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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
What made YOU smile today?
Today I begin full time self-employment. I started out with worship and a walk outside. What beautiful a sunny day.
As I headed outdoors, I was quickly reminded how jealously I looked at the morning runners I used to see on my commute to work. I smile because I am now one of them, and I feel great starting my day like this.
What made you smile today? And if you had time freedom, how would you start your day?
As I headed outdoors, I was quickly reminded how jealously I looked at the morning runners I used to see on my commute to work. I smile because I am now one of them, and I feel great starting my day like this.
What made you smile today? And if you had time freedom, how would you start your day?
Friday, June 17, 2011
Inspiration strikes
As a designer or creative thinker, you may have noticed that those "aha" moments happen at the most inopportune times.
My favorite cartoonist showcased this concept in the context of freelance design work and I have to say this has happened more often than not. Usually when I am falling asleep, half-sleeping, running on the treadmill, or driving down the road. The worst is when I dream about projects I am working on and then I can't remember if it was real or a dream.
As embarrassing as it sounds, I recently had to clarify with my boss on one point about a product I am promoting. Sure enough, I dreamed the entire thing. I wish I could say my dream lead to a great idea, but... at least it rendered a hearty laugh!
As embarrassing as it sounds, I recently had to clarify with my boss on one point about a product I am promoting. Sure enough, I dreamed the entire thing. I wish I could say my dream lead to a great idea, but... at least it rendered a hearty laugh!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Are you who you wanna be?
Driving to work, mulling over the things I have yet to do and the week has barely even begun. My iPod shuffles to a Switchfoot song "This is Your Life" and I am reminded that the most important thing is what I do with today. The past is past, I can never change it. The future is still yet to come ... so all I ever really have is today.
Some may say music has very little value or effect but I believe that it is a constantly open window to the soul. Given thought provoking content, it can cause one to do some of the most feared things in this society... to think and to change.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Are you Done yet?
It was an interesting heart to heart talk that ended with the words "thank you for not giving me a solution to my problem yet....I'm not done feeling about it yet...".Those are the moments I know the Holy Spirit is working hard.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Consequences of Student Loans
This is such an extremely important message! I have to say even though I was blessed to be able to finish school, I have a degree in my desired field, and even got a job in my profession ... the pressure of student loan debt can be overwhelming. That is the ultimate understatement! The pressure is so intense that usually I will not think about it beyond the time it takes to make the monthly payment or during our family monthly "budget meeting".
Wanting to make a difference ...
Work in your strengths ...
Do something important ...
Create a life around your passion ...
These were the things that motivated me when, at age 24, I evaluated the price of my future in terms of student loans. College was all about proving something to myself -- proving that I really could set goals and achieve them. Proving that I wasn't as low as I was made to feel every day. Finding that I could push myself and contribute something amazing and then dig down a little deeper and find that I could even do better than that.
So is the cost of college worth the decades of sacrifice and stress that seems to follow? I'm not sure. many people are self taught entrepreneurs, others lie on their resumes to get a job to get experience, and others just seem so talented that someone took them in and apprenticed with them. Every day is a learning experience.
Is college worth possibly never having children? If this is something you want out of life, you may want to have kids first.... At the time, I certainly had no intentions of having kids -- but a lot changes in the time it takes to get your Bachelors degree. Each person will have to make up their own mind about that issue, no one can tell you what is best for you.
If you are thinking about college or maybe already finished, please learn to manage your money! If that's the only thing you focus on for the next year, I don't care, but DO IT!
One possible solution to going to college minus the debt, see the video below. (I am not an affiliate, just a fan.)
Recent college graduates are facing such high levels of debt, unmanageable levels of debt, that they're holding off on having families, buying a car, buying a home, and being active community and citizen members in our country. So unfortunately, we are no longer seeing what the goal and the purpose of higher education is supposed to be founded on... (Excerpt from YouTube "Student Debt: Denying the American Dream")
Wanting to make a difference ...
Work in your strengths ...
Do something important ...
Create a life around your passion ...
