We Can Do Better

This is awesome.  

We Tend to Seek Happiness...

...When Happiness is Actually a Choice.

What an intriguing perspective on social media and the over-saturation we have (and will likely never lose) with photographs and videos and documenting our lives (see video below).  I am quick to say I'm "anti-selfie" and feel like we are living in a world with narcissistic people who rely on others' affirmation of their beauty, status, etc. to determine their self-worth, and if I'm honest, I know I can be overly judgmental at times of those "guilty" of partaking in this.  However, this perspective makes sense to me.  We are choosing our own memories of our own lives.  Instagram is especially helping us engage in the present as an "anticipated memory" because it is filled with so many beautiful spaces (and not just faces).  I want to travel to new places because of the photos my friends post on insta.

In some ways, this theory goes along with the idea that happiness is a choice.  Some of us choose to be happy, and some of us choose to focus on the sad/negative; so maybe we do that with memories (and anticipated memories) too?  By choosing to take a photo of a beautiful night, and save or even edit it to make it even brighter and more beautiful,  I'm choosing ahead of time to have a happy recollection when I think back.  I'm already creating a happy experience or reflection in the future for myself.  Could the same be true for those who see things negatively?

I'm a total sucker for positive thinking.  This summer I've been wading through some stuff and people keep asking me how I stay so happy.  What is my secret.  They say I don't seem as sad as I should.  I'm not sure I have a great answer for that, because this summer hasn't been that easy, but I know that I try my best to stay happy or find small things in every day that are good and just keep piling those up on each other to create a day that was filled with more good and happy things than bad -- and then do it again the next day.  And maybe knowing that not every day is going to be 100% happy - that's OK too.  We are human, how could we possibly be happy and fulfilled all the time?  Contentedness can come from understanding that.

what made her strong was

despite the million things

that hurt her 

she spoke of nothing

nothing

but happiness

-j.a.

xo

B

There Is Nothing Casual About Giving Away Your Soul

I read this article (posted on facebook by a friend) and though it's kind of long and I didn't really connect with the whole thing, I really liked this part.  I wonder if everyone feels this connection, and they push it away or hide it, or if some are more prone to feeling this connection.  Either way, it's a pretty sweet sentiment even if you don't agree wholeheartedly.  

It's stems from a letter from a mother to a son about waiting to be intimate with someone.

"...your father is a very caring man who knows that the soul of a woman needs to feel a deep safeness before you ever touch the skin of a woman.

And I guess that is exactly the point that nobody really told us:

Your skin is the outer layer of your soul.

Your skin and your soul are one in ways that Hollywood and MTV and the mall won’t ever tell you.

Your skin and your soul are profoundly connected and this is a profoundly beautiful thing. There is no shame in this — only the glory of God who made your body art to reflect your soul.

So contrary to what hook-up culture may be touting in the back halls of high schools and behind the closed doors of university dorm rooms — there’s nothing casual about giving away your soul.

The union of two bodies is nothing less than the union of two souls."

Summer Resolutions

At the end of every barefoot, sun-kissed summer I can remember anxiously asking my mom, "How many days until school starts?"  It was and remains my favorite time of the year.  It has a kind of reset feeling.  New school year, new you.  I always feel more connected to the idea of resolutions or goal-setting this time of year instead of the middle of winter on NYE (where my goal becomes singular: figure out how to get my body on a beach somewhere ASAP).  I came across this, from the poet José Micard Teixeira, and connected with it because it seems so honest and straight-forward.

“I no longer have patience for certain things, not because I’ve become arrogant, but simply because I reached a point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me. I have no patience for cynicism, excessive criticism and demands of any nature. I lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me. I no longer spend a single minute on those who lie or want to manipulate. I decided not to coexist anymore with pretense, hypocrisy, dishonesty and cheap praise. I do not tolerate selective erudition nor academic arrogance. I do not adjust either to popular gossiping. I hate conflict and comparisons. I believe in a world of opposites and that’s why I avoid people with rigid and inflexible personalities. In friendship I dislike the lack of loyalty and betrayal. I do not get along with those who do not know how to give a compliment or a word of encouragement. Exaggerations bore me and I have difficulty accepting those who do not like animals. And on top of everything I have no patience for anyone who does not deserve my patience.” 

Monday Night Deep Thoughts

The hard part might be knowing what you want.

I do love the reminder that, "The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is."

PS Someone travel with me to every place in this video.  We live in such a beautiful world!