Your life is an Occasion

I've found within myself this week something that has been missing for a while. I've been so caught up in other people...in work, in school, in scholarships, in weddings and events I have to go too that I've forgotten to breathe. It probably is more this one person's fault and that's ok...how easy it is to lose ourselves in other people. Your world becomes so crowded that other things fade into the background.

Well these past two weeks have been quiet, and this week is spring break which means I'm simply working all week and so to a certain extent my brain has had the opportunity to simply rest. I've had a lot of thoughts lately....about where I want my life to go and who I want to be. Do you know what simply came to me? Stories. I haven't written anything in so very long that wasn't a term paper or and essay exam...and all of the sudden in the midst of my silence came this creative energy. How wonderful, it feels to be creative again. I've been sketching and drawing and writing and scouring the Internet for inspiring pictures and I do believe I might finish my book this time.

(This is one of the pictures that inspired me. wow.)

I don't want to jinx it.

But I was thinking the other day, how many people my age have had a story to tell, and told it and had it published? I've had this stigma about it for so long. I'm to young, I have to graduate from college first, blah...blah. Well guess what? There isn't a better time than now to pursue the things I want for myself. One day I'll be married with children running around me with a house to clean and food to cook and I will never have the blessed silence that I have now until they're grown. So now I think is the perfect time to focus on me...and then one day I'll focus on everyone else.

Plus if it turns out I'm really bad at this, better to find out now before I'm out of school. A change of major might be in order :) I was watching Mr.Magorium's Wonder Emporium with my class of four year olds yesterday and I had forgotten how much I love that movie. It's magic in a movie and you can't get much better than Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman. Anyway- at the end of the movie Hoffman's character puts his hands on Natalie's shoulders and says,

"Your life is an occasion. Rise to it."

I love that. My life is an occasion. What good are any of us if we don't rise to it. What good are dreams if not a single one ever comes true. I want to be everything I can be in this life.

What about you?

...had a rather rough day today. Trust me when I say I am NOT going to turn this into a negative space...it's just that this story is rather funny in retrospect, and I'm all for a good laugh.

Did I mention that I work with children? 4 year olds to be exact. Yes, I know. I am very brave. But truth be known 4 year olds are fabulous little creatures. They're potty trained, and this makes them very much a higher creature than that of their 2 year old counterparts. They talk, a lot. But the upside to this is you always know what's wrong with them. They can tell you where it hurts and where they feel funny. They are every day a constant challenge to me, every class comes with it your one child who very much embodies Dennice the Menace. This year I have 3 of them. So suffice to say life is never boring for me.

We are currently studying Dinosaurs. This is a topic of GREAT excitement! Both my boys and girls alike ADORE dinosaurs. They really are fascinating beasts but that's a story for another day. This week we obtained an egg that when put in water slowly starts to crack. Eventually out from this egg emerges a dinosaur. My children have been WAY excited about this, it really is quite realistic and they've been discussing for the past two days what kind of dinosaur that it might be. They were really hoping for a T-Rex but I'm afraid they've gotten the slightly less cool Ankylosaurus.

Today I was sitting in my chair with the bowl of water the half-hatched egg was in. This was not the smartest idea that I have ever had. I was just about to lift out the egg to show them its progress when the bowl treacherously tilted and spilled water all over my lap which in turn made me look like I had peed ALL OVER myself.

I mean it got me good.

What to do? My assistant is home sick with the flu this week so I had no one to watch them. I quickly tried to get some of it out with paper towels but I quickly realized this was NOT my solution to the problem. So I went next door and showed the teacher what had happened. She of course laughed, (it's pretty funny) but at the time I was deeply embarrassed. Not only did it LOOK like I had peed all over myself, it FELT like I had peed all over myself. So NOT comfortable. I have a new level of sympathy for my children who have accidents that I've never had before. It really is not a sensation a grown person should ever have to go through.

We were so understaffed I wasn't able to go home. So I borrowed my bosses work out pants while mine dried in the dryer. Thank God we have a dryer at work otherwise I don't really know what I would have done. Aywho, that was my WHAT AM I GONNA DO? moment for the day. Here are some things to brighten both you and me up.

A Pink foyer! How can you go wrong with that? So happy!

Flowers creeping! So pretty!

Something about this just make me grin. It's such random frivolity! A lit chandelier in the middle of a truck? It's still pretty.

My Mother, who is fabulous, just started singing to me "Put on a Happy Face" You have to love a mother like that. (sang by Dick Van Dyke in the Movie version of Bye Bye Birdie)

Anywho here's to being able to laugh at yourself.

~Lauren