A Lifelong Exchange

At my cousin's wedding, each guest was asked to leave a message for the couple.

With the conversations described below still fresh, this was my wish for them.

Love at first sight? I'm not sure about that. Attraction begins, as a friend of mine put it, with that initial conversation. That's what captivates you and sparks your interest in the first place.

So maybe a relationship is just a really long and a really good conversation-- one that keeps you from being bored, where you listen, and where you, yourself, feel heard.

Then marrying that person is hoping that conversation will never end.

But when there are no more words, well, then maybe the only thing left to be said is "goodbye".

Father Knows Best

If you know me at all, you know that I am the quintessential daddy's girl. And after this summer, the one that will be written in the books as the summer of our Daddy/Daughter Asia Adventure, I can, with utmost certainty, say that he is one of my best friends.

Always reminding me of my priorities and what really matters in life, I ask for his advice and talk to my dad more now than ever. (His advice is always the same: Just pray.)

Tonight, I needed one of his talks. With so many options and directions that my life can go, I called my dad and filled him in on what in the world is going on. Taking all things into account.. What are the jobs? Will I be happy doing that? What does it pay? Are there health benefits? Where would I live? Would I be happy there? How expensive will that be? Where's the closest locale? Will I need a car? How will it benefit my career in the long term?

He finally said, "What do you want to do? If you know what you want to do, then do it. Don't get a job just to get a job. It's a waste of time... Things aren't easy right now, but you have a strong faith and what ever you want to do, God will help you because you have a good heart. So just come home and we'll talk about it and figure it out."

Thanks, Dad.. For really getting who I am and for making me go home.

Just ridin' elephants with my dad in Thailand in August 2012.

How Does It Know?

I can't make this stuff up...

Part of my horoscope from today:

Gypset (gypsy + jet set) living calling your name, Scorpio? Today’s quarter moon in your travel sector activates your wanderlust. 

One of My Favorite Teachers

3) What We Crave  ...Deep down—more than any specific satisfaction or vice—we all crave possibility. In that sense, NYC might be the world’s greatest brand: It makes you feel (goofy as it sounds) like anything can happen.

Reasons why I love that crazy city so much? Here are 49 more from Forbes:
50 Important Lessons NY Taught Me

I love New York.

Loving & Leaving

 Just one more full day before I head out, and my dear cousin, Jane shared this with me:

“You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, I told him, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again.”

― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

Definitely on my gotta-read-next list.

Lost Pups

My peers and I are in a peculiar place in life. We're not fresh out of college 21 and 22 year olds. We're not 45, married with kids either. (Well, most of us.)

To all of those undergrad kids, we're ancient. Dinosaurs. We've lived passed our prime. Gone are the days of raging all day, errrdaaaay, and generally doing complete bonehead things, feeling so terrible the next day we swear we'll never do it again.. at least not until the next time. Nope, we're not in college anymore.

To the rest of society, though, we're still just wittle babies with all the possibilities and world in front of us, with plenty of time to make mistakes and do other idiotic and bonehead things of a different sort.

This stage that we're in is certainly a generational problem, belonging first to us, the millenials; a luxury really, this journey to self discovery.

We spend a lot of time on introspection, reflection, self-evaluation, a whole lot of "-tions". Older generations look at us like lost, little, spoiled puppies, wandering the streets, sniffing around, peeing on a hydrant then moving on in search of some other territory to claim.

We often call it soul searching, though I am becoming less and less fond of the term. It feels finite, like we have a time limit to figure it all out. Life is a long time. Taking time to travel, taking time for myself; making decisions and changing my mind; planning then altering my plans... The world thinks of us as fleeting, flighty,  flakey, even, when really, these are just freedoms enabled by those before us. I like to think I'm taking full advantage of these liberations.

Soul searching. It makes us sound helpless. But as the saying goes, "all those who wander are not lost." So, I'm gonna throw another "-tion" out there: self actualization. (Thanks Maslow, and psych degree!)

"Life isn't about finding yourself. 

Life is about creating yourself." 

-George Bernard Shaw

You can spend your whole life searching, searching, searching, but search no more. The experiences we have are all a part of becoming-- Becoming whatever and whoever we want. And that happens at any and all points in time.

Starting with riiiiighhht...

NOW.

Saturday Dance Party!

My wild Saturday dance party and the cutie little brat that stops me from getting much work done.