Determination.

Just a little non-crafty snippit.   Well, it's ALMOST non-crafty ;)  I am going to TRY to start doing this once a week...and as much as I would and SHOULD do it on my own accord, I'm even more flattered to say I've gotten a few emails asking to elaborate on some of my more 'inspiration' posts.   Wow, did that feel good!  And the answer is-OF COURSE <3

Anyway, I was thinking about determination today and how far it's gotten me in life.  I have always been a really determined individual and I'm not sure where the drive even come from...but it's alive and well within me...has been for some time.  More importantly it's in my children, and it's really amazing to watch life unravel here, day by day :)

My mother reminded me of a story not too long ago about RUBY SLIPPERS.   I have been a singer all my life and was proud as punch when I received the role of Dorothy in my 2nd grade production of "The Wizard of Oz".   What's more?  I was even MORE excited about wearing Ruby Slippers than I was about singing Somewhere over the Rainbow, let me just tell ya :)

Back then, you could not go to Target and buy the $9.99 Circo glitter studded shoes that almost every little girls owns a pair of now.  In fact, I think between my 2 girls we've had the red, the pink, AND the silver here, LOL.   Anyway, in 1983 or something these were not readily available.   My mother was always a good shopper.  She never spent a ton of money or spoiled us rotten but we were "borderline" rotten, haha.  No, really-we never wanted for much but if I had brand-name anything it was from the Clearance rack-nothin' wrong w/ that.  She also knew the department stores like the back of her hand and when she told you there were no Ruby Slippers?  There WERE no Ruby slippers.  This was ALSO before the age of the internet.  You could not "Google" anything.   Sigh...I pouted.  For days.

Then a lightbulb went off.  I very reverently and politely asked my mother for a bag of red sequins (you can see where this is going).  That day after school, she had gone to the craft store and bought the bag of sequins.  

"Mom?"
"Yes dear?"
"I need glue."
"What kind of glue?" my mother replies.
"I...dunno...that white glue in the gold bottle..."  (I am almost CERTAIN that this is the same "Aleene's Tacky Glue" that is still around today!  :)
"Here you go....what are you doing?" Mom asks.  Running down the basement stairs, I reply..
"Yooooooou'll seeeeeeeeeee!"

Ok, so remember these?

Yep.  Jelly Shoes.  Circa 1980something.  I think I had a few pairs of these.  Not sure what the allure was.  They were uncomfortable, left a little webbed impression on my feet, smelled that weird rubber smell, and were slippery when it was warm out.  Ew.   Still, it was "the" thing.

DETERMINED to have ruby slippers, the NIGHT before the play, I glued 86 million red sequins, ONE by ONE onto my white jelly shoes.  I put them carefully in a brown paper lunch bag and took them to school with me the next day for the big production.

I want to say that there were probably 84,000 red sequins on the floor of the stage by the end of the production, but I was a happy girl.

My Dad also recently reminded me of this during our family trip to Maui this past fall.  My parents took us on the trip of a LIFETIME and there was a beach that was in this really remote place, cliffside.  The only way down was to literally scale a fence but it was the most beautiful beach I had seen and I REALLY wanted to be there.   Now, those of you may not know this about me but i'm not exactly the most physically fit person in the world (LOL!!!!!).   But there I was, husband and father IN AWE (mom wouldn't look, she was too scared I would hurl myself too far from the fence and fall 150 feet to my death) as I said "WHO KNOWS when the next time I will EVER be so lucky to get to Maui?  WHO KNOWS if there will ever be another beach this beautiful?"

I LOVE determination.

IT's ALL about attitude.

Perserverance.  LOVING yourself and your goals and CHERISHING the ones

who believe in you.  My parents.  My family.  Good friends.  Love you guys :)

Knowing what it feels like to REACH that goal.  Baby steps or GIANT leaps-

BE determined :)

Reminds me of part one of my favorite quotes:

..."you've got to jump off the cliff and build your wings ON THE WAY DOWN".

xoxo,