I realize, as I do every year, how time passes, children grow up, parents grow old, and life moves fast.  I also realize, as I do every year, how much I HAVEN’T done.

Yesterday, while playing around with a new app on my iPad, I found a background that I layered over a snapshot of my freshly washed face….naked….badly needing some makeup but showing me just who I am, my age, and how for some reason, my skin has started to sallow.

Who am I kidding?  I was trying to somehow layer SOMETHING on there to make my picture look better.  But then it hit me…..that quote….what WAS it?

I looked it up.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.”

I don’t want to wait.  For time.  For the right circumstances.  Till I get the right web designer.  Till I save enough money.  Till inspiration and passion collide.  I don’t want to wait.  I just want to do the work. Whatever inkling was given to me, whatever spark ignited, whatever dream formed, whatever idea that was granted to me, I just want to put it out in the world.  I get so pent up and anxious trying to plan and wait for all the right times to launch, to work, to do.  Now it’s more than a time to be.  It’s time to jam.

I don’t want to die with any music left inside.  Do you?  So what are you waiting for?

Play on.

Photo by Grzegorz Chorus

Has anyone discouraged you lately?  Big ideas, dreams, and goals often incite opposition from those who wish to keep you in tact in their own world.  But you can do it.  The world needs you and your big ideas.  Read how you can honor your dreams and never let anyone pull you down.  Click here to read more….

Source: Michael Port

But as you’ll see in this TED video, researcher/storyteller Brene Brown explains that vulnerability is the essential ingredient to living a beautiful life….wholeheartedly.

So when you have 20 minutes or so, watch this. It is so worth it. May it help you Make Every Day A Holiday.

xoxo,

Kelley

Source: TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

Greg Wyshinski, writer for Yahoo Sports, reported:

Elizabeth Hughes, 8, made her debut signing the national anthem at an AHL Norfolk Admirals (the Tampa Bay Lightning‘s affiliate) game against the Connecticut Whale (New York Rangers‘ affiliate). Angelic voice, bundle of nerves … and then after the words “gave proof,” her microphone abruptly cut out.

What happened next might be something we’ve seen before at a sporting event, but that never lacks for inspiration (and maybe a misty eye or two). There’s a moment around 1:30 into this clip that gives us hope for humanity:

Source: Yahoo Sports

But sometimes, the big goals we make like losing weight, starting a new business, finishing a degree, writing a book, and other things like that can simply freeze us in our tracks. We get caught in a cycle of asking questions like Where do we begin? Do we have all the information? Are all my pencils sharpened and did the dryer just go off so I can do another load?

The hardest thing to do is to start. Resistance abounds. Knowing what we must do is easier than doing what we must do.

So just start. Don’t worry if you haven’t planned everything to letter Z, just begin with one step. Ask yourself, “What is one thing that will get me moving in the right direction.” Do a sit-up. Write for 20 minutes. Get the college catalog. The point is, get get yourself moving forward. Relieve anxiety about following through tomorrow, just do something today. One simple thing.

Lao-Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” And if we know it’s all about the journey and not the destination, what are we waiting for?

2010 was hard for many of us. 2011 is the year of rebuilding. Build it.

Here’s to you and all the dreams, wants, wishes, goals, desires that are burning in your heart. Let’s do it.

You might also like:  The Journey, by Mary Oliver

Someone dear to me said his motto in life was “Dream it. Believe it. Create it.”

The act of dreaming and keeping imagination and passion alive is so important.

Today, remember your dreams or dream possibilities where you see none. It’s not necessary that you believe them right now, that will come, but it’s important you keep that wondrous childlike faith that all things are possible.

