Real Beauty

So I don't have much to post on today but I do have a couple of recommendations for you! They are both more targeted for women but you men out there should check them out too.

1. I highly recommend you watch the Dove Real Beauty Sketches. You can watch it Here. It's a powerful look at how we as women perceive ourselves vs others. I hope the message you take away from it is that we are all unique and beautiful. Start loving yourself. You were specially created and that's a precious gift.

2. Read Girls in White Dresses. I kept seeing it on Pinterest as one of the books "every girl in her twenties should read" so I did. It's a humorous look at all the changes we go through in our twenties and how most of the time it does not go according to our plan. It was really good!

And that's all I got folks. Have a wonderful week!

Storyteller.

The day after I post about being unoriginal, inspiration hits. Figures.

So randomly I have been talking about myself a lot lately. Which is something I'm not really used to.
The first instance where I'm having to talk about myself is interviewing for jobs. (Prayers/good thoughts are much appreciated!) It never fails that the first thing the interviewer asks is "Tell me about yourself." I of course I have the whole spill down but when you stop to think about it, there are so many things that make me, me. And I could spend all day telling you different components of my story that makes me who I am and why I want to pursue counseling. But aint no interviewer got time fo dat. So instead I shorten it. Hit the highlights.

I have also started a community group through my church and we have been spending time each week telling our stories and I told mine a couple of weeks ago. Let me tell you, it's not easy trying to summarize your life from birth to present. My family, friends, pets, relationships, the good times, hard times, lessons learned. It wasn't easy. But it really allowed me to take a second and evaluate my life and realize what makes me who I am.

Have you ever stopped and thought about your story? Who are the main characters? How did you grow up? What experiences made you grow? What have been the good times? How did that friendship/relationship affect you?

I truly believe God made us beautifully unique. Each one of us has a unique story with unique characters and experiences. I encourage you to take a moment and think about your story. I have a feeling there might be some surprises about what is remembered.

Your story makes you who you are. What do you want to do with your story? Share it? Change it? Start a new chapter? Resolve a conflict? It's yours.

And don't forget, there's never going to be another one like it. And that's pretty cool.

Stolen

So it's looking like Mondays are just going to be my blogging days? Last week was long but also super busy!

I'm not going to lie, inspiration hasn't hit for an original blog post this week so I thought I would share a couple of entries from the storyline blog. I know you're probably thinking seriously Courtney, you're going to mention Donald Miller again? Yep I am. Sorry not sorry. I came across both these posts from the blog he's started and they both captured my attention and made me think. And you know if that happens then I have to share them.

http://storylineblog.com/2013/04/01/why-most-twenty-somethings-are-delusional/

http://storylineblog.com/2013/04/05/my-drug-my-defense/

I think they are both great posts but I especially loved the second. Definitely made me think about why I thrive on staying busy.  I hope y'all check it out and enjoy it too!

While I'm at it being unoriginal and all, I'll share some of my favorite quotes I've found recently.

Have a fabulous week! Hopefully I'll have a chance at an original post this week. 

HelloGoodbye

If you know me pretty well, you know I'm not a big fan of change. I like my routines. I like the people I see on a daily basis. I like predictability. It's safe. It's comfortable.

Thing is though, life is full of changes. Some changes you carefully plan for, others happen out of the blue. If we didn't have any changes in our life, most of us would consider it a boring life.  But as much as we know cognitively that change is good, emotionally it is scary and sad. It usually means saying goodbye.

Goodbyes are tough. New hellos are tough too.

I feel like for the past couple of years, I've been in a state of interim in school, work, personal life, etc.  I say a lot of "goodbyes" without very many permanent "hellos" if that makes sense. On the flip side, I've also experienced a lot of personal growth these past couple of years and I've learned a lot.

One thing I've learned is that life is never going to be predictable. There are going to be twists and turns along the way but that's because God's in control. Not me. And when I think about it, it feels a lot better to have it in God's hands instead of mine.

So here's to uncertainty. Here's to trusting. Here's to knowing that God's got something much bigger planned than what I could ever plan.

Here's to enjoying the ride.

Little things

In life, what grabs our attention are big things. Fireworks, a mountain range, a vast ocean, birth, death, marriages. These things stick out in our minds. We remember seeing them.

What about the in between stuff? The stuff that gets lost in the shuffle. The stuff that we are so accustomed to seeing everyday that they don't grab our attention. Encouragement, kindness, sunsets, friends, family. I truly believe that one day we will look back and realize those were big things. Things that are just as grand and just as important to us than the once in a lifetime stuff.

