Young, Wild, and Free

We never thought we would change so much. With every day that goes by our eyes shift and we can see just a touch more of what is real. I wonder what is next. New sensations at every turn and new loves with every heart beat. New loves form that we never even dreamt of forming. Loves that open new pathways that were not there before. Love of being free to be who we are in a world where not everyone is free to do so. Love of new art that has the ability to change our perceptions of the common to the uncommon. Love of wilderness and mother nature through magical forests that we take walks in and ponder their mysteries. Love of the history of our world, the rights and wrongs we are learning from. Love of critical thinking that enables us to move forward and to make changes to our society through acknowledgment of the contextual differences we all have and bring together.

We never knew that during the course of being young wild and free, we would grow at such magnificent rates. Through the new loves we experience we begin to learn about change and growth. Through the history of great feats carried out by many before us we begin to get inspired. We realize that we all have voices that with a little courage can change our world that we live in, just as those before us changed their world. The shear weight of this realization can be life changing, the outcome breathtaking. At magnificent rates, at different stages of our lives, we begin to accept that our own dreams of change can lead people to truths that they do not yet see. And the circle of life, the circle of change, will continue.

We never thought we could change so much. As we continue to grow and change we need to remind ourselves to be conscious of the barriers that we all inevitably face. We all are different and we all have biases whether we choose to acknowledge them or not. We should strive to be able to recognize that knowledge is directly related to power and gaining new knowledge will give us the power to make a change and take action in whatever form that may mean. With being young, wild and free comes the responsibility of making our world a little better than when we found it. Taking a stand for something that we see is wrong, saying it out loud, and researching it until we all understand it.

The pages of our life..

In our life we go through countless stages, new places we move to, new faces that become a part of our lives, and new ideas that sweep in and take a hold of our decisions.

With each new chapter of our lives, the pages are filled in and these pages slowly become the book of our life. Pages filled with loves and losses and immeasurable times that have slowly created who we are. The chapters that have shaped our lives and created our unique stories will be looked back upon, read again and again. When we pause and look back upon those pages, we will continue to be reminded as to how quickly those pages can turn and how fast a new blank one can appear before us.

In life we learn new ways of thinking while keeping a hold of the things we have already learned. We learn from our mistakes vowing never to make the same one again, but sometimes not achieving this. I believe that it is not the mistakes that matter but what lies in your heart that is of importance. When I am old and look back at my story, I want to smile when I think of the times that make up those pages. I want to know that for every heart ache I have had, before it there was a great love. I want to remember those who entered my life, whether it was for a brief second or a long road together. I want to know that I learned from my mistakes and my heart was always in the right place. I want to not be afraid to remember the pain and relive the pleasures, both of equal powerfulness.

Our time is moving fast, each day matters and each day is another page to add to our stories. The lessons that we are currently learning, whatever they may be, are shaping the next chapter of our story. I'm excited to be able to look back at these pages with contentment and gratification in my heart.

The Perplexity of Prejudices

Prejudice... “An unfavorable opinion or feeling formed before hand or without knowledge, thought, or reason” –Dictionary.com


I would like to believe that humanity would never do this on purpose. People actually thinking and speaking on something they know nothing about, holding themselves on a pedestal and believing that what they are, who they are and how they are… is any better than someone else. Because, after all, what you believe to be true may be completely different than another merely because of the different paths you have taken in life. To me it is that easily explained triggering the much debated question… how can we not all see this? How can we not all know that there is no right way, there is only what we know which is completely different than what our neighbor knows… so there is no right or wrong, just different. Simple right?



Prejudice, to me, is a word that invokes udder sadness. A word of unconscious hate, a word that limits someone’s ability to see the world as it actually is… full of lives that are beautiful, colorful, alive, and thriving. As we grow and change, our eyes open to new ideas. I believe that when you have a deep rooted prejudice, sometimes it is hard for yourself to see. We get stuck on a course that keeps you from thinking outside of what you normally do. We go to the same places and talk to the same people, stay close to what we know in order to feel safe. It is when we are not careful of this complacent state of existence, that our learned behaviors can become prejudices.



