Words of Wisdom

Several years ago, in some random moment of creative industriousness, I decided to take one of my picture inspiration boards that hang in the office and convert it into a "Words of Wisdom" board on which to display some of my favorite quotes. I must have been in a Coco Chanel sort of mood that day, because in addition to my usual suspects, many of the quotes were from the word-wise fashion maven. The rest are from a mixture of diverse sources that I feel pretty adequately reflect my personality! : )

Here are some selections from my "Words of Wisdom" board!
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"How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone." -Coco Chanel

"She is clothed with strength and dignity: She can laugh at the days to come." - Proverbs 31:25

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -Albert Einstein

"Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door." - Coco Chanel

“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.” - Jack Handy

"Stop eating so much!" -The Man Show

"In order to be irreplacable, one must always be different." - Coco Chanel

"After all... Tomorrow is another day." - Scarlett O'Hara

"If you go parachuting, and your parachute doesn't open, and your friends are all watching you fall, I think a funny gag would be to pretend you were swimming." - Jack Handy

"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous." - Coco Chanel

"...Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." - James 1:19

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." - Kate Moss

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." - Henry David Thoreau
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I realize that this is a bizarre mixture of quotes, but they were the ones that struck me at the time, and aside from perhaps the Jack Handy ones, I think all of them are pretty useful! : )

My favorite one is still the last one. I heard that quote on an air freshener commercial when I was at a very impressionable time in my life. I had just finished high school, and I was on my way to college at the ripe old age of 17. (Which, incidentally, was not the best idea in retrospect, but I suppose you live and learn!) Somehow this quote struck me, and I wrote it down and have carried it in the back of my mind ever since.

Unfortunately, when I first heard the quote, I was in no position to adequately envision the path I wanted my life to take, so I just took the quote to mean that instead of going to class, I should wander around the Honors College stomping grounds at the University of Central Arkansas writing cryptic things in my journal and hanging around with a crew of charmingly witty pseudo-hippies who shared my passion for deep philosophical thinking, midnight Waffle House runs and also not going to class. Like I said, going to college at 17 is probably not the best idea!

So when I realized that I had NO idea what I was doing at college (turns out there's not a degree track for bad poetry and playing spades in the lobby of your dorm at all hours of the night), I took the quote to mean that I should live the life I was currently imagining, which unfortunately for my poor mother and any chance she had at maintaining her sanity while attempting to guide me into a productive adult existence, involved moving to Colorado and spending my days snowboarding and my nights hoping to track down free wine coolers. Clearly that went well. ; )

10 years and about a million well-intentioned mistakes later, I feel like I'm finally starting to actually "get" that quote, and along with it, to get my life figured out a little. I think the main problem is that all along, I was going very confidently in the direction of my dreams, perhaps a little too confidently, but that I had no idea what sort of life I'd imagined. And now I know.

I know that I want to be a good wife, a good mother, and to bring joy to the people around me. I know that I want to be financially secure and professionally the best in my field. I know that I want to stay in good shape so that I am able to meet any physcial challege that life throws my way (and also to introduce my children to the joys of extreme sports!) I want to fill my life with beautiful images from my camera, beautiful memories for my family and a beautifully clean and organized house. I know that I will not do these things perfectly, and I am okay with that.

Because Scarlett O'Hara was right. Tomorrow really is another day. And every day is a new chance to try. A new chance to go confidently in the direction of my dreams and live the life I've imagined. Especially now that I know what sort of life that is!