If you have a choice; always be a bird...

Evolution is the story of what we leave behind; the story of how you survive in a changing world. 

Not all dinosaurs went extinct. Their descendants live on in birds. 

Birds thrived when others didn't. Due to their continual evolution and ecological diversity, they found a shifting niche where survival hinged on shrinking size. 

I love birds.... 

....they're free 

.....they're funny

.......they're unique 

........they're survivors 

And come on, they're related to dinosaurs! If you don't think that's cool, you and I aren't going to get along; ever. 

Birds remind me of things I often forget, things I should never, ever cease to remember. 

Sometimes I feel small, weak, and not ready to fly. One jump out of my nest and I'm a goner. I can choose to be afraid and sit there trembling and not moving, assuming my demise is upon me...... Or I can fly. I can jump into the unknown and assume it will be brilliant. 

Jumping into the unknown is scary, sure.. But how do you ever get to the carnival parking lot with all-you-can-eat funnel cakes and french fries if you never jumped out of your nest?! 

I'm not saying life is a smorgasbord of all things delicious waiting for you as soon as you choose to fly, but I AM saying it's worth it. You don't want the regret that comes from letting something amazing pass you by. You don't. 

So be a bird. 

Jump out of your nest,

Choose to fly,

Explore the unknowns,

Steal french fries from parking lots.....

Don't tremble at the future, dive in head first.

on tolerance, hope, and humanity..

Think back to a time when you felt threatened. Your purse was stolen as you were window shopping downtown. It was a man wearing a gray hoodie and white tennis shoes. You never did get a good look at his face as it all happened so suddenly, but the gray hoodie and white shoes are forever engrained in your mind as a threat. 

You're shopping again. Six months later. You laugh with your friends until you meet the glass doors to the parking lot and part ways. Just as you are about to unlock your car a man in a gray hoodie and white shoes walks by and you scream. A loud, somebody-help-I'm-being-murdered scream. 

He was 26. Went to the local college and lived with his parents. Dating a girl named April for about three months now, which he was celebrating tonight and getting her a new necklace at the mall. Turns out, man in the gray hoodie was harmless this time. 

You just stereotyped based on past experience, based on something somebody else did. Your fear was justified given the past scenario, but... The man in the gray hoodie and white shoes was NOT the man in the gray hoodie and white shoes that stole your purse. In fact, wearing a gray hoodie and white shoes is common. It's popular. So to think that every man wearing that is going to steal your purse is not only wrong, it's very close-minded.

Now think larger scale. Not a purse being stolen but a culture being threatened.

We all have fear. Fear of people unlike us. Fear of cultures as a whole due to a percentage that is trying to harm our way of life. 

Yes, the fact is many Muslims are plotting against us, to put it simply. Does that make every Muslim guilty? Does that mean everybody named Mohammed is condemned? It's a popular name, a respectable name. It's a gray hoodie and white shoes. 

I urge you to know the person before the accusations. The peaceful are not irrelevant; the good is not irrelevant. 

Hope does exist. The world is filled with good things and good people. We have to start believing that... We have to start SEEING that, focusing on that. 

The bad excites us, it's a problem to be solved, it's ever present and strikes fear.. It's not everything though. 

Every man named Mohammed is not a terrorist and every person in a gray hoodie and white shoes is not a thief. 

Choose to see the good, it's beautiful when you look at it.

There's so much bad in the world. Shootings and terrorists and purse-stealers, but we each have the power to change that. To turn fear into courage and have steadfast hope for humanity.

I'm choosing hope. Don't let me down, humies.

Open The Can of Worms

I can't sleep. I really can't.

4AM and I are two peas in a pod. 

Audiobooks are a treasure to me. I lay my phone next to my pillow and listen to beautiful, enlightening words. Funny words. Harsh words. Scary words. I let them lull me to sleep, if I'm that lucky. 

I don't have everything together right now. I'm not broken, either. I'm recovering. As they say, I'm finding the beautiful in the ugly and stitching it into my life. 

I'm fighting. I'm learning. I'm striving for my future. I'm learning to accept and welcome the present. 

I have scars just like you. I have things that make me bawl, and things that make me cackle like a chicken with happiness. 

I share my life not to be a martyr, not to get attention, but to remind you, sweet-pea, that you are not alone in what you face. 

People all over the world are just like you. Maybe they can't sleep. They're lonely. They're confused. They're excited for the future but timid. They have unbearable secrets. They love someone they shouldn't. Whatever it is, you could tell them everything and they would understand. 

We tend to gravitate towards this idea of being robots; somehow that makes us appear strong. I call bullshit (as I so often do when it comes to expressing feelings, you guys should have known that was where I was headed)

There's a method to my madness though. Don't keep your thoughts locked away for so long that they come thrashing out one day unexpectedly. They're worth sharing. My bet is someone, somewhere feels the exact same way and could learn a whole hell of a lot from you. I'm not asking you to open a whole can of worms. I'm asking you gently open the lid, take one worm out gently with tweezers, and then shut the can again until another day. Harmless. 

