“What’s Blue Lollipop Road anyway?” A very regular question from others to me and me to myself.
The short answer: It’s about living the life you want to live.
The longer answer: It’s about allowing yourself feel things, think things, want things- and then go after them. It’s about showing and telling people when you love them. It’s about appreciating TIME more than anything. It’s about dreaming then jumping. It’s about realizing that nothing is as hard or scary as we think it might be. It’s about making change when you want it, being savvy, thankful, and aware. It’s about standing in the figurative spot that you want to, living, being who you really are, and owning yourself no matter what expectations are out there to be something/someone else. It’s about following your instincts, trusting yourself and realizing the little awesome’s in every day even when everything feels like it totally sucks. It’s about making choices, doing the right thing when nobody’s watching, and being proud of who you are. It’s about seeing the truth in things, being fearless, living in the moment and realizing that anything really is possible. Most of all- it’s about following your heart and running towards life, not away from it.
How did I become so “smart” and get such perspective?
Newsflash: I’m not really all that smart or more amazing than all of you- no seriously, I’m not. Don’t get me wrong, I know I am amazing (that’s for you Jim and Carl), and “one smart cookie” as my grandfather calls me- but I really am just a regular chick who’s been through a lot of crap (“Chick” and “crap” are technical terms of course.) When you go through a lot of crap, perspective is a no choice delivery. I credit any smarts I might have to the people I’ve spent time with in my life.
A few years back when I was going through a very difficult time, and was in nothing short of a pathetic state, a friend loved me enough to say: “This is one of those forks in the road Diane. You either let yourself go, live on the side of that mountain like that crazy old man, or you get your ass up and do something.”
Phew- thanks to friends who love me enough.
When I was a teenager, my mom wrote in a journal she gifted to me that quote: “With courage greater than your fear, jump into the unknown and you will fly.”
Phew- thanks to my mom and great quotes she never knew I’d really take to heart and live by.
I could go on and on.
As I arrived back in Chicago from my long weekend in California, at midnight Tuesday night- I was thankful. Thankful for amazing fun time, weather, food and laughs with great friends who really love me, and for being an area of the world I feel like I belong in and that “gets” me. As I talked to a girlfriend on the phone last night who’s waiting on her dad’s cancer diagnosis today, I was thankful to laugh on the phone with her and think about how lucky I am to have had her as a friend for the last 15 years. I was thankful about time once again. As I sent my little brother an email this morning to tell him I love him and was thinking about him- I was thankful to have an incredible brother who works so hard to earn his living and allows himself to take a winter break to a warm place each year to find adventure and stretch himself.
Oh I could go on with thanks and thanks and more thanks. I am so thankful.
I now must run to the gym, before I go off to my glamourous job of slinging burgers and beers because rent is due in a few days. I’m thankful for today. I’m thankful for living the life I want to live, even though being there and getting there requires doing lots of not so glamourous and not so fun things. I am thankful for every single time I can type away here freely when the mood strikes, to share thoughts and things I believe in- and that all of you out there who read- appreciate it.
How are you living the life you want to live?
