One Moment

Sometimes I look at my reflection in the mirror and don’t recognize the eyes staring back at me. Who is that person, hidden in there? 

Embrace the “now"...

It is to snatch that feeling of being fully alive that I am reckless, if for only the tiniest glimmer of a moment. But never can I feel so alive as when I separate from the “me” created to please the world, let loose the hurricane inside, and grab hold and live, feel, breathe, touch, this moment; this reality; this now.

Wake up.

Sometimes I want to grab the person I see in the mirror and shake them.

I learn a lot about myself, continually. And I wonder. Will it ever stop? I think not. I think this creation of myself will never stop. That’s what it is—a creation. 

We can not dig through murky waters of our pasts to discover who we are, who we were meant to be. That person, good or bad, is gone. Trying to “get him back” leaves us in a fragmented state, growth stunted, blind to anything but that elusive version of ourselves we perceive to have been the “real” or “right" version. 

All of life is an evolutionary process. To not periodically shed the old skin and recreate ourselves into something new is tragedy, I think. Fear. Holding too tightly to the assumed security of the past. We are not who we were yesterday, or a year ago, or before this or that happened. To try to be is not the task. It’s about who we will be in an hour, tomorrow, a year from now, but most of all, who we will be right now. 

This moment.

Because this moment is all we have.

Gone Raw.

Precisely seventeen days ago, I embarked on a new sort of adventure known as raw veganism (I have to keep some form of adventure in my life at all times, for the sake of sanity). What exactly does that entail? Well, let me explain.

For the past seventeen days, I have eaten nothing but raw fruits and veggies, with the occasional nut and sprout thrown in. Nothing cooked. No meat. Dairy. Grains.  Ice cream.

It’s been great fun.

I feel like I have to spend large portions of every day stuffing my face to get in the required number of calories. Fruits & veggies are extremely low cal, so think about it…

Here’s a sample day of food:

10 bananas

2 bags of spinach

1 bag of grapes

2 mangoes

1 head of broccoli

1 avocado

5 pears

1 cantaloupe

This is what I have learned.

1. Eating cooked food keeps you warm in a way you don’t realize until it’s not.

2. People give you really odd looks when you take your lunch break at work and pull ten bananas out of your bag and proceed to eat them, one after one.

3. Staying stocked up on that much fresh produce is impossibly expensive.

4. I like meat.

So. This recent venture will probably end sometime in the (very) near future (unless, that is, someone from a banana plantation happens to read this and decide to start sending me crates of bananas every week…)

But, it’s been a good journey.

Steak, please? 

Drops of Dew

Flakes...

This is Charleston.

It's not supposed to snow.

And it doesn't, usually.

It hasn't really snowed since 1989.

But last night, it did.

It snowed hard.

It was wet, it was cold, and it was beautiful.

It made for a fairytale wedding. 

Once upon a time...

...There was a girl named Ireland. 

She was, without a doubt, one of the most mischievous little girls ever born.