I've learned that our most challenging times are like sandpaper; scratching and hurting us until we end up polished and new. So take your time to be worn down, and learn while you're at it. 

Learn that it's okay to not be all the way okay, but you can't quit. Learn that you're not alone; you never were and won't ever be. Just please, never stop learning.. No matter what life throws your way- Learn. 

Write a list of things that are going to get better. Start with you. 

If I Died, this Blog Post Would Go Viral

Hear me out.

I’m not suicidal; by ANY stretch of the imagination. Sure, I need my boys Ben&Jerry to soothe my aching heart on occasion, but I love LIFE.

I’m right though. If I died today, my blog post would go viral.

It’s simple really; people don’t realize what they have until it’s gone. And once it’s gone, they romanticize it. Take any number of artists where their work was frowned upon and later discovered and admired.

Death (or the loss of something) does funny things to people. (Also does horribly unspeakable things to people which I'll save for a different post) Your last words become gospel. Your last words become engraved in the very souls that witnessed them.

Last words shouldn’t be what matters most. They shouldn’t be what replays in your mind over and over and what you find hidden meaning in. It should be all the words in-between that little dash on your gravestone. It’s not the two dates that matter, but the little dash in-between.

As much as I’d probably just die and go to heaven if my blog actually DID go viral, that’s not really the point of this article. It’s to celebrate, honor, and cherish the people and things in our life before we have to view them as a distant memory; before we have to say goodbye.

My blog post wouldn’t go viral because I have such enlightening, astounding things to say to change the world, but because of my loss of words. Now all the sudden the words I did say would hold so much weight, because there wouldn’t be any more of them. They would have to hold their own weight in the world. They would have to be bold and brave and never get the opportunity to be defended by the author of such words.

We do this in life. We don’t cherish the things we have until we see them from goodbye.

So today make a decision….

Treat your life like it’s about to go ‘viral.’

Treat your words like they have to defend themselves in the world with no feedback from you.

Cherish the dash between the dates.

Oh the topic of swimsuits.. #BikiniBodyReady

"Bikini body ready," is usually the term us women (and men) like to go with. Summertime has this special way of bringing out ALL our body image insecurities, well, because you can't hide anything under that warm, comfy sweater anymore! Winter clothes are in bins in the garage and there is no more hibernation! Your body is vulnerable and out there for all to see, or more specifically- for all to judge. 

Let me tell you a little secret though, we are our own worst critics. This cannot be MORE true than when those summer rays are beating down on us at the pool. We suck in our gut, hold our hands strategically over areas we don't feel comfortable with and try to make it look natural, and have a constant slew of negative self-talk the entire time we are out; and that HEIGHTENS when we see someone look us up and down or make a snide comment.

I have been told I am underweight. In fact, one manager used to let me eat at my desk because he was so concerned I didn't ever eat. It was weird. It also made me feel like there was something wrong with the way my body looked. Was I really TOO skinny? Or was I just at a healthy weight for my structure and personal body type? Was there something wrong with me? 

So how is it that I have been told I am underweight at times, but then put on a bikini and feel like a giant heifer? (#sorrynotsorry for the word choice) ALL of my flaws are now on display. My weird belly button and the stretch marks on my legs from growing too fast as a kid and my hip bones that awkwardly protrude and the freckles on my stomach next to my belly button..... It's just on display. It wouldn't matter if I was 85 lbs or 885 lbs, I would find something to feel insecure about. And so would you. Because it happens ALL. THE. TIME. 

Don't believe me? Spend ten minutes in a locker room at the pool and see how many girls ages 8-88 look at themselves in the mirror for extended amounts of time before going out to the pool. Body image issues are real and they are prevalent more than ever. 

Women who wear bikinis and are told they are, "promoting obesity," is unfair, and quite honestly.. Sickening. Does that mean when I wear a bikini that I am promoting being underweight or promoting anorexia or bulimia?! 

I think the thing people often lack to realize is that someone's clothes, or lack of clothes, does not mean they are promoting anything. It may just mean they are at the pool and that bikini they have on is the perfect attire to, you know, SWIM. In. A. Swimsuit. 

Next time you see someone that doesn't have your exact same body shape, remember you are looking at a human being. A human with feelings and a brain and a heart and yeah, maybe a little different size than you. 

Stop calling people whales, twigs, elephants, pencils.... Just stop comparing WOMEN (and men) to anything other than the beautiful HUMAN they are. Whether you are a size double 0 or 16 or you don't even care to know your size anymore, you are gorgeous. 

So let's stop all this, "bikini body ready," and just stick with, "Ready." 

Ready to be me in my own skin.

Ready to not put down other people.

Ready to build others up who are struggling with their body. 

Ready to have FUN swimming instead of worrying about how I look. 

READY. 

I'm #ready, are you?! 

Now go put on that damn swimsuit and hit the pool, the water's nice!! 

P.S. Don't forget those awesome looking goggles that give you an instant lip job and make you look like Scuba Steve! 

#stunner.