stacydelarosa

Farewell

What we call the beginning is often the end.  
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. ~ T.S. Eliot

I became a blogger in December of 2005 when I was rightsized from a job that didn't fit me. When I hit publish that day, there was no way I could have ever imagined how blogging would change the course of my life and put me on the path of discovering what not only did fit me, but letting go of that which no longer did.

And now I sit here writing my final post for my personal Typepad blog before I try on something that looks new, but in fact, has been with me all along - making an end to make a beginning. And so the cycle continues.

I'm not sure if there is any adequate way to express my gratitude for the people who visited my personal blog through the years to read my words, to those who reached out to me with kindness and stories you wanted to share with me - all to affirm that none of us are ever alone and we truly are each connected.

How do I say thank you to those who have become some of the greatest soul friends, kindreds and teachers I would ever know because of how we found each other through blogging and virtually circling?

I suppose I say it by simply saying it... Thank you. 

I invite you to come along for the next chapter.

With gratitude + love,

Stacy

p.s. Thank you, Typepad. I will always love you.  

Amulet magazine giveaway + interview {UPDATED}

Thank you so much to each of you who left a comment for a copy of Amulet Magazine.
The Random Number Generator chose 4!
Congratulations Nicole Been!

Branding synergist Danielle Cohen, word alchemist Marybeth Bonofiglio and legacy architect Maya Corrine have joined forces to create what they call a field guide for living wise. When I first heard they were designing a digital magazine I knew it would be something special. I know each of them personally and have experienced first hand the knowledge and wisdom they not only carry, but freely and openly share with others. 

The first issue of Amulet was born this Winter and oh my, what a beautiful baby they made. Amulet is filled with so much seasonal goodness. A must read for all of us who integrate earth's medicine, magic, and all things wise and wild into our everday lives. 

I was thrilled when Amulet's midwifes wanted to host a giveaway of their maiden issue on my blog. I was equally excited that Marybeth agreed to answer a few questions I had about the conception of Amulet.

Thank you Danielle, Maya, and Marybeth for the beauty you bring to the world. 

*********

Walk us through the evolution of Amulet, from conception to birth.

I think the beginning happened in 3 part love story, a trilogy, but whose to say. The conversation began with me wanting high vibrational content all in one place, a place to be inspired and keep close to me heart and reference often. We did start out thinking it was a physical location, a gorgeous farm to create learning CSA's and all kinds of post-modern radical sacred information delivery - we had all the glorious pieces in place, and we surrendered to that and what was conceived was Amulet. I do remember there was a phone call from maya somewhere in there, last fall, that was like: "so ya'll wanna make a magazine?" And then it was a yes, because we are yes girls... and then birth happens. You can't stop birth.

Between the three of you, how does the final version of the field guide come to fruition? Are there specific roles or rituals you have created for yourselves to keep your working relationship in flow?

We all weave similar beauty in different ways. I {mb} seek a lot of written content, hoping to cultivate themes seasonally with the highest integrity - knowing our readership is global and everything is shifting and changing - as the way of the wise women. I am radical about what we all eat and I am radically about the emotional sensibilities of each season - what we express comes directly from mama eart herself. So my ritual is to hold space for them to come around and co-create as well as share myself in that manner as well.

The ritual really comes from living with each season. Winter was such internal work for us. Spring has been different, an awakening, sometimes sometimes sleepy, sometimes vibrant, but in the end the flower still blooms and the colors... wow... just wow.

We all really allow and respect each other to show up as we are. We need and want each other to be inspired so we support each other in ways that hold space for individual and unique creation in the midst of co-creation. Our model is feminine. Most definitely: trusting, chaotic, creative and destructive.

Because I know the challenges first hand, I am always curious about how other mamas {un}balance their creative work with their mama work, can you share a bit about how you integrate both worlds?

I fail miserably sista!! Haha. I unschool 3 kids. So... that means a lot of my life is just woven with their lives, it's our lives. It's One life. Sometimes they just know that mama has to take a moment and read an email about Amulet {or other projects I'm involved in} just as somedays I totally ignore my emails to engage with their explorations. I believe that the fullness of being a mama has brought me to the level of creativity that I currently own. It isn't separate, it's not despite of it, it's a direct result of it.

