Take Back Your Life!

Hey feisty folks,

I’ll get right to the point.

NOTHING IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Yes, that’s right. We come into this world genuine and adventurous and loving. Those qualities get hidden under cloaks of “must do isms.” At first others put these cloaks on us, then we willingly put them on ourselves long after the cloak-putter-onners no longer have the power to do so. Sometimes the cloaks get so heavy people collapse under the burden of trying to wear them, suffocated by the weight. You’ve seen these folks or, perhaps, even been one yourself, crawling through life, feeling unbelievably heavy. (more…)

Hey rebellious ones!

It’s perseverance.

When I set my sights on something, I take a personal vow not to give up. 99% of the time, whatever I want to happen does indeed happen. But only because I didn’t give up. I didn’t give in to that human tendency to “run back to mommy” at the slightest bump in the road.

It wasn’t always that way. I used to throw up my hands in fake disgust and give up really easily. I gave up jobs and boyfriends and hobbies. I gave up living my best life. Looking back I can see that either I didn’t really want those things or I didn’t really want to fight for those things because I could have had them with a bit more determination and grit. True grit, that is. (more…)

Hey Rebellious Ones,

I want to introduce you to some courageous girl rebels at Girl Effect. It’s “normal” in developing countries to marry or sell young girls by the tender age of 12, who often die during childbirth. Unfortunately, girls are often seen as a financial liability to their families. (The underlying cultural problem.) We can get all mad about it and stomp our designer shoes over here, but it would be more effective to step up on our bare tippy toes to start the wave of change here we want to see over there.  (more…)

Hey friends,

I wasn’t popular in high school. Just kinda did my own neurotic thing. Yet I remained keenly aware of the popular kids. Usually, they were cheerleaders or athletes, rarely theater folks or geeks or the dead languages-speaking crowd. They all looked good and inter-dated. Once one of the good looking athletes broke up with his cheerleader girlfriend to go out with a brainy girl. Man, did he and his new girl take a lot of abuse for dating outside the flock!

That’s one of the main problems with being popular —  to keep the label you have to conform to what the group wants you to do. So much so that I believe it may have driven some popular kids off the deep end a bit later in life. (more…)

Hey cerebral readers,

The other night, I happened to watch a movie called, “My Life In Ruins.” Georgia, a college professor with man troubles, comes to Greece to be a tour guide when she loses her teaching job back in the states. Her tourists find her Greek history talks to be dull and boring, so they consistently give her bad evaluations. She doesn’t learn from her bad evaluations and continues to be out of touch with her tourists and herself.  She complains that all the Greeks do is dance! If their lives are going well — they dance. If their lives are going badly — they dance.

Then she gets assigned a bedraggled bus driver named Poupi who doesn’t speak English. (more…)

Hey daring readers!

It’s interesting how we come into this world adventurous. Yet, over time become fearful due to societal conditioning. What’s the point of taking pretty fearless humans and fearasizing them? How does that make the world a better place?

I spent most of my childhood exploring the world within walking/biking distance. I waded in streams, climbed mountains, danced whenever I pleased, performed back flips of the diving board, galloped my horse through the woods, wrote creative stories, paddled down rivers, laughed constantly. My life was a daring adventure. I wanted to learn about everything. I wanted to experience everything. I wanted to wake up every morning and do something new. (more…)

Hey folks who want to live while you are alive,

I love the greeting cards that marry quotes and pictures. The latest one I bought showcases a woman wearing white heels sailing off the curb into a muddy, watery mess. You know her shoes will not survive this gooey “crossing” and she’ll be calf-deep in mud. Yet from the bounce in her step, I can tell she’s going to enjoy ruining those shoes. The following quote accompanied the picture, “Ever notice that ‘what the hell’ is always the right decision?” ~ Unknown Hollywood script writer.

From my own experiences, I’d have to agree with the script writer, sometimes you need to throw caution to the wind and just do it, whatever the it challenging you is. (more…)

Dear great idea folks,

I’m bombarded with great ideas. They flow freely through by brain and also freely out of my brain if I don’t write them down. So, I carry an “Aha” notebook around with me. Even wrote “Aha Notebook” on the front. I write essay ideas, column ideas, life shop ideas, recipe ideas, logo ideas, blog post ideas and anything else I want to remember, but know I’ll forget.

If you think about it, all the products you use and the songs you hear and the movies you see and the books you read, they all stared with someone’s “Aha” moment. The difference? That person acted on their “Aha” moment. (more…)

Hey courageous ones,

Recently, I saw one of my favorite up and coming singer/songwriters, Kim Jennings. The city of Worcester, Massachusetts, voted her its best female vocalist for 2010. If you ever get a chance to hear her perform in person, you’ll know why. She’s dazzling, daring and dynamic. Because I look for everyone’s life theme, I couldn’t help but notice that two of her songs both contained the same line: nowhere left to hide. She’s definitely come out of her hiding place. Have you? (more…)

Hey fun-loving folks,

If you’ve got 5 minutes, please check out The Rebel You Haven’t Met my guest post at ex-patharem.com. It’s fun and so are the links in blue. Would love some rebellious comments!

Savor your long, luscious weekend!

Giulietta, always musing