About two years ago I decided to do something I’ve always wanted to do…SkyDive. (Well…..strapped to someone who knows what they’re doing.) It was exhilarating! Fantastic! Mind-blowing! This was my controlled risk I wanted to take challenging every norm I’ve lived with my entire life. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

You see, at the time my world was crumbling out from under me. I felt like Humpty Dumpty. I had abandoned my career to save my marriage (that ended up in divorce), I moved, I went through a total upheaval. I realized that I had to sift through the rubble to find what was left of me, pick up some pieces to try and redefine who I was, and get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

I knew I was in for a rocky road ahead, so I chose skydiving as a personal challenge to push myself beyond all my comfort zones. The way I figured it? If I can have enough courage, faith, and trust to jump out of a plane (without training, skill, or aptitude), what else could I do?

Willy Ley, in The Race For Space, said, “The point to remember is that a giant leap into space can be a giant leap toward peace down below.” Although Ley’s quote was an obvious reference to space exploration, I knew when I read it what I must do. My leap out of a plane was my giant leap towards peace in my own life here below.

Skydiving taught me about change, fear, and what your body and soul does when life comes at you hard. I remember the moment they opened the hatch on the airplane. There was this automatic survival safety switch thrown in me that said, “Oh my gosh! There’s an opening in the airplane! Cling to your seat!”

The irony is, in my head I knew I wanted to jump. I had signed up for it, paid for it, signed the waivers, had my parachute, and even had my tandem instructor by me the entire time. I had done the work, knew that’s what I came to do, but my body was on autopilot. And it wasn’t moving.

But then I got the courage to get to the edge.

Look, today’s climate of change in the world will make you want to cling to your seat and grab the “Oh Shit!” bars. It doesn’t matter that intellectually we understand we have to keep moving forward. We didn’t just forget that sometimes things don’t work out as planned. We know we have to adjust. But when the hatch flies wide open, it’s easy to just stay where you are even though you know you have everything within you to still keep moving forward with purpose.

So just be aware. Eventually, once you catch your breath and get comfortable knowing you’re just having an automatic reaction that is totally normal, you may eventually have the courage to walk to the edge and take a step into the exhilarating life you were meant to live.

Remember, you don’t have to jump out of a plane to awaken to your own life. Taking a leap includes anything that shakes your blood and get you moving towards the life you want. It could be as simple as submitting an article to a magazine, changing your hairstyle, volunteering for a cause, or enrolling in a class.

So get ready. Fear is part of the factor. What leap have you been suppressing or what leap will move you in the right direction? Are you ready? Maybe so. Maybe not. But all you have to do is take one small step…or go ahead and take one giant leap.

“We are very near to greatness: one step and we are safe. Can we not take the leap.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Get out and vote.  Let your voice, your choice, be heard.  Stand for something, raise awareness.  Be passionate.  And go!

• Find your polling station
• To Do:  Get a FREE Starbucks coffee after you vote
• To Do:  Get a FREE Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream scoop after you vote.

As we’ve witnessed these past few weeks, life can be messy. Writer Natalie Goldberg said it best in Wild Mind when she wrote “Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce.”

Life derails us. Stocks go down, businesses go belly up, credit freezes, hockey moms run for office. So what? Dig into your one juicy life and make the most of it. Find one thing that you haven’t yet done and work towards it even though it may feel a little painful or hard to do for now.

Life, for every time it’s let you down, is there to show you that with every minute you breathe there is something you haven’t yet tasted. Some of it may be bitter, but rest assured, you’ll hit that sweet spot eventually if you haven’t already experienced it once or twice before.

So our new tag line for Make Every Day A Holiday, along with our new little icon – the green apple – is: Take a Bite Out Of Life. Because for those of us who try to make the most of everyday living, we understand that it’s organic. It’s imperfect. It’s ever-changing. It’s sometimes sticky, sometimes bitter or sour, and yes it’s sometimes sweet. But we never forget that this one life of ours is delicious in every way. The bad often makes us appreciate more of the good. Life is to be ingested, digested, processed and nourished. Life is to be lived.

I hope you always make the most of your today. May you always find a way to make every day a holiday. And if you need some ideas, you might want to check out the new holidaily feed on Twitter. I’ll give you 365 days and ways to make every day a holiday…or at least food for thought.

All my love,

Kelley