Back to the Blog

So here's me doing what I usually do, writing around New Years. For most of my life, New Years is the only time I engage in some kind of reflective writing. I always enjoy it so much and tell myself that I should do it more often, but I never end up acting on that resolution.

That changed this last fall semester. I needed to take an Arts and Expression class and chose 'Creative Non-Fiction Writing' to satisfy my last distribution requirement (ironic for anyone that knew me growing up since practically everything I did revolved around art and expression: dance, yearbook designer and editor, theater, singing...). I was excited to get back to an English class after not taking one since my first semester of college when I was planning on an English and Education double major (I'm now a Government and Philosophy major...funny how things change).

Though the creative writing, and writing from the heart as well as the mind, took awhile for me to adjust to, the course made me realize how much I miss that form of expression. So here I am, again, pledging to make an effort to write more in the year ahead and breathe some new life into this old blog. My brother also just bought me a beautiful green leather journal from Anthropologie for Christmas, so that in itself is also a little incentive to write.

I was contemplating starting a whole new blog since I only had three posts on this one (one of which upon rereading I deleted) but decided not to. I like the design, the title, and the first blog entry gives a pretty good gist of who I am. I'm glad that the first word in the title of my blog is "peace". If there's been one word that I have tried to let guide my life over the past two years, it's been this one. Of course yoga helps with this. But more than that, I think my interest in studying ethics, social inequality, race relations, and politics is my way of preparing for a life and career that I hope will bring more peace to the world. After college, I plan on getting certified to teach vinyasa yoga because I truly believe as the founder of my yoga studio at home, Breathe, once said "If everyone practiced yoga, we would have world peace." I won't go to far into this since I think I talked about it in my first blog post and just wrote a whole essay on it for my Creative Non-Fiction portfolio (which I might post here eventually, along with some others). Anyways, I'd be happy teaching yoga for the rest of my life, so I think teacher certification is the most appropriate thing to do right after college. The PhD in political philosophy may come in the future or it may not, still need to spend time sorting out if that's the right thing for me.

Getting back to the point on peace, I wanted to share a quick story. I was driving to yoga a few days ago when I saw an older man riding one those bicycles that have the reclining backs. He was peddling slowly along the side of my street and as I drove up behind him I noticed the sign attached to the back of his seat which read "HONK FOR PEACE". I honked and he turned over his left shoulder as he pulled into his driveway and waved at me. If i had left me house just a minute later, I would have missed him.

I got thinking about what this man's sign does. I starting thinking about the small gestures we make and to what extent these actions can influence or impact the world. I'm a firm believer in the idea that everything we do to bring peace to ourselves has a direct positive impact on the world. If we as individuals enter the world after bringing peace to ourselves (be it through yoga, meditation, music, running, or whatever) we make the world around us more peaceful. I certainly notice that I am much less likely to get frustrated or angry at getting cut off on the road after a yoga class. On Christmas Eve morning, I saw a man get out of his car at a red light and (for some reason unknown to me) start yelling at the person in the car behind him. My first thought was, 'Nice Christmas spirit Mr.', my second was, 'that guy could have use a yoga class this morning' When we act with mindfulness in the world, we change it. We see the world from a perspective greater than just our own, and it is then when we can truly being to see the effect of our actions.

I would assume that most people wouldn't think that a simple honk is enough to "change the world". But I would argue that it does exactly that. I'm not saying that a honk will end hunger, war, and hatred, but it is a step in the right direction. That man's sign got me (and everyone else who drove down East Street that morning) to spend a few moments thinking about peace. It was a reminder that there is a world out there larger than ourselves, and a cause that truly affects us all which deserves our attention. I would hope that every person who saw this man's sign went about there day with a little more mindfulness, and that this mindfulness reverberated onto all the people they came to interact with that day.


Instead of ending with song lyrics, since truthfully I've been listening to a lot of pop music on my running playlist recently, I'll end with one of my favorite quotes,

"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others." -Nelson Mandela

"Retrospective Thought"

New Years Eve is my favorite day of the year. Truthfully, I enjoy New Years more than I enjoy my birthday. New Years is my type of holiday. It celebrates something that is so important to me: resolution. To me, resolution is something that is truly beautiful. To be able to come to a resolution shows reflection, thought, courage, power, drive, and strength. I guess I try to live everyday like its New Years. I'd rather live my life constantly seeking improvement and acknowledging all the "resolutions" I want to make in order to become the person I want to be. I'd rather look back on my life day to day, then look back at my life when I'm 80 wishing I did all the things I never did or make all the changes I never made.

