Author: micahdl
On living a life of abundance….
On occupational hazards….
- some kind of cupcake with an avocado frosting
- caramelizing onions (probably for French onion soup, so I can continue to make Leah’s amazing recipe…I’ll probably work my way through her recipe catalog)
- cook an amazing boeuf bourguignon (I’m starting to wonder if I should do a Julie & Julia thing…)
- figure out how to do a souffle dessert
- perfect my green chili
- learn how to make Surf n’ Turf
- try to make legit chicken korma
- complicate my baklava a bit in preparation for Christmas
On living with intention….
On living the good life….
On temporary pain….
I have a few tattoos of my own. Four, to be exact. And I love them all. Well, I love three of them. The ugly stepsister tattoo (which was my first) is embarrassing, at best. I need to get it fixed. It was the product of a slightly intoxicated rebellious streak and, because I knew nothing of how to research artists or questions I should ask, I essentially wound up with a paint-by-numbers drawing on my back. Lesson learned, Universe. Lesson learned. [It should also be noted that I credit Miami Ink with teaching me the questions to ask and skills to expect with something so permanent].
So that was my first tattoo. A naked fairy sitting on a rose on my lower back. It’s hideous. Borderline white trash. Sigh. It’s going to take a lot to fix it.
Despite that catastrophe of a tattoo, I’ve become addicted, as so many people do. I now have four tattoos with room for nine more and ideas for at least four of them. Each of them mean (or will mean) something special to me. One is my life’s mission. Another is my family. The most recent is my strength. The next is how I feel about myself (or should feel, because I don’t always feel this way). Another is my past and there will be a matching future. I have a plan for one to display my pride in myself (and my body). I’d like one to display my zen, my peace…but that one will take some time to design.
It’s about the most permanent way I can think of to display the things that make me, me. I see some of my tattoos daily and am reminded of so much of the good and magical in my life. It forces me to remember that for all the good and beautiful in my life, it’s come with some signficant pain. But more than that, it reminds me that pain is temporary and beauty really can feel like forever.
On learning to love again….
Mostly, these feelings are directed at myself or at situations I find myself in. I hate the high arches in my feet. I hate that my gums are receding. I hate that I have a five-head (and I especially hate the scar on said five-head that is in no way a curling iron burn, but everyone stupidly asks that question). I hate the cottage cheese that’s starting to appear on my ass and thighs. I hate that my top half is disproportionately small compared to my bottom half.
Very recently, I took up yoga in a pretty serious way. I went one time with a girl friend about a week ago and have gone every single day since then. Honestly…$75 for unlimited yoga? It was an easy sell for me, even with my very limited budget. I don’t know how it happened, but during one of my classes, I just started thinking while I was breathing: “Peace and love in; Hatred and fear out.” I think it’s become my mantra.
And it’s started helping my understand and appreciate (dare I say, even begin to love) my body more than I ever have. My high arches allow for quick and light footfalls when I run. There’s very little I can do about my teeth and gums, but my new dentist is dreamy in a (married) Michael Buble kind of way so I hate going to the dentist a lot less. My five-head looks pretty awesome when my hair is pulled back in a delightfully messy ponytail when I run. My dimpled ass is just a product of me getting a little older, but my legs are carrying me farther than I ever thought I’d go. And while I still don’t like that I can’t fill out a sundress, I can honestly say there’s nothing better than not having to worry about my chest or back aching from that weight while I run.
Yoga is teaching me things I didn’t think I could learn. Things like restoration and inner peace. I still have a long way to go on both of those fronts. I’m still a really frenetic, Type A monster most of the time. But for an hour a day, I can relax into myself and my breath and just…be. I think I could easily spend five or six hours flowing through gentle poses and it would probably be the most beneficial thing I’d ever do for myself.
And what makes this whole yoga thing even more relaxing to me is the knowledge that I can take it with me anywhere I go. Granted, I have a lot of learning to do before I can do this on my own. I’m a creature that thrives in structured environments where I’m told what to do…so the idea of going it alone in yoga is a bit overwhelming, but I’m hopeful I can get there. I have dreams of practicing on a front porch somewhere, overlooking the ocean. Or taking my mat camping with me and being a warrior and star gazer in the hills.
No matter where my life takes me, I’m convinced that yoga will go with me.
On the fear of change….
But what I’m discovering in all the emotional ups and downs that comes with moving, is that I’m kind of terrible at keeping friends. I make friends pretty easily. After all, I was always the kid the teacher put the new kids next to in school. Always. It’s something my parents sort of held as a badge of honor when it came to me…I was the friendly one. But that seems to be about where it ends. I can make someone feel comfortable and at home, and then I just sort of trail off.
So when I think about moving away, I worry about losing most of the friends I’ve made during my lifetime in Colorado. I made plenty of friends when I lived in both Canada and Minnesota, but the reality is that I only really keep up with one of them. ONE. Granted, she’s my best good buddy, but still…I made lots of friends while I was there. Or so I thought. I’m sure, or at least I’m hoping, I’m not the only one that experiences this feeling. I’m hoping I’m normal.
