Enjoy the Journey

Hey Y'all!

I should be doing homework, but I'm not! :) I will, I will, I promise. But I wanted to update my profile and give it a new look, I've not done that for a while! I loved the Beach Theme I had, but I was ready for something new! I also added some new photos! Colin & I had such a truly fabulous time last night celebrating our 2 year annivesary and in fact, our whole weekend together, was just wonderful! It was calm, mellow, productive and lovely! We enjoyed it very much! A part of me can't believe we've been together 2 years already, our running joke is that it feels more like 20...but then other times, it feels like yesterday! I don't know!

Anyway, the food was great, the atmosphere was definately celebratory and the company, well, the best! We went to the first place where we had our first date two years ago! As much I enjoyed our first date, I think enjoyed last night better! I knew he was going to call and we went home to together, to the home that we share! There's something incredibly sweet about that! Colin looked so downright cute and handsome last night, I was glad to have him on my arm; but then again, I pretty much always am! We walked the Strip a bit and something occured to me: in the last month, I've been there 5 times...which I think is about the same amount of times I've been there since I've lived here in Vegas! It's fun though, especially if you're over 21!!! I can see why people don't want to live here or can't, there are certainly days when it gets to me. There's so much money, sex and bullcrap here, there really is, but I must admit....in this town, you don't have to go far for a celebration!!

It's really neat to get in your car, drive 10-20 minutes and be at a WORLD FAMOUS, WORLD RENOUNED destination! It's fun to show to your friends and it's great fun to fall in love here! I hated Vegas when I first moved here, and it took me a few years to embrace it! While I wouldn't want to raise a child here, I do consider myself forunate to have lived here for this time. It's like my 3rd hometown; Reno, San Francisco (I miss that city so very much!) and Vegas! I love the richness of this city and its history (Vegas). I love the total spectrum of classes here and the multi-culturalism of it! You can walk down the strip and hear at least three or four different languages, if not more...you can see the richest glitziest things and the poorest, most run-down things too. It's quite sad actually, that with all the glitz and glamour and gobs of money in this town, we also have an enormous homeless population and dire, dire poverty...it's horrible. But it's interesting to live smack dab in the middle of it all. I'm thankful I'm not homeless, every single day I thank God for and bless our house/home, but, I'm also thankful I'm not philthy rich either! Money does not buy happiness, but here in Vegas, it can buy some pretty cool experiences! :) And I'm quite grateful for those experiences! Sometimes I yearn for the quietness of Reno, the sub-duedness of home and a calmer existance; but, I have that in my home, in our house! So, when I step out of my house, I have the world at my feet--literally! :) It's so cool! I don't classify myself a Vegas girl, or even a total city girl, walls do begin to close in on me after a while and I long for wide open spaces and clear blue skies! But overall, I'm really begining to love Las Vegas! :)

TO MY FRIENDS:

A lot of my friends lately, myself included if I'm being totally honest, seem to be struggling with what to do next with their life! I've read blog posts lately about "what do I want to do?" "where do I go next?" and the truth is, I don't think any of us ever really know. I think we plan and dream, but life rarely, if ever, works out the way we planned it, and even when dreams comes true (and they do, trust me!) it's not always the dreams we'd originally had in mind!

I don't know what I want to DO either when I grow up....but I also am relishing in the ability to take it one day at a time. I think there's something really beautiful about taking it one day a time! I mean, it's important to plan and have goals and dreams. It's important to be working TOWARDS something, yes. It's important to look to the future with caution and an idea of what you want/need. But, it's also important to cherrish today!

These are such uncertain times we live in; in the U.S. and around the world, I swear the world gets crazier every single day! I'm a positive person, but it is nuts out there and so many things are so fragile and uncertain that I think it's leaking into our psyches. Life is fragile, folks, life is uncertain and life is not easy. But it's called a LIFETIME for a reason...there's at time for everything! While I agree that it's important to not WASTE time and just sit iddly by and let your life live you, instead of you living your life, it's also important to realize that we really are so damn young! And not everything had to be figured out and/or decided RIGHT NOW!

Most people I know of that are older than those of us in our mid-20s, say that there life today is nothing close to what they thought'd it be, and in most cases, that "nothing close to what I'd planned back then," is actually BETTER than anything they'd ever thought of!

My own life is not at all what I'd thought it be at 24, almost 25. A LOT of it. But most of it is way better than I could've ever imagiend...and in the parts that it's not better, I'm working on those....one day at a time!

As for me and a job: I adore children, I adore writing, I like anything spiritually centered! An occupation that combines all of those, I'm not sure? Any ideas? Perhaps children's books? I don't know....

