A bee is never as busy as it seems; it's just that it can't buzz any slower.
- Kin Hubbard
Most times, I feel empowered by the fact that I can choose the life I want to live. I imagine a fantastic story in my mind and see it through to fruition. Other times, I frustrate myself with my inability to be still - but like a honeybee - I just can't seem to buzz any slower. If my nature is to buzz forward at all times the important question becomes "What am I moving towards?"
Here is what I'm working for. Here is what I want:
• To see and experience the world through travel. It makes me feel connected on a greater level.
• To spend more time outside. It inspires me.
• To fill my house with music, delicious food, the smell of spice and lots of light and love.
• To become a better photographer and storyteller.
• To help lots of authentic companies and genuine individuals through Braid.
• To be open to giving and receiving.
• Strength and health.
• Friendship and family.
• To recognize the beauty in everything. From the big picture to the tiny details.
• To capture, document, shape and share all of it.
What do you guys want? What are you working for? Please do tell - I really want to know.
I love this post! I am still in the midst of figuring out my list of wants. I hope to get to that point soon...maybe...haha
ReplyDeleteI make lots of lists about things I want to have/do/be. However ultimately I just want to fill my days with happiness and joy!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great post. My list is similar to yours, but here goes:
ReplyDelete• Travel as far and frequently as possible, but still enjoy and appreciate home and not-so-distant places.
• Make our home an inviting place that makes us happy and our friends and family feel welcomed and comfortable
• Continue to create art that makes me and others smile.
• Enjoy the simple things in life
• Continue to grow food in our garden and teach our future children how to do it and why it's important
• Always be open-minded and compassionate
I have a few more but that's the nutshell version.
Rachel
What a lovely outline for a full life.
ReplyDeleteFor me, being a "documentarian" has really been on my brain lately, motivating me to shape my career. I think it means getting hired on more documentaries I really care about, but also doing what you said, sharing daily, sharing with pride and integrity stories from big to small.
I love this post. Being able to articulate your goals and desires is so important.
ReplyDeleteIronically enough, what I want is related to bees. I would love to open up a bakery/cafe in which all of the products I sell include local, raw honey as an ingredient. I feel like I'm going through a quarter-life crisis because it totally sounds like a hare-brained idea, but I'm actually quite serious.
Thank you so much for posting this. It's always nice to be reminded that acknowledging your dreams is half the battle.
While I love to get out and visit with friends and travel to new places I really am more of a homebody, so many of the things that I strive to do are related to making me and my husbands' home a safe haven. I want it to represent us. I want pieces of our lives all over the house, photos of friends and family as well as what we love. I want to raise two wonderful children some day and I want to find a way to be the kind of photographer that I dream of being without giving up too much of my income or my freedom.
ReplyDeleteI'm loving it. Keep 'em coming.
ReplyDeletewe have talked before about what my aim is. i'm currently trying to develop my own indie PR company, little birdie pr. but it's a slow build. i get frustrated. but posts like these help. thanks for keeping me on the sunny side through the internets. xxo
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, Kathleen! I'm increasingly aware of how I'm one-step closer to my intentions by articulating them. Here's what I'm working towards:
ReplyDelete:: Finding fulfilling work that allows me to connect to people and utilize my talents/strengths. (creating a business plan)
:: Creating a sustainable (emotionally/energetically/financially) lifestyle.
:: Creating a home with my partner that supports us as we grow our businesses and marriage. Notably, a great kitchen set-up, and a home filled with light, color, comfort, and lots of 'cute'.
:: Creating time/space for travel- especially to see good friends.
:: Curating (yes!) a wardrobe that feels like the current 'me', and getting rid of things that don't.
:: Making time for self-care/personal check-ins.
:: Making time for intentional relationships with friends/family.
*laura
This is a really good post and perfect timing as I've been trying to figure out what I want and am working for.
ReplyDeleteRight now:
To become a better photographer
To become debt free
To get my 2 year then 4 year degree (still a ways to go)
To reach our goal of being able to live off of one income by the time our first child is born (we have 7 months).
To live each day to the fullest and find joy in something everyday, whether it be big or small.
You inspired me to write a blog post on the same topic!
ReplyDeleteThe too long; didn't read version is this:
I want:
+ To feel safe and content enough to want to push my own boundaries/fears.
+ To let the good parts of my work enrich my whole life – and to leave the bad parts of my work at my desk.
+ To have a community of family, friends, and co-workers and feel like I am an important part of that community.
+ To be really good at yoga.
+ To quietly and genuinely appreciate each day, and enjoy the moments.
