I was reflecting on a conversation I had with one of my dearest friends the other day. As we know, there are always at least two sides to every story. One shared experience may look the same from the outside, but how we experience it on the inside is something completely different. Sometimes that can be confusing. At moments like that, when two people have a right to their own version of the same story, how can we get closer to making sense of what happened without one person being right, and one person being wrong? If two people cannot agree, what can we do from there to move on?

In steps reflecting on the following: What would a reasonable person say? Of course there is a level of subjectivity to this question - so how do we get there? Perhaps think of the most fair-minded person you know. That one friend or family member who always seems to stay clear and grounded, who does not overthink or act in dramatic ways, and who is compassionate, kind, and reasonable. If you told them the exact story as it happened, what would they say? If you asked 100 reasonable people, what would they say?

We should all have someone in our life who we can call on and who we consider to be reasonable and fair. Not just someone who is on our side, regardless, but someone who can stay objective and speak their truth. Perhaps it is someone who does not have a horse in the race, or someone who knows right from wrong, understands the importance of emotional well-being, and someone you look up to based on their values and the quality of their relationships. Someone who does not make excuses and who holds themselves accountable. Someone who does not manipulate or bend the truth to get what they want. I believe we all have several people in our lives who fit that bill.

Now try to think of something in your life that did not go well. Now imagine telling that story and asking… What would my most reasonable person say? Let that be your North Star. Let that be your middle ground. Let that be the ultimate truth you need to forgive and let go.

Of course someone may double down on their story and their truth, but that doesn’t make it true and it definitely doesn’t make it right or fair. They are allowed to though, and we can’t always enlighten them if there is no openness - that is their work, not ours, yours, or mine; nor can we control the negativity that gets spread about us, as much as it sucks to feel misunderstood - that is our work, to shut down the noise and to know our value.

There is never just a right or wrong, and everyone is entitled to their stories. At the same time, knowing what is reasonable can set us free to move on and to have the peaceful and calm life we deserve most. We can choose to send out our love from a place of clarity and strength if we want.

When we know what is reasonable we will know our truth, we can validate ourselves, and we can let that sh*t go! 🤸🫶🏻🤸

Recently and lately, I am trusting in God more. Yes I’m doing my work; yes, I’m preparing as I need to… and at the same time … I’m trusting that everything is going to work out the way it is supposed to for my good & for my growth. If it is for me, it will work out for me. If it is not for me, then it won’t work out for me. I’m finding a lot of comfort in this mindset. I’m willing to work hard, and if it’s not working out I trust that it is not supposed to. Talk about creating more ease in my life!

Last night I had the honor of getting to celebrate a very dear friend who turned 60. She invited all of her closest lady friends in Jax into her home for delicious food, a dance party, lovely vibes, and opportunities to connect in with good people every which way we turned. The vibes are always very good with this friend. She is incredibly present, thoughtful, brilliant, loving, supportive, and in the words of her sweet daughter who flew in from Boston: “My mom is the opposite of nonchalant; she is chalant”. She is engaged in life in the best possible ways and is always coming from love and from a desire to make life better. We are blessed!

She’s also a fan of my blog and will often send me a screenshot of her favorite part of my post, which I always appreciate. (Her daughter shared that she receives similar texts. 🫶🏻) She wanted her daughter to know more about my blog and I shared things like… I believe mindset is everything. We cannot control what comes at us, but we can control our response and what we choose to focus on. One of my favorite core beliefs: mostly good things happen, the bad things that happen can be very shitty, and worse things have happened (perspective). Just like with anything in life, like staying physically fit, a healthy mindset is not a one and done - it takes consistent practice. I also believe that everyone has anxiety. It is very normal and it is very human. Life is not only easy for anyone; it’s how we handle ourselves from there that is in our control.

I come here everyday to get stronger and to practice the things I know are true and that will make any and every hard experience a lot easier. I come here to practice so I can avoid getting stuck in the muck for longer than necessary. I come here daily because the consistency is proof to myself that I can fulfill my commitments. I share here because if this helps even one person then my effort and vulnerability is worth it.

Thanks for being here friends! Wishing y’all a beautiful day. We got this! 🙏🏻🫶🏻🙏🏻

Yesterday we got on our bikes and we did a long ride - it was wonderful and familiar, so very pretty, and also quite challenging. We had a great time and ended our adventure sweaty, tired, and happy.

