Beauty is the Light in the Heart

Hi.  I have never been more jealous of people who live in warm, tropical states.  It snowed over 9 inches in Chicago yesterday.  

They let us out of work a little early so I bundled up and made the long trek out to my car.  I was parked on a side street that, of course, hadn't been plowed.  I was also parallel parked in between 2 cars both who only left a few inches in between me and them.  Not only was there a pretty good amount of snow on the ground at this time, but there was also a solid inch of ice under all of the snow.  So I started my car, wiped her off, got in, and tried to drive away.  I couldn't move an inch.  My tires just kept spinning and the more I tried to get out of that parking spot, the more stuck I seemed to get.  I dug all of the snow away from my car and tried to scrape the ice off of the ground near my tires.  For over an hour I scraped away with my little ice scraper but my car still didn't move.  Finally, an angel arrived in the form of woman smaller than me.  She brought gifts of salt and a big ass shovel.  We salted the ground in front of my tires and she pushed my car as I tried to accelerate out of that spot.  After a half hour, I finally got out.  I couldn't thank that woman enough.  If she hadn't have stopped by I probably would have never gotten out of that spot.  

Wanna know the best part?  I parked in front of a bunch of townhomes.  There were at least 8 men outside of these townhomes with big shovels, shoveling the snow away from the paths in front of these townhomes.  They were literally all a few feet away from me and watched me for over an hour as I tried to scrape the ice off of the ground with my little ice scrapper.  Not one of them came over and offered to help me shovel or even for a little push.  I realize that they were out doing their jobs but seriously...you couldn't be a human being and help a girl out?  Or did my silent sobs scare them away?  A man with a golf cart sized plow drove by me 3 times.  Couldn't he have just plowed some of the snow next to my car away?  My faith in humanity was almost completely gone until that angel woman came to my rescue.  She should have good karma forEVER.

So I finally got home, drank some wine, calmed down, and vowed not to move off of my couch for the rest of the night unless I got hungry.  

This morning, I got up early, got ready for work, and went out to get in my lovely little car.  Oh P.S., there is still tons of snow and ice on the ground.  Guess what happened when I tried to drive away?  Yep, wheels spinning, car moving nowhere...again.  I made Vinnie get up and after an hour or so we finally got my car unstuck and I was about 40 minutes late for work.  I don't know what the eff I did for karma to come around and bite me in the ass twice in less than 2 hours, but I think I should be good for awhile now.  

So I've had a pretty rough go at it lately and I've been feeling a little sorry for myself (not only for the snow incidents but for other reasons as well).  Then I found this video this morning:

I literally wanted to kick my own ass for feeling sorry for myself after I watched this.  Jill Brzezinski Conley is an amazing and extremely inspiring woman who has gone through such heartbreaking journey but still manages to live her life to it's fullest and enjoy every little moment of everyday.  The fact that this woman gets out of bed in the morning blows my mind.  She is happy and beautiful, not only on the outside, but on the inside as well.  The video makes me want to change my outlook on life.  There I was last night, crying, feeling sorry for myself, because I don't like my jobs and I have to work harder than a lot of people just to get by.  Who cares?  I should be happy that I am able to work hard, it means I'm alive.  I have provided a life for myself.  It is by no means ideal, but it is something I should be proud of.  If I want something to change in my life, I need to do something about it.  So I am going to.  And when I start to feel sorry for myself, or sad about my life, I am going to think about Jill.

Looking through my 'Words of Wisdom' board on Pinterest, I found a lot of inspiration today.  It's amazing how words can cause you to think and inspire you in such a way.

 
It's hard to always stay focused on the good things in life when negative things can affect you so deeply.  Today I am trying to push the negative thoughts out of my mind and let all of the positive things that are involved in my life shine through.  I have way more to be happy about than to be upset and sad about in my life.  

Yikes, this is a long post filled with lots of words but I plan on referring back to this when I get down on myself and start feeling sad again.  There's nothing like a little inspiration on this snowy Wednesday afternoon.

XO. Tarah

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