out at an open space near my mom’s house/Westminster,Colo.; plenty of fresh air here!
Hello there! So, I’m on this journey of self-discovery and more importantly rediscovering my light-side. After months of feeling like I’ve been living underground and unhappy, I’m finding my happiness again. I still have a long ways to go but I’m getting there, really this time.
I just started vacation yesterday (Aug. 1) and I’m more excited than usual! First, I’m back in my home state Colorado during the summer, which makes me very happy. I haven’t ever had a chance to visit here during the summer months so it’s nice to be here when the weather is so nice. Second, I have a few big plans for this trip and am looking forward to both.
Plan 1: I decided a month or two ago that I wanted to be able to celebrate my birthday and the birthday of Rachel Scott, who’s birthday is just two days after mine. I decided several months ago that I would accept her challenge. To me, that means taking the time to be kind every chance I get. Well, our birthdays was a great chance to do that. I told my dad about wanting to do some type of volunteer work as my way of celebrating mine and Rachel’s birthdays. Gifts are nice but I’m more interested in experiences and now it’s onto positive, helpful experiences. To fill the wish, I hopped online thinking it would take a while to find a volunteer experience that would take me for just one day/night (as I can’t commit to more than that as I’m returning to California) and that wouldn’t really cost much, etc. I found one pretty quickly. Every Monday a group of runners/walkers get together with athletes with disabilities and walk or run around Washington Park in Denver. I thought to myself – that’s perfect! Rachel often reached out to those with disabilities so how perfect it is to honor her and her life goal than to reach out to this group. It also fits my own love of volunteering and hoping to positively impact the world.
Plan 2: As I was preparing for this trip, I read a post from one of the blogs I follow. The Happsters opted to challenge their readers. The challenge is to find and photography something happy for the entire month of August. Yesterday was “happy thought” and today was “fresh air.” Given I’m working hard to get more positive in my life, what better way than to make a point of looking for happiness every day for an entire month…especially my birthday month. Everything is seemingly falling into place! I love that. It’s been difficult to get the momentum going again after being stalled for so long but I’m finally getting there. So my hope, to go along with the photography element, is to post something everyday (I know I’m a day behind already! oops!). I need to get back into my writing again and I hope this helps me a lot in more ways than one.
Today is “fresh air” for the challenge. The photo at the top was my attempt at it. I don’t know that I quit found what I was looking for, but I think I did okay. There are so many beautiful spots to get photos near my mom’s house that finding fresh air is hardly a task. The real task is narrowing the options. For me, this is a great break from the desert heat, where the air feels stale and stifling. There are good things about the desert but the heat and the dust makes it hard to find fresh air (I think). I sure am loving the break! Yet the weather here is nice enough to get out and about and simply enjoy. I hope you all enjoy the “happiness” also as I go along this journey for the month.
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