creativity

Beautiful: My Summer Mantra

Is there any better way to live?

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choices, friendship, happiness

Beautiful: Bliss Opens Doors

“When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.” ~ Joseph Campbell via my friend, Marita

My beautiful friend, Marita, sent me this quote to help me along my summer of discovery. We worry so much that we won’t be able to create the lives we want or find the opportunities we seek. There’s so much competition. How will we ever be able to stack up against so many others who have the same dream?

The truth is that the road to those opportunities is already available. It’s waiting for us to hop on the path, the path that is made just for us and aligns with our deepest desires. The secret to finding the road is to tap in, to get really clear on what brings us joy, and then choose it. Thank you, Marita, for this needed and appreciated reminder.

strengths

Beautiful: We’re Stronger Than We Think

1045126_407363719372305_2041088299_nThe only way to know what we’re really made of is to get out there and live, live, live!

vision, yoga

Beautiful: What We See Matters

22e6aca1d3ddaef6ed74dfe4e53edcb1“We believe what we see most often.” ~ Bryan Kest, yoga teacher

My friend, Dheepa, took me to a yoga class here in Santa Monica taught by Bryan Kest, the founder of Power Yoga. During our meditation he discussed the shape of our belief system and the factors that influence it. We believe what we see. And it’s also true that what we believe is what we see.

If we choose to see beauty, love, compassion, kindness, and hope, even in situations that seem dire, then we are more likely to see those things. The lives we have are the lives we will into being. So why not focus on goodness? After all, we only find what we seek.

California, loss, love

Beautiful: What To Do When We Lose Something We Love

Today I stopped thinking of loss as something that has been taken away from me and instead see it as something (or someone) that wasn’t meant for me. Same coin, two sides. This side is better.

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California, health, medical, medicine

Beautiful: Los Angeles Families Lend Their Hearts and Homes to Wounded Veterans Through Operation Mend

320639_509536619078099_296224254_nI heard about Operation Mend on the local LA news and it brought tears to my eyes. Through Operation Mend, local Los Angeles families open their homes to “provide returning military personnel with severe facial and other medical injuries access to the nation’s top plastic and reconstructive surgeons, as well as comprehensive medical and mental-health support for the wounded and their families.”

Receiving top-notch medical care is critical to the healing process for these soldiers, but it’s not the only care they need. They need the love, concern, and embrace (literal and figurative) of a family while they’re undergoing treatment at UCLA. Volunteer families open the doors of their homes to offer emotional support, a warm meal, a comfortable bed, and relaxation time during a stress period of the soldiers’ lives.

In its 6th year, Operation Mend has helped 88 soldiers and their families rebuild their lives. While to our eyes the most dramatic transformation of these soldiers may be physical, to the families who come to know and love them, its their spirits that are rebuilt stronger by these incomprehensible circumstances. These families testify that the soldiers help them feel a tremendous sense of gratitude and purpose. In my short-term adopted city it puts a smile on my face to know that on these long and winding streets that I don’t yet know, there are hearts as big as any I’ve ever met anywhere.

California, choices, future

Beautiful: I’m on the Road Ahead

We spend so much time looking in the rearview mirror and pining for what was, that we forget to take a good look at what’s staring us in the eyes right through the front windshield. The road of life is so unpredictable. It’s full of wonder, magic, and experiences that we cannot yet imagine.

So here’s the first decision of my creative break: I’m done looking back. From here on out, I’m living my life forward. Thank you to my beautiful friend, Sara Alvarez Kleinsmith, for posting this picture and always inspiring me to live fully.

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California, inspiration

Beautiful: The Venice Canals and the Signs They Had for Me

If we watch and listen closely, the signs we so desperately seek are everywhere. This was my favorite today. I took it in Venice along the canals. To see my full album, click here.

Believe in something bigger

adventure, beauty, California, creativity, dreams

Beautiful: Day 1 of My Creative Break in Santa Monica

This photo perfectly captures the serenity I’m feeling in Santa Monica. It’s my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean on Day 1 of my creative break. Pretty remarkable. I can barely process that I’ve come this far in my life, a place I never thought I’d be.

For my album of photos from Day 1, please like and visit this blog’s Facebook Page by clicking here.

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California, music

Beautiful: California, Joni Mitchell-Style

Since I started imagining a summer by the sea, Joni Mitchell‘s  song, California, has been running through my mind. “California, will you take me as I am?” I sure hope so…

This is a BBC video of Joni singing her hit song, California, live in 1970. The lyrics are just below the video window.

California
Sitting in a park in Paris France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won’t give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of lands to see
But I wouldn’t want to stay here
It’s too old and cold and settled in its ways here
Oh but California

California I’m coming home
I’m going to see the folks I dig
I’ll even kiss a Sunset pig
California I’m coming home

I met a redneck on a Grecian isle
Who did the goat dance very well
He gave me back my smile
But he kept my camera to sell
Oh the rogue the red red rogue
He cooked good omelettes and stews
And I might have stayed on with him there
But my heart cried out for you California

Oh California I’m coming home
Oh make me feel good rock ‘n’ roll band
I’m your biggest fan
California I’m coming home

Oh it gets so lonely
When you’re walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues
Just gives you the blues
So I bought me a ticket
I caught a plane to Spain
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there
Reading Rolling Stone reading Vogue
They said “How long can you hang around?”
I said a week maybe two
Just until my skin turns brown
Then I’m going home to California

California I’m coming home
Oh will you take me as I am
Strung out on another man
California I’m coming home

Oh it gets so lonely
When you’re walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
More about the war
And the bloody changes
Oh will you take me as I am?
Will you take me as I am?
Will you?