{Looking Up}

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately.
About life and how I want to live mine ...
About what makes me happy or what weighs me down ...
About what energizes me and gives me strength, excitement, fulfillment, and peace.
Life really is what you put into it.

These thoughts have been inspired by a slight shift in how I feel inside lately. I felt like I
found a new sparkle in me last year. And I liked it! I was excited -- passionately excited --
about every day. I feel like I've lost just a little bit of that since graduation. I know part of
it is finding the next turn in my journey, but I still want to feel that sparkle and change in
me in the interim.

Have you seen Julie and Julia? When Julia starts attending culinary school, she is
so excited about life, what she's doing, and where she's doing it that when her
alarm went off in the early morning, she sprang out of bed and yelled, "I'm up!".
She couldn't wait to attack her day because she was living with sparkle that
couldn't be contained.

I know there are some simple changes I could make right now -- today -- to help
me reconnect with that feeling. It's not that it's even so far off. It's just a bit more

dim than I'm comfortable settling with. So, I'm working to change my perspective

and get clarity on what small adjustments I want to make.

Today, that meant looking up instead of straight ahead.

"One of the most exciting and encouraging truths in life is that we can always become

someone new. We never have to settle for who are are." ~Scott Sorrell.

p.s.These beautiful trees are all over Phoenix. Does anyone know what kind they are?