To be able to learn new cultural ways of thinking is the key to keeping this world a world free of prejudice. There are billions of us on the planet.. But as DeGenova puts it so well “Imagine what it would be like if the whole world were populated by people just like you”. The travelling I have done has only begun to open my eyes to the vast amount of cultures there are to learn about. I want to see it all, strip myself of any prejudices that I may have, hold myself accountable for every thought and every emotion that I have and be conscious of each one of them. This world is so much bigger than the United States of America. Every day billions of people on this planet live such extremely, astonishingly, incredibly and mind-bogglingly different lives. With each story completely matchless, with each story having the possibility that it could have been you, how could we ever hold an “unfavorable opinion or feeling" about someone's story?

Can you feel my heart?

Do you believe that if you think about someone hard enough; think about their heart and their soul, their eyes and their hands, just maybe you can make them feel you. Make them feel your thoughts as if you are standing there looking into their eyes and feel your touch as if you are right there holding their hand. I feel like our hearts are powerful forces therefore I can’t help but wonder if my whole heart and soul is thinking about another person, how could they not feel it no matter where they are.

There have been so many times in my life when I long for someone that is not with me. Times when I miss someone or just can’t get them out of my head, times when our pure humanity overwhelms my mind and I feel that if I am quiet long enough I can make them feel what I feel.



We are all unique yet exactly the same in our hearts. I hear stories of heart break and loss, these stories are of people who have lost their true loves to forces of this world, or lost the ones they love through forces unknown to us. Loss and gain in this life continues to drive our minds and our hearts, overtaking our spirits at times, driving us towards never-ending thoughts and powerful realizations. Countless hours spent in meditation of sorts, countless hours worth of thoughts being sent out into this world, how can they not be felt?

Whether you miss someone because they are far away yet still planted on our soil, or you miss someone who is not with us anymore but with our maker, or you miss someone that has changed and grown and moved on in this world, I believe our hearts tend to ache the same. Anytime you are longing for a person that is not in your arms, the bleeding feels the same to you.



So the question remains the same and the answer has to be yes. If we close our eyes and think about their touch and their words, think of the moments shared that are only real to the people that were in those moments, close our eyes and send our heart to theirs, they will feel it. They have to feel it; this is what makes it easier for the one that is aching.

It is then, after you send those thoughts out into the world, after you gave those thoughts your time and your energy that you have to let them go. The thoughts that are taking up your time, this precious time that you are given, have to be released while resting assured that you will not forget them. Your moment that you are in now is your time to make new memories, while storing the others deep in your heart. Releasing the never ending thoughts gives you the power to grow; keeping them in is hindering the process.

Light in this world

Figuring out what you are intended to leave behind, seems to me to be the same thing as figuring out what you are supposed to do with your life. For what greater thing is there than to be a light and a voice of motivation when you are here, and when you are gone to be a memory that lights another’s path and an inspiration to change the seemingly unchangeable.

We all have different views as to what will make us happy, a good job, a big family, a nice house, or travelling the world… We are all similar in the sense that we all long for happiness and all at times go through seasons of wondering why we are not happy and struggle to figure out what we can do to get to that point.

Realizing that we all have something special that not everyone has is such a powerful realization. We all have the ability to turn on a light in a dark room, be the inspiration that another person needs to go on. We all have gone through battles of war, whether it is the war of love or the war of family burdens, the war of losing a loved one or the war of feeling completely lost in this crazy and hectic world. The wars are endless, but so are the impacts that we can make during the wars.

So often I am inspired by those I meet, or those I hear. The voices that are out there to inspire, to share the stories of strength and the stories of survival, those who have overcome more than I, and those that have seen wars that I cannot imagine. The stories that inspire me to not take for granted the times of peace that surround us. There are hero’s that are no different than you or I, they just have a different story and their struggles are neither worse nor harder, they are just different. For we all are who we are, because we all have been on different paths that are completely unique to each and every one of us.

It is my hope that it will be clear to each of us what it is that we are supposed to leave behind. Our legacy that can be anything we make it to be, as long as it reflects our hearts. I long for my heart to be mirrored through my actions, my tongue to be impeccable with my word, and my life to be a reflection of growth and change while I listen to the stories that people share of wars that have been won and wars that still need to be conquered.

