47-Quiet Your Mind

So I suppose it's time to account for the lack of updates on my part lately. The honest truth is I've been struggling, in every sense of the word. I'm not complaining, quite the opposite, but I think it's due time that I admit to myself and everyone else that it's not the best of times for me. I've had a lot thrown at me recently, and my life has been thrown in all different directions. Every day I feel like I have a new mountain to climb, and the whole time, I'm wearing flip flops, struggling to get up the first hill.
I'm lucky to have the people in my life that I have. I've got the best friends and family I ever could have asked for. But sometimes it's hard to see through the muck to the brighter side.
Assume what you will, because I know people are going to, but my problems don't revolve around just one thing. I was telling a friend yesterday that 2010 has had my highest highs and my lowest lows. I can't call it a bad year, nor would I want to. If anything, it's taught me some of the most valuable lessons I've ever learned.
I'm beginning again in so many ways in my life, and it's scary, but it's also really, really exhilarating. I know that once this storm (or series of storms, rather) breaks, I'll be able to see the sun and it will be brighter than it's ever been for me. It just takes time, and for the moment, I'll just have to wait.

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43-Different Kind of Fine

Things don't always work out the way you want. That's just life, and it's a hard realization for a lot of people. Everyone struggles, day in and day out, with their own demons. Some people shout their troubles from the rooftops and others keep it all bottled up. I can't personally say which is right, because everyone is different.
I just know that when things seem like they couldn't get any worse, and when you feel like you'll never be able to find the strength to pick yourself up off of the ground, something...even the smallest moment, breaks through and proves otherwise. Even the tiniest detail can turn your whole day, your whole outlook around, and it's in those little moments that everything gets turned around. Let the little things into your head and your heart. Don't shut them out, don't turn them away. Embrace them, and listen to them because it's in those moments that (if you're really listening), you'll realize that everything is going to be okay.

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30-In My Darkest Hour, I Will Be Free

Sometimes a little piece of good advice is all you need:

Especially when it comes at just the right time in your life.

28-Without a Doubt, You're Ahead of Your Time

So this blog is about to become what it was originally intended for: a mish-mash of all the things that come to my head, all the things that make up my life, whether or not you find them interesting, they're just me. I've been doing a lot of abstract and removed entries, and I'm going to try and do a proper update while I have the mind to do it.

Everything is so incredibly different in my life now. I'm a raft guide on a beautiful river, I am doing anything and everything that I want to, exactly how I want to do it, and if it doesn't work out, I only have myself to blame. It's the first time in a long time...in fact, ever, that I've been able to say that, and I love this feeling.

It's damn near impossible to sum up the last 5 months of my life in a single entry, so I'll just let it flow out as it comes, if it comes, and that'll be that.

I've met some of the most amazing and influential people in the last few months, and I've learned so much about myself and the world. I don't think I've ever been more myself in my life...it's amazing.

Taking photographs is something I've always done for myself. I went through some rough times, personally, and the camera kind of got pushed into the background, but I've been taking it with me everywhere lately, and I've been getting some great results out of it. I saved a ton of my pictures to a disc so that I can print them out and make the coffee table book I've been wanting to make for ages. I swear I'm going to make it happen...eventually.

I plan on going West with some friends this Winter and I'm very excited about it. Plans haven't been finalized, so I'm going to keep mum for now, but I promise to update with the details as they come.

16- Some Days Ya Gotta Dance

9/365-Wall, originally uploaded by monica jennison.

Today was a really great day. It was beautiful outside, even with all of the snow. It just seemed like such a positive day. The kind of day where you crank up the radio and sing at the top of your lungs and turn on something you love and shake your ass like you haven't got a care in the world. So that's what I did, and it felt so liberating. I almost feel like a new woman with a brand new outlook. All I know is that tomorrow is going to be a brighter day, and I'll be sure to bring my dancing shoes.

7- You Are My Weakness, You Are My Strength

1/365-Lip, originally uploaded by monica jennison.

So it's officially 2010. I hope everyone's New Years Eve celebrations were amazing and more importantly; safe.

I decided to start taking part in Project 365 (essentially take/post 1 photo a day for 365 days, sounds easier than it is!), so this is the beginning of that.

This year seems to already have a lot of hope attached to it. People already seem to be banking on this year being so much greater than all the rest, without realizing that it doesn't matter what year it is, it matters what you do in and with that year. If you want this to be the best year of your life, or the happiest, or the most productive, make it so! Don't just rest on your laurels and hope that just because it's 2010 it'll happen. You're far more powerful than you realize, and the second you realize it, the second you'll start making life exactly what you want it to be.