+ To actually do all the things I say I want to do, like kayaking, or decorating the apartment for Halloween, or finding a zipline tour place locally, or going apple picking, or going on a wine tasting tour.
+ To have 3 different flavors of home-made ice cream in the freezer at all times.
Fun post:) Something to put some thought into. Off the top of my head.
ReplyDelete1. To Travel
2. Build comfortable Home
3. Support a future family
4. Help and inspire others
5. To have national recognition in something I created.
in light of braid
ReplyDeletei hope to start a creative company (she photography, me design) with my twin :)
--An old farmhouse, restored, filled with white, bright, everything. On a plot of land roomy enough for chickens, a few sheep, dogs, cats, a raccoon, and all of the woodland creatures that find themselves at home there. A small orchard, a big edible garden, a potting shed made from reclaimed wood, all enclosed in a white fence, essentially wrapping up my haven. I want to live off the land and be as self sufficient as I can be.
ReplyDelete--To marry my love. It had never been a goal of mine before but once I met Kyle I realized how important it is to me that I share my life with him completely. Another goal is that we keep working the way that we do, giving and taking in equal amounts and constantly reviving one another's interest in life.
--To move to New Hampshire or Maine. I love the south and there are so many things about the sleepy state of Arkansas that I get heartsick over when I think of leaving, but I don't fit in here. I'm asked at least once every day by a stranger where I moved from. Arkansas is lovely but I crave the mountains, the salty air, the history of the Atlantic coast.
--To earn my bachelor's degree. I was completely not ready for college straight out of high school and more concerned with partying than going to class. I'm finally ready to work hard so that I can teach kids to love the written word and to love science and the world around us the way that I do.
--To get my mother and father to ditch their meat-loving, processed food ways and get back in touch with what real nourishment is.
--I want to earn three stars on a particular level of Angry Birds that I'm almost certain is impossible. It was a tearful victory the day I beat it at all, and now I have my sights set on a three star championship.
--I want to find the perfect vintage, chippy white, painted wrought iron bed. I've been looking at thrift stores and roadside sales everywhere and it's just been an impossibility.
--Work diligently to have a green garden during the winter, planting evergreens and pansies and other cold hardy plants so that I don't want to curl up in a ball and cry at the bleakness of my patio. Winters in the northeast are beautiful. Winters in the south are bare and brown.
--I think I want a kid one day. So. I am making it a goal to decide whether or not reproduction is the way to go for this girl's uterus.
I was just thinking about this last night and how, these days, I'm feeling so much like I'm not being true to all the things that make me ME!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I change my mind ALL the time (which is part of the problem)! However. MY *current* list of desires includes...
I want:
~ To change my expectations to preferences (that's my BIG one - and my toughest challenge).
~ To successfully complete my Arts/Education four year long double degree (that I'm planning on extending by a year or two so I can maintain my sanity and income) and become an AWESOME high school teacher.
~ To inspire (includes the above).
~ To be patient and tolerant.
~ To be strong and healthy - on the inside and the outside.
~ To have only those things that I need or that I think are beautiful surrounding me (this includes continuing the long road that is de-cluttering my home and wardrobe).
~ To finally pay off my $12,000 debt. I know it's not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it's really difficult to do when I'm working part time, studying full time, supporting my partner who's also studying full time (and not able to work due to his course load), paying the rent and the bills and STILL trying to stay sane by being able to purchase the odd item of clothing or jewellery so that I can feel beautiful.
~ To create! Something that has fallen way behind while I've been studying and I feel like I'm missing a limb!
Oh, there's SO much more, I could go on and on! But I've got an assignment to write...
Keep the creativity coming Kathleen! I don't know where I'd be without it :D
*hugs*
A
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLove this!
ReplyDelete- I want to help build up the film industry in here in OK and be able to work with my husband full time in that industry.
- I want to become more present, and live each moment with my full focus and attention without worrying over the past and/or future.
- I want to go to grad school. Maybe. I don't know....
- I want to create and be creative. In all ways possible.
Love this! Submitting my comment again because I had a typo :)
ReplyDelete- I want to help build up the film industry in here in OK and be able to work with my husband full time in that industry.
- I want to become more present, and live each moment with my full focus and attention without worrying over the past and/or future.
- I want to go to grad school. Maybe. I don't know....
- I want to create and be creative. In all ways possible.
It is interesting to me that you included the bees. Because I was way too much of bees, for way too long. My goal this year has been to actually cut things out and learn how to slow down; to learn how to just be (bee?) in the most content, efficient, meaningful way possible.
ReplyDelete