Some simple wisdom

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." #AndyWarhol

Some awesomely wise words I shared via Andy on the Holstee Facebook page. Truth and more truth.

The Holstee Handover

Well, people, it is official: I am now part of the full-time family team with Holstee!

A sudden sad but exciting switch in events, ie. Mary Shouvlin pursuing a new career opportunity (you should check out her awesome blog here). This turn has led to the instant shortening of my duration as Holstee's Community Love Intern and catapaulted me directly into all things customer appreciation, social media monitoring, blog-post writing, community engagement, etc.

For all of you who understood my literal quest via green liberation jumpsuit, I can now, nearly three years later, announce that the piece of Holstee's Manifesto that initially struck me most, hit me right in the center of my gut and my being, will be coming true for me at the end of June:

If you don't like your job, quit.

More to come on this ANY DAY NOW, but for the moment: though extremely excited to finally be walking away from a place that was all wrong for me from the start, I am quietly grateful for the chance to finally do this through the company that first inspired that possibility. All things, yes ALL THINGS, can be brought together for good. I have received some of the best gifts (I mean, meeting the love of my LIFE?!) of all time while wearing a green apron and a drive-thru headset. There are truly no accidents, a fact I believe now more than ever. We face challenges for a reason, we get through them for the better. All things new, and I still can't believe it's happening. COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS.

Living in tomorrow.

I'm not sure if life ever really stops rolling over into newness. If there is always something, and there is, then we are living in constant preparation for the next step, worrying about tomorrow, making endless to-do lists that never get checked off. I believe there is a fine detail, a small space between what echoes as living responsibly and what is really just a constant looking over your shoulder, permanent frown lines to match your furrowed brows.

I think we should look forward to things, true. I think we should attend to details, yes. I think we should believe a little more in what we're capable of, always. Big changes, even good changes, can be difficult, can be scary, can loom over us and feel impossible, can feel like the taming of some wild beast in the simple form of managing a schedule, making decisions, saying goodbyes. 

There is truth to being able to do what you claim is possible, to achieve what you say will be done. Reminding yourself every so often that you can do this, that the thing that stops you is only a self-perpetuated fear, a laziness steeped in resistance, and all at once you're there, in the center of a new universe, waiting for the word. 

New changes, some bittersweet, to come on the Holstee homefront, and happy news to follow soon. 

A little gratitude

I have decided that it would be in the best interest of all things for me to remember what I'm grateful for. Some days that list is long or short, some days I feel like I'm forcing it, some days I think I could go on from dawn 'til dusk counting the ways in which I find life endearing, lucky, and inexplicably good.

I think the best way to remember to stay grateful is by method, by practice, with sincere intention. For me, a list-maker by nature, that involves a stock-piling of post-its, notes scribbled on the side of an envelope, reminders tapped into my iPhone, all things to keep me motivated, grounded, and thankful.

Lately, here they are:

1. Cute Colin. Having finally experienced real love and a best friend, my life has been forever changed by this particular person, this boy who made me believe in fate, among many other things.
2. Never going hungry. I'm not sure if it's the weather or the change in the air, but I've never felt hungrier than I have for the past few weeks of my life. Every time I feel that pang, I have food nearby. A simple thing, one would think, until a time when you suddenly are forced to do without.
3. Train rides, ie. an uninterrupted hour to read.
4. Bike rides. No explanation necessary.
5. Looking for apartments, which has truly become exciting, a little scary, and a little more exciting again. Making it work is one of the best imaginings I've had in a long time.

Remembering to be grateful in the midst of trials, in the middle of things we aren't exactly glad about, seems like it would be especially difficult. Who knew, however, that it is that very thing that brings us through it, that very thing that keeps us sane enough, that brings us around again to wholeness, to wellness, to feeling new again.