Ten of life's most important words

My parents gave me this ring at Christmas, and it’s quickly become a permanent fixture on my hand.

I love that – from a distance – it looks like a simple silver band. However, when you look closely, there are ten words inscribed that serve as a gentle reminder of the important things in life:

Soul “Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” – Oscar Wilde

“You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” – C.S. Lewis

Wish “To a resolute mind, wishing to do is the first step toward doing. But if we do not wish to do a thing it becomes impossible.” Robert Southey

Faith “Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.” – Kahil Gibran

“Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death.” – Author Unknown

Spirit “Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than material force, that thoughts rule the world.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beauty "Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” – Ashley Smith

Imagine “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” – Albert Einstein

"Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass.” – Paul J. Meyer

Dream “You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'” – George Bernard Shaw

Peace “Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do, Something you are, And something you give away.” – Robert Fulghum

Hope “In all things it is better to hope than to despair” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love “And in the end, The love you take is equal to the love you make.” – The Beatles

Different, yet somehow the same

It’s funny how some people you think you’ll never hear from again can suddenly (and effortlessly) waltz back into your life.

Over the course of the last couple of months – and more specifically, the last week or two – I’ve reconnected with someone I haven’t talked to in nearly six years: my high school sweetheart.

The night of the Iron Bowl, I got an unexpected phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. When I answered, I was nearly floored at who was on the line. We talked for almost two hours.

During our recent conversations I’ve learned that a lot has changed for him since we broke up in 2004. He’s been married and divorced. Joined the Coast Guard. Moved across the country and back again. And he’s lost his southern accent. (Although he says I’ve found it in abundance.)

But some things have definitely not changed. He’s still the same good-natured guy he always was. He’s still upbeat and ridiculously funny. And he still has the ability to keep me talking for hours on end, like no time has passed at all.

In some ways, it’s strange to talk to him now – but mostly it just feels really good to reconnect with someone who was once my very best friend. Enough time has passed that we can communicate without the tension or emotions of a fresh break up. I think it’s good. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed laughing with him.

He’s known me for so long – he knows my dreams. The things I want to do in life. Places I want to see. And he readily pointed out that I haven’t really followed through with many of them. He asked me what I was waiting for and told me I was wasting precious time. I guess he’s right.

I don’t know if we’ll continue talking, or if this rekindling of our long-lost friendship is only temporary – but I hope this is only the beginning. He meant so much to me for so long. It would be great if we could be friends now, after all these years.

What do you think? Are any of y’all on speaking terms with an ex?

...and now I need a nap

Whoa – what a weekend! It was face-paced, exciting, wonderful and tiring. Very, very tiring.

I spent most of Thursday believing I had no plans for New Year’s Eve. Nonetheless, I went home from work that evening and got ready, just in case something came up. Luckily for me, it did. In a big way. In a last minute decision, a friend and I jumped in the car and made tracks to Destin to ring in 2010 at Baytowne with some of our friends. It was fantastic.

(Imagine this, PACKED with people celebrating New Year's Eve... I forgot to take pictures, so this one I found through Google will have to work.)

If you’ve never been to the Village at Baytowne, let me help you out with the visual. It’s a cute little resort village that’s made up of bars, restaurants and shops. At night, you can hear a wide range of music floating from each venue as you walk down the lamp-lit streets. Dueling pianos at Rum Runners, an acoustic blend at Fat Tuesdays… and of course, my favorite: The Funky Blues Shack, which is where we all eventually wound up at the end of the night.

After a late (very, very late) night, we drove back to Andalusia in the early morning hours so I could pack and make my way to Birmingham to spend a few days with my family. While I was there, I shopped (and shopped and shopped), had lunch with an old friend and went to our family’s annual holiday concert: Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

(A little rough, but taken with my phone... those orange blobs are fire balls. Gotta love the pyrotechnics.)

This year was my sixth time to see them, and I’ve yet to be disappointed. Every year, I expect to grow tired of seeing the same show, but I never do. It’s always amazing, and I always leave with a smile, feeling as though I’ve been thoroughly entertained. Our second row seats this year were pretty great, too. Those guys put so much work into what they do – and I know they must end each concert completely exhausted. They run around the stage with so much energy. And they do 70 shows in 60 days… which obviously means they often do two a day.

And now, after a very high-energy weekend, I’m back in my sleepy little town.

Life in a small town

When you live in the middle of nowhere, recreational activities tend to be pretty limited.

While there is an obvious lack of bars, restaurants, theaters, museums, retail developments, coffee shops or anything else of much interest, there is an overabundance of pastures, farms and dirt roads.