What made me stop and think about this was the other day when I was walking my client out and she said the kindest thing to me. She probably has no idea how that little phrase lifted me up and turned my whole day around.Good conversations with good people are another little thing. I have been truly spoiled and blessed by the people that I get to call my friends and family.The other night I spotted an owl on my fence just staring right back at me. It was unusual and magical all wrapped up into one. These three things as random and separate as they are all grabbed my attention this week and made me realize these occurrences happen all the time. I just don't notice them.

Big things are wonderful and have a place all their own but it's the little things that get forgotten about. The little things that we don't realize how important they are until they're gone. Beauty, kindness, goodness, love, joy are all around us in the simplest forms. Stopping to smell the roses you walk by every day just may be worth it. I bet you it'll make that big thing you're stressing over, seem not so big in the scheme of things.

Irish Wisdom (A day late)

So I'm a day late, but I hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patricks day weekend! Mine was spent watching my friend Blake get married and spend some long overdue time with high school friends. Super super blessed to have such quality people in my life.

Anyways, woke up to find a St. Patricks day card from my dad. He gave it to me because of an inside joke. Most likely if I tried to explain it, it wouldn't be funny. So let's just leave it at the fact that I have a cute and thoughtful daddy. He knows I love quotes so he looked up some famous Irish quotes and wrote them on the inside of the card. You know I have to share right?!

1. May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light. May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

2. A best friend is like a four leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have.

3. A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything. (One of my faves)

4. Who gossips with you, will gossip of you.

5. Everyone is nice till the cow gets in the garden.

6. It is often that a person's mouth broke his nose.

7. Firelight will not let you read fine stories but it's warm and you won't see dust on the floor.

8. Continual cheerfulness is a sign of wisdom.

9. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.

10. If you're luck enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough!

Isn't he the best? Hopefully you enjoyed those as much as I did!

Paris!

It has been such a long time since I have posted anything! I kept telling myself that before my trip I would just wait and post when I got back. So here we are I'm back!
Back in July, my parents surprised with a trip to France for my graduation present. Ever since I got to study abroad in Italy a few years ago, I have been bitten by the travel bug and wanted to explore my parts of Europe and the world. They knew this and gave me this trip. I feel incredibly blessed and thankful for the opportunity! 

I feel that every time you get to travel somewhere, you get to learn about how another part of the world does things. You get to experience life from their perspective. Our first day there, I felt like I was completely transported to another planet. A planet where I only knew the words "hello, goodbye, thanks, thanks very much, and good evening." Needless to say, it is always remarkable to me how quickly people can adapt to new environments. 

There is just way too much to blog about and too many pictures to post so here is just a quick list of my favorite things that happened and realizations I had. 

1. French food is amazing. I don't think I have ever eaten such decadent food in my life. Every night we got to go to a new quaint little restaurant that only holds about 20 people. They only had a few dishes but everything was delicious!! 

2. I need to brush up on my French history. We got to see a lot of historical landmarks like the Arc de Trimophe, Versailles, etc. I learned a lot but I still wish I knew more! 

3. Stinky cheese tastes good! On my dad's bucket list for Paris he wanted to eat unpasteurized cheese. Well, a restaurant for dinner had some and the waiter assured us that "It is stinky, it is great"and it was! 

4. Art is everywhere. I thought France was going to have a hard time living up to all of the wonderful art I got to see in Italy but man was I wrong! The Louvre, Orsay, and l'orangerie all had amazing works of art. Art is one of those things that fills my soul up with Joy. Seeing precious and countless works of art from Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, da Vinci, Picasso, Matisse, etc just filled me up with Joy.

(You wouldn't believe the trampling I had to do to get this picture!)

5. Everyone looks good in a beret. My dad wanted to get a souvenir from the trip so we went to a speciality hat shop. When my dad asked the sales person if he could pull off a beret, he told my dad "It's a beret, everyone looks good in a beret."

(Meet Marcel)

6. I love learning about different places of worship and the history of cathedrals. We got to go to Notre Dame and it was absolutely beautiful and incredible. We went on a Sunday to tour the tower and they were having mass on the inside. It gave me goosebumps knowing that people worshipped in that same spot 800 years ago.

(We lit a candle in memory of Tyler)

7. Shopping in Paris is great but it can be hard on your American self-esteem. Talk about sizing differences especially after eating rich meals and macarons. I still found some great buys! 

(Just their department store)

8. They really know how to  do some  interior decorating. 

(Versailles)

(Versailles)

(Louvre)

9. Paris has a lot of stairs. (sometimes 700-they numbered them) But the climb is worth it to gain a new perspective. Plus to appreciate what you just saw. 

10. And finally, it is wonderful to disconnect for a week from responsibilities, deadlines, projects, and stress and spend time with the ones you love. It was a week filled with good conversation, laughs, art, beauty, and everything I could have ever dreamt of! 

Thanks parents :) 

P.S.-Sorry for the mega long post! It was long overdue though!

P.P.S-Sorry for all the selfies....