beauty & scales.

“You are beautiful. Your beauty, just like your capacity for life, happiness, and success, is immeasurable. Day after day, countless people across the globe get on a scale in search of validation of beauty and social acceptance.Get off the scale! I have yet to see a scale that can tell you how enchanting your eyes are. I have yet to see a scale that can show you how wonderful your hair looks when the sun shines its glorious rays on it. I have yet to see a scale that can thank you for your compassion, sense of humor, and contagious smile.

Get off the scale because I have yet to see one that can admire you for your perseverance when challenged in life.It’s true, the scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. That’s it. It cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life force, possibility, strength, or love. Don’t give the scale more power than it has earned. Take note of the number, then get off the scale and live your life. You are beautiful!” - Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

my friend, maura, has this wonderful non-profit called made in his image. she posted this quote recently and it resonated with me. xx. 

hold me tight.

“love is everything it’s cracked up to be…,” Erica Jong has written. “It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, your risk is even greater.” 

i couldn’t agree more.

sue johnson’s book, hold me tight, speaks volumes to relationships and love.

let me remind you, you are free.

(isn’t she precious? i like her freedom.)

it’s my hope that you put on your equivalent to her pink rain boots and dance through this day with lightness of soul. couple your lightness with boldness and ambition. 

let me remind you, you are free.

“when you are interiorly free you call others to freedom, whether you know it or not.  freedom attracts wherever it appears.  a free man or a free woman creates a space where others feel safe and want to dwell.  our world is so full of conditions, demands, requirements, and obligations that we often wonder what is expected of us.  but when we meet a truly free person, there are no expectations, only an invitation to reach into ourselves and discover there our own freedom.” -nouwen

“The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take joy.” ~Fra Giovanni Giocondo

spirit and soul.

friends,

first things first, a sincere apology for my recent absence. a culmination of changes surprised me in the already-busy season of the holidays, and to be perfectly honest, i have been stretched to my limits. with that stretching, i’ve had very little time to devote here. the typical me would carefully describe the intricacies of “why?” and weave an acceptable case for myself in your eyes, but i’m going to stop here. as hard as it is for my over-achieving self to do so, i’m giving myself grace in this busy time and hoping you’ll do the same. i’ve been learning volumes about the value of balance, rest, and pure motives. (another blog post to come about this :)).

there are big things brewing for inspiratherapy and i’m thrilled to have them rolling out to your pretty eyes and hearts in the next few months. 2012 is going to be the best year. in the meantime, happy christmas. may it be exceptional. 

“this is my prayer for us, that we would give and receive the most important gifts this season- the palpable presence of a Holy God, the kindness of well-chosen words, the generosity of spirit and soul. my prayer is that what you’ve lost, and what i’ve lost this year, will fade a little bit in the beauty of this season, that for a few moments at least, what is right and good and worth believing will outshine all the darkness, within us and around us.”

.full breaths. clear minds. high hopes. generous love.

good friendships are like breakfast.

it’s essential. it doesn’t happen without work, effort, and sacrifice. but my goodness, dear ones, it’s worth it. it’s worth it to sow seeds of friendship intentionally and often. as those seeds sprout and grow, you’ll realize the beauty in the harvest. every-day life was meant to be experienced together.

“so walk across the street, or drive across town, or fly across the country, but don’t let really intimate loving friendships become the last item on a long to-do list.

good friendships are like breakfast.

you think you are too busy to eat breakfast, but then you find yourself exhausted and cranky halfway through the day, and discover that your attempt to save time totally backfired.

in the same way, you can try to go it alone because you don’t have time or because your house is too messy to have people over, or because making new friends is like the very worst parts of dating. but halfway through a hard day or hard week, you’ll realize in a flash that you’re breathtakingly lonely, and that Christmas cards aren’t much company.

get up, make a phone call, buy a cheap ticket, open your front door. because there is really nothing like good friends, like the sounds of their laughter and the tones of their voices and the things they teach us in the quietist, smallest moments.”