That said, I do take one 8 hour day a week for myself and get an amazing nurturing woman to guide my kids while I put my nose to the grindstone. And a couple nights a week I work late with the help of some wine  Coffee is key for me as well. As is kettleballs. As is lots of fresh air - beach or forest work best:) As is getting up early every morning just to sit in from of the fire, or do yoga as the sunrises, or drink tea and write in my journal. Otherwise I don't think there is balance, just breathing, holding each moment as sacred learning and to remember to laugh and envision the Big Picture. I don't think I know what I am doing, I just do whatever it is in front of me.

The submission guidelines can be found on Amulet's website. What are some tips you can share for those of us wanting to submit content for the pages of Amulet?

We just want people to share. Please share. The whole point is to begin releasing all this wisdom to all of us who crave, all of us who want to savor it. This is about what you do, who you are, how you honor and the ways you pass it forward. I get a wee picky with format but that's all my yucky stuff. The thing is, if you are really rockin' and you want to call me on the phone and dictate your story to me and I love it- I'll probably work with you! There is no one path. There just needs to be passion. Bring on your passion about living in rhythm with the earth or your journey back to it and we are totally in!

I was blown away by the beauty and wisdom held within each page of the first issue and was really feeling the pull to hold it's pages in my hands. It truly does feel like a field guide that I want to work with tangibly. What are your thoughts about a printed version?

YES!!!!!!! We are without a doubt working on that vision. 100%

********
Like many of us I am anxiously awaiting the Spring issue which will land in inboxes soon. In the meantime, here is an excerpt from my submission to the Spring issue where I get to share my inspiration and mission behind Bella Wish:

There is pure beauty in our messy spaces and this is what connects each of us. This is the mission and design behind my necklaces as well. My jewelry is my story expressed through sacred amulet and what I give to the world. 

To read the entire article, click here.

If you would like to be entered to receive your gift copy of the Winter issue of Amulet, simply leave a comment here. I will randomly choose one comment this Friday, April 5th. Be sure to leave your email address so I may contact you.

Amulet magazine's website
Amulet magazine's facebook page
 

Guiding Word of the Month : April

I've felt a certain aliveness and awakening this Easter weekend that tells me Spring is here. I feel it. I feel ready to burn some of this creative energy I've been storing up. 

Living in Southern California means not experiencing a true Winter which results in year round creative energy in this city. What I am learning about living seasonally is the importance of rest, which Winter is for many outside of Southern California as well as in nature - a time to retreat, reflect, and hibernate. 

Even though this Winter in Southern California once again brought it's blessed beautiful sunny skies and seventy degree promises that many people flock to, I took on Winter as a mindset this past season knowing weather wouldn't be the deciding factor. 

Because I get caught up in the year round frenzy of constant action, I experience burnout pretty easily. I am the kind of person who will be with my children all day and then push myself to work until 2:00 am each night until I finally collapse and completely neglect my own needs.

This winter I tried something fairly new for me and listened to the natural rhythms of my body. I allowed myself to go to bed when my girls did and not power through, I took naps when I needed to, I made time for family days, I walked away from work when I needed to, I made nutritious meals, I started brewing my own kombucha, I actually read for pleasure and journaled my creative ideas as they came while doing my best to release the urge to take action immediately, simply allowing the ideas to seed. 

I also spent some time in my shadows with a lantern to shine some light on my deepest fears. I returned with renewed compassion and kindness for myself as a mother, artist and a human being. 

This month's guiding word in Integrate. My creative energy is burning brightly and I am feeling recharged and ready to welcome Spring with that yummy feeling of when something is brand new and brimming with possibility. 

I will be using my journal, and my blog, this month to explore the ways I am integrating my values, beliefs and spirit into my creative work going forward. 

I invite you to use integrate as your guiding word this month as well. 

Monthly Sage

Trying to post a Weekly Sage proved to be a bit much, but there is so much goodness that I want to share and a Monthly Sage feels totally doable:

Let's Get Naked! Sheila is a girl after my own heart. Find twenty mintues for this, it's worth it.

All Hail to the Kale!

Can't get enough of PicTapGo

Creativity is Caring for the Soul

I'm leaning towards the turquoise print

This one is for us who design and sell jewelry.

Two things that recently scared me: picking up a paintbrush again and photographing a wild animal.
I showed up for both

A field guide for wisdom. Look for an Amulet magazine giveaway here on Tuesday!

Speaking of... honored to be featured on Amulet's website.

46 Reasons. You have probably seen this, but it still makes me laugh. 

Eight Ingredients you never want to see on your nutrition label

An entire catalogue of useful, and free, tutorials for all of us herbmamas.

