My wish for you: courage to fight the good fight
April 28, 2008
I wish for you a moment where you reach in and know you’ll overcome anything thrown at you.
I wish for you a day, a circumstance, an occasion where you rise up and meet challenges life gives you, willingly. I want you to realize in that moment, you are not beaten. You can stand once again.
I wish for you to know the difference between being a warrior and being a fighter.
I wish you no bitter ends, may you only experience battles worthy of you and your power within. And may you learn how look at each situation and glean the lessons that will make you ready for the next battle ahead.
I wish for you to know in your heart what you’re worth, what you will fight for, what your convictions are, and what you will die trying to do while here on earth.
I wish for you to be known as a fighter…in a good way. A very good way.
I wish for you all the love in the world and strength in knowing, I believe in you. I’ll be chanting your name and pumping my fists in the air for you.
You can do anything, overcome anything. Reach inside, come out blazing, do it.
With a burning heart,
Kelley Taylor
Love: Fight For What We Love
April 28, 2008
“There would be no passion in this world if we never had to fight for what we love.”
- Susie Switzer
I’m sure you’ve heard the quote, “I’m a lover, not a fighter.” The peaceful person in me would rather love than fight any day, but I know in my heart, the things truly worthy of my love are worth a bit of a fight.
Sometimes, I just wish people would think about taking a more passionate approach to life knowing that nothing good or worthy comes without a lot of effort, perhaps some pain, and a dash of fighting spirit willing that “something that we love” into being.
Why, even having a baby comes with all of that, right?
Why is it that we equate “being a fighter” synonymous with “bad”? It’s not. It’s holy. Those who fought the original crusades and battles winning through immense circumstances were so-called fighters. Those who traveled the wilderness and deserts; some were pioneers, some were prophets. I can think of no higher calling.
When you learn to reach in and fight for what you love, what you hold dear to your heart, you will find courage within the recesses of your soul. If you get knocked down, get right back up. Learn to maybe not so much love the hits so much as know what you’ll get in the end for taking the shots. Nothing worth anything comes to you without a certain amount of blows to the chin. And if you have gotten this far in life pretty easily, imagine what you’ve never known by not fighting a little bit harder, trying a little harder, and taking a few more punches to the gut.
Life is hard won. Love it. Love the process. And fight.
See: wisdom from a champ
April 28, 2008
So, I love Rocky. With wisdom like this, though, who can blame me? 
Enjoy this clip.
Hear: Fight Outta You
April 28, 2008
My dear friend Ann sent me this song by Ben Harper called “Fight Outta You”. I hope if you are ever discouraged or feeling downtrodden by life, you listen to this song or read the lyrics. Never let anyone take the fight out of you.
They’ll look you in the eyes and stone you, then turn and disown you,
don’t you let them take the fight outta you
They’ll walk all over your name ’til they find someone else to blame,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
Secrets hide their lies inside hidden alibis,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
They put the world on a hook, it’s worse every time I look
Don’t let them take the fight outta you
I would rather take a punch than not give you a shot
I’d rather find out who you are than who you’re not
Should have known better than to mistake business for love
Should have known better than to mistake a fist for a glove
It will be in your honor ’til you’re not needed any longer,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
Don’t believe the headlines, check it for yourself sometimes,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
The lies you live become you, the love you lose it numbs you,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
They say that you’ve arrived but that’s just a high-class bribe,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
There’s always someone younger, someone with more hunger,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
They’ll say you’re the one and only, then straight up leave you lonely,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
Like a transplant-patient waiting for a donor,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
Like a half empty balloon after a party in the corner,
don’t let them take the fight outta you
Don’t Stop Dancing!
April 27, 2008
“After a bomb killed two dozen young people at a Tel Aviv disco a few years ago, Israeli youth refused to be cowed. They resumed a robust nightlife. Today, outside the scene of the bombing, beneath a stone memorial listing the names of the dead, is a single inscription: LO NAFSEEK LIRKOD. It means, “We won’t stop dancing.”
- Gene Weingarten, The Washington Post Magazine
Love: Surrender
April 21, 2008
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” ~ Rumi
Surrender is really hard for me. To me, it conjures up images of the loser in a battle. And I don’t like to lose.
Why then do I get all breathy when I think of surrendering to love? Have I watched too much Gone With The Wind?
I believe we battle this paradox in ourselves constantly. We want to give in to the wondrous pleasures of life – be it a lover, a delicious piece of chocolate, a moment to ourselves – but we fight it. We have in our heads sometimes that to surrender to a situation, person or thing we are drawn to that it signifies we are weak in some way…that we lose.
Why?
Oh, there are probably a million reasons why. I think if you think hard enough you find why the beliefs you hold are what they are. But try to welcome a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at surrender…in a good way!
