My Motto

"I am here to live out loud." -Emile Zola

When my friend Greg and I were walking around Hutch for the Third Thursday Artwalk a couple days ago, we saw this quote and he said it made him think of me. :) I laughed and said, "I agree. I think that's my motto."

I live out loud. I think I've always been this way. I recently said that one of the best ways to describe my personality is joie de vivre. I try to always be joyful and full of life. We don't get much time on this earth so we might as well enjoy it while we can.

And that's what I do. I enjoy myself. Yes, sometimes I go a little crazy, I push boundaries, I make mistakes but when I'm dying I know I'll be able to look back on everything, smile, and think to myself, "yeah, that was fun." I hope that everyone reading this now will be able to do the same. Are you enjoying yourself and really living life to the fullest or are you simply going through the motions without truly experiencing all that life has to offer?

The other half of the coin is to give yourself time to just be. Be still, be silent, bask in the sun's warmth, listen to the breeze, calm your heart. While living out loud sometimes it's necessary to balance it out with silence... and sometimes your silence can speak volumes and the quiet can be deafening. The past few weeks have felt like a dizzying sprint and for the rest of today and tomorrow I'm going to give myself the gift of calm stillness. I'm going to recharge my mind and soul. And once I am restored I can continue to live out loud, just as I was made to do, being who I was meant to be. I am no wilting wall-flower, I am not the type to fade into the background. I am who I am, love me for what I am because you'll never be able to change me, I'm too strong-willed to let someone mold me into something I'm not. I am here to live out loud.