But it worries me. I’ve made some really incredible friends here and I wonder…when I move away, will all of that just dissipate? Will it all just go away? Maybe that’s part of why I tend to be guarded when it comes to friends. I just panic that at some point, one of us is going to move away and we’ll forget about each other and what’s the point of really investing? It’s a terrible way to go about life. Just awful. I have my very best Denver friend and I panic terribly about losing her. I think about going through our big life changes and how we won’t be together for them.
I hate talking on the phone. Absolutely hate it. That’s probably a huge part of why I struggle with maintaining friendships. I just don’t like being on the phone. I can’t really even bring myself to call my grandparents because I hate the phone so much. Thank goodness for Skype and FaceTime! I’m not sure why, but that seems so much less…awful. Frankly, I have an iPhone for email, texting, Facebook, and shopping. I hate using it for a phone. If I never used the phone app again, I probably wouldn’t miss it. I dread listening to my voicemail. Seriously. It’s like a phobia. Nothing about being on the phone excites me.
I’ve been going through all this miscellaneous relational madness for quite some time now. I often question who my friends are and if I’m even a friend to them. Compounding the issue, I often deal with feeling like I’m forgotten, not noticed, or simply ignored. It’s probably all in my head. I’m sure it is. But it doesn’t make it any less real, the way I feel.
It makes me wonder, because of this, if the life I’m about to embark on is what I was always meant to do? I’m not entirely sure. But the reality is, I’m sure I’ll be moving more and more as the years go by. Friends will come and go. I will come and go. And was my entire life leading up to this just preparation? It’s strange because I’ve always been the one to stay put while everyone else went away. And for the first time in my life, I’m the one that’s leaving everyone else behind.
It’s all very new. And scary. And incredibly exciting.
On the first signs of love….
But a conversation I had last night is what’s really sparking this post. And since we’re less than twenty-four hours from Valentines Day (a day I have come to love and appreciate), this one is about romance.
There are some of us girls that were (and are) very lucky. We grew up with the World’s Best Dad. He’s probably got shirts and mugs and ties and posters and cards from years and years of his daughters thinking that. And it’s not just that we *think* he’s the best. He truly *is* the best. More than a few of us who have this dad probably, between the ages of three and five, asked our dad’s to marry us. He’s the coolest, strongest, smartest, most amazing dad ever, right?! Dad is the first place we really learn what romance is. Pure, uncomplicated, unconditional romance. Dad gave us flowers and took us out on “dates” and twirled us around when we wore our pretty party dresses. Dad told us we were the prettiest, smartest, most special girl in the world. Not because he had to. Not because he wanted something in return. He did it all just because. Because he could and he wanted to. That’s why so many of us girls that have great dads tend to marry men just like him. I see the way my dad is with my mom and that’s a lot of what I want. She’s a powerful woman. A force to be reckoned with, to be sure. And my dad loves every bit of her and just sort of lets the hurricane that is my mother do what she’s going to do…and he’s been known to be disaster relief from time to time. But he loves that woman. And he can fix stuff and make stuff pretty and he’s crazy smart. He’s funny and talented and generous. He’s passionate about his work, his life, his family, his faith. He’s a leader in every facet of his existence.
I remember learning from my dad the way a boy should treat me. He should open doors and bring me flowers and take me to dinner and show. And he should do it all expecting nothing, but hoping for my thanks and adoration in return.
And isn’t that what true love is? Isn’t the act of loving someone supposed to be pure and simple? There should be no conditions. There is something strong and beautiful and unbreakable when love comes to us in its cleanest form. It seems, then, that if we expect nothing in return for love, we’re basically guaranteed to get everything.
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On missing the words….
Is it weird that I’m unnerved by the lack of writing going on around me? I have so many writer friends and so many of us are just, well, not writing right now…or any more. It’s sad. And I honestly hope it’s just a season we’re all in. I miss reading the recipes, the quotes, the poetry, the rants, the advice, the goings-on, the reviews…I miss all of it. It’s few and far between that I see one of us writing and even farther that I find myself writing. There’s plenty to talk about, plenty to discuss. So why aren’t we?
There have been a lot of things on my mind lately, some important, some absolutely pithy. So maybe as a diving board, I’ll just put everything out there, in hopes someone(s) will jump in and we can start writing and talking again.
- Can it really be that, for so long, we (the royal we) were more interested in the Manti Teo nonsense than Benghazi? Or the fact that Hillary Clinton kicked some serious ass on the Hill the other week?
- Am I the only one that actually felt a little emboldended by Beyonce’s halftime show? That was impressed when I saw nearly 200 people on stage and all of them were women?
- It’s just a little sad that every day, when I read the news, there’s nothing happy happening. Someone is always getting killed, killing, or just doing something stupid. I wish that news, for one day, would report nothing but good news.
- I’m on a mission to remove all negative words from my thought and speech. It’s harder than it sounds, but when I actually get down to it, you wouldn’t believe the shift my mental status makes. It’s incredible really.
- There are too many books that I want to read and not nearly enough time to read them all. I picked up a “Jesus-y” book the other day which was, I assure you, a surprise to me as well. So far, I don’t hate it. I need more books titles to read.
- Being a DINK was awesome. I want to be a DINK again. Sigh. If you don’t know what that is or what it means, it’s not really that important.
So there you have it. That’s a sampling of what’s been on my mind the last several weeks. So, dear writer friends, please…regale me with your own thoughts. I miss you!