From Dragonflies to Dream Houses

A few weeks ago I decided it was time to do something to tackle my lingering dissatisfaction and doubt about my current path. My professional path, mostly, but life is about more than just one thing, and wouldn’t it be grand if the puzzle actually all came together?

So I created a vision board, and this is how it turned out.

vision board

 

There are things on there that I want to have the courage to do and things I want to cultivate in myself.

There are images that represent my role as a mother and a parent and what I want to encourage in my children.

There are images that represent things I like to do and want to do more of.

And there is chocolate.

In my late teens/early 20s I had journals I decorated with pictures and words cut out of magazines. Words, mostly,  because despite being a visual person words are what speak to me most. I have book after book after book, all of which rest quietly in my hope chest, too much a part of me to let go.

This board, obviously, is mostly pictures, and I haven’t yet decided if this is the approach that works for me. (The collection of words in the middle near the bottom are what came out when I posted on Facebook about creating a vision board and asked for inspiration. Those words appeared, rapid-fire, from many different friends, and reminded me just how much inspiration there is in our lives if only we look for it.)

I also haven’t decided what to do with this. Print it out and put it somewhere I can see it every day, probably. That seems like the natural thing to do. For what is a vision board if not something to look at, and, in looking at it, letting it come to life?

I’ll let you know how I get on.

 

With thanks to Tonya and Tracie for sharing their boards with me for extra inspiration. 

Do you have a vision board and has it made a difference in your life?

Grace in Small Things: #3

fortune-from-fortune-cookie

I sincerely hope so, and that it's exciting in a good way.

The weekend was not good, and this list was harder to make than the last two when I started it a couple of days ago. But here’s where it ended up.

  1. Chocolate for breakfast.
  2. Painting my nails, which makes me feel just a little bit less like a lazy slob.
  3. Dinner out in my old hood and a nostalgic drive past my childhood home.
  4. An evening walk with the dog in the sunshine. We both needed it.
  5. Pickles.

Today was better.

Waging a battle against embitterment and taking part in Grace in Small Things.

Finding My Why

Looking at the lists of prompts for Be Enough Me there was one that jumped out at me: “What is your why?” It’s a question I think about a lot.

I’m hosting the Be Enough Me link-up and posting about that today on Just.Be.Enough. I haven’t answered the question quite yet, but the ongoing challenge with answering it is part of my big picture.

I’d love it if you’d come read and tell me what your why is.

Comments here closed.

Being Brave

I’ve got a whole lot of nothing right now, except too-much-to-do-and-too-little-time-(and-energy) syndrome. So I will leave you with this.

Be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs

via taniawillis.tumblr.com

Am I being sufficiently brave with my life? I’m not sure right now.

What are you brave about?

 

 

Blissdom Bound

I’m all set. Packed. As ready as I’m ever going to be. (Which is not very, but I’m all about winging things these days.)

A few months ago I bought a ticket to Blissdom. This is a conference I’ve known of for a while and I always thought it sounded like a fun one to go to, especially because of the name. Bliss? Count me in.

But then I realized a bunch of my blog friends—some I have already met and love dearly and some I’m dying to hug—will be there, and I jumped. A big motivating factor is that Natalie (aka Mama Track) is going to be there with her new baby girl (aka Baby Track). And Jessica and Angela are trying to fight me for who gets to hold Baby Track first. (I’m going to win.) And Kimberly and her pregnant belly are going to be there. And there are so many others.

So I bought a ticket and hoped it would work out. And then of course we moved and I got a new job and I started to wonder if perhaps it wasn’t meant to be. But my new boss is great and doesn’t seem to care that the newest member of the team is taking a couple of days off and my husband doesn’t seem to mind that I’m ditching him, so here I go.

This feels much different than when I was leaving for BlogHer last year. I’m still excited, but less nervous. It feels less life-altering, though it could be equally so. Mostly I’m just tired and dreading the travel, just a little bit.

But I’m going anyway, for how else to pursue the life I want than to take the opportunities that come my way? I just ask that if you spot a sleeping blogger in the Phoenix airport that you give her a nudge and send her on her way to Nashville.

I'm Going, Y'all! - Blissdom

While I’m travelling on Thursday, I leave you with a post at Just.Be.Enough. It’s about being a working mom with a stay-at-home-dad husband, an arrangement I’m grateful for, but one that has included some unexpected perspective on what that means for my own mom identity. Please come and visit