Inspiration Tag

June 13, 2016 In Do good, Inspiration

i hate, hate

Sometimes I wonder if I’m a weirdo because I cry a lot. Mostly when I hear about young people dying because I’ve experienced a lot of loss- too many friends who were much too young to not have a chance to live more days. I miss my friends so much, all the time. This damn news on my TV about far, far too many innocent people out trying to have a good time being murdered this weekend? Just too much. I can picture myself in a room with all those heartbroken friends, parents, siblings, and partners feeling ripped apart by sudden loss. It takes my breath away. I wish I could do even the tiniest thing to take away an ounce of pain for people who experience this kind of loss, but I know that’s not possible.

I hate, hate so much I cannot even stand it. I hate that so many people in this world hate themselves so much, they don’t know what to do besides kill other people.

Tears for strangers I will never know motivate me more than ever to tell everyone around me how much I love them, and to do work I love in this short life. I hope this awful, awful news will motivate all of us to honor those now gone from any tragic loss, to fight that burn of heartache, by loving hard and trying our best to do good things.

Who can you call right now just to say I love you?

#LoveAlwaysWins #TodayIsTheDay #LetLoveRule

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June 10, 2016 In North Carolina, Photos

no filter sunset

8:17pm, Thursday June 9th. I walk in and this is what I see:

Image 2

No filters, no adjustments, just a quick shot from my old iPhone. Pretty awesome.

There’s something about a sunrise and a sunset that just feels…ahhh…

The best part is that It’s getting better as I sit here on my balcony, take it in, and type.

What makes you feel peaceful?

#Sunsets #SummerNights #LessStuffMoreMomentsHappyLife

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June 8, 2016 In BLR Memorial Travel Scholarship Fund, BLR Play It Forward 2016, Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship, blue lollipops, Do good, Inspiration, People, Photos, play, Strong Mojo, Today Is The Day, Vermont

blr play it forward 2016 kicks off one month from today!

What happens at Play It Forward, you ask?

All awesome things like friends, families, and neighbors, coming together (new and old), lots of socializing fun, honoring people we love who are no longer with us, and gifting scholarship dollars to deserving high school students to help support their travel goals. Doing good and p(L)aying forward to give back, makes everyone smile:

BLR Play It Forward 2015 Screen Shot 2016-06-03 at 11.23.12 AM

We are all hands in for our community kind of gals! So what’s in the hopper for this year? Well check out our event poster:

BLR Play It Forward 2016

…and mark your calendars to join us!

If you can’t join us in some way for this great weekend in Vermont, maybe think about what really matters to you, and make your own community give back wherever you are. Our Play It Forward theme; Remember. Celebrate. Live:

*Remember where you came from

*Celebrate the memories you have

*Live like today is the day

Pretty good rules to live by, right?

Let’s all go and put some more love into the world by being Strong Mojo Warriors. Here we go, year 5!

#RemembercelebrateLive #PlayForwardGiveBack #Community

*(A shout out and huge thanks here to Nicole Sauer for her great photos from our 2015 event, and Tracy Bushee-Boudreau for her continued fabulous logo and poster designs each year!)*

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May 15, 2016 In Inspiration, Links, Live the life you want to live, Today Is The Day, Videos

lets just kick the shit out of option b

It’s Sunday morning, May 15th and I just had a much needed long slumber after a busy week. I woke up missing some people I love, some living and some not. This is an everyday thing for me. In the quiet, all snuggled up in my fleece blanket staring at the blue sky out the window I thought for the gazillionth time how strange it is to consistently feel so happy, excited, and lucky, and yet so heavy-hearted, too.

As I sipped my coffee, I texted a few friends about this book, just published. My sweet friend Sam wrote it. This was a huge dream of his, and how I wish he was here to hold the actual printed version in his hands.

This time of year is my favorite; Warm temperatures, lots of exciting summer plans to be outside in the fresh air and sun, BLR Play It Forward is coming soon, and of course, commencement speeches. I never went to college, so I’ve only experienced commencement speeches online or at some else’s graduation. I wish these kinds of speeches happened all year around, and not just at universities during graduation month. I dig inspirational messages from people who’ve pushed through a bit of life’s minefield keeping a hard-earned smile, and then share their lessons.

I got a phone notification this morning as I was snuggled up, about Sheryl Sandberg’s Commencement Speech at UC Berkeley. She talks about grief, loss, and what she learned in death. Well worth the 26 minute watch:

My favorite parts are at around the 9:45 and 18:45 marks and towards the end when she says “Now I celebrate always.”

My Blue Lollipop Road mantra has always been to live simple. That “stuff” doesn’t matter…people and time do. Our theme for Play It Forward is Remember. Celebrate. Live; Remember where you came from, celebrate memories and what you have, and live like today is the day- don’t wait.

I know like Sheryl and many of you, I will wake up tomorrow still missing. I will always miss someone, a hug or holding that hand. I will always miss seeing some certain smiling faces or a laugh I remember that always felt so good to be around. I will also wake up tomorrow celebrating, because no matter what we’ve been through, we’ve got to keep kicking the shit out of option B. I hope all of us continue to love hard and leave it all on the field.

If there were only 11 more days left…what would you do?

#Celebrate #TodayIsTheDay #HopToIt

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May 13, 2016 In Inspiration, Live the life you want to live, Videos

i dare you

So this is a car ad (and who cares about fancy cars), but every time I hear or see the words only those who dare drive the world forward in this commercial, it makes me want to jump up and scream, HELL YES!

