…”Little Minds Shrink”…

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Leonardo da Vinci

What powerful words. Big brains smile in trouble! Gather strength from distress!! Grow brave by reflection!! If I had to pick one of these as my biggest challenge, it would be reflection. This blogging thing at the end of the day. Trying to reflect and learn from my day everyday is hard af for me. I try my best to find quotes that reflect my experience from that day but there are also times I just pick a random quote and run with it.

For today, this quote is encouraging to me mostly for the second part.

..”they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.”

There’s so much freedom in this statement. An approving conscience. My own principles. I’ll take it. It may take the extra work to reflect daily on a basis but if this sense of freedom is where daily reflection brings me, I’ll do it.

Which one is most challenging for you?

You Should Understand

As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.

Ernest Hemingway

As a writer, it is my job to understand humans as they are. If I place even one person under a microscope, I lose the context of their entire being. I remove them from their experiences, their feelings, their dreams, and place them in my own world. A world (your world) that they know nothing about.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s situations where making a judgement call in needed. I’m not referring to the type of judgements where life and death are at stake or business calls. I’m talking making judgements that would otherwise not affect your day to day living.

Why is it important that writers understand?

When we take time to understand those around us with an open heart/mind, we can write authentic characters. We can even guide our characters out of darkness and into the light, something we may not have access to in reality. BUUT what’s more important than getting a good story is that we can truly connect with our fellow humans on a much deeper level. What other reason to write than to make sure those around us feel less alone?

Imagination

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

There is freedom in imagination. The trouble comes trying to bring your imagination to reality as a creator. I do feel most times when we bring our imaginations to reality it takes away from the fantasy of it all. It gets lost in translation and since reality has its limits, we often have to cut out the stuff that made it what it was. Don’t get me wrong sometimes things translate into reality flawlessly and you forever change the way people see their own reality. What an honor that can be. At the end of the day, imagination is where I find freedom. My craft is doing my best to bring those snapshots to into this world the best way I can while leaving some for myself.

To Expanding and Beyond!

“The real way to find love is to know that you’re made of love, and to choose to share it with the whole world without expectations.”

Ana Moreno

It really hit me today how important it is that I search for the love I need inside myself. Inside myself as in to not search for or expect it from others or anything else outside me. What made this really hit me was a collection of daily journal questions I’ve put together for my journaling routine. I’ve been really thinking about the goals that I have set for the year ahead, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to get focused. I started last night with the questions about my goals. Today, I took time throughout the day to think about what my aligned actions would be and even checked one of them off the list today! Any other day without the journaling, I would have spent my time doing other things due to my limiting mindset. I don’t want to limit myself anymore. But this just proves I’m learning and expanding. I’m outgrowing the expectations I set for myself last year and this means I have to adjust my mindset to make room for bigger and better things!

This entire year ahead gives me feelings or fear, adventure, excitement.

What kind of practices do you when you begin to outgrow the kind of old mindsets that if you stayed in them they’d would become limiting?

Beauty

Let us live for the beauty of our own reality.

Charles Lamb

Things change when there’s clear lines of communication. Everyone is more confident when they feel understood at a deep level. In order to be understood, there has to be a few different levels of communication. First is body language. Then context (as in environment and culture). Then tone and language choice. Those followed by understanding and absorption by the listener is what it is to communicate. But is there more? Is there a level of communication that surpasses the four things I mentioned?

“It’s different now that I know you can hear me and I can hear you.” Said a man to his long distance girlfriend on his cell phone. “I’ve always been able to hear you. I just didn’t realize my phone was on mute.”

With that being said, we still live in our heads in a way that can more fantastical than we can communicate within our limits of communicating as I mentioned above. BUT then there’s art and imagination! A world where the way we choose to communicate to our audience is unlimited. Don’t forget how beautiful you can create your own reality to be.

Not Just A Writer

Today I stayed home with my little one. She’s on the BRAT diet but generally ok. We worked on letters. Played with bubbles. Snuggled and had some technology and then ended the day with that new Gudetama series on Netflix. It was cute. I enjoyed getting some rest with my youngest and I even spent some time cooking up some turkey. I had very little faith in myself but I did a nice dry rub and popped that baby in there with love and it came out so moist and delicious. Shocked myself.

What did I learn today?

I love being a mom and supporting my family. They take up most of my brain.

Victory

If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride – and never quit, you’ll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards.

Bear Bryant

I think we can be realistic enough to know that confidence, dedication, and consistency doesn’t always get us the rewards we want. But I feel like those three things bring me pride and joy and they also increase my overall well-being. A few years ago I wasn’t in the greatest place and it had been that way for what felt like forever. Now that I have the energy to do all the things I want to do, I’m excited to be alive and accept all these parts of me that I never really understood how to appreciate. I love this quote because at face value it’s seems overly optimistic then when I think about how those things positively impact my own life, I see how true the statement really is.

I think what’s left out here is that sometimes things like confidence, dedication, and consistency are not accessible to people. Health and security really do affect our ability to access those character traits in a way that’s rewarding.

So I guess I say all that to say that some people don’t have access to the rewards but if you have decent health and security to develop these skills, go for it!! The rewards are priceless.

How’s your Confidence, dedication, and consistency? Do you think those things are overrated?

Gentle Reminder

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.

Helen Keller

Here’s a gentle reminder that Valentine’s Day is coming up. What are you thinking about doing for the ones you love? Readers Digest gave a list of 45 ideas. Here’s a couple I loved

  1. Recreate your first date
  2. Take a relaxing staycation
  3. Kiss on a mountain top

That’s just three! Check out the list and tell me you favs.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. from his “I Have a Dream” speech

Thanks For Reading

You’re welcomed to read here. This isn’t the secret blog. If I did have a secret blog, I would add a password and maybe a small fee (lol) But no seriously, here is where I try my best to reflect about my life experience in a way that may help those around me feel less alone. Since I work on my novel before all other writing commitments, things get rushed and I skip corners. But don’t be fooled, I’m a terrible first drafter. And only a tad better at editing. lol Point being, excuse the typos and sometimes micro tidbits. I truly want to be here. I truly want to write and read my life away. I’m here for a million purposes but the main one being to improve my quality of life by committing to 2 hours everyday doing what I love and want to do for the rest of my life (and maybe even longer than that).

Sidenote: Feel free to let me know you read something you liked on here. Disagree? That’s cool too with some tact and mindfulness thrown on there. It’s totally acceptable in the blog world to comment, like, and share.

I just wanted to take a moment to say whether you’re consistent or pop in here or there to show support, thank you. I appreciate you.