We also stopped for a cold beer and watched our waitress rescue a crab from the crows, with one less eye from the battle. Our waitress at the Funky Pelican is our shero! Practicing being a good human also makes us stronger and better.

Yesterday also reminded me that the more we do something hard, the easier it gets, & the easier it gets, the more fun it gets too! The saying may go practice makes perfect… I’m not sure if perfect is tangible, or if perfect is something we already are? Practice does however make us stronger in all ways.

Keep doing what you love, friends, even and especially when it’s hard! Know what you want to get better at and take the steps to get there, or in our case… the pedals. 🙏🏻 💥 🙏🏻

There’s something so raw and wonderful about watching a rocket launch over the beach. This mission will take 3 months and will go 1 million miles. Unfathomable & yet attainable! With our naked eye we saw the rocket for a while, and then we watched the fuel jets as they landed back on earth from G’s phone when we could not see them in the sky any more.

We were also invited on a boat Saturday, and to a pool party Sunday. Lots of time by water! This meant I was off my phone more than usual. Not only did I get to enjoy all the beauty Florida has to offer and with good people to boot, I also received a quality unplug. It’s as if I even forgot I had a phone. A luxury on top of a luxury!

As summer comes to a close in terms of the calendar and activity options for most, I am grateful to live in a place like Florida that feels like an endless summer. Every place has a special magic sprinkled in, in ordinary daily life, and the more we appreciate, the more we have to appreciate! Enjoy where you are and don’t take any of it for granted! Live like it could all go away! That, my friends, is the secret sauce to a good life. 💛☀️💛

Late summer and early fall is often a time for transitions, especially for people with kids. Whether it's a schedule shift or a shift in household living - life is full of transitions, especially right around now.

If you're feeling all the feels, remember to try things like:

• Spend time in or by water 🛥️

• Drinks some extra water 💦

• Stay playful with life 🤸

• Plan things to look forward to, small things and big things 🥂 ✈️

• Reach out to friends and family ☎️

• Be gentle with yourself 🫂

• Pick up a good book 📕

• Listen to some music that moves you 💃

• Cook a big pot of food and feed some loved ones 🍲

• Lean into the people who are still nearby 👩🏼‍🤝‍👨🏻

What you are feeling is normal, and you are not alone. This too shall pass, and you got this! 🤸🫶🏻🤸

The sunrise show is never the same twice, and it always is the best medicine imaginable for an amazing life!

This morning, I was especially looking forward to doing some new moves on the beach, in addition to my usual ones. A dear friend of mine in Greece sent me the Instagram for a guy who posts what he calls something like “the moves my Chinese grandma does”: https://www.instagram.com/loumystretchandgrowth - ever since I was exposed I’ve been hooked on-the-daily.

I watched my first video while my daughters were visiting from NYC, and as they live in LES they share a park with Chinatown and watch the grandmas do moves like this for hours, daily. We practiced when we were together and collectively delighted in the good vibes.

This is not exercise for the body, this is movement for the nervous system. It is calming and energizing at-the-same-time. I have been craving these moves daily. ⬆️ This is a demonstration of the main moves I do, with an abbreviated count. How long you do it for, &/or what you do exactly, is totally up to you. There are other moves beyond these. Checkout Lou’s IG! Let your body tell you what it wants with the intention of peace, calm, grounding, and good health.

I am so grateful for this one precious life, and for mornings that look and feel exactly like this. Delicious!

May today lift you up, draw you in, and feel like a mother’s warm embrace. We got this! 🫶🏻🌞🫶🏻

The getting-drenched-in-the-rain part wasn’t so bad. It’s summertime. The water was a lovely temperature. It was a nice & refreshing experience. It was everything that happened after that which made me feel a lot less comfortable. I wrapped myself in a dry fluffy robe, put my wet hair up in a messy bun, and waited patiently for the water to get warm enough for me to recalibrate in the shower and start my day over.

A few hours later, I went for a lovely stroll around the block. Not just once, but twice. The rains washed away the humidity, the air was gentle and cooling, and there were delicious puddles everywhere.