I wanted to be a nurse for a long time until I realized that was a little too close to home and my own personal experienes for me! I wanted to be a teacher for a while until I realized that although my childhood at HOME was fabulous, my school life was not so great! I was smart, made excellent grades and enjoyed my teachers immensely, but I was made fun of and teased mercylessly for years on end, so putting myself in a classroom on a daily basis as working adult is not something I care to do! Besides, teachers don't make nearly enough money in my opinoin! They're god sends and should be paid upwards of at least $100,000 a year! Then, I thought I wanted to go to Nashville and be in the music business, and while I DO sometimes wonder what might've been if I had done that, most days, I enjoy my quiet solitude so much that I'm glad I'm not around actual music 24/7, I think it'd drive me up the wall! Besides, if I had gone there and done that, I wouldn't have had a chance to live here in Vegas or meet Colin, and I know those latter two things were absolutely meant to be! I thought I wanted to be a video director for a while, and I still have great ideas for certain songs, but that would've taken me away from my family too much. I've ALWAYS wanted to be a writer, HOW I actually break into that field and make money at it, though, I have NO idea! I don't want to work in an office for the next 30 years, but I also can't do hard physical labor, so go figure! I've had a few jobs where I worked in an office and I have a WHOLE NEW respect for those of you that do! It's a lot of work, mental work that is, and I can see myself doing that for a while, being great at it!

But, my point is that I don't think any of us ever actually KNOWS what we want to do. Perhaps when we're younger we do, but then we grow up, get lives, get men (or women), move out of our parents' homes and start actually LIVING life as an adult. (And we find out it's harder than anyone told us it would be; or perhaps they did tell us that, we were just too knieve to listen!)

Sometimes the most adult thing we can do is to admit that we in fact do NOT know something; whether it's what we want do to, where we want to go next or whatever the case may be!

Adults don't have to know everything! We should know certain things, we should always accept reality, but keep dreaming for the future! What's the point of getting out of bed if we don't have dreams? Truly! But for me, right now, I'm not so focused on what I want to DO with my life, not that I've lost sight of me or my ultimate dreams/goals, but the truth is, for me, I'm doing it already....I guess I'm just lucky but here's what I wanted:

I wanted to grow up and be semi-healthy! I wanted to find a man and get married! (Okay that's more of a recent thing, but still). I wanted to live on my own with that man and make a life together! I wanted to work further towards my degree! I wanted to become a better cook, and more of a woman! And that's all happening! So, for right now, I'm much more concerned with BEING than doing.

I want to BE the following: kind, compassionate, wise, strong, funny, intelligent, multi-tasker, go-getter, ambitious, loyal, spiritually sound, journeying towards something greater than now, a good wife, daughter, grandaughter, sister, friend, etc. I want to be light-hearted and positive and generous. I want to be equally busy and relaxed. I want to be learning something new every day; whether that's inside a classroom or not. That's what I want to BE. (I don't think I am all of these things yet, some I am of course, but I've still got a long way to go, it's a constant and never-ending journey, and that's okay!)

My point is this: if DOING something imparticular is going to take away from what and who I want to BE, than it's not worth doing to begin with!

I think instead of focusing on what we want to DO, we should focus on who we want to BE, and then align our "jobs," up with that philosophy. Perhaps this is my young mind dreaming, thinking of things in a utopian way...but there's something really beautiful about being this age...mid-20s, even heck, ANY age.

The greatest and most challenging gift we have is FREE WILL! We can be, and do, anything we want to! The hardest part is figuring it all out! But, if we're paitent with ourselves and remember to enjoy the current moment, remember to count our blessings daily and learn something new each and every day, than we'll have enough building blocks to figure out what it is we want to DO!

(This is not sounding like me at all. I've pretty much always known what I wanted and what I didn't. Whom I wanted to be and who I didn't. But, I'm realizing that it's okay to NOT know everything all the damn time! It's actually quite freeing to have this realization! And please don't think I'm trying to talk myself out of responsiblity, or make it seem like it's not important to have at least have some idea of who we want to be and what we want to do!

It's not like we're not doing anything, you know. We're doing A LOT! (Perhaps we're just doing it slower than we'd originally planned!)

We are often our own biggest critics in life and feel bogged down by obligations to fulfill others' perceptions of us, and it's such crap.

We need to try and figure out what we want to do, for sure, but we also need to give ourselves credit for what we're already doing, and who we already are!

Because when it comes down to it, we're already doing some amazing things and further becoming some amazing people--ALL OF US!!!!

So, to my friends, I hope this helps! You have to follow your heart in life, but you also have to use your head! Answers won't always come immediately and decisions will rarely ever be easy, but that's where the learning comes in!

It's so important to be patient with ourselves, and ENJOY THE JOURNEY!!!!

We are where we are supposed to be, doing what we're supposed to be doing, for right now, for this moment. It may change in the next moment, we don't ever know. But for now, let's keep dreaming and planning but with more contentment about the present moment we're living in. With more patience and faith in the fact that the journey we're on and wherever it may lead us, is exactly the one we were meant to live!

Lord, please bless all of my dear friends! Help them with the struggles and questions. Give them peace and joy and contentment! Please bless their homes, families, health and lives! Thank you for their friendship! Please bless those in California and watch over those who recently lost their homes to the wild fires! Please make your Presence and Strength known to all of those people! And please continue to bless my own life, my own family, my own health and my own home! Thank for the abundant life I live!

In Light N' Love,

-Sarah Liz :)