To the bewilderment of most people who have access to other forms of entertainment, riding dirt roads is actually a popular pastime in most small towns. Trust me — when I moved here, I didn’t get it either. But now, I actually enjoy creeping down a dirt road at snail’s pace with some of my best friends — good music blaring on the radio, windows down (when it’s not too cold), laughing, with camera in hand.

The camera is an important part of the experience because you never know when you’ll have the opportunity to capture something that is a blatant reminder of just how southern you actually are.

Yes. That’s a real road. And yes, I was so amused, I made Willis turn the Jeep around so I could go back and take a picture.

Welcome to Alabama.

Oh... you mean it's not a joke?

For years I’ve joked about my focus problems – self diagnosed as ADD, my thoughts bounce from mundane to complete chaos and back again. Task lists are daunting. Prioritizing? Nearly impossible. I fidget constantly. I start projects with enthusiasm, then easily get sidetracked – never to return.

In school, I was a “doodler” – constantly moving my pen across my paper as I pretended to listen to whatever lecture was coming from the front of the room. I’d start class strong, but somewhere around the five minute mark, my mind would wander to something completely unrelated. “Hmm.. I need to do laundry when I get home.” Or “Oooh, don’t forget to get paper towels at the store later.” Or “I swear, if that girl smacks her gum one more time, I’m going to throw my shoe at her!” My notebooks were a jumbled mess of doodles and shopping lists. I got by. I made decent grades. But most of my work was done on my own. Usually at the last minute. With the aid of large amounts of caffeine.

Most of my professors either didn’t notice or didn’t care about my inability to pay attention. The one who did notice caught me completely off guard and really hurt my feelings. My junior year in Troy, a certain bow-tied professor called me into his office after class and proceeded to tell me how “rude” I was. He told me that it was painfully obvious how little I respected him. When I asked him why he thought that, he told me that day after day he watched me stare into space or scribble on my paper instead of “actively listening” to his lectures. Despite my effort to assure him that I didn’t mean anything personal by my lack of focus, he chewed me out and told me that my disrespect would not be tolerated. He made me feel so bad, I wound skipping several classes just to avoid him. Despite my steady stream of A’s on papers class assignments, he gave me a failure to attend and I had to repeat the course. (I chose a different professor for my second attempt.)

If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you might remember that my frustration with my attention issues had been building. It was affecting my work and causing some pretty extreme anxiety. Finally, after years of dealing with it, I saw a doctor and found out that my jokes about ADD were actually dead on.

Now (with the help of prescription drugs) I finally feel myself getting a handle on things. It’s a work in progress – along with the medication, I’m having to train myself to do things a little differently. The doctor recommended a few different techniques for tackling those daunting tasks lists. And the great thing? My doctor has ADD. And he made it through MED SCHOOL. If he can do that, surely I can handle whatever I need to accomplish.

Bring it on 2010

It's been a strange year for me.

It feels like it's been a year of loss - first my mentor and college advisor passed away. Then my grandfather. I broke up with my boyfriend of more than four years, and even lost my little buddy - my puppy Toby. He's been missing since October. My dad's kidney disease has caused him to be pretty sick this year, and as I type this post, my little brother is laid up on the couch recovering from knee surgery.

But, despite the heartbreaks and obstacles that this year has presented, I still know that I am so blessed. I've made some wonderful memories with my family, and learned to finally stand on my own in a town where I knew no one. I've made some fantastic friends, gotten involved in my community and moved into a new home. I guess there have been just as many triumphs as disappointments, and I feel as though I've grown tremendously in a very short amount of time.

I look forward to seeing what 2010 will bring. I won't be naive enough to think there won't be more hard times - but I've learned that I'm more than tough enough to survive. It's a good feeling - knowing that I'm capable of handling whatever life throws my way. So bring it on 2010. I'm ready for what ya got.

I'm baaaaaaaack.....

Remember me?

Okay - so I kind of disappeared for awhile. Unexpectedly. And for that, I'm truly sorry. (Heck, what am I saying... I bet you didn't even miss me!!)

My life has changed a lot over the last year, and as therapeutic as this blog had been, I think I just needed a break - some time to clear my head. Plus, I became so consumed in reading umpteen million blogs a day - it kind of lost its appeal.

But I've missed having an outlet for my thoughts, so... here I am. Back again.

If you're reading this, thanks for hanging in there... I guess that means you didn't unfollow me just because I bailed for a while. There are at least two possible explanations for that: 1) You had complete faith that I would one day return; or the much more likely 2) You didn't even realize I had quit posting. Either way... hello again.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas. And I'll be seeing you soon :)