To me puddles are art: watercolor paintings floating on the sidewalk. I felt like I was walking through a museum, each framed puddle fascinating and different. Puddles are yet another one of Mother Nature’s gifts to us.

Rain is a great relief, and rain not only gives us art, rain also gives us roses and wine! 🌹🥂🌹

Mother nature continues to amaze me constantly and daily! I am so grateful to have eyes that work. To have a body that can get me outside. To have the curiosity and the engagement to look around and take it in. This world is mesmerizing!

I also saved $40 at Publix yesterday, buying things I need and will enjoy. Things like: yogurt, grain-free granola (fancy!), raw almonds, pretzel chips (crunchy!), hummus. All the staples to get me through, & good deals! A good deal is not only a savings - it also means abundance. More to share with others!

Speaking of which: On generosity. I have been blown away by the amount of people who are willing to have a quality conversation with me about their careers and opportunities they may know of, &/or people they can connect me with. These are people I met through people, met through people I met. Amazing! Layers and layers of new friends and acquaintances. 3-5 degrees of separation. I seem to have hit the networking jackpot, especially thanks to one person in particular who is very gifted, kind, and generous, coupled with my willingness to follow through.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a lovely man who challenged me to ask myself questions like: If I did not have to make money, what would I do? How would I spend my time? What am I passionate about? What skills do I still need to get there? Great questions!

I spoke with another woman who was so incredibly delightful, and she invited me to meet up in NYC for lunch when I’m up there next. I know if we were neighbors we would be dear friends. Love her spirit, humor, and energy!

This entire career-rediscovery-process has me feeling very grateful and brave, and also very vulnerable. Do I stay the course, or do I pivot? What is my course anyway… What am I good at? What do I care about?

I care about this blog. Can I monetize it? I love cooking big pots of lentils and rice and sharing it. Should I be in the food business? Perhaps I can be a brownie baker or a salad-dressing maker? I love moving my body in ways that feel healing. Should I get yoga certified and become a teacher? Or maybe a Nia dance instructor! Do I need a traditional certification, or do I have enough knowledge inside of me to create my own unique brand of moving and being? And then there is biking! Should I work for a bike tour operator and lead trips?...

10 more years of abundant earning in a sales-related role (& staying on the trajectory of what I've been doing professionally) is a really good idea (says my brain), OR creating a passion-driven life I would never need to retire from (& starting a cottage-industry-type-business) would be more fulfilling (says my heart) ... the spin is real! (If anyone who reads my blog has some insights for me … please reach out! I welcome in more support. 🫂 )

I also chose to honor Dolly Parton yesterday by listening to her music throughout the day on repeat, and Chewy and I enjoyed a bike ride, peddling and taking in the urban backdrop as she sang about the Tennessee mountains and islands in the stream.

No matter what, every day is an opportunity to have a long romantic date with life. Every day is an opportunity to keep it juicy and fresh. Even if it feels like life has become too mundane, it’s so easy to change it up: Have a picnic dinner. Walk in a different direction than usual. Call a friend you’ve been missing. Play some music and let the memories come flooding back to you.

+ Remember to stay grateful for it all.

I woke up with a song in my head & I just played it a couple of times and read the lyrics once simultaneously. ⬆️ I believe that when a song comes to me, it’s for a reason. I treat it like a message from my subconscious. I pay attention to all clues that get me closer to my higher being! I geek out hard on things like this. This song serves as a beautiful reminder that even if we feel needy or broken, we are not alone; we will heal and get through. If this resonates in present time, know that you are not broken or alone. You will heal and you will get through. 🙏🏻🫶🏻🙏🏻

Losing an American icon is a connective experience - a way to come together as a country and as a people through our collective appreciation, love, and mourning. My Instagram is plastered right now with memories of her essence, and I have collected some of my favorites for this post. I can hear Jolene playing on repeat in my mind and in the cars that drive-by. Dolly Parton was one of a kind. She was not just a musician and an artist - she was an instrument for greater love and peace.

Her nephew says it well: she entered our lives and was everywhere, whether we liked it or not.

I remember hearing an interview with Dolly on a podcast several years ago and being blown away by her hard work and diligence. She was consistent. She never stopped grinding, and her legacy is a reflection of her dedication to her missions.

She is one of the most beloved American icons I can think of. I never heard anything negative about Dolly. Ever. How many famous people can we say that about?

