Kicking Off the Weekend With Gratitude

Friends, happy weekend!What a crazy two weeks it has been filled with editorial meetings, magazine deadlines, 4th grade lava lamp projects, a traveling husband, and two high schoolers leaving for a four-day retreat. It’s been so busy that I haven’t made any time for this little blog of mine that I have come to love so much.Monday began with me scanning my Instagram feed when I stumbled upon my favorite celeb news anchor Savannah Guthrie posting about Maria Shriver’s newest book I’ve Been Thinking…. I hustled right over to Lake Forest Bookstore to find out that they were sold out. But my day got better when the store’s manager called me that afternoon to let me know they had received an unexpected shipment and she would set one aside for me.Being a little short of time, I’m only about half way through I’ve Been Thinking…, but I can already say that I’m sure I have never loved a book so much. Maria has managed to put on paper the words that I think to myself every day.When I posted my obsession with this book on social media this week, I was blown away by the number of others who felt exactly the same way. One dear friend tipped me off to Maria’s weekly newsletter Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, a paper for people with passion and purpose. I immediately subscribed and was overwhelmed by the post she wrote about her book (I’ve linked it here). I think I was especially moved because even though she is in a completely different stratosphere than me, I so appreciate the fear of putting yourself out there and making yourself vulnerable when you share what is personal to you. Maria nudged me with this passage from her Sunday Paper that was especially moving:“So, if you have something to say, say it. If you have something to write, write it. If you have something to paint, paint it. If you have a cause you want to champion, speak out.Yes, the fear will come. Yes, the doubt will come. But you might be surprised by the friends who support you, by the strangers who show up for you, and by what the world has in store for you.”On that note, here’s a new post from me and I promise that there will be many more to come.xo