I went with a CPA friend yesterday to a local Title I high school to talk to students about basic financial literacy. We tried to be cool, fun, and as current as possible as we shared about thrilling things that every 16-18 year old (ha!) is just chomping at the bit to learn about like credit card interest, opening a bank or savings account, and how best to fill out a job application. As we made our important points about how to kick off life with a few bucks in your pocket and how not to (ahem) eff up your early money life by making mistakes that we (or at least, I) did, we found ourselves circling back to a basic foundation message that has nothing, (but everything) to do with money and creating a healthy, happy life:

Stay curious, figure out how you like to spend your time, trust your gut, and hustle for what you want. Speak up, keep getting up, and never take no for an answer.

Walking out of the school it felt great to know maybe, just maybe, we could’ve made the slightest impact on a young life. I couldn’t help but think though, that perhaps all of us “adults” could use to be a little bit more daring; To remember who we were, what we dreamed about, and the things that made our hearts beat fast back in the day when we first found out the world was our oyster.

I dare you.

#LifeOutsideTheDroneZone #TodayIsTheDay #Dare

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May 9, 2016 In Be active, BLR Memorial Travel Scholarship Fund, BLR Play It Forward 2016, Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship, Do good, Inspiration, Links, Strong Mojo, Today Is The Day, Travel, Vermont

get your give on

Hello, Monday!

Today is May 9th. This means exactly 2 months until our 5th Annual BLR Play It Forward Event & BLR Memorial Travel Scholarship award, July 9 2016 weekend. (FIVE years!)

We’ve been doing good on our Remember, Celebrate, Live promise since 2012 and couldn’t be more proud. We love playing forward to give back.

Inspired by us? Well thank you…but we wouldn’t be able to do it without YOU! So how do you get involved?

1.) If you’re MAU Women’s Soccer Alumni, you can register here for just a $35 donation to play in the game, Saturday July 9th at Willow Park in Bennington, VT. 100% of registration fees go to the scholarship fund.

2.) Get an event shirt for yourself or your kiddos here. Shirts come in blue and pink, youth and adult sizes.  Just 20 buckaroos donation! 100% of that loot goes straight to the scholarship fund.

3.) Rally your friends, family, neighbors, former teachers, coaches, strangers on the street, or anyone else you like, to come join/hang out/socialize for our Friday night (July 8th) open Welcome Back Party, and Saturday day and night (July 9th) Alumni game, scholarship announcement, and Celebration Cocktails.

4.) Sponsor! We’d love any sponsorships, and promise if you do, we will give shout-outs and love on all print & social media, along with on the BLR website here and more. (We’d especially like to to find a jersey & t-shirt sponsor this year to cover that huge cost. Please call 804.339.6514 or Diane(@)BlueLollipopRoad.com if you’d like to sponsor.)

5.) Donate! 100% of all donations go straight to the Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Travel Scholarship Fund. This fund supports deserving high school students to travel and do community service work. (Wha?! Yep, students doing good while getting a chance to see outside their everyday world. Exposure! Service! Character building! Building a badass next generation! Super awesomeness:)

If you’re a regular reader or BLR follower, you obviously know this Blue Lollipop Road is my life, my passion, my everything, and Play It Forward is by far the work I’m most proud of. I can’t do it alone, so I present a challenge to you readers who I know and strangers I don’t:

Donate $5 now! 

I figure $5  for 5 years of playing forward so we can give back is not too much to ask. Everyone can afford 5 big ones. Won’t you support what we are doing? Click here to donate through PayPal, it is secure, easy, (and dare I say, fun?), or send a check made payable to:
Blue Lollipop Road Memorial Scholarship Fund
PO Box 34661
Charlotte, NC 28234

…or

…simply pass this post on! My Christmas wish is that some one, some where, some day, who’s big time, will notice what we are doing and say “Hey! You are spectacular BLR Play It Forward! Here’s some ginormous media and/or a million bucks for your scholarship fund! What you’re doing with your event & scholarship fund is like…totally awesome!”

(Hey- it could happen. It WILL happen.)

So won’t you send some love and spread the love? Oh how important it is, to…

Remember where you came from.

Celebrate the memories and time you have have together.

Live like today is the day.

BLR Play It Forward

BLR Play It Forward

BLR Play It Forward

BLR Play It Forward

BLR Play It Forward

Image

Boom-chicka-boom!

Together we can do so much good.

#RememberCelebrateLive #GetInspired #TodayIsTheDay

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March 27, 2016 In Links, North Carolina, Photos, Recommended reading

check yourself before you wreck yourself

Thanks to modern technology, this was my office for a couple days this week:

Beach Life

There hasn’t been nearly enough of the above in my life during the past few months, which is just totally not cool, and pretty much against everything I stand for, so sand in toes and connecting with a few important people had to happen.

Needed it. Did it. Wanted to smack myself for not doing it sooner. Translation; Check myself (breathe/give myself some space/take a “minute”) before I wrecked myself (exhaustion, frustration, etc. – that beast that creeps making us feel at times like crispy fried bacon.)

In Googling the title for this post just now, this link popped up. I dig no bs writers who aren’t afraid to throw a little weight in truth around, and the occasional f-bomb:

Get it

We will all learn eventually how to take better care of ourselves (without feeling guilty), so we can in turn be better at taking care of others. We will all learn eventually how to take breaks (without feeling guilty) so we can remember who we are and be badass in our personal and professional lives.

No more crispy fried bacon. No more victim. Much more creating a life that has a shit ton of joy everyday.

How do you check out so you can check back in?

#StepBackMoveForward #Perspective #HappyLife

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