a little hope, laughter and love

Hey guys…I’ve been playing around with my iPhone and a new set of lenses I purchased recently. The macro pictures are some of my favorite.

The lenses are called the Ōlloclip and they are pretty fantastic. They fit right over the existing camera on the iPhone and they really let me focus in on the parts of the subject I want to. Check out some of the new shots with the macro lens.

OK…I’m a dog lover…but these little babies are just about the cutest things I’ve ever seen. These are my favorite album covers featuring furry friends. I don’t remember who showed them to me first but they are adorable. Enjoy and share!  My favorite is the Madonna album cover.  Which is your favorite?

Today was a great day.

When I heard about The Color Run earlier this year I thought it was just a cool thing to do, but I couldn’t see myself running the whole way or doing it all the way. It is a 5K run, which I’ve done before, but its been such a long time since I’ve run that length all at one time. I really got inspired by the videos on their website so I hopped on The Color Run bandwagon. And boy am I glad I did. That was the best time ever!

All the colors were amazing. All of the people were amazing. The experience of participating was awesome, all the way from registration to the finish line. Here are a few shots of the day along with some video I shot of my experience. It was really awesome. If you get a chance to participate in your city DO IT! Even if you walk it all the way from beginning to end, you gotta experience it. The crowd will inspire you. If you have kids bring them, they will love it. Bring a towel for the drive home and arrive early to really get the whole experience. It rained in the morning here in Houston, but it quickly passed and it turned out to be awesome and brilliant.

I will say that it takes some scrubbing to get all the color off…more than I anticipated. I was blue in parts that I probably shouldn’t have been for longer than I should have been. But it was like a badge of honor to walk around town and show off my colors! I really want to thank The Color Run staff for providing such an awesome experience. You guys were awesome from the beginning to end and it made it all the more special for each and every participant…all 10,000 of us in Houston. Until next time…

Recently I asked some influential friends of mine to write guest articles for my blog. Specifically I wanted articles that would demonstrate how they stay empowered, how they stay inspired and/or how they deal with it when they aren’t. Dr. Jill Carroll was one of the first to respond back to me and she’s put a lovely article together about living a Values Driven Life. I’ll be publishing the article tomorrow but I wanted to introduce you to Jill so you know who she is and maybe fall in love with her as much as I have.

Dr. Jill Carroll is a recognized expert on issues of religious tolerance, philosophy of religion, American religion, and religion in public life. Her areas of specialty include: the role of religion in world politics, comparative world religions, trends in American religion, the impact of religious diversity in global business, and applied life philosophy.

She directed the Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at Rice University until June 2009, where she also was Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies.

Dr. Carroll earned her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Rice University in 1994 with a specialty in philosophy of religion. She is the author of numerous articles and several books. A recent book, A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gulen’s Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse was a Publishers Weekly bestseller in religion, having been in a “Top 10” category on Amazon in May 2007. She is a frequent guest on radio and television programs, and has been interviewed by The New York Times, PBS, MSNBC, and Good Morning America. She does freelance writing for the Houston Chronicle and writes a featured blog called “Talking Tolerance” for its online religion section. She also writes a lifestyle blog called “Now That We’re Here…..”.

For two years, she co-produced and co-hosted with Kym King the popular radio program “Peaceful Coexistence” on Houston’s Pacifica station KPFT 90.1 FM. She is the creator and founding director of the Amazing Faiths Project, a national grassroots community initiative that fosters interpersonal relationships between people of all faiths and no faith through dialogue and table fellowship.

She lectures all over the world on the themes related to her books and on issues of religion in public life. She also has taught widely for many years in the Houston area, including at all campuses of the University of Houston system, Rice University, The Women’s Institute of Houston, The Jung Center of Houston, and in the Texas State prison system. She is a favorite for keynotes and public lectures because of her informative content as well as her inspiring and entertaining style.

In fall 2011, she published a lifestyle/self-help book called Stop the Crap: Six Lessons to Get Your Life Back. She also began a new fiction writing adventure; her first novel, Quail Fried Rice, will be published in July 2012.

Also in 2011, she began working as a program consultant for the Houston/Gulf Coast chapter of American Leadership Forum. She is a proud senior fellow of Class XXVII.

Dr. Carroll was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. She lives with Nishta Mehra, whom I adore beyond belief…(she’s the Blue Jean Gourmet!)

Tomorrow I’ll be posting Dr. Carroll’s article on living a values driven life.  I think you’ll enjoy it.  And I encourage you to check out her other blogs and writings until then!

The following video is a parody based on One Direction’s hit song, “What Makes You Beautiful” from a cute boy group called Wrong Direction.  Full Frontal Freedom is a coalition of independent artists and media folks using their creativity to promote civic engagement. Feel engaged yet?!  I wonder what the Romney campaign thinks about it?  Lyrics below video! Enjoy!

You can follow them online by clicking one of the links:

LIKE them at http://www.Facebook.com/FullFrontalFreedom or on

Twitter: @fullfrontalfree

Check out their website: http://www.fullfrontalfreedom.com

Lyrics:
You’re insecure
Some Say a Bore
Morally bankrupt but you profited some mo – oh – ore
Outsourcing jobs
Bain cover up
Two years of tax returns really ain’t enough

Everyone else on TV can see it
Everyone else but Fox News

Romney you lie to voters like no body else
Your SuperPAC giant size gets Dems overwhelmed
But when you smile at your wealth it ain’t hard tell
You won’t show
What you’re hiding down below

If only we saw what Ann could see
We’d understand avoiding Maddow so desperately
You change positions for elections, what should I believe
You won’t show