These were the things that motivated me when, at age 24, I evaluated the price of my future in terms of student loans. College was all about proving something to myself -- proving that I really could set goals and achieve them. Proving that I wasn't as low as I was made to feel every day. Finding that I could push myself and contribute something amazing and then dig down a little deeper and find that I could even do better than that.
So is the cost of college worth the decades of sacrifice and stress that seems to follow? I'm not sure. many people are self taught entrepreneurs, others lie on their resumes to get a job to get experience, and others just seem so talented that someone took them in and apprenticed with them. Every day is a learning experience.
Is college worth possibly never having children? If this is something you want out of life, you may want to have kids first.... At the time, I certainly had no intentions of having kids -- but a lot changes in the time it takes to get your Bachelors degree. Each person will have to make up their own mind about that issue, no one can tell you what is best for you.
If you are thinking about college or maybe already finished, please learn to manage your money! If that's the only thing you focus on for the next year, I don't care, but DO IT!
One possible solution to going to college minus the debt, see the video below. (I am not an affiliate, just a fan.)
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Searching for a template
So I am poking around online and finding a bunch of cool blogger templates, but none are really quite "me".
It's no wonder I can't settle on one website template...I have such a variety of interests that it makes it hard to commit my attention to one thing. Some days I'm pretty old school and want to be out with a notebook journaling or a sketchpad, puddy eraser, and pencils at the local coffee house just getting the latest sketch down on paper. Other days, I want total technical automation and scripting with video blogging, etc. Some days I want to write a book -- other days I want to splatter paint on canvas and call it art. Of course then other days, I think it would be neat to walk dogs for a living or even do daycare!
However, like most other people I know, I get up every day and go to my day job, barely fitting in a few hours of personal face time in the evening with my spouse or a close friend or two. Forget things I might like to do or think would theoretically be fun. I owe, I owe...so off to work I go, right?!
Maybe some day I will write a book and maybe I'll get to have a family, or at least visit family. Maybe there will be a time when I can learn a language or focus some attention on relearning perspective drawing and play around with abstract art. And then my husband, who 3 years ago today asked me to marry him, gets a sad look in his eyes and says something like he just wants to go dig wells for people who don't have access to water. Wow, how self-centered I can be! Perhaps someday I'll realize that all that stuff fades away and what really matters is relationships and my relationship with God. It sounds nice. But what does that really mean? Sometimes I seem so numb to the world and these ethereal concepts.
It's not that I don't believe... I do. But many days I wish for something more tangible.
I have been blessed in so many ways though. So while there's no template for life, and no checklist to follow to achieve "spiritual enlightenment", and never enough hours in the day or night to fit everything in...I know this is all temporary so remembering what's most important in life helps. Remembering that God will provide my every need as he always has so I don't need to worry. I even realize that He will equip me with the knowledge I will need down the road and if not, then He will provide some other way. No wonder I can't find a template! I don't even know where I'm headed yet. I can easily set the bar too high or sell myself short. So what am I whining about? As if the creator of the universe needs to share His plans for my approval?! Who do we really think we are?
It's no wonder I can't settle on one website template...I have such a variety of interests that it makes it hard to commit my attention to one thing. Some days I'm pretty old school and want to be out with a notebook journaling or a sketchpad, puddy eraser, and pencils at the local coffee house just getting the latest sketch down on paper. Other days, I want total technical automation and scripting with video blogging, etc. Some days I want to write a book -- other days I want to splatter paint on canvas and call it art. Of course then other days, I think it would be neat to walk dogs for a living or even do daycare!
However, like most other people I know, I get up every day and go to my day job, barely fitting in a few hours of personal face time in the evening with my spouse or a close friend or two. Forget things I might like to do or think would theoretically be fun. I owe, I owe...so off to work I go, right?!
Maybe some day I will write a book and maybe I'll get to have a family, or at least visit family. Maybe there will be a time when I can learn a language or focus some attention on relearning perspective drawing and play around with abstract art. And then my husband, who 3 years ago today asked me to marry him, gets a sad look in his eyes and says something like he just wants to go dig wells for people who don't have access to water. Wow, how self-centered I can be! Perhaps someday I'll realize that all that stuff fades away and what really matters is relationships and my relationship with God. It sounds nice. But what does that really mean? Sometimes I seem so numb to the world and these ethereal concepts.