She shared her gifts and her abundance with generosity and consistency across several generations.

May we all take a moment and be inspired by the essence of who Dolly was as a person and take on even a small fraction of her devotion to a cause we believe in to make this world better.

Dolly, you will be so deeply missed by this world you made so much brighter. Thank you for making us, and this country and world, better. May your memory always be a blessing; you will forever be remembered, cherished, missed, and loved. 🙏🏻🫶🏻🙏🏻

I am the one most likely to initiate plans, they are the least likely ones, and there’s nothing wrong. It’s pretty simple: We are all honoring our natures, with some nurture sprinkled in.

For me, growing up as an only child and having an unstable childhood (lots of moves and starting over!) taught me from a young age how to be very proactive around curating the social life I wanted and needed. They grew up in one place and had siblings - consistent and stable. What we learn early-on can become our lifelong hard-wiring and our default-setting.

They are not the kind of people who like to initiate plans in their greater lives, nor could they ever be in sales like me - both things they told me 😆. They also told me they overthink and assume the person they invite could say no, or they may be a bother, so they don’t try. The fear of possible rejection or being annoying or too much is not worth it to them, &/or they are fine not having plans and doing life solo.

As for me … I follow my heart and I follow my gut and I reach out when I feel inspired. I have been in sales forever and picking up the phone and initiating any conversation is easy. If I get rejected, I know it’s most likely not personal and it doesn’t have an impact on me. I mean, if I reach out several times to a friend and they’re always saying no and they never initiate… at some point I will stop reaching out and I will consider their behavior as information around their priorities. I have a limit.

I also like being the one in charge of plans and my schedule. It never seems odd to me that I’m the one initiating with these friends, and I never even totally noticed until we had a conversation about it last night. They’re always happy to spend time together, and the answer is almost always yes unless there’s a family obligation.

Although these friends have identical behaviors and beliefs about The Why, one friend is not bothered by it and has no interest in changing. The other one wishes she was different. I encouraged her to challenge herself. To follow her heart and not get in her head. To reach out with invitations and to see how that feels without overthinking. I even offered to do the thinking for her - let me know first and I can confirm it’s a great idea before you test your vulnerability. Whether she does this or not is up to her.

What’s amazing to me is something that is so easy for me and natural, stepping up and reaching out, can be so incredibly hard for someone else. It can also be so easy to take things personally that have nothing to do with us. One could feel like too much, and the opposite could be true – one could feel like they are not enough. We all can have doubts and fears, and we can all come from security and confidence.

This is what makes the world go round: Everyone honoring their comfort and their truth.

The opportunity is always there to start the day over and do something different. I could step out and not initiate plans and see what comes towards me. They could step in and initiate plans and see how that feels. If we sense there is something wrong, it is our responsibility to do it differently and observe how we feel. It if feels right - stay the course.

I don’t think it’s about being too much or not being enough. I think it’s about being just right based on our nature, our truth, our hearts, our confidence levels, our energy, and that little voice inside of us that knows who we truly are.

The answer is always in the question. If you’re feeling like you’re doing too much, ease up on the gas pedal. If you feel like you’re doing too little, pump the gas pedal. Control what you can control - your speed and your effort, and as always, remember - you got this! 💃🙏🏻💃

By yesterday evening my sweet daughters were already settled back into their juicy lives in the big apple, after an amazing 2-day visit that fulfilled us all (quality>quantity). I made a big pot of lentils and rice (my grounding recalibration), then I headed to the park with Chewy. I have not been in town on a Sunday in a bit, and I did not have any expectations of what I would find. I was quickly reminded that the weekend vibes are different from the weekday ones! The acro-yoga people are still at it, under the trees and in the shade, still lifting each other up, literally and figuratively. Plus there was a DJ dropping beats - unrelated!

As I was enjoying the familiarity, watching their trials and successes, I started to take a video of the juxtaposition between the yoga and the DJ in the field playing techno music. As I was recording, I was met with a sweet surprise.

A young boy, the children of one of the men doing yoga, showed up right in front of me with what looked like a sprig of lavender. It did not smell like lavender, but it looked like lavender! An offering. Then he wanted to pet Chewy. In a short amount of time, his brother showed up as well and also brought me a sprig. Sweet boys!

