caligater

