Shareables.

Hi!  It's been a long time.  Oops.  Not sure how that happened. 

Guess it was kind of a busy couple weeks.  Anyway, today I just have a few little shareable things to, well... share.  These past couple weeks, as you most likely already know, have been ROUGH.  Lots of tragic, horrid, awful, terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad things have happened.  I am not going to go any further into the details or offer any ideas or opinions about them other than to say - stuff like this makes me VERY anxious and upset.  Maybe that's another reason why I took a little blog breather.  It just gets to be too much.  I wish I was the kind of person who could hear about tragedies and separate myself from the pain and realize that I have no control over the situation or the fact that these things happen.  I mean, I think everyone feels pain and connection to tragedy like this.  I'm not saying I wish I didn't care.  That's not true at all and sympathy is part of what makes us human.  It's just that sometimes I simply can't shake the despair, empathetic pain, sorrow, and fear that comes along with weeks like this one.  It is certainly nothing compared to the agony felt by victims and their families during times of tragedy.  I cannot possibly imagine how they feel.  But I just wanted to touch on the fact that I know what it's like to be a bit debilitated by fear and anxiety during these times, and it's OKAY.  Even if you weren't physically hurt or don't know anyone who was physically hurt, it's ok that we are affected.  It's good that we are affected.  It's ok to take some time to process events like this.  It's good to take some time to process things like this.  You're not weird, you're not ridiculous, you're not selfish, and you have the right to be really upset.  Be kind to yourself.  And I wholeheartedly believe in doing this from time to time...

... in fact I would lose my sanity if I didn't unplug myself from bad news on a regular basis.  Being informed is important, but so is the ability to function and relax and live your life.

Enough about that!  Here's another incredibly powerful idea to ponder.  I'm sure you've already seen it, but if not PLEASE take a moment.  I have a weird thing about resisting youtube videos that people recommend to me - as in, I either never watch them or it takes me a week and constant pestering to finally give in.  I have no idea why this is.  No idea.  It's just a weird thing.  So sue me.  The point is, I was hesitant to hop on this bandwagon until enough people whose opinions I really value and can generally relate with had recommended it and said such amazing things about it.  And they were right.  IT. IS. AMAZING.  So beautiful.  Watch it.  Just watch it.  If you've already seen it, watch it again.  It made me cry (but what doesn't??).  But seriously.  Watch this right now:

Dove Real Beauty Sketches

And while we're on the subject of viral links you've probably already seen, I'd also like to share "Instagram's Envy Effect," an article that quite a few of my friends have referenced recently.  Wow.  The ideas mentioned in this article pretty much sum up the reason I started this blog.  Life ain't perfect.  No matter how many photos I/we post on our various avenues of social networking about canoe adventures, trips to Thailand, or beautiful experiences with friends (yeah, sorry, I know I do that a lot), it's NOT FAIR to assume that these instagrammers are perfect and content and perfectly content!  It's not fair to them and it's not fair to you!  You really think trips and great weather and nice friends and good food makes your life perfect?  I wish!  These things can make life good-fortune-filled and nice, but wow, they're not everything.  So just keep that in mind.  I hope I've been transparent enough about the fact that the fun things I do and adventures I seek and photos I take are in an effort to make the best of each day and not to give you the false impression that I never have bad ones.

Also I can't get enough of this song:  "Turning Page," by Sleeping at Last.  Holy smokes.  It's gorgeous.  If you're feeling some Springtime, love-is-in-the-air, driving with the windows down twitterpation, it's perfect.  In my experience, anyway.  Goosebump CENTRAL.  Was it in a Twilight movie?  Yes.  I'm just going to be honest about that.  Look beyond it, people.

Today's jam:  "Little Numbers" by Boy

Peace be da journey (ever seen Cool Runnings? I sure hope so)!