La Bella Vita

2015. Today marks a new day, a new year, a new moment in time. But I must be getting old, because I asked myself last night as I curled up by the fire, "isn't every day a new day, a new year, a new moment?"  I find myself falling into the socially acceptable norm, by making a list of new year's resolutions. Despite my stubborn tendency to view new years as overrated, I still proceeded to make a list. But not without first reflecting on 2014.  2014 marks a lot of things, but this year it marked mostly good-byes. Some were intentional, others were not. But each good-bye was flagged with some sort of emotion that has brought me to where I am today. I realised this year, that people are often not who you think they are. And amidst that there is a loss of trust, friendship and faith. I found that somewhere in my flooded list of friends, were people I was pushing harder to maintain relationships with, and the road was a one way street. I found that effo...

29 October 2014 (Chicago) 30 October 2014 (Australia)  Seventeen. That’s the number. The number of what? The number of planes I’ve boarded in the last 12 months, including the one I am currently on. I’m always flying, I’m always moving, I’m always going somewhere.  On the way to the Dallas Fort Worth airport this morning, the traffic was stopped for about a mile, and I sat in silence with my brother as we crawled down the interstate highway. I enjoy silence, there is a beauty in nothing being said. But my brother broke the silence with a question that almost 4 hours later still has my attention.  “Is everything you own in that suitcase?”  I peered over my shoulder and looked at the blue, green, and yellow piece of luggage that has also boarded each of these 17 different planes with me.  “Yeah, I guess it is.”  Sure, I have a few pieces of life in a few different locations around...

It has defined me for the last 5 years of my life. The sheet of cool breeze that touches my face every morning, the small beads of sweat that formulate on my lower back, the squeaky chirps of the birds only heard when the sun wakes up. The rhythm that my feet initiate, travels up my legs and into my hips. The cadence my body marches to is familiar and safe. My core remains stable as I trod along sand, dirt, rock, and road. My bedroom is like a jail cell. I sit in it waiting for the sun to come up, so my body can loosen itself in the form it knows best. I lie horizontally for what feels like centuries, and when the smallest peak of light creeps through the clouds, I rise. I sit on the edge of my bed for only a moment, to look out my window to a world of unknown. Anything can happen today. I may not be here tonight. But since I have been given the gift of rising from this plane at this very moment, I will do so. I sometimes feel like a child on Christmas. I anxiously await that moment...

It was the rabbit fur earmuffs that muffled the voices of my friends as our conversation softly entered my warm protected ears. It was the knee length hounds-tooth jacket I wore that provided the most warmth while still remaining fashionable and appealing. It was the small silver dangling earrings I borrowed from Mum since it was New Year's Eve. It was the extra pair of fluffy pink socks I wore hidden inside my black boots, in case the night grew colder than expected. It was the extra few minutes I put into curling my blonde, sun-kissed hair as tonight was to be a night to remember. The clock told that it was just after 9pm. The snow was falling at a rapid pace and was showing no mercy to anyone daring to challenge its power. Six inches of cold, white snow blanketed the roads as we pushed on through the somewhat hazardous conditions. The road that in summer showed lines of yellow and white clearly for cars to see, now showed nothing but a sheet of white leaving it up to the consc...

I'm reading Genesis. And it's such a solid book. It might be in my top five as far as books of the Bible go. God is so real in the way He speaks through this book, and his character is deeply revealed.  In Genesis 6, God talks about when the humans of his creation greatly disobey him and consistently turn toward evil. Verse 6 says, "so The Lord was sorry he ever made them. It broke his heart." What? Gods heart breaks too? I mean, obviously, but this verse is so blatant about stating that Gods heart was hurting, aching. And he says it loud and clear. His heart was really broken.  Gods heart is just as fragile as mine. And it makes the aching of my human heart, from the actions of another human, seem so futile. I ache for my own sadness, but I do this to God everyday! I don't always listen when he is speaking right into my ears. I neglect his open and obvious honesty about his love for me. And while a silent tear falls from my cheek as I feel I'm not that specia...

I'm finally starting to slow down. I can't say that I have been rushing around aimlessly my entire life trying to accomplish tasks that seem unreachable. But I do have a natural tendency to want to please everyone, pushing myself aside. I'm done. I took a long walk along the beach with a friend the other day... and he said a quote that I will never forget. 1 + 1 = 1. You're probably thinking this doesn't make sense. And anyone with even the slightest mathematical knowledge could agree to this. But in regards to life, this is the answer. Whether you're flying solo, have a best friend, surrounded by a large family, or you are days away from tying the knot - you must always remain '1.' Often we find ourselves caught up in life and in the mindset that we are only 'half' or what we are meant to be without the other people in our life. We become so dependent on being needed, that we forget to need ourselves. We get lost in the mix of how ...

So every year I create a bucket list... I try to come up with absurd things that I think will never happen, and see how many I actually do. In all honesty, I have completed all but one thing on my bucket lists since I have started doing this... and it feels amazing. Here are a few of the things that I have done that have been on my bucket lists in the past: -visit a castle in England (I went to three!) -visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa -visit the Eiffel Tower (France) -learn to scuba dive -scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef (QLD, Australia) -ski in Colorado -learn to snowboard -spend a summer driving boats -visit Italy -leave the country every year -run a half marathon -learn to surf (I'm not a pro, but when the odds are in my favor... I can get up!) -visit the Great Ocean Road (Australia) -go Whale Watching -climb Half Dome (Yosemite National Park) -study abroad (Avondale College) -graduate from college -make someone vegan -run from Lighthouse Beach to Lake ...