After the boys were done loving on Chewy and chit-chatting with me, I continued around the circle. On my way to the DJ’s spot I made small talk with the Sunday-picnic-people who also clearly could hear him. I said things like, “I think he wants us to join him!” “Let’s get this party started!”. People giggled, but no one moved.

By the time I got to where I started, a complete circle walked, I was standing behind the DJ, listening to his music, taking in his unwavering dedication and enthusiasm. My hips were swaying, my head was bopping - my body clearly wanted to dance! In the blink of an eye, I was out in front of him, with Chewy in the stroller next to me, and I was dancing as if no one was watching (although everyone was watching!). I tried to recruit some people who were dancing in their seats to join, waving them in as I danced, but no one budged. It was just me, the DJ (kingsrhythmmusic!), and the Chew in the stroller - having the time of our lives!

I decided many years ago that if there was a dance party to be had, I would jump in. I honored my commitment to myself, and to life, last night when I chose to dance, alone, jumping up and down as if it was an aerobics class, breaking a sweat that made me feel even more alive than when I started! I want to get my dance-on like that constantly and wish this DJ could magically show up for me regularly! I also wished my kids were still in town. I wished my Colorado friends were with me. I wish I had a neighbor on tap and around who was down to show up and jump in too.

When I got home, all sweaty and high, I sat down to eat my dinner and thought - What a fun exercise to do the following: Every day, capture that one thing that was completely surprising, unique, and delightful! To seek out the magic every single day, and to fully live it and capture it, and to memorize every detail, is a life well lived!

Am back at the park this morning and it is so quiet you can hear a pin drop, as if nothing happened last night, This park is like an etch-a-sketch, shaking itself back to a blank slate on the daily. A lot like life! May this one precious day bring y’all so much that takes you by surprise and makes you feel wildly alive! You got this! 🙏🏻💃🙏🏻

One of them said: It’s OK and it’s normal to not know what you want to do next. Try a bunch of things. Be patient. Take your time. There’s no rush. It’s good to stay open minded and curious.

The other side: Smile at everyone, all day. That is how you start building meaningful relationships and growing your community, by showing up with warmth and friendliness. From there, doors will open that are meant for you, and the friendships will build that are also meant for you.

Love how incredibly sweet & simple their life advice is! Smile, and stay curious. Yes! A perfect way to go through life at all ages and stages. Appreciate doing life with these light beings! 🙏🏻🥂🙏🏻

Thank you, dear God, for this one precious life, and for all of these sweet moments. 🤍🙏🏻🤍

The best thing we can do, every time, is thank God for our blessings. Thank God our loved ones are safe and protected and healthy. Thank God we are all OK.

We can trust that everything happens exactly as it is supposed to, even though it was not our plan. We can remember that mostly good things happen, and worse things have happened. It could always be so much worse.

The more we train our minds to do this, the more grateful our life gets. The more peaceful our life gets. The more grounding and flexible and pleasant we get. Every time. 🙏🏻🤍🙏🏻

I like this about myself! I like being open-minded. And I really love music! You know how a soundtrack in a movie can make the movie that much better? That’s how I feel about having music on daily. Whether I’m driving, cooking, going for a bike ride with G, or we’re hanging out at the beach… music is a constant. Listening to music during a meal, especially something gentle or classic, really elevates the experience and grows appreciation for every delicious bite and sip.

I went to a country concert on Sunday night and saw Jordan Davis (the “buy dirt” guy); Stella Lefty opened for him. It was wonderful to be outdoors and listening to quality music surrounded by happy and grateful people enjoying life!

This morning I woke up with the song “The Light” by Disturbed in my head. I played it while I walked and read the lyrics. I will share the lyrics here, and if you’ve never heard it before, maybe give it a listen and see what you think. It’s a little heavier than I usually like, but the lyrics resonate with me on a human level. It’s about balance. It’s about accepting the reality of life. To get to the light, we also need to face the darkness.

I am so very grateful for the poetry that is brought to life in music, and to have quality access to music at my fingertips. It’s never been easier to play a tune than now!

I really love my cousin’s “tune of the day” tradition. Today it's “River”, by Joni Mitchell. It’s fun to geek out hard on music!