What you’re hiding down below oh oh
You have got to disclose

So c c c’mon
The Right is Wrong
You’ll be exposed as a fraud
Before too lo-ong
I don’t know why
you’re telling lies
You made billions by firing the “Average Guy”

Everyone else on TV can see it
Everyone else but Fox News

Romney you lie to voters like no body else
Your SuperPAC giant size gets Dems overwhelmed
But when you smile at your wealth it ain’t hard tell
You won’t show
What you’re hiding down below

If only we saw what Ann could see
We’d understand avoiding Maddow so desperately
You change positions for elections, what should I believe?
You won’t show
What you’re hiding down below
Oh oh oh
You have got to disclose

nah nah nah nah

Romney you lie to voters like no body else
Your SuperPAC giant size gets Dems overwhelmed
I’ll bet I’ll smile once I see your “off shore accounts”

Romney you lie to voters like no body else
Your SuperPAC giant size gets Dems overwhelmed
But when you smile at your wealth it ain’t hard tell
You won’t show
What you’re hiding down below

If only we saw what Ann could see
We’d understand avoiding Maddow so desperately
You change positions for elections, what should I believe?
You won’t show
What you’re hiding down below

You have got to disclose
You have got to disclose

Last week, while listening to my favorite podcast (Dean Dwyer’s Making Shift Happen) I realized that I had a practice that I had in place that empowered me and I wasn’t doing that anymore.  I’m not sure why I stopped doing it…but I had.  Every day I learned something new or heard something really cool I’d put it on a post-it note and put it on this piece of art I have in my office.  I’ve had this piece of art for over 10 years.  It’s not really art…it probably has no value to anyone other than me.  It’s a lithograph of Picasso’s The Joy of Living.  It’s old and faded and has chips in the frame and scratches from being moved around over the years.  Again, it probably has no value to anyone other than me because I’ve had it for so long.  I just like having something called The Joy of Living around me.  It inspires me to know that’s what it is…so I’ve kept it.

Some time two years ago, I started to hang post it notes along the frame of the picture to remind me of cool things I’d learned.  It worked.  I’d look at this every day.  And I’d read something I needed to read for that very day.  It was my own personal inspiration board.  And people would come into my office to look at the board.  They would see the quotes I had posted and they’d get something from it too.  So it worked for everyone!  It was my inspiration.

At the end of the year I’d take all the post it notes off the board and wipe it clean for the new year.  I put all the post-it notes in a file folder for the year so I could look back on them if needed.  So I have two folders from the past two years filled with notes and inspirations and good stuff.  I love it.

But this year…I’ve left the board blank.  It’s not that I’ve not been inspired or haven’t heard anything motivating or positive.  It’s just, for whatever reason, I stopped sharing.  I stopped taking a moment and putting it on a post-it note and putting it on the artwork.  And you know what?  I forgot.  I forgot I used to do it and I forgot to start it back up.  Something that worked so well for me and that I loved to do, I stopped doing it.  Why I stopped isn’t important.  But today I remembered.

Sometimes we stop doing what works because we think we don’t need to continue it or because we’ve grown out of it.  When I was trying to lose a bunch of weight recently I wrote down everything I ate.  It wasn’t hard.  It only took a moment.  And my trainer and I could look at what I had eaten and determine if I needed to make any changes.  It really worked so well.  I recorded my exercise.  I did it on my iPhone and that seemed to work really well.  Then one day, I stopped doing it.  Maybe I got bored.  Maybe I just got busy.  Maybe a little of both.  But I stopped doing something that worked for me.  Today I started back up.

Today I put up a couple of post-it notes.  One of them was something I’d learned a very long time ago…that no matter where you are…you have to start right there.  If you used to do something that worked for you, but for whatever reason you stopped doing it, you can start doing it today…right now.  You have to start right where you are.  There’s no other place to start really!

The pictures below are my board from last year.  The first picture is my new board for this year.  You can click on the images below to see some of the notes close up.  There’s no better time than right now to start back up!  It really is doing what works!

What can you start back up that you haven’t been doing or practicing?

Seeing this movie preview made me think…a lot. I’ve often wondered what my relationship would be like if I ever stopped maintaining my sobriety…of which I have over 15 years…and now I know. This movie looks amazing and I can’t wait to see it. I wanted to share about it so you can go see it!

Keep the Lights On chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker Erik (Thure Lindhardt) and closeted lawyer Paul (Zachary Booth, Damages) meet through a casual encounter, but soon find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers—compulsive, and fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity while being true to himself. Director Ira Sachs’s fearlessly personal screenplay is anchored by Lindhardt, who embodies Erik’s isolation and vulnerability with a gentle presence. Harrowing and romantic, visceral and layered, Keep the Lights On is a film that looks at love and all of its manifestations, taking it to dark depths and bringing it back to a place of grace.

www.keepthelightsonfilm.com
www.facebook.com/keepthelightsonfilm

OMG…I love Keep Calm posters. I love the really good ones…not those boring ones that I see a lot of. And when I find a good one, like the one here, I must share it. So for your Friday consideration I give you…

Found this the other day. I was wondering before the advent of all of this social stuff, how did people publicly communicate with each other in the way they do now? Like, how would someone from old-times communicate that they are pissed off at someone…or that something is unfair or just general-shittiness. And then I found this from 1839…

I wonder if this guy ever got his apology or how it all turned out.  There’s nowhere to “Like” but I probably totally would have!

This is an AMAZING video done by PBS in tribute to the legendary Julia Childs.
Favorite line…

Bring on the roasted potatoes, bring on the roseeeee

This is what good cooking is all about. This is the way to live.

In celebration of her 100th birthday, Julia Child Remixed by John D. Boswell, aka melodysheep, for PBS Digital Studios