Thank you to everyone who helped make I AM MARIA a No. 1 Instant New York Times Bestseller! I’m humbled, blown away, and thrilled that so many people are reading poetry. I’m honored and grateful that my reflections of heartbreak and healing are resonating with so many of you, and I love seeing the poetry that you are creating as well! Keep going, and keep ordering in my link in bio! #iammaria
I love this conversation between @ezraklein and Pema Chödrön. We should all listen to this advice from Pema, and as we head into the weekend, take the opportunity to put down our devices, to go offline. Take the opportunity to look up at the world around us without distraction. Become engrossed in the moment you are in, not in the moment on your screen. Allow yourself to be bored. And as Pema suggests, maybe the act of being bored is truly the act of being alive? What do you think? Share your thoughts below.
Are you ready for today’s brain teaser? Let me know the answer in the comments below. To feed your brain while supporting Alzheimer’s research @womensalzmovement , make sure to check out @moshlife ! #brainteaserfriday
There’s no better way to start your day than with @annelamott and this video. Even if we can’t know what the meaning of life is, we can understand that it is each other. We can feel that it is our connection to this world, to you and me, to laughter, to tears, to love, and to everything in between. To living each breath as to its fullest potential. Thank you, Anne, for this beautiful reminder!
🎥 @npr & @rachelnpr
We can hesitate on lots of things, but do not hesitate on feeling joy. Let joy in wherever and whenever you find it. Let joy take over, and let joy brighten even your darkest of days. Allow your joy to turn someone’s day around. Pass this on to someone who needs a little joy today! ✨
I love this powerful commencement song and speech from @ericchurchmusic that he delivered @uncchapelhill . The world does not need another cover song. It needs an original! Remember that as you walk through life. As difficulties arise. As you are challenged. Whats your song? What are your guiding principles?
How do you stay the course?
Have you ever walked into a room and felt like all eyes were on you? Said something incorrect, and hours later are still fixated on what everyone must still be thinking? The spotlight effect alters our perception and falsely makes us believe and feel that people notice more about us than they do in reality. We all have the tendency to get carried away in these thoughts, but the truth of the matter is most people are likely not paying enough attention! In fact, imagine we are all walking into a room thinking about what someone is going to say about us — no will be able to focus on anyone else!
Instead, allow yourself to step out of your “spotlight”, and focus on others. Start asking yourself, “So what if someone doesn’t like my opinion?” “So what if someone notices that stain?” What will actually happen? Our fear of judgement is likely holding us back from doing and engaging in what matters most.
Every time anyone speaks out and up there is a cost. This is the truth. It takes great courage to speak up about any issue that moves you, that you want to make better, that you want to move the needle on.
This last week, in @thesundaypaper , I wrote about how I wish I’d spoken to my mother about how she really felt about being a force of nature. What was the cost? I’d like to know not what she gained, but what does she think it cost her.
I respect this interview with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado because it’s the truth. Wanting to try to do it all. Wanting to try to have it all. Wanting to move your country forward. They are all good goals, and yet, there are always sacrifices. But it is important to say that out loud.
🎥 @npr
Whether you are a mother, have a mother, are missing a mother, are trying to become a mother, or are somewhere in the complicated middle of it all: Mothering takes many forms. Let us have compassion and grace for wherever you find yourself and however you choose to mother. Maybe you haven’t had children, but you are mothering other people’s children. Maybe you are mentoring. And maybe you are doing the profound and necessary work of mothering yourself. Of giving yourself what your own mother couldn’t, because no one had given it to her either. It all matters. It’s all important. #ivebeenthinking
Never forget that words and ideas have power — both good and bad. Your words have the power to inspire, motivate, make a positive difference. But they also have the power to harm. Just as easily as writing a message filled with words of love can one write one filled with words of hate. We must remember the power of our words, especially as they travel through the world differently these days. What used to take days or even weeks to read in a letter now takes only seconds to be disseminated the world over. Use your words wisely!
Do not forget that no two paths are the same. We all walk different roads, even if we get to the same destination. Success might mean one thing to one person, but something very different to the next. Instead of comparing, let’s allow ourselves to determine what success means individually. What does success mean to you? Think about that, and share your answer below! #sundayeveningreminder
