Embarrassing Bravery

A friend sent me a text this week telling me to check out a video clip that he had found to be inspirational and thought that I would also enjoy it….it sure is great to have friends who know me so well-this short video clip was just the inspiration I needed!

You can view the video below but to sum it up it is a clip from the movie We Bought a Zoo (which I must see now!) where a man giving advice regarding a little boys love life but the words he says can be used in every other aspect of life as well. He tells this kid that “20 seconds of insane courage, 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery will always lead to something good”.

This got me thinking…he was right – as embarrassing as something may feel, in the end something good will come out of it. Maybe not right that moment but if we look back at all of the times we took advantage of those “20 second courageous moments” we will be able to see how those 20 seconds got us to where we are. We can also see how not using these 20 seconds to our full advantage regardless of how silly we may feel at the time will in some way down the road, also impact our life.

We have all heard the Eleanor Roosevelt quote, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” to me that has always meant I should drive a few miles over the speed limit, go skydiving, swim with the sharks….things along those lines. However, this quote found new meaning with me about two months ago when I had a customer at my desk. We were finishing his paperwork up and just as I always do I asked him was there anything else I could help him with – he at first said no and that he was all taken care of and then he picked up my card read my name and said, “Faith. Faith, you are very pretty.”  I said “Thanks!” as I blushed and as he nervously stammered around to pick up his car keys and papers and it hit me – this is what Eleanor Roosevelt was talking about. It was very apparent this man was not just throwing out some line – he was doing his one thing for the day that scared him. Even though it was apparent he felt as if he had just realized he had left the house without any clothes on – He got it – he understood what “embarrassing bravery” is all about.

Believe it or not, for as much as I love to talk and write – I am not one that is good at taking advantage of my “20 seconds” in real life situations. I thought that I was good at hiding this until tonight when talking to my mama and she pointed out the fact that I never talk about stuff, instead I write out my thoughts and email them to whoever they need to go to or I post a blog but it is very rare, even in these instances that I don’t talk using metaphors. I always seem to think of an example to express how I am feeling but never just say, ok – this is what is happening in my life and this is how I feel. Hmmmmm mamas always have us figured out huh?!

To me, words are one of the most powerful tools that we have in our daily life which is why I am so careful when choosing mine and so careful that I don’t say the same old things to everyone on the occasions when I do choose to reveal my thoughts. As careful, (or scared) as I am with my words this year has definitely not helped to calm any hesitations – saying “yes” to a marriage proposal, something I always thought I would only do one time in my life and then having to later go back and say, “no” has almost made me so that I am even afraid to write (as you can tell from my scarce postings) because I am worried what if I change my mind about what I said or how I feel. This is why my friend sending me this video clip was so enlightening to me – between that,  the man from my office and my 30^th birthday quickly approaching I am going to TRY to “drop my guard” so to speak. I tried this today and it felt really good - I text a friend that I will be seeing soon that I was actually looking forward to seeing them – I know this sounds silly but for anyone who knows me well, you know I am going at saying, “You too!”, “Ditto”, “OK”, “Uh huh”….etc. but I am not good at initiating those nice, simple, little comments because I don’t want you to not reciprocate and me stand there feeling embarrassed and because I do not want you to think I just say that to anyone. Baby steps people!

I am by no means saying I think that everyone should just feed me compliments constantly and I will be the happiest girl on earth – even that makes me squirm – how do I know you are as careful with your words as I am and I am not the tenth person you have given that same compliment to that day?

I don’t know this, just like I am realizing that I don’t know right now how I will feel tomorrow but I am slowly but surely grasping on to the fact that it is ok to “mess up” because chances are whether I am telling someone something or trying to believe in the sincerity of what a person is telling me, I will more than likely look back and realize that it wasn’t a “mess up” at all.
 
So this is my 30^th birthday gift to myself - I am going to work on allowing my true feelings to be expressed and I will do so with the understanding that I may look back and be so thankful that I did that or I may look back and laugh at how silly I sounded but either way I will be able to look back and know that I used many more of the  “20 seconds of insane courage and 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery” the next 30 years of my life than I did in the first!

xoxo,

Faith

 

The Happy 12

I saw this on Pinterest tonight and I just had to share it!
LOVE it!

xoxo,
Faith

Not crawling in my cave....just yet!

Aaaaaaaaaagggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh....it is happening. The winter blues are hitting me....bad part is we have only had about three really cold days!
There is just something about this time of year that gets me every single time...it is getting dark earlier, the air has a not so comforting chill, my car windshield has frost on it, I can see my breath....all of these things are on my list of things I could do without! When this time of year starts rolling around, I always seem to buy more pajamas than any other time - I guess all I want to do is lay in bed sipping hot chocolate so the fashionista in me feels the need to do this in cute PJ's. How can I remain in a completely gloomy mood when I at least had an excuse to go shopping...in a warm store?! :)

I was talking to a friend today and I told them I was starting to get these feelings but that I felt like my gloomy mood was coming earlier than normal, to which my honest friend replied...Nope,go take some Tylenol PM, and go to sleep, you have done this every year around this time since I have known you.

