I’ve learned something so significant in the last couple of weeks and months. Significant enough to come out of hiding from all things world wide web and share it with the few lonely readers who still frequent this site. ;) Hi Richie!

We’ve all felt it.  Inspiration.

The feeling of absolute confidence (read: faith) and perfect peace (read: calm).

That heightened sense of motivation and drive toward excellence.

The state of meaningful momentum and true connection to our honest character: the real YOU.

For most of us (myself included) inspiration is recognized as a fleeting feeling that only drops by here and there to show you just how awesome your life is NOT all the other 364 days of the year.

Well, here I am, nearly 30 years in. . . and I’m just now realizing that we can actually LIVE in that space. Like, all the time.

We “simply” have to be willing to fight the good fight!

Easier said than done.

Over the last weeks and months, I’ve learned that when you find yourself really, truly, deeply committed to living in a space of inspiration, joy, progress, LOVE . . . the forces of Hell will literally gather around you and do everything in their power to derail you.

And they take the unlikliest of forms, so watch your backs.

Thankfully, there is a flip-side to this horrifying reality, because simultaneous to Beelzebub and his army of Red Bull drinking hooligans, the universe also raises up helping hands EVERYWHERE you turn to support, uplift and even (and perhaps especially) to PROPEL you along your “pathway toward all awesomeness” (for lack of a more fitting description).

And again, they take the unlikliest of forms, so stay open.

(Note: The image connected to this post is probably the one image that I’ve taken in my life that inspires me more than any other. Consequently, it also personifies the very reason I am willing to fight tooth and nail to stay inspired every.single.day)

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More on this later, but I simply couldn’t end this post without a brief expression of gratitude.  ‘Tis the season, after all.

You want to talk about committing to LIVING your life they way it’s meant to be lived and the universe (read: GOD) raising up helping hands to support and uplift you? Fine. Let’s do.

A few weeks ago, on an honest-to-gosh whim, I signed up for the Maui leg of the Making Things Happen tour with Southern Weddings Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Lara Casey and guest speakers, photographers Fred Egan and Jory Cordy.   I knew NOTHING about the workshop. I knew NOTHING about Lara. The workshop just randomly showed up on my radar, a little voice in my soul quitely said “GO,” and because listening is such a vital component of my new found FIGHT to stay inspired, I simply responded, “You got it!” I forked over the cash, booked a flight to Maui and buckled my safety belt for the ride of my life.

Here I am, only a couple of weeks out, having found a new best friend in Lara who I cannot imagine my life without, and additionally I’ve been invited to be a guest speaker at the last Making Things Happen event of 2010 in Watercolor, FL! (Join us! Lara just announced 5 additional seats!)

I feel so blessed to have met (not to mention to have learned from) Lara, Fred and Jory. Collectively and individually they are significant wave makers, all.

Thank you Lara, Fred, Jory and all my new MTH friends.

. . . and a happy bleated Thanksgiving. Naturally.

xx,

N

I’m tired.

of the white noise and the incessant chatter.

of the inundation of useless information.

of being interested in irrelevance.

I’m exhausted by of the cynicism and the babble.

I have no energy left for the insincerity.

Because life’s too short.

Too short not to find time to splash in puddles just because.

Too short not to mold play dough into the shape of martians with a beautiful 4 year old whose infectious giggle and knack for GOOD conversation are the stuff dreams are made of.

Too short to miss out on rolling around on the trampoline with a 5 year old who has more passion in his upper lip than any adult I’ve ever met the world over.

Too short not to be reading Charlotte’s Web with a soulful 7 year old who every.single.day reminds me of the goodness of God and the beauty of life.

Too short not to be dreaming of a beautiful little boy, whose memory ignites my soul in a way that defies description.

Too short not to be walking on the beach, hand in hand, with a man who loves me all the way to Jupiter and right back again.

I want to laugh. To cry. To love. To LIVE.

. . . in the here and now.

Before it flits away into foggy yesterdays.

because life’s too short not to splash in puddles just because.

Had I known your days were numbered,
I’d have stopped and counted every breath you took.

Had I known how quickly the clock was ticking,
I’d have lay awake nights simply to watch you sleep.

Had I known the fleeting presence of your mortal life on the vast radar of eternity,
I’d have put the world on pause to hold you against my heart.

Every moment, of every day . . . until that fateful last.

I continue to hold you, my perfect son.
No longer over my heart, but in it.

Happy birthday beautiful boy.

I love you with all of me.

xx, Mommy

click here to open post Oct 22, 2010 | posted in Personal | 5 comments

I love you.

I’m sorry I can’t be there to run on Walt’s team with you.  You KNOW I will be there in spirit and if there were ANY way on Earth for me to be there with you physically, I would be on the fist flight out of here. You KNOW it’s true.

Last weekend, Rachel and I ran a 5k in Walt’s honor.

At the end of the race I had to turn my shirt around because I was seriously about to drop dead from the smell of sharpie. . .

I must really love you to put this picture (right) on the www. I’m horrifying.

all in the name of love. . .

The genuine, deep, abiding kind Taylor.  I know you know that.

xx, N

click here to open post Oct 21, 2010 | posted in Personal | 13 comments

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from my beautifully talented old friend Eliza. (Be SURE to to go her site and listen to “The Growing Kind”.  LOVE.)

Nothing makes me happier than hearing from Eliza, because she just happens to be made of sugar and spice and all things fancy and magical.  Eliza’s ALWAYS got some fun project up her sleeve that you’d just DIE to be a part of.

Here is a portion of her email:

i want to make a video for the attached song . . . my idea is to get the shiniest people i know to sing along to the chorus and get video footage of it (even on your iphone. if you have and iphone..you can just do it..like right now..on your phone and then email it to me from your phone.) then i’m gonna take your voice off and make it look like my voice is coming out of your mouth. get it?  you don’t have to spend long or be too thoughtful about it or anything. just quick and dirty. . . i actually had you in mind when you wrote this song. . .(“you were sitting there on that step!”) you gave me the idea when you were reminiscing about the jr. high days of our friendship.

Naturally I’m such a basket case lately that I never got my act together and got my video over to Eliza.  I’m so jealous of all these shiny people.  I wish I was shiny and famous like them.

Watch this, and love it, but mostly listen to the Lyrics.  My personal favorite being: “You know, there is a fine line, between giving up and blinding me.”  Enjoy!