In the city.

In the city, everyone walks so quickly. 

They are all so rushed to get where they are going, paying no attention to anything going on around them. 

They don't notice the sweet-smelling roses that the lady on the street corner is selling. 

They don't notice the little boy feeding pigeons bread. 

They don't notice the old man sitting on the bench all alone. 

Or the peculiar way the trees whistle in the harsh winds. 

Or the sparkle of the morning dew on the pansies next to the food cart. 

They don't see these things. 

And they never will. 

Because they are so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the city and the workplace and the what-are-the-kids-going-to-eat-for-dinner and the oh-darn-I-have-a-date-tonight-with-Steve. 

These things are not bad things to think of per se, but when they get in the way of observing the little things going on around you, they can turn destructive. 

They destroy the humanity inside of you.

They destroy your ability to see minute details. 

And those things are so very important. 

I have been staying in the city of Washington DC for a few days now, and I'm noticing these things profoundly.

Take time to see the beauty and it will make you see everything in a different light. 

One where you see things that people typically consider to be normal, but instead of seeing typical, you see extraordinary beauty. 

In the little things. 

So next time you're in the city:

Slow down and look at the flowers being sold by the lady on the street corner and buy a few roses for your cubicle. 

Give the little boy your leftover bagel from breakfast to feed to his little bird friends.

Instead of taking your extra ten minutes to purchase yourself a grande white chocolate mocha from Starbucks to kick off your day, strike up a conversation with the old man on the park bench. 

Stop and stare at the leaves on the whistling tree. 

Pick one of the pansies next to the food cart, shake off the dew, and put it on your co-worker's filing cabinet to brighten her day. 

Now you will see these things. 

You will always see them. 

Beauty everywhere.

I was driving down the road that I drive every single day at least 4 times when out of the corner of my eye, I see these beautiful pink flowers growing off to the side.. And not just a few, but a whole lot of them! Usually, things like that would catch my eye right off the bat so I know they had not always been there. So I pulled over and whipped out my handy Nikon D3200 (sorry I am just a bit excited about this new camera) and begin to take some shots.. And then suddenly it began to P O U R ! But I kept shooting and got soaked. It was worth it though because I got some beautiful pictures!

I just love how nature makes such beautiful things naturally. It is one of my favorite parts of life and capturing those beautiful things on camera makes me so happy.

You can see the photos I took on my Flickr here.

What are we searching for?

We spend our whole lives searching for someone to save us

We want someone to be our rock

We want someone who will be there for us throughout our whole lives

We do everything to find this person

But maybe

Just maybe

We were meant to save ourselves

Stop and smell the roses.

We're all so caught up in the future. We want the future to come as fast as it possibly can. I am just as guilty - if not more!- or this as the next person. I cannot wait for the next chapter in my life. I want something new now! But if I keep living with this mindset, I am going to miss out on the beauty of now. We all need to chill out sometimes, look at life as it currently is, and accept that we are where we are for now and there is nothing we can do about it. If we don't slow down, we're going to miss out on so much. Imagine you are rushing to get to movie that starts in ten minutes. You are walking so fast and ignoring everything else that you end up passing right by a person who could change your life forever. If you would have just calmed down and realized that it is okay to be a few minutes late, you could have met this person and fallen in love or met the person who will become your child'd godmother. It's crazy what you miss when you're in a rush.

So follow your mom's advice and take a chill pill! Life is what is happening now so live it.

These are a few of my favorite things.

When you're getting to know someone, typical questions are asked. These range from "what's your mom's name?" to "what is your favorite color?". But these questions are so shallow.. People are not their favorite colors or their mother's name. They are their passions, and their ambitions, and the things that they stay up until 3am on Tuesday nights thinking about when they cannot sleep. I say, as a society, we should stop asking people their favorite colors and focus on the things that actually matter and the things that truly make a person who they are on the inside. These are a few of MY favorite things:

-Driving down the road and seeing someone jamming out to their song while driving.

-Going through the drive-thru and receiving the wrong order. I see it as an excuse to try something new.

-The look on someone's face when they see something amazingly beautiful for the first time (or even the 1,353th time) like a perfectly-colored sunset or a rushing waterfall.

-Babies giggling.

-Babies in general.

-Seeing older couples who are still in total love with each other. (I hope I have that one day..)

-The sparkle in someone's eyes when they talk about something they are passionate about.

-Sunsets.

-Nature. There is nothing more real or more beautiful.. ever. It is my most favorite thing.

-The color orange. (Shallow, but I love it because it is a part of sunsets and those make me so happy)

-Those insanely happy moments where your heart feels like it is going to burst.

-Watching a romantic comedy and crying my eyes out all alone where no one can see because it's JUST SO FREAKIN CUTE

-Deep talks.

-The stars. Wow just wow.

-Meeting someone who changes your life.

-Talking with someone for hours and not getting bored.

-Driving too fast with too-loud music for too long and clearing my mind.

-Making an A on a test you thought you failed the everything out of.

-Talking with that one person who understands you.

-Having a heated discussion with someone.. just for fun.

-Cold nights where you can just sit by the fire and think about how beautiful everything is.

-Bonfires with friends.

-Finally telling someone something you have been holding in for too long and the relief you feel after.

-When Mrs. Findley forgets to run our quizzes so we have an extra day to study.. God knows I always need one of those!

-Seeing someone you really missed.

-Seeing people be surprised.

-Being surprised myself.

-When people remember something small about me like how I don't like a certain song or how many sugars I like in my coffee.

-Little things. They mean so so so so much to me.

-When someone asks how I am and honestly wants to make me feel better. Not just because they are curious.

