The Positive Pledge
I pledge to be a positive person and positive influence on my family, friends, co-workers and community.
I promise to be positively contagious and share more smiles, laughter, encouragement and joy with those around me.
I vow to stay positive in the face of negativity.
When I am surrounded by pessimism I will choose optimism.
When I feel fear I will choose faith.
When I want to hate I will choose love.
When I want to be bitter I will choose to get better.
When I experience a challenge I will look for opportunity to learn and grow.
When faced with adversity I will find strength.
When I experience a set-back I will be resilient.
When I meet failure I will fail forward towards future success.
With vision, hope, and faith, I will never give up and will always move forward towards my destiny.
I believe my best days are ahead of me, not behind me.
I believe I’m here for a reason and my purpose is greater than my challenges.
I believe that being positive not only makes me better, it makes everyone around me better.
So today and every day I will be positive and strive to make a positive impact on the world.
♥
“They that love beyond the world
cannot be separated by it.
Death cannot kill what never dies.”
— William Penn
I saw this photo for the first time today as a post on Facebook. I find it to be a beautiful testament to love, sacrifice and courage, and something of which we all need to be reminded. Live, laugh, and most importantly, love with all you have.
The night before the burial of her husband 2nd Lt. James Cathey of the United States Marine Corps, killed in Iraq, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of “Cat”, and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept.
“I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it” she said.
“I think that’s what he would have wanted”.
Photo: ©Todd Heisler/Rocky Mountain News | Final Salute Photo Essay
“Waking Up Full of Awesome”
“There was a time when you were five years old,
and you woke up full of awesome.
You knew you were awesome.
You loved yourself.
You thought you were beautiful,
even with missing teeth and messy hair and mismatched socks inside your grubby sneakers.
You loved your body, and the things it could do.
You thought you were strong.
You knew you were smart.
Do you still have it?
The awesome.
Did someone take it from you? Did you let them?
Did you hand it over, because someone told you weren’t beautiful enough, thin enough, smart enough, good enough?
Did you consider they might be full of shit?
Why the hell would you listen to them?
Wouldn’t that be nuts, to tell my little girl below that in another five or ten years she might hate herself because she doesn’t look like a starving and Photoshopped fashion model?
Or even more bizarre, that she should be sexy over smart, beautiful over bold?
Are you freaking kidding me?
Look at her. She is full of awesome.
You were, once. Maybe you still are. Maybe you are in the process of getting it back.
All I know is that if you aren’t waking up feeling like this about yourself, you are really missing out.”
*Thoughts courtesy of Melissa, PigTailPals.com :) A big thanks to my dear friend, Stacey, for sharing it with me.
*Photo: my own, Valeria at age 4 (?), Buenos Aires, Argentina
“Henceforth I whimper no more,
postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.”
- Walt Whitman
*Photo: my own, crossing the finish line - The 3-Day Walk, ATL, October 2008
In 2008, I had the immense pleasure of completing the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure in Atlanta, in the company of Edelman colleagues from around the country. I walked 60 miles and raised $2,627.25 for the fight against breast cancer, one I’ve strongly supported since 2001, upon my aunt’s diagnosis. She passed away in late 2002, primarily due to late detection.
The importance of screenings and research had never hit me harder. Today, just a week after losing my great-aunt to cancer (which began with a tumor in her breasts), I continue to stress that importance. A cure is out there. It is up to us to help find it. As we begin the second week of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, let us rally around the cause. Let us honor those who have lost their battle and celebrate the lives of those who have survived it.
Learn more about how you can help here. There is even a month-long calendar of “Pink Action” in which you can participate. How will you be commemorating the month in pink?
“It isn’t enough to love; we must prove it.”
— St. Therese of Lisieux
*Photo: my own, sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico, October 2010
“It is the artist’s business to create sunshine when the sun fails.”
-Romain Rolland
Photo: my own, destin bridge, september 2010
If I could tell the world just one thing…
It would be that we’re all okay.- “Hands” by Jewel
What day is it?
It’s today, squeaked Piglet.
My favorite day, said Pooh.
I realized today, in the middle of dinner with an EC friend, that August 22 officially marks my second anniversary of living along the Emerald Coast!
Some days, I feel like I’ve been here forever and others, I feel like the journey has just begun. Most importantly, I feel that despite the changes, the homesickness, the uncertainties and the sometimes-loneliness, I am where I’m supposed to be - at least in this time and in this moment.
For that - and for you - I am grateful. <3 Thank you to my EC friends who have made these two years such memorable ones.
“Happiness, knowledge, not in another place, but this place, not for another hour, but this hour.” - Walt Whitman
Photo: Valeria Lento, spring 2011, Okaloosa Island
Celebrating 100 Years of Lucy…
I Love Lucy has been my mother’s favorite show since she was a child, even long before her parents owned a TV set. As of last Christmas, she now owns the full collection of seasons, courtesy of my brother and me. Growing up, she often told me stories about heading next door to her neighbor’s house to sit in front of the black-and-white screen, where she would stay laughing and laughing for hours. Now, keep in mind my mother watched the show in Spanish, and even through dubbed humor, it was the best show of its time.
After more than 60 years, Lucille Ball’s antics are ever classic, and her contribution to American television and culture live on through the children and the children of the children who grew up watching her.
As the citation on the Presidential Medal of Freedom (which she Lucy received posthumously) read: ”Her face was seen by more people more often than the face of any human being who ever lived. Who can forget Lucy? She was like everyone’s next-door neighbor, only funnier. Lucille Ball was a national treasure who brought laughter to us all. Love Lucy? Sure. This nation is grateful to her, and we will miss her dearly.”
Timeless. Joyous. Iconic. Love - Lucy, that is.
“I’m happy that I have brought laughter because I have been shown by many the value of it in so many lives, in so many ways.” - Lucille Ball