Honored to be a contributor to the Eye Wonder Workshops. There is still 24 hours left to register!

 

Hustling for the Happy

I often wonder if my blog is having abandonment issues. All of my words and non-parenting energy are being poured into my course and other projects currently being created. I am at a place where I finally feel I have something of value to contribute and I am filled with joy and excitement about sharing them. I no longer wish to hide behind my fear and ego about what I can contribute creatively. 

I am finding that with each step I take towards actualizing my dreams, I am returning to that which I have always known but was afraid of for so long. I am discovering, or rediscovering, that which I love with a wide open heart and a heaping spoonful of humility.

I've recently become a student of online business and marketing. This is because I aim to create a sustainable business for myself and my family that allows me to share my creative gifts with as many people as I can reach. The one thing I notice is the tremendous use of the word hustle. You gotta hustle... hustle for clients, hustle for business, hustle for leads. 

All this talk of hustling is enough to make me want to slip off my dancing shoes, lie down and take a nap.  When I see the word hustle, I can't help but recall Andrea having a tagline on her blog that says she hustles for the happy and when I first read those words I nodded in knowing, ready to slip my dancing shoes back on and get on the dance floor. 

I recall being on a job interview years ago where the recruiter said to me: your days will fly by here. I remember a wash of fear all over my body at those chilling words. Is she serious? I don't want my days to fly by sitting in this gray building with no windows, isolated from the world. Was that supposed to be a selling point? I know a stable job and income is a blessing, but for artists it's not a way of life. Working for the weekend is not a mantra I subscribe to. It felt like a jail sentence to me, and yet I have sentenced myself to that jail many times by my own choosing.

But choosing that jail sentence also allows for our intutition to rise up and be heard. Of course I'm not here to simply get through life, that is not why any of us are here. And a life guided by fear is not what I want to model for my girls. I am here to live it to the full and thrive. I want to be in my days fully. To live them, touch them, taste them, and dance with them. 

That job interview feels like a lifetime ago, and the road from twenty years ago until now has been paved with a million choices that have brought me to the now where I also recall the feelings I had during two recent photoshoots I was hired for. When I am with a camera the same words come to me each time... if this is what work can look like, then let this be my work.

It all comes back to finding what makes you happy, what truly lights you up, that which you are compelled and pulled to do, and doing that. It still feels scary, but it's where I choose to dance.

This is where my iPhone camera and I have been hustling recently:

You can see more happy hustlings on my Instagram feed.

Gratitude as a practice in remembering

Yeah, you do! I am so grateful for that. In my shop

I took my first photography class when I was in seventh grade. At twelve years old I was painfully shy, with hair that didn't quite feather right on one side. I was still wearing my saddleback yellow Ditto jeans and carrying a velcro wallet with a unicorn that I loved. I was awkward and strange and trying to fit into a world I didn't yet know much about.

It was the same year I changed the spelling of my name from Stacy to Stacie thinking that it would make me unique, or even likeable, and perhaps would buy me some sort of coolness to my otherwise perceived invisible self. I would like to say some of that awkwardness and self doubt has gone away, but I suspect that it has mostly not, I just have better tools now. Though with age also comes wisdom and I am now much less afraid of the awesomeness that also lived within my 12-year old self, and still does. 

In seventh grade, Mrs. Weisers photography class was where I could escape from the battlefield of the junior high hallways. She played Genesis and Led Zeppelin at high volumes on lab days. She had long mermaid hair and was as relaxed as the jeans she wore to class each day. She was approachable and confident with who she was and what she was bringing to us, which is something I cannot recall about my other teachers.

Thanks to her I will never forget the smell of film developing solution or the isolated sexiness of a darkroom bathed in red light standing near that boy I had a crush on but could never dare to say two words to;  simply standing near him in the dark, accidentely brushing hands once was enough for me to feel electricity at that tender of an age. Perhaps this is why to this day just imagining the smell of photo chemicals strangely excites me.

I remember my Pentax K-1000 with it's strange sequence of numbers and round dials. It was like learning a new language that I desperately wanted to understand but to this day could never quite grasp. But even more than shutter speeds, f-stops and my early feelings of darkroom lust, what Mrs. Weiser ultimately taught me was how to see the world. 

She taught me how to look at my environment differently, how to notice the life taking place in the quiet spaces inside a noisy world. She taught me to get outside of my head and seek out the relationship between light and shadow and range of emotions in the stillness of everyday spaces. 