-Being fully accepted.

-When someone keeps a secret without me even asking them to.

-Eye contact.

-When people smell rrreeealllyyy good.

-Action movies.

-Taking pictures.

-Someone telling me that they saw/heard something and it made them think of me.

-Crying really hard and then picking yourself back up, walking away and feeling a whole heck of a lot better.

-Being someone's first choice.

-Green tea on a rainy day while I sit on my porch and listen to the downpour.

-Hammocks.

-People when they laugh with that hearty laugh to the point where they are almost in tears.

-Laughing that way myself.

-Being myself around people that I love.

-Seeing people who are in love interact with each other.

-Dogs.

-Cats.

-My cat.

-My cat again because he's the best.

There are so so so many more things that I love but this is a good many of them. 

Can we ever be fulfilled?

We search our whole lives for something to make us complete. We look for it in people, in places, in hobbies, in academics, in careers, and even in drugs and alcohol. But we never seem to reach that place of true fulfillment. We strive and we push ourselves to the place where we think we will be full and truly happy but we always come up short. Even the things that we think we want more than anything always seem lackluster when we finally get them. Is there any way for us to be full? Is there anything that we can do to reach the point of happiness that we strive for our whole lives? Maybe we aren't meant to be full. Maybe our minds are not wired with the possibility of ever being truly fulfilled. Maybe we are meant to better ourselves and to push forward our whole lives. And if that is the case, then it's best we know now. We should live out lives knowing what we want, but knowing that those things will never truly satisfy us. We should realize that we can be satisfied by many things, but we can't be satisfied forever. Our minds are fickle. We see something, we like it, we go for it, we get it, then we grow bored of it when we see something else that we want more. Think of the toy you wanted when you were a child. You threw a fit and your mother gave in and bought it for you. Then your best friend came over for a play date with her BRAND-NEW-EVEN- COOLER toy and BAM! suddenly your toy just isn't as cool as you thought it was. This is what happens with us in so many things and I believe it is human nature. We alway want more! More! (Not to copy the AT&T commercial, but it is true..) Nothing truly satisfies us as humans. And I think this needs to change. 

We need to understand the value that people and things honestly have. And I believe that if people understood the meaning of things and people, we wouldn't take them for granted and we could, maybe just possibly, be as close to satisfied as our human selves can be. 

It makes us, we make it.

We make it, but does it also make us? It makes us break and it makes us cry helplessly into our pillows at night and it makes us want to end it all and it makes us want to get away from everything and everyone and just start over and it makes us want to scream. But it also makes us laugh and it makes us smile and it makes us giggle with excitement and it makes us want to go to a huge party and it makes us want to run away with someone we love and go on an adventure and it makes us want to love and it makes us want to stay here for as long as we possibly can and it makes us jump and it makes us want to whistle. But while we're in it it makes us gossip and it makes us lie and it makes us murder and it makes us hit and it makes us hate and it makes us laugh at others and it makes us evil and it makes us corrupt and it makes us take advantage of things and it makes us jealous and it makes us compete and it makes us worried and it makes us angry. But while we're in it, it makes us listen and it makes us sympathize and it makes us compassionate and it makes us help and it makes us love so hard that you feel there is nothing else in the world but love and it makes us lead and it makes us hear and it makes us pick others up and it makes us pick ourselves up and it makes us adventurous and it makes us strong and it makes us complete and it makes us ourselves.

What is it? It is life. We all have it and we all love it even if we hate it. We are all living and we are all stuck living even if we don't want to be. So while you are living, live it up because it is truly the only life that you have and if you do not live it the way that you want, there will not be another chance. So say things that you are afraid of saying and love people that you are afraid of loving and go places you are afraid of going and take chances that you are afraid of taking and leave the place you are afraid to leave and do what makes you afraid because being afraid is not always a bad thing. Say things that will make you happy and say things that will make others happy and love the people who make you happy and explore the places that make you happy and do the hobbies that make you happy and be with the person who makes you happy. Because if you are not happy in this life, you have lost your chance. And chances were meant to be taken, not lost. Life is a privilege so do what makes your life the life that you have always wanted your life to be because it is the only life that we have.

Life makes you and you make life so make your life yours..

What is happiness really?

There is something that I have always wondered. What is happiness? People say that they are happy all of the time, but is anyone really, truly, happy? If people were honestly happy, they would never feel sad or empty or lonely or angry because those things are not happiness. Is happy even the same thing as happiness? Happy is an emotion which can be fleeting, but happiness seems to be more than that. Happiness, to me, seems to be something that stays. It doesn't go away when something that is bad in the slightest happens as happy does. Happiness is a semi-permanent mindset. It lasts for years or, if one is lucky, a lifetime. I say semi-permanent because I believe happiness can be gained through truly fulfilling feelings and events such as falling in love, finding someone who understands you, seeing your own child for the first time et cetera. But sadness can also be gained by a loss in the family,a long-lasting relationship falling apart, losing the sense of who you truly are.. And with this, I think that people get being happy and living in perpetual happiness mixed up nowadays. To me, there are two different types of feelings. One: emotion such as happy, sad, mad, tired. Two: mindsets such as happiness, sadness, anger, mental exhaustion. Like I stated before, emotions can change quickly, and they do as the average person changes emotions many times in a single hour. But mindsets are long-lasting. Sure, they can change, but it is not something that changes very often. When you are happy in your heart, that is happiness.  Happiness is not something that can be easily influenced and altered by outside forces. It is a mindset that only you can control. Hold your happiness. Take back control of your happiness from the things that are working to take it away from you. When you are happy even when things are bad, that is when you know you have achieved true happiness - the mindset.