OK, with that said, 2010 has been quite the year. I think in some ways its been the best, but hardest year of my life (though I'm not sure that a year I found easy would ever be my favorite). All the challenges of this year have led me to discover a lot about myself: my dreams, strengths and weaknesses, interests, passions, good and bad habits. There were two important lessons I had to learn this year. The first being that sometimes things will not always go the way I want them to (no matter how much I want it, I may need something else). The absence of what I think I want, may teach me exactly what I need to learn. The second lesson was that I choose my happiness. I can desperately hope or wait for happiness and never find it, but if I wake up in the morning with the intention of having a beautiful day, I will create happiness.

I learned these lessons over the course of the year, but they really hit home when I started doing Yoga. I'd like to take a quick moment to give a shout out to Breathe Yoga Studio in Pittsford, NY. If you ever have the chance to practice there, GO. It is truly incredible. Back to the blog...I'd done yoga here and there before this year, but had never really integrated it into a part of my life. I could go on and on about why I love yoga and what it has done for me this year but instead I'll just make a list: strength, power, acceptance, peace, happiness, love, gratitude, light. I guess those are the things I think of when I think of yoga.

So putting this into practice at school this past semester I've found that I'm much happier, more outgoing, and more at peace. When I left for school in August my mom gave me a mug with a quote that reads something along the lines of "Peace is not the absence of hard work and challenges. It is to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." I guess this is another one of the mantras that I've tried to stick to this year.


To sum it up in brief, this year taught me how to be strong, to create happiness, and to be at peace.


Tomorrow I'm heading up to Vermont to celebrate with friends. Can't wait to bring in the New Year. Hears to another great year :)

"And you asked me what I want this year
and I try to make this kind and clear
just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
'cause I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
and designer love and empty things
just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

So take these words and sing out loud
'cause everyone is forgiven now
'cause tonight's the night the world begins again"

"Better Days" - Goo Goo Dolls

Beginning the Blog

I'm not really sure how I feel about this whole blogging thing. I'd like to say I'm a big diary writer, but I maybe write in my owl (my diary is this think leather one with a giant owl engraving on the front...a Christmas gift from a close friend during Senior year of high school) a few times a year. The entries that make the cut tend to be wildly dramatic. So since I love to write, maybe the fact that my thoughts are posted publicly on the internet will keep things in a better perspective. But nonetheless, the blogging still makes me a little uncomfortable because I'm not so sure that anyone will read this...but whatever at the very least this blog will be a fun little phase.

So tonight I carved pumpkins with my friend/floor-mate Alissa. About three seconds in I was reminded of my tendency to get very impatient. As soon as I start a creative arts and crafts project, I want it to be over. I think thats because back in the 4th grade when I took art lessons, my teacher yelled at me in front of the class for drawing my beagle "wrong." I was very confused as to how I was wrong...it was art, not math. And it was my beagle, not hers. Speaking of math, want to give a little shout out to my current Stats class, which will most definitely be the first and only math class I take in college. Truthfully though, its not really as bad as I thought it would be.

Last weekend I went home for mid-semester break. It was the first time that I felt like I didn't need a break. I loved being home and seeing family, but I would have been perfectly content to stay on campus and relax here. This year has just been so different from last year already. I'm definitely the happiest I've been in awhile and thats mostly thanks to a summer of reflection, Breathe Yoga Studio, and eliminating the things in my life that were keeping me down.

Anyway that little detour was necessary in explaining my blog title: PEACE LOVE AND HAPPINESS. I feel like these three words became my guiding themes this summer. So i thought it was appropriate to use them as the title. A little dramatic perhaps, but it works.

I decided to end my blog with a sign off lyrics instead of something lame like "Over and Out." So at the end of every blog I'll just give a lyric to the song that is currently playing on repeat throughout my day.

"I just saw a shooting star
We can wish upon it
But we wont share the wish we made
But I cant keep no secrets,

I wish that you would always stay."

Laundry Room- The Avett Brothers