I remember one black and white photograph I had developed in her class of my young cousin, her blonde baby-fine hair whipping in the seabreeze and joy radiating contagiously from her smile with one of the family dogs. The photo tells a clear story of what happiness looks like and Mrs. Weiser asked if she could submit it to a student photography contest. My shy self said no. Bless her, she did it anyway and that photo won second place. 

What I learned from that experience is that I had a gift of seeing and capturing the life in a moment. I could see beauty everywhere and in common places others might not ever notice, which is the gift of any photographer. 

Photography is how I express myself, like the singer who sings, or the artist who paints, or the chef that rises at 5:00 am each day to find the best ingredients for their kitchen... I am compelled to document moments through a lens, even (especially) when inconvient, as well as to share. It's how I self express and communitcate best. It's where I find healing, joy, connection and gratitude for life. It might sound crazy but it's how I meditate. And when I don't practice regularly, if not daily, it shows up in my life in not-so-pretty ways.

As I remember this particular snapshot of my life the name of my first photography teacher, Mrs. Weiser, is not lost on me nor is the gift she ultimately gave me. Part of my larger dream is to give the same gift she gave to me to other young girls, starting with my own daughters. 

My photo-based course Getting Naked with the Now: Rooted in Gratitude is a new beginning for me and a exploratory step in a direction outside my comfort zone. It was born out of a period of time where I had forgotten how to see the magic of the everyday. I was trying to see with blinders on and my cameras were collecting dust.

I was hanging out with the wrong crowd... anxiety, sadness, depression and isolation. One day I walked outside and took 100 steps. Unbeknowst to me at the time through these steps, I was inviting healing, joy, connection and gratitude to return as my companions.

I am not a savvy marketer, that clear of a communicator or even a great photgrapher for that matter, but I am learning to be better in each of these areas because I sincerely want to grow and I believe in my dream.

I create because it's what fills me and where I find joy. I created this course for us based on my own discoveries and experience. What brought me back to remembering the beautiful parts of myself that I had put away for awhile is something I believe will be beneficial to others. I created this course for you and for me as I practice it right along with you. I don't see myself as a teacher, I see myself as a continuous participant and a lifelong learner with an eagerness to share with the world. 

I practice gratitude to help me remember the essence of who I am and what I have gathered along the way.

If any of this resonates I invite you to remember your own ways of seeing and practicing gratitude daily through your unique creative vision and expression. There are two more days to register for Getting Naked with the Now: Rooted in Gratitude. I am saving a seat for you.

Register here today. 

 

Guiding-word-of-the-Month : March

I sit here this evening, after a very long day, writing this post with a gluten-free beer and a twist of irony. February came and went with a blur and ended with both of my children catching whatever bug was going around for a solid week. 

When I emerged from our sick bay it was a few days from March and I realized half the posts I wanted to publish for February were still drafts in my folder. My plan to finish writing and post some of them this morning was canceled when my younger daughter spent the morning throwing up for no apparant reason and comforting her was all I could focus on. It looks like back into our sick bay is where I return.

It would seem surrender might be the natural choice for this month's word, but I'm still feeling my original choice for this month which is... abundance.




True, I spent the better part of this morning covered in an abundance of vomit, but the silver lining part of that story is that I have set my life in such a way that being available to both of my daughters, whenever they need me, is doable. 

This is a dream I carried for years, as well as a promise I made to them before they were born. And though this dream looks different than I originally imagined, I am recognizing that it is another dream of mine that is slowly being manifested. I am truly starting to believe that our long held dreams are our birthrights and the only thing that keeps us from making them our reality, is ourselves.

When we think of the word of abundance, we often think in terms of financial abundance. And yes, that is a very real and large part of it, but what I am also wanting to be guided by and aware of this month is all the other ways abundance shows up in my life.

Vomit aside, I am currently feeling and witnessing an abundance of support, community, hope and possibility for my bigger dream and larger vision. Part of this vision will be to soon have a garden on some land in which to plant and harvest an abundance of produce and connection to food. It also includes some exciting avenues and opportunities to expand Clover & Sage in alignment with my larger dream of contribution and creation. In fact, the phrase in clover literally means abundance, it's right there in my chosen business name. 

The freshness of spring finds us this month as well and will soon bring an abundance of new life, bursts of color and the return of light.

My firstborn, Isabella, turns five years old this month (five!) and I easily become overwhelmed with emotion when I begin to reflect on her life so far and the abundance of pure joy, life lessons, soul healing and total love expansion her presence brings.  

