VALENTINE'S DAY

Happy ♥'s Day!  If you are reading this, I love you.

Your support means the world to me!

And to Kurt: thank you for being my sweet Valentime [sic].  I love you as well.

ORANGE

When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes comes out - because that's what's inside. When you are squeezed, what comes out is what is inside.

 -Wayne Dyer

PURSUE JOY

This is what happens when a 10-year-old gets inspired.  This week, Emma's big brother was bedridden with a fever and while keeping him company they watched a marathon of Cake Boss.  This inspired her to do one thing: be creative!  She saw those amazing, edible cake creations and dreamed up a beach cake, complete with an ice cream stand, sand castle, and tasty golden sand met by the deliciously soft ocean blue.

Kids are so great at naturally doing what brings them joy.  She made this cake because she was happy to do it. It wasn't to show off, to compete, to get rich. It was because she had an idea she wanted to bring to fruition.  So, she made this beach cake.  And oh, how sweetly inspiring this is to me...

As long as I continue pursing my dream to be a photographer, I want to do it because it brings me joy, it makes me happy, and it is an outlet for my creativity.  That isn't to say that I am going to quit at the moment things become challenging or not-so-fun. But I will not let my motives for pursing this become impure.

Are your pursuits motivated by joy?

DO NOT BE ANXIOUS

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 

Are you not of more value than they?

-Jesus

GO HARD

It's been one month since the calendar changed to 2012 and the hopes of change for this year have faded away for many.

At the beginning of this year I decided to plunge into something new: photography.  In the past month, I've realized that I am not going to start out with perfection (apologies to all my fellow perfectionists).  Anything worthwhile takes effort and pain and patience to get it.  There isn't an easy way to truly succeed.  The truth is: it takes hard work.

Learning photography, starting a business, being an awesome wife, getting healthy... it's gonna take time and work.  I must accept that I have to start small to continue dreaming big.  In other words, if I want to succeed in photography, I have to learn, even if it is at a painstakingly slow-pace.  Piece by piece, I will build knowledge and gain experience, because there is no short-cut to excellence.

Most of us believe the lie that we can be great and it will come at no cost to us. When we decide to try something new, we get lazy, weary, impatient. We give up way too easily. We quit. Or even worse, we fail to try at all.  But in words of Haley Williams (of Paramore), "I refuse, I refuse, I refuse!"

What is your big dream and what are the small steps you are taking to get it?

Remember: The hardest part of doing the work is doing the work. -Jasmine Star