Mustangs, Honey Badgers And Nectar Dreams.

My day started with soul shine and sunshine. Very little trumps beginning the morning with good coffee, food, and feelings, or makes my spirit soar like spending time outdoors. Life truths stared me in the face early on. The first truths to say hello were the profound power of kindness and its ability to brighten a moment and how much satisfaction the act of realizing the tiniest kindness someone else shows you brings. Never underestimate the power of how being genuinely nice can lift your own mood, not to mention the moods of others, even if your hungry bear side peeked out before you ate breakfast.

After an uplifting walk, during which my boyfriend, Ian, surveyed the best area to set up his beehives with his bubbly Boykin Spaniel, Cooper, bounding along, I had another soul finding moment. Ian and I   embarked upon a discussion about life ambitions. It hit me that I need to get back to the activities that fire me up and that I should once again concentrate on the dreams that fueled me through school. We both agreed, that sure life is hard, but it is better we try to find careers and follow a life path that makes us come alive each and everyday and fail a bunch, then wind up on a road that we thought we were supposed to go down trying to emulate the rest of the herd's idea of success. Don't let fear keep you from truly living and write a story that you and your grandchildren would want to read over and over again and that you would be proud to have authored when the sand runs out. As my awesome ninth grade English teacher would say, "Don't should on yourself."

Another source of inspiration was attending a Gnu's Room book event today. The Gnu's room is a nonprofit bookstore and arts center and is a welcoming haven full of character. At the event, authors of prose and poetry in the anthology, Chinaberries and Crows, which is written by region writers and captures the South without using tried and trite language, read their works. A woman's story of her relationship with her grandparents particularly spoke to me. As I was venturing to the Mama's Mochas Coffee Emporium area of the store for a coffee, gasp, during a reading break, a book jumped out at me on the shelf, Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West. Now this is not the first time a book has screamed at me from its shelf at this wonderful place. 

The last book that called my attention was an autobiography about Marla Runyan, a famous runner. Side note: A couple of passions in my life have been running and horses. Before I bought the autobiography on Marla Runyan, I had read in The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin that reading biographies and drawing from others experiences was a helpful life tool. It was a bonus that the autobiography was a subject I could relate too. Anyways, I am looking forward to reading the book about the mustangs, which chronicles the poignant story of this magnificent horse, its importance in our history as a country, and their fortitude to remain roaming free despite the adversities they have faced. Sadly, these beautiful equines grace this earth in smaller populations.

 I also bought an eclectic tank yelling out the Mama's Mocha label, a cupcake for my sweetie, an artistic card on which I'll write a thank you note, and last but not least, a coffee called the honey badger, an intoxicating elixir made with local honey. It's the little things.