Life is so brilliant and rich no matter how much money you have in the bank. This month is about exploring how plentiful our lives truly are, exactly as they are, in this moment.  

 

Related articles

February's Word

My Guiding Word for 2013

An invitation to Get Naked with your Now and Root into Gratitude

 

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; 
remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
—Epicurus

I believe strongly in the power of gratitude.  I believe everything we desire and want to feel begins with gratitude for what is happening in our lives today. It took me a while to learn this. I spent longer than I care to admit fantasizing how much better my life would be once I had something other than what I didn't have in that moment... i.e. a new home, money in the bank, a baby, a size 4 body. You get the idea.

I thought I knew about gratitude, I mean, it's just saying thank you, right? But what I learned after a great deal of resistance and resentment on my part with the help of my camera and two years of active practice, is that there is nothing more perfect than this moment. Exactly where we are, right now, is exactly where we need to be.

Gratitude is not about showing up to every moment as positive and happy, it's about simply showing up to each moment just as you are, feeling whatever you are feeling, and honoring whatever that looks like, trusting that it's all part of our journey. Once I truly understood and accepted this I began to slow down and open my eyes to where I was rather than where I thought I wanted to be and that is when things in my own life began to drastically change and I began to remember that all that I had right now was also what I had once dreamt of. 

I've since created a course called Getting Naked with the Now: Rooted in Gratitude based on how I began and deepened my own gratitude practice. And I say practice because gratitude is something I must actively practice each day, for when I don't it shows up in my life as control, fear, aggression and depression.  

My own practice is heavily based in photography which naturally makes the course itself heavily photo-based. This doesn't mean that you need to be a photographer to take the course, it just means you need to be willing to see things differently than you might be seeing them now and open to discovering how you connect and express yourself in the world. My intention with this course is to give you a place to begin, a place to root, and ground into the landscapes of your life as a means to then soar into your bigger dreams. 

If a gratitude practice resonates for you, I would love for you to consider joining the beautiful group that is forming for the spring session of Getting Naked with the Now: Rooted in Gratitude. I would be honored to have your presence and energy in this spring group. It's going to be exploratory, heart-expanding, soul connecting and a whole lot of fun. 

Our session begins March 11th. I chose to begin our session on the new moon as that time of the lunar phase serves as a reminder of intention setting and perspective shifting.

Those who sign up before Thursday, February 28th, will also receive a free bottle of my bespoke Clover & Sage fragrance: a custom blend of vetiver, rosemary, sweet orange, jasmine and fire opal gem elixir by magical mixologist Anna Wingfield of Napa Valley Au Natural designed to support your gratitude practice. A $25 value, yours free with your registration before tomorrow, Thursday, February 28th. 

Details on the course and registration information is available here

And if you haven't already, be sure to download your set of gratitude guides by signing up for my mailing list. Joining also gives you access to my guiding word-of-the-month club delivered straight to your inbox on the first of every month. 

Do we truly return?

When I was little I saw a Shirley Temple movie that fascinated me. I can't recall the name though I am sure Google would let me know pretty quickly if I were to ask. But I hestitate to find the answer because that might take away some of the magic of my six year old memory. 

The way I recall the film, the character of Shirley Temple was on a pastel coated island bathed in pink honey light, it's inhabitants were children swathed in togas. Every so often a beautiful ship would arrive, sailing through the golden light and carry some of the children away. The children were always happy to go, waving with wide smiles from the deck to their friends on shore... for they had been called.

I often think of this memory when I now witness my own children decades later. I can't help but wonder if they were once on a similar island rocking pastel togas, waiting to be called.

A few months before I found out I was pregnant with Isabella I visited a wise clairevoyant. I was pretty broken at the time having lost a pregnancy at 13 weeks and I was seeking answers anywhere I could. Pam, the gorgeous woman with her advisory board of tarot cards laid out before me said to me very matter of factly that she saw two children on my path. 

I remember being dumbstruck and saying something like... "Are you sure? I can't even carry one," which prompted the inevitable and ongoing tears on my part. 

She looked up and into my eyes and very calmly and gently said... Yes, there are two. In fact one is trying to come now. I very clearly see you pregnant in the next few months. 

This was almost too much for a woman in my very fragile state to take. I sat in her victorian themed room, filled with bohemian jewel-toned treasures and the sacred tools of a wise woman and bawled. 

She began... You know you can speak to your babies, they can hear you. Have you considered asking them to come to the front of the line? 