It's not that I don't believe... I do. But many days I wish for something more tangible.
I have been blessed in so many ways though. So while there's no template for life, and no checklist to follow to achieve "spiritual enlightenment", and never enough hours in the day or night to fit everything in...I know this is all temporary so remembering what's most important in life helps. Remembering that God will provide my every need as he always has so I don't need to worry. I even realize that He will equip me with the knowledge I will need down the road and if not, then He will provide some other way. No wonder I can't find a template! I don't even know where I'm headed yet. I can easily set the bar too high or sell myself short. So what am I whining about? As if the creator of the universe needs to share His plans for my approval?! Who do we really think we are?
Thursday, February 24, 2011
More Bizzaro World!!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Focus in all the wrong places
Society today seems so focused in all the strangest places
What kind of car you drive?
What zip code you live in?
From your annual income, to fashion sense, sex appeal, tanning, mani-pedicures, waxing, etc.
Even which salon you get all this done at and which retail store you paid for your shoes.
You see this everywhere, consumerism, and with it the desire for a feeling of importance or status.
There are even important status issues with which generation of iPod you own!
It never seems to bother me more than when I head out of town and see the way that people interact, parading in front of each other not only their fashion sense but their gadgets, professional title, even their expense accounts.
Why does any of this matter?
It’s all meaningless!
Not that we can’t find joy in these, and many other things ...but how and why do we think we can extrapolate our worth from possessing them? And what is that supposed to accomplish anyway? Is it all some sort of social manipulation?
So what are we really here for anyway?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Shopping ... more like restocking
This happened a week ago but it still makes me smile!
One more pass through the grocery store as I "restocked the shelves" with a case of Top Ramen, a few tempting flavors of ice cream, and a very nice bottle of wine.... Talking myself down with things like: No wine tonight anyway, I have too many things to accomplish right now. I don't need the calories. I should be eating vegetables instead of top ramen and ice cream. Finally ending with... it's NOT in the Budget!
At the checkout counter, everything rang up very quickly as the adorable young blond cheerfully chattered about just a few more hours of work. She paused for a moment to ask if I wanted the Coke left out .... What? I hadn't grabbed a Coke!
I looked down to see that she had rung up a fist full of candy bars also which were quickly claimed by the next guy in line. I had to do a double-take... the one with the major sweet tooth was an attractive, physically fit, well dressed, clean cut looking gentleman. I had to laugh inside at the irony of my trip around the store restocking the shelves with all the stuff I really would love to indulge in and where I am in my fitness program at this time in comparison to this gentleman.
Of course it was probably for his wife or something, but thank God for those moments in "Bizzarro World"; they let me know I am still alive! I'll budget for the Moscato and have it another night, I feel a Bunko girls night is coming up soon anyway.
One more pass through the grocery store as I "restocked the shelves" with a case of Top Ramen, a few tempting flavors of ice cream, and a very nice bottle of wine.... Talking myself down with things like: No wine tonight anyway, I have too many things to accomplish right now. I don't need the calories. I should be eating vegetables instead of top ramen and ice cream. Finally ending with... it's NOT in the Budget!
At the checkout counter, everything rang up very quickly as the adorable young blond cheerfully chattered about just a few more hours of work. She paused for a moment to ask if I wanted the Coke left out .... What? I hadn't grabbed a Coke!
I looked down to see that she had rung up a fist full of candy bars also which were quickly claimed by the next guy in line. I had to do a double-take... the one with the major sweet tooth was an attractive, physically fit, well dressed, clean cut looking gentleman. I had to laugh inside at the irony of my trip around the store restocking the shelves with all the stuff I really would love to indulge in and where I am in my fitness program at this time in comparison to this gentleman.
Of course it was probably for his wife or something, but thank God for those moments in "Bizzarro World"; they let me know I am still alive! I'll budget for the Moscato and have it another night, I feel a Bunko girls night is coming up soon anyway.
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