ever since i walked across the stage and became an alum, i’ve been in a constant state of new.

and so, in honor of that, i want to blog about what i usually don’t blog about. everyday life.

i always feel like i have to have something profound to say. something reeeaaally earth-shattering. something that will bring the comments in by the hundreds.

but you know what is earth-shattering? today. tomorrow. next week. everyday makes up the thousands and thousands of days that build a lifetime.

i’ve been saying and writing these things for almost a year now, and i’ve become more and more confident in them. my dad and step mom introduced me to a woman who obviously shares my soulwave, if such a thing exists. (and judging by the little red squiggly under the word i just typed, i’m guessing it doesn’t) her name is shauna niequist.

she wrote a book called cold tangerines: celebrating the extraordinary nature of everyday life, and i swear that i actually wrote the book. of course, it is constructed of much more beautiful sentences than i tend to come up with, but it sounds like its coming from my heart nonetheless. the woman loves french, traveling alone, and the everyday beauty of life.

her voice is helping me be more confident in the things that i have felt welling up and bubbling over throughout this past year.

so. the point of all that was to say that i have really been treasuring the things that have made up my everyday for the past week.

zooey deschanel and the artsy version of joseph gordon-levitt in 500 days of summer. starbucks passion tea lemonade sweetened. melissa taylor. homemade dinner and wine on the rooftop deck.
4 hours at the museum of fine arts houston. handwritten letters. two screenings to celebrate dancer/choreographer merce cunningham and artist robert rauschenberg on a picnic blanket on the front lawn of the menil museum. saturday morning farmer’s market. messy, indian food-drenched hands while i tasted. two spontaneous driving expeditions. perfect peach tea. late night painting. dancing with the windows open. jotting down random writing blurbs.

i want to share the everyday with you because i want to always remember its importance. and i want to see others live in the everyday too.

its why i named my etsy shop the importance of everyday beauty.

so here are some writing blurbs from this week:

8.7.2009
location: front lawn of the menil collection

i can feel the summer seeping into my skin. pink and blue cotton candy clouds are arranged as a celestial ceiling while trees create staggered skylines surrounding the mid-sized crowd of people enjoying one another. a cicada choir sings loudly; but only those who really listen hear them.

8.8.2009
location: inside my car at the light on studemont and allen parkway.

the sherbet orange glimmer of sunset pulled me outdoors this evening. the new-found explorer in me identified with its intoxicating warmth. so i drove faithfully, listening to cat power’s i found a reason over and over again. i can hear in her voice what i feel in the deepest parts of me.