The poet Mary Oliver completely reframed surrender for me in “Wild Geese”. She writes:
“You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesfor a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves….”
Surrendering is not suffering. Surrendering does not mean you’ve lost your will. Surrendering is all about loving with complete abandon. And we’re not used to that. It exposes us too much.
Yes, surrendering is hard. Very hard. But you can learn how to surrender if you understand how it works. Author Bill Plotkin, in Nature and the Human Soul, said it best. “What’s involved is actually both a surrender of and a surrender to: first a surrender of your beliefs about how you were supposed to be and how the world was supposed to work, and then a surrender to your deepest and wildest passions.”
Did you get that?
You can’t truly feel the depths of passion until you’ve let go of everything you thought it would be. Then, what comes next is the best part: when you let go of all of yourself, you realize that the real stuff was better than you ever dreamed it could be all along. When you learn to love with quiet surrendering fire in your soul there can be no losing in that. It’s powerful.
If I could whisper in your ear right now, I would say to you something I hope you will learn to do, something worth devoting time and effort in mastering: I’d simply whisper, “Surrender.”
Copyright © by Kelley Taylor
To See: Jackson Pollock
April 21, 2008
Many will argue that their child, or an elephant, could do what Jackson Pollock did to canvas. Maybe so, but I say there was probably no one better at surrendering to an organic creative process.
He let the paint be what it is and do what it does. He not only accepted how paint splatters and globs, runs and pours, he adored the way it moved and danced across the canvas. He played with it. He called it “action painting” and dribbled and drizzled it saying, “The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.”
Usually artists, like some of us in our everyday lives, try to control the outcome. We pause, we plan, we are careful, we are cautious – making sure that we get things juuuuust right. The end result of being so careful causes worry, dread, self-doubt, fear, loathing, procrastination, and stress.
It really seems so counter-intuitive. I mean, can we really control what people are? We can definitely have an effect, but in the end sometimes accepting what situations, circumstances, people, things are is really the beauty of all of it.
I love how Pollock really worked with what he had in a natural way. I learn from him. I admire him. I’m too much of a perfectionist. I need things to be just so. I am learning to breathe and let go: let things do what they need to do, let them dance, evolve naturally, and love them dearly for it. In the end, I will have my own masterpiece called life.
Copyright © 2008 by Kelley Taylor
Have fun! See: http://makeeverydayaholiday.com/to-do/to-do-make-your-own-jackson-pollock-art/
To Do: Make Your Own Jackson Pollock Art
April 21, 2008
This has to be one of my greatest time wasters.
This is something you can do with a child as young as a year old. Create your own Jackson Pollock style art virtually just by clicking your mouse (to change colors) and dragging it around to make paint splatters.
Simply addictive.Try it here!
My Wish For You: A Beautiful Spring Day
April 21, 2008
I hope you enjoy a beautiful spring day full of love, surprises, and loads of comfort and joy. Make today your own holiday.
All my love,
Kelley Taylor
Live: Stare Fear in the Face
April 21, 2008
Right now with the economy the way it is, with uncertainty ahead, an election coming up, gas prices soaring, and many lives unsure of what exactly is going on, it’s easy to become risk-averse to everything in our lives. It’s time to batten down the hatches, tighten the proverbial belt, pinch some pennies, or wait till things clear up, right? Fear seems to be in the air these days. And when we are uncertain, we tend not to move. On anything. Even on something like saying to your mother-in-law what you really want to say.
It’s easy to cave into fear. Fear keeps us from many things: pursuing more fulfilling job, trying new foods, traveling to new cities or countries, starting a relationship, reviving an old one, calling someone we had an argument with, giving in, beginning a new chapter in our life….change.
Fear is so easy to get comfortable with and accept in our lives as an excuse for not doing the things our hearts call us to do.
But in the end when you look back, will you have regrets of the things you didn’t do? Will you wonder if you made something of this big beautiful gift of life you’ve been given? Will you know that you lived with all the courage you could muster? Will you try the goat cheese?
Today, I want you to dig in deep, look yourself in the mirror, and ask yourself, “What am I afraid of?” List it. That’s right….write it down. Write yourself an e-mail, type a letter to yourself, or journal it. When you give voice to your fear, you can look it in the eye and say, “no. not this time,” or, you can begin to do the work to overcome it one baby step at a time.
“Somehow we all know that to play it safe is to lose the game.”
-Erwin Raphael McManus
Live. Take some chances. They don’t have to be grand, they can be small. What are you waiting for? Make a plan to overcome your fears one at a time and live the life you’ve imagined. Time waits for no one.
All my love,
Kelley
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