Cardinals and Courage

Cheers to a new year, 2023! I hope your year is off to a wonderful start, and you are full of expectancy, hope and success. My year started off by hanging with my fiancé and 2 puppies, watching college football, and drinking wine on New Year’s Eve. It was the most perfect evening. We stayed up to watch the ball drop in New York and made it to bed at a reasonable hour. It was pure bliss. I have some big goals for 2023, and I wanted to share a few of them (some are personal). My words for the year are forgive, content, rejoice. I am focusing on forgiving myself and others, being content with what I have and not getting caught up in the race of life trying to be/have what everyone else does, and simply rejoicing that I have and continue to be given a wonderful, adventurous life. I read/listed to 117 books last year and I would like to read/listen to 150 this year. I have exercise goals. (keeping these personal) I want to become more sustainable in my day-to-day living. I already do this i...

 Back in 2021 when I was on my first “big” solo adventure to Arizona, I got an idea to go to all of the national parks in California. Insert rewind music…let me elaborate when I say first “big” solo adventure. Prior to 2021, I had gone on many trips by myself, but most of them I was meeting up with a group or had planned the trip with the help of an organization. Kilimanjaro, and my Argentina exchange was with Rotary and I studied abroad twice in college. So, Arizona was a true solo adventure. I knew where I was going to stay and things I wanted to do and see, but the rest of the trip was all up to me. Whenever I travel, and even more when I am solo, I have so much time to think and reflect. I do a lot of thinking and reflecting in my day-to-day life, so my vacation brain thinking is next level. I vision what my ideal career is, who I need to re-connect with, creative ideas, trip ideas, how I can be a better person, and the list goes on and on. It is something I look forward to on ...

  “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer” – Anonymous Let’s talk about solo travel. I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but, for me, I've experienced too many lives taken far too soon. When I was 13 years old, I lost my dad. From that day, I decided to make a change. Taking chances, working towards my goals, going on new adventures, meeting new people, and moving across the country. Pushing through the fear, wondering if I’m doing the right thing and going forward anyway. My strength comes from my faith, and the strength keeps me yearning to get out of my comfort zone and really truly experiencing life.   I once had a fleeting thought of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. This thought turned into me telling a friend, discovering that there is a group of Rotarians that climbed it each year, and in July of 2019, reaching Uhuru peak at 8:30 in the morning after climbing for 10 hours. Another fleeting thought that is now a current goal is going to every national park in...

After I ran my first 5k, my love for the sport has only grown. In 2015 I ran my first half marathon, and in 2016 I ran my first 10k and full marathon. One of my best… or worst ideas, was signing up for my first marathon. Since the marathon is 26.2 miles, it was a goal that seemed crazy and potentially impossible. But, I decided to go big and enter the lottery for the 2016 New York City Marathon. Spoiler alert, on March 8, 2016 I got the email. The email that said, “Congratulations, you have been accepted to run the 2016 New York City Marathon!” That day will forever be etched in my mind. As this was my first marathon, I was clueless how to train. I had been working out and running consistently but was nervous about my ability to be able to finish the race. I started training as soon as I found out. By training, I don’t mean double digit miles. I started slow and worked my way up. In the midst of “training,” or at least what I was calling training, I moved to North Carolina. With this m...

After I began my journey of reducing my use of paper and plastic, I began realizing there are so many other things I can do to save Mother Earth. The things I have started focusing on and learning more about are clothing, makeup, how items that I buy are sourced/made, and the values of the companies that I support. I have a whole lot left to learn and will continue to broaden my areas of focus, but I have already learned so much. My first introduction into sustainable living, outside of reducing paper and plastic and my general knowledge, was via Amanda Scott of the @littlesouthenwife on Instagram. She is a Beautycounter consultant and has a blog https://littlesouthernlife.com/ . I’m not sure how I found her on Instagram, but I am so glad I did. She has been a huge resource for learning what chemicals are in our makeup items, cleaning products and so much more. As I am learning more about makeup, I began looking into Beautycounter and what they stand for. Their mission is to get saf...

Environmental responsibility is something that has become a passion of mine in recent years.  I continue to become more and more interested in the importance of being aware and intentional especially when it comes to the products that we buy and use. I cannot point to a specific moment that sparked my interest and realization of the importance of sustainability, being an educated consumer, and reducing my use of plastic. But I continue to be on a journey to reduce, reuse, recycle, and want to share my experiences along the way. I’m currently about a year into this journey, and I have really begun to understand and experience (global warming) and why Mother Earth needs us to be accountable to each other and save her. When I first started this journey, I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I have found that I truly love learning about the topic and sharing the insights I find along the way. The first place I started was with eliminating non-reusable items. One of my New Year resolutio...