I hope this one precious day brings you music that moves you, heals you, and makes you feel more playful and alive friends! 💃🫶🏻🕺

My delay in writing was due to the fact that I just had a wonderful and delicious conversation with a dear friend for over an hour. Maybe that is my answer to the question: What do I want most? Every time I want quality connection with someone I love! Every single time. Everything else can fade away. When Love shows up, I want to be fully present for it.

And I was. We had an incredible conversation that took us from the Ottoman Empire, to the pyramids of Egypt, through World War II and the Holocaust, over the God-like qualities of AI, and back to what we can do on the daily to make this world better: help people in need around us, and dogs and cats too. Pretty simple. Keep loving each other. Keep being the light that this world needs. Shut down all the noise. Set our phones down and go out into the world. Be good humans.

This morning I woke up to a text from a dear friend who lives in the mountains of North Carolina; he is heading down this morning to visit a friend who is dying of cancer. This friend recently disappointed him and his wife greatly, but the Love is still there, and he’s showing up anyway. He’s going to stop by to visit me for a hug and a hot cup of coffee. I’m hoping I can also feed him a nourishing meal as he sets off on his journey to be the light in the darkness for someone he has loved like a brother for decades.

What do I want most? What do we want most? What do we need most? To keep loving each other. To keep showing up for each other. Keep shining our light on the world. To keep focusing on that which brings us joy and makes this world better. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Shine your light friends! There is no one else in the world who is quite like you. The world needs your light now more than ever. 💘💕💘

Living in this neighborhood means having ducks as neighbors. I haven’t seen any babies in a while, but there have been some adult ducks hanging out at the park more consistently. They have gotten a little braver and even hang out right by the river more regularly. If they jumped into the river I’m not sure that it would go so well, the current is very strong. 😬

This morning I saw them do something completely different! I saw them jump up onto the fountain wall. They walked towards the statue as I was entering the park and jumped up one at a time - in a short amount of time five of them in total were up, with another one hanging back who eventually jumped onto the bench. Maybe she wasn’t as interested as the others in the fountain adventure, or maybe she needed her own space!

As I circled the park I watched them to see if they would actually jump into the fountain. I’m about halfway around the circle, and so far… they are still just hanging out on the wall. They are staring at the water, they seem curious about the water, and maybe they’re not sure how easy it would be to get out if they got in!

I love that they have a life of their own and minds of their own! I love their little adventurous park life, and how much play, color, and entertainment they add to the neighborhood. They definitely make life more interesting and better! As I’m watching them from afar, I see that one is way off on her own, on the opposite side of the fountain. The other four are still lingering where they started, and then the one on the bench is still hanging out there. I wonder by the time I get back where they will be? I can hardly wait!

As I tried to zoom in from a distance to capture all five of them around the fountain, the one who was furthest away flew away. The other four are looking after her thinking… “What the heck? We’ve come this far!” Or at least that’s what I’m imagining.

It’s so wonderful to have this freedom to wake up in the morning and explore what’s happening in the world outside. So much more interesting than being inside, true every time for me! Inside can be a nice place for grounding and nurturing and self-care. Yesterday I made a trip to the Indian grocery store and picked up some ginger and limes to make pickled ginger, and some cumin-coriander-fennel seeds for CCF tea. Cooling is the goal!

These are the tools I have in my toolbox for better health and a good life!

As always, I’m here to remind you all of the simple tools and practices for a better life as I practice and live them - reinforcing and rekindling my own good habits. Going back to the basics is fulfilling and healing for me, every time.

Be like the ducks y’all - go outside and play! Have some big and new adventures! Fully enjoy this one precious day and life! 💕🥳💕

It has morphed over time. It is still a place I visit, like a coffee addict getting another espresso shot and slamming it while walking out the door, never breaking stride. It is not a place I go to sit and savor a warm creamy latte in an oversized mug, enjoyed from a cozy spot on the couch.

Substack, however, is still gentle and delicious. It has not been commercialized or tainted. It is a place many like-minded people like me show up to write. I don’t often scroll on Substack - my daily posts more closely resemble a cold plunge. I don’t “restack” often, but perhaps I will daily as it could be a way to grow my viewership.

I write here as a labor of love, as a lover of life, and for peace and sanity. This is where I come to use my words for healing; this is my creative outlet.

