Meet a Good Friend

The new year is paper clipped to long lists filled with things to do better, less of, more of, the starting and stopping the of the good, bad and mediocre. We party like it's 1999 (or 2012) then we get serious. Really serious.  And then we burn out.  What motivates you to be a better version of yourself?  Some people work well with start dates - I am not one of these people. Every year I write a list of accomplishments for the year ending and some notes on what I want to move toward in the new year. Then there are things that are never on the list - like this blog.  I run a wedding and editorial photography business and a design company (stationary, event styling, blog redesign, logos).  I donate photography, event planning, design and time to non-profits. I am a public speaker. My service dog, Dempsey, and I have classes and training.  I've just been accepted into an intensive self-defense class.  To stay balanced, I have to get to the gym, eat good food, see an acupuncturist and decompress. My husband, friends, and family are all too important to live on a list of things to do. I had no plans to start something new - a blog/movement/community - but it is the unexpected that is quite remarkable, and welcome.

I've often described my life as less ordinary but not extraordinary.  As I thought about self-love and finding time to hear yourself think or not think at all, we, as women, typically find ourselves at the end of the list.  The extraordinary things that we do go unnoticed perhaps because we don't give them much consideration.  I believe that most people want to find extraordinary in their every day but don't have a place or time to consider their worth.  This blog just seemed to write and design itself.  Obviously it didn't but it feels that way and that type of work without pulling my hair out is this post's any day extraordinary.  People want to see and do good things.  The good news is that we already are.  Hence the arrows in our design.  Sometimes we just need to be pointed in the right direction.

via Kid in the Front Row

Doing good things is contagious.  This blog is an empty stage to dance in your spotlight like Penny Lane twirling to Cat Steven's "The Wind" in one of my favorite films ever, Almost Famous.  To sing your theme song in a car full of friends at the top of your lungs - harmonious even when you are painfully off key.   To share and be heard in and outside of your head.  As one your guides,  in addition to my any day extraordinary stories, I will give photography advice, event styling tips, raising a service dog, and getting my hands full of glitter and glue with design and decor projects. And some serious stuff that matters more than anything else I could possibly do because it affects everyone.  For now, thank you for being here not for me but for you.  What are you proud of accomplishing in 2011? What was your first any day extraordinary this new year? 


xoxo,
Marnie