa go back to school! We meet in Fremont and spent the early afternoon shopping little boutiques and seeing what fun and beautiful treasures we could find. I did not find anything I couldn't live without, but it was fun to explore more of Fremont. We ate at Home Grown and were amused by this sign with recycling instructions on it. Oh how I love Seattle!! You could recycle almost everything!!

The food was AMAZING and the time with friends was priceless. After lunch was a sad good-bye since they were headed downtown and I was planning on going back home. We parted with the sign language sign for "Monster Love". I think this symbolizes a deep level of love between friends that is silly and sincere :)

Since life has a funny way of progressing, I found myself instead of going home to go downtown to meet up with my friend Catie for coffee! We ended up seeing the Stolz family; what a wonderful surprise but it sadly meant we had another round of goodbyes.

Catie and I headed up to Capitol Hill after where we went to an awesome art store of Broadway and Pine and purchased craft supplies which will be utilized in the near future!! We proceeded to wonder down Broadway and tried to learn the dance moves from the plaques along the way! What fun!!

I'm not sure if I'm an expert yet. But luckily I purchased a Groupon for Ballroom dance lessons last week... :)

After a series of buses I made it back home! My housemates Alex, Matt, and myself all cooked dinner at the same time. What a joy to be surrounded by laughter and yummy food. A great friend who is in Texas joined in on the fun via Skype! I experimented cooking with wine! Which is something I have never done before. I made chicken with a white wine, tomato, green onion, and garlic sauce. Matt made brussel sprouts! Our meal turned out amazing and I meant to take a picture of it...but we ate it all. :)

What a wonderful Wednesday! To all my friends, I love and appreciate you!! Monster Love!!

This is me trying to be artistic with the camera.... I might stick to dance & painting. =)

The New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


I am beginning my blog. I do not have one focus for this blog. It is going to account my adventures in this beautiful city of Seattle that I am exploring. I can guarantee there will be stories of life in the city, cooking, hiking and biking tales, and thoughts shared. Cassie, Makenna, and I had so much fun writing our blog as we traveled around Europe this summer, Cassie and I both decided to start our own blog. Thus, this blog will serve as an update for those far away from me and as a place to write thoughts and document my life.


I am not going to go back to when I first moved here, I will just start from this moment and move forward. This philosophy is so wonderful for life, hard to fully embrace, but it would mean living in the moment to the fullest and appreciating little things. This is embodied in one of my favorite yoga poses, warrior 1. In this position the upper body must be directly over the hips, arms extended reaching to each wall. If the torso is too far forward or to far back the body is stuck behind or trying to move ahead too quickly. My hope for my future is to be balanced within myself and see where life leads me.