Happy Birthday To Me

Today, I am 38 years old and I've never felt better.  38 is going to be a great year for me, I can just feel it.  As I get older, birthdays become less and less about celebrations which involve gifts and cake and parties.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy celebrating, but nowadays, I view my birthday as an opportunity to appreciate the former year, anticipate the year to come and remember my goals and dreams for my life.  

This last Christmas, I bought the girls a poster for their room.  They didn't really care much about it at the time, which I knew would be the case, but when I saw this poster in the store, I knew I had to get it for them.  The poster is written in ABC order and encourages being daring.  I am inspired by the words on this poster and hope that one day, the girls will be as well.

Dare to:

Ask for what you want

Believe in your dreams

Count your blessings

Do the right thing

Enjoy the moment

Fail, and dare to succeed

Give more than you receive

Have no regrets

Inspire kindness

Join in more

Kiss and make up

Love all you can

Make a difference

Never settle for less

Overcome adversity

Practice moderation

Question authority

Reinvent yourself

Shoot for the moon

Take personal responsibility

Understand more, judge less

Veto hate and negativity

Walk your talk

eXercise body and mind

Yodel more, yawn less

be Zany

It's a great day for a birthday.  A great day to remember all the things that inspire me to be a better person.  A great day to DARE.  

An Empty TP Roll

My desk is a place where I spend many hours a day.  On it you'll find many things.  My laptop, stacks of papers, a calculator, printer and ink, post-it notes, an empty toilet paper roll, tape, notebooks, etc.

Yes, I said an empty toilet paper roll.

More than likely during a moment when she was incredibly bored, Skyler decorated an empty toilet paper roll with words she felt best described me - character traits.  I'm hopeful that the toilet paper roll was simply a blank canvas and not one of the things that represented me.  I'm a very neat, organized person and yet this toilet paper roll has graced my desktop for over a month.

The character traits listed are:

1.  Kind

2.  Hard worker

3.  Playful

4.  Stylin'

5.  So smart

6.  Generous

7.  Kind (yep...kind is on there twice.  Score!)

NOW do you see why I can't bring myself to throw this toilet paper roll away?  I look at that roll and realize:  these are the traits that my daughter sees in me.  

Sure makes a mama feel good about herself.

Today I Am Thankful

For my family.

For my health.

For my job.

For my business.

For my friends.

For my home.

For food.

For water.

For money.

For my freedom.

For opportunities.

For happiness.

For confidence.

For strength.

For my blog.

For laughter.

For my car.

For nature.

For patience.

For my sense of humor.

For my safety.

For motivation.

For a closet full of clothes.

For the quiet.

For the noise.

For a busy life.

For rest.

For comfort.

For time.

For my life.

I took 5 minutes today to sit in silence. To be grateful.  To fully experience gratitude.  I looked around me.  I looked within me.  I realized that there are so many things that I am grateful for, some of which I take for granted.  For example, I tend to complain about the noise around my busy household.  It is a fact that I do enjoy the quiet, but if you forever removed the noise of 2 little girls, a husband and a dog, my life would be miserable.  My 5 minutes of gratitude went quickly.  Undoubtedly, I could have come up with many more things that I feel thankful for.  Conversely, had I allowed myself 5 minutes to list the things in my life that I am NOT grateful for, (what a negative way to live) the list would actually be quite short.  There are those few things that I would probably remove from my life if I had a magic wand.  Then I realized, perhaps I should be feeling grateful for those things, as well?  Those things are a part of my life.  My life.  Which I am grateful for.  And suddenly, I found myself with a great big dose of

PERSPECTIVE.

What Makes You Happy?

Like, really happy.

Like, this happy.

I mean seriously.  Not even an itchy nose/pesky booger gets in the way of his joy.  Pure joy!  We've all seen it. A child's ability to feel (and display) pure happiness.  They have no fear, no guilt, no worry about displaying just how happy something makes them.  You can't help but smile and feel your heart swell up when you see it.

I find a child's display of happiness inspiring.  So inspiring in fact, I am choosing to make a commitment.

Beginning right this moment, I Jeni, vow to be better about showing my joy.  I shall smile and laugh and even jump about waving my arms in the air if my happiness calls for it.  I will shout the lyrics of my happiness with pride to any and all who care to be present.  I will do this until I am completely out of breath. Booger or no booger.

I shall *NOT record this and post it on YouTube.

Be Inspired

Live your dreams.

Be the change.

Make a difference.

Be inspired.

In the process, you will inspire others.

It's What I Do

Your Calling

Every once in a while, I find that there is a word or phrase that I don't care for and it is at that moment that I decide to remove this word or phrase from my vocabulary.

Recently, there is a phrase that I have heard on several occasions that I have tossed into the vocabulary garbage can and I'd like to encourage you to do so as well.

"YOU MISSED YOUR CALLING."

Think about it.  It's a pretty depressing statement.  

How wonderful it is to have a calling, or even multiple callings.  But to tell someone they've missed it, is simply wrong.  What a negative view on life to imply that you've missed it. It's gone.  It's not capable of happening.

From this day forward I vow that the message that I will send is this:  

You've found a calling!  That's fantastic! 

Tell me what's next, now that you've realized your calling!

I'm also choosing to embrace the fact that we can have more than one calling. We are complex creatures with many talents and passions.  Develop those talents and passions and you've got yourself lots of opportunity, and thus, a calling.  Over the course of a lifetime, our callings might change, or evolve. Embrace your calling or callings.  Be grateful that you have realized them and make plans to do something with them.  Life is short.  Live it passionately.

And speaking of callings, here's a great article about them:

EMBRACING YOUR CALLING