Ask them to come to the front of the line? Is that possible? I wondered outloud. 

Sometimes spirits get lost, just as we do. They need to hear your voice to guide and return them. Talk to them and tell them to come to the front of the line, they will hear you. You are their mother after all. Her voice was nurturing and she seemed so convinced that I wanted in that moment so very much to believe her. 

I left her room filled with hope and gratitude and with my friend's hand in mine we immediately went to a bar to drink about our experience. 

A few days later I found myself sitting in freeway traffic and decided then was a good time to have the conversation. I spoke to the spirit babies who had been trying to arrive and asked them to come to the front of the line. I explained that I was ready to meet them, if there were indeed two, and be with them and travel through life together. 

I can only imagine what it must have looked like for LA commuters on the 110 freeway to happen to look into the windows of my silver Jetta and see a woman sobbing and talking to.... the air. But then again, this is Los Angeles; I am sure it's not uncommon. 

True to Pam's prediction, three months later I found out I was pregnant with Isabella. 

When my first baby was just 16 months old my second daughter Mia, found her way to the front of the line. When people ask a parent of siblings if there are noticable differences between their babies it seems almost silly to answer... Mia was different the moment I found out I was carrying her. 

With Isabella, I held onto hope. With Mia, I buckled in for the ride. I had a deep knowing that she was coming, and that she was coming to be with her sister. There was nothing that was going to stop this child. She missed her sister and had been called. I trusted this truth in my bones. 

When I first met Mia on Easter Sunday 2010, I looked in her eyes and knew she had been here before. Her gaze was almost eerie. It's not anything I can explain other than I recognize her presence as one having returned. 

*****

I sometimes think of that Shirley Temple movie I remembered so fondly as a girl and the connections the children on the island made with each other. I think about how sad they would be when the ship came to take their best friends away. 

I wonder if my girls held hands together long before I called for them to come to the front of the line. I believe that they did and I feel like one of the greatest roles I have in their lives is to instill the importance of their relationship to each other and that they continue to hold hands in this life. 

One way I do this is by documenting their connection through photographs. These moments I witness through my lens will be theirs to remember throughout life, one of my greatest joys is to be able to gift these sweet slices of childhood to them to do with as they wish. 

My own sister wasn't born until I was 22 year old, but I believe that sisterhood is the most sacred relationship a girl will ever know. My hope for my girls is that throughtout their individual life journies, that they will always return to the connection that began for them... long before they were called to the front of the line. 

A sweet Valentine giveaway

photo by Brandi Reynolds.


I don't think I had much of an idea or expectation what introducing my word-of-the-month club* would inspire, but after I posted about it, I received a few emails from some lovely bloggers asking if they could somehow participate. 

When Brandi sent me this photograph, I fell sweetly in love. I knew it was in alignment with our word this month - Return. 

As I journal around what this word in particular means for me the theme that keeps rising to the surface is remember. It's the same theme that is at the core of Getting Naked: Rooted in Gratitude - remembering who we still are at our core, before we got dressed up in all our textured layers of life.

I asked Brandi what this photograph meant to her and she shared this with me:

My inspiration for a piece of art is always a little circular. This piece came about as I was watching John Cusack on 'Inside the Actor's Studio' (a mild addiction) talk about his interaction with a 12 year old costar. He said, 'When you are 12, you are the buddha. You know everything.'

That statement captured my imagination and as I thought back to who I was at 12, I realized that he was right. At age 12, old enough to cognize and interact with the world but not yet gripped with hell of puberty, I knew who I was. I celebrated my imagination. Doubt had not crept into my dreams. I had not yet developed the really bad habit of feeling the need to change who I was to fit in (a habit I acted out for many years). 

This piece was created to remind myself to get back in touch with that inner 12 year old, the part within in me that has not left and still knows and celebrates who she is. I hope anyone looking at this piece is reminded of the same thing: don't forget what makes you YOU and more importantly, OWN it. Celebrate it.

And don't forget that you being you MATTERS.

You can read more about the piece here: http://brandireynolds.com/2012/12/21/dont-forget-who-you-are/.

If you want to win a copy of this print, leave a comment here before the end of Valentine's Day sharing something that you celebrate and love about yourself. I will announce the recipient on Friday the 15th. 

**Congratulations, Trisha!**

* You can join my word-of-the-month club for free by signing up for my mailing list. I send out the word on the first of each month. When you sign up you also receive my guides to starting and practicing gratitude every day.