Who are we to judge..

I was thinking today about how I use the words ‘what I know to be true’. What does that even mean… for what I know to be true can be completely different than what you know to be true, so how is anything really truth? My perception of truth is biased to what I have seen and felt, and what you know to be true is biased to what you have seen and felt … So who is right?

Maybe the answer is we both are right.



In our life we move forward quickly. We take steps in different directions, see things and try them out. Depending on where we end up, which path we take, we see various ways of living and thinking. We encounter different people with completely different outlooks on life, and hopefully decide for ourselves if we agree with them or if we should take our own stance. We take it all in and use our own character to make our own opinions as to what is right and what is wrong in this world. With this, my hope is that we remember that these opinions we create for ourselves are just that. Our own ideas on life and truth and we will not be quick to judge another for having a different view on their own life…



Who are we to judge anyone? It always hits me when I hear people talking about another person. Who are we to judge anything about any one when we have never walked in their shoes? How is it feasible to believe that we can make assumptions of what is true for another? What we think is just that, our completely unique opinions based solely on our distinct path and situations that we have seen. Maybe we are better off remembering to be impeccable with our own word, remembering what it is like to be judged.



Thinking about all this today, I came away with this… Since I believe that what I know to be true in this world is based solely on where I have been, situations I have encountered, and who I meet along the way, all I can do is continue to do just that. I will do all I can to go places I have never been… for how can I speak to something if I have never seen it. I will put myself in situations that I never thought about trying, just to experience more of all that is out there. I will introduce myself to people; listen to their stories and their hearts, because they might know truth that I have yet to see or be able to open my heart to things I never knew people have gone through.



Lastly I will try to speak less, use silence as an answer. Speak less on things I know nothing about. Making a note to later find out all there is to know on the subject. There is a whole world that is waiting to be explored. Vast subjects that I know nothing about, waiting to be researched and pondered… Opening our hearts to new ideas will keep us from falling into the trap of judging without knowledge or forethought.

You are Perfect to Me

You are perfect to me. How lucky are we if in our lives we find another human being that looks at you with those words in their heart? There is something to be said about that feeling of comfort. When the one you love looks at you with eyes that mirror your own adoration, a complete feeling of gratitude hits you with a wave of emotion.

Growing up I have had my own turn at love. Love gained and love lost. I have seen other pairs with hearts that are the same and others who seem to suffer with the one they are with, for that is all they know to be true.

So when that is true and all you know to be true seems to be unknowingly, or sometimes quite knowingly, wounding your soul, how do you open your eyes and see that there is more out there. Do you listen to your girlfriends ( or man friends) while keeping in mind the ability to read between the lines is key… for we all know how hard it is to tell a friend that the one they are with is not worthy of their time or affections. Do we listen to mom or dad… secretly wondering if they are just biased because you are their baby…Or do you listen to your heart. Stay silent and listen. If that is your choice, I hope you ponder this before your time of reflection, contemplating life’s ever evolving lessons you will find on love…



The person you are with should be able to make you smile just by hearing the sound of their name. They should call you baby or sweetheart with so much affection it seems that this is the only name they know you by. They should look at you when you are unaware and feel surrendered to gratitude that you love them back. They should tell you that you are best thing that has ever happened to them, and you should feel the same. They should search the room at a party, only to lock eyes and make you feel like you are the only person in the room. When they are away they should call you before bed, just to tell you that it is hard to sleep without you by their side. .. most importantly when you are together, no matter if it is daily or monthly, every moment should feel like a moment that you are blessed with. More time that you were given in this crazy life to love each other unconditionally.



So it is. Love and life, choices and sacrifices. Who in the end is worthy of spending our time with. I heard those words today “you are perfect to me” and was reminded how lucky I am to truly feel that the person I am with looks at me with those words in his heart. I think that we all deserve that and more. I know that I could have used many, many gentle reminders of this in my life… so here is one for you. You are perfect to someone and it is in that moment of finding them that you will realize that they are completely perfect to you as well.