As I have mentioned before in my posts I am so thankful for my friends, even without trying they often snap me back to reality. He was right,every year around this time, I do seem to fade away into what I call my "poor me' bear cave"...I really do which is why all I could do was pause for a second and then laugh when I realized no rebuttal was needed to his comment!

This conversation helped me to decide that I am not going into hibernation just yet...I mean, the temperature tomorrow is supposed to be 68 degrees -That is really close to 70...I have gone to the beach on 70 degree days - I cannot break out the Swiss Miss at this point...I am promising myself to at least wait until we get down to 60! :)

This Winter (or Fall as some call it...to me it is all winter haha) I am going to try a different approach, this cold winter, I am going to keep my chin up even if snowflakes are landing on it!

PS) Only 253 more days until it is officially Summer! ;)

xoxo,
Faith

 

 



YOU are the Cashier

I was chatting with a friend the other day and we were talking about life. How we have to remember to take it one day at a time  and to learn from each day but also remember, to not let the tough lessons hold us back.

We often get so caught up in bad moments that happened in the past that we miss out on the good things could be happening at this moment. The friend I was chatting with the other day, was telling me how amazing the girl is that he is currently dating but how because of past failed relationships  it is sometimes hard to believe that this new love in his life is always completely sincere in having his best interest at heart. 

I'd be lying if I said I'd never been there before, it's not fun at all not being able to let your hair down and really enjoy something which is why this convo with an old friend reminded me of a little scenario I came up with a while back to help me through a similar situation. 

If you have ever talked to me about an issue like this then I am sure you know exactly what you are about to read before continuing on!

Ok, it's story time! You are in line at the grocery store when the lady in front of you is finally done, the cashier begins scanning your items and then he says, "ok, your total today is $350.00." You look up from texting and  say, "Wait just a minute....all I have is a couple of items-a pack of gum and a bottle of water so do you mean $3.50?!?" To which the cashier replies, "No ma'am, I mean $350.00 unless you have any more coupons other than the ones she gave me already" For a minute you are completely puzzled and then you realize what is happening, the cashier is charging you for items from the lady who was just in front of you! So you quickly exclaim, "Sir, why should I have to pay for that lady's stuff - I don't even know her and I don't even like half of the stuff she bought!" 

The cashier can handle this situation in one of two ways, he  can either apologize and tell you he's  sorry but that's just the way it is -take it or leave it for the next girl in line OR he can thank you for bringing this to his attention, apologize that he almost made a huge mistake that could've cost him his job and then assure you that he trashed her ticket and started a brand new one just for you. 

Sooooooooo,  Mr Cashier....do you choose to make her pay for the baggage from the person before her or do you choose to give her the new and improved ticket?

"You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." 

~Johnny Cash

xoxo,

Faith

To me, From me

Some have painting, some have music, some have sports, some have photography, some have their profession, some are still trying to figure out what theirs is (and they will) but for me, my passion is this...writing. 

This is the place where I can say what I am thinking and feeling and regardless if anyone else besides me reads it, I know that I put it all out there...exactly what I'm thinking. Writing is how I express my happy thoughts, sad thoughts, confused thoughts or whatever they may be- I know that when I sit down to write out my thoughts they just come naturally with no hesitation. 

So you would think with all of the things going on in my life in the past year I would be writing ten times a day, but it has actually been quite the opposite. 

I have had so much going on that I would love to share but I just haven't been able to find the inspiration, something that before I never even knew I needed...I've finally  come to realize it's something that I don't need, inspiration isn't what's been missing, instead it's been honesty. 

When I write, I am writing to me. 

I am sincere and honest in what I have to say. The last few months of life have been amazing, hard, confusing, happy, frustrating, tiring and quiet. 

Somewhere among all of those adjectives there came a point in my life where I couldn't write because I couldn't write to myself and know that it was sincere and honest. So I stopped. I would start typing and then just stop because I felt like what I was writing just didn't make sense with how I felt. It made sense with how I should be feeling with everything going on in life,  but when it came time to read over it I felt like I were writing to someone else or for someone else and that's not why I write.

So here I am, laying it all out there and writing to myself to say...

It is ok that I am not happy at work, it is ok that I will be 30 this year and not married,  it is ok that I said yes,  it is ok that I sometimes smiled when I wanted to cry, it is ok that it ended, it is ok that I let pride interfere with decisions, it is ok that I have had to hurt people, it is ok that I am having to hurt while at the same time feeling happy and relieved, it  is ok that it took me this long to accept that no matter what people choose to say or what people choose to believe, it is all ok. 

"For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it rain." ~ Longfellow 

xoxo, 

Faith

Three Things.....

Worth 5 minutes and 3 seconds of your time....important lessons that we all need to be reminded of!!!

xoxo,

Faith