Yesterday when I scrolled Substack my curious and critical-thinking mind was engaged, and my heart was opened and lifted up. Here’s a sampling of what I found in mere seconds.

There is lots of great writing out there to be savored, y’all! There are lots of cool people putting the time in to download their thoughts, observations, hopes, and dreams. We are all here on this great big planet in this ridiculously huge universe at the same time. The more we can feel the collective love and humor, the better! 🙏🏻💘🙏🏻

Last night we watched a space shuttle launch against the backdrop of the ocean’s night sky. To be able to send something man-made from the earth & into the atmosphere, something that is so powerful and mind-blowing & that can reach the planets and stars we can barely see the smallest glimmer of, is quite remarkable and miraculous.

If someone looked up and didn’t know what was happening they would think there was something very wrong, like the world was about to catch on fire, the shuttle like a match scraping the powdered glass sky and then bursting into flames.

And then there is the now - the morning after: pure calm, light, and gentle again. Breathing in and out like nothing ever happened. Mother nature’s gift to us is this moment.

While we were watching from the beach, enjoying all the magic a night sky can offer when there’s low light pollution, it was impossible not to think about the humans that came before us and for thousands of years, who used the night sky to guide them both physically and spiritually, to entertain them, and to tell their origin stories. The gods and our life plans live in the stars, like a connect-the-dot drawing.

The Falcon 9 started out like a ball of fire, then turned into a multicolored pencil, and after it looked like it dissipated (we thought for a moment we were watching The Challenger all over again) the shuttle closely resembled a jellyfish, perhaps mirroring the reflection of what is deep down below.

It seems like we have lost touch with our cosmic connection; at least most of us have to a significant degree.

Imagine being able to look up at the stars and know what was coming next, and what life had in store for us, rather than googling on our phones. If I knew how to read the stars I would much prefer leaning into the vast universe for my answers rather than this rectangular box in my palm. Both are equally mysterious, but one can not be created by mere mortals, even extraordinarily gifted & talented ones, and it holds so much more genuine mind-blowing-wonder than the other. (& a hint, it’s not the one I’m holding right now.)

Sometimes planet earth looks a lot like what I imagine Pluto or Mars could look like.

To be able to sit under the stars and gaze and dream and get mesmerized by their brilliance is a luxury I want to return to again and again and again. I have been craving nights like last night for so long. What got us there was a shuttle launch. What will keep getting me back is my desire to reconnect in with my ancestors who, although they didn’t have the technology we have, were wise in ways I admire and crave.

As for the following: No matter how far away it is, look to where you want to go - that is what will get you there (the thought that came to me while I was sprinting). Elon Musk, the mad genius, is a great example of the power of imagining what's far beyond what the naked eye can see, then moving towards that.

So many of my morning photos are from the moments that distract me between starting at point A and getting to point B, then back again. Life is a balancing act between what we can see beyond the details, while appreciating the details as we go. 💫🌍💫

As soon as I got to the beach this morning I felt so welcomed and invited. The light was soft, the waves - calm, and the reeds looked like they were waving & saying “hey”.

Before I even got to the beach today the first thoughts I had in my mind went something like: Do you love the life you wake up to? Do you love your morning rituals? Do you get excited about this one precious life every morning?

My answer is yes!

For a good life, friends, remember to prioritize having a morning you love - a set of rituals that makes you feel strong, present, alive, grateful, and treated. It doesn't take long and it doesn't take much, and it makes a huge difference on the daily!

For me it's some combination of: movement outdoors, a few sun salutations, a glass of water, some natural sunlight, some push-ups, writing this post, saying good morning to loved ones, and a hot cup of coffee. No matter where I may wake up, my morning practice is consistent.

When I paused today to take in the sunrise, these are the words that came to my mind:

➡️L🖤VE LIFE ⬇️L🖤VE U

May this one precious day remind you of how much L🖤VE you have in your life. If prioritizing peace is your goal, let all that sh*t go that does not serve you, like that which you cannot change, and that which has nothing to do with you. Trust that everyone is on their journey and doing their best. Especially us! Stay gracious, and imagine the best.

May this one delicious Saturday bring you big play, true nourishment, quality connection, and lots of genuine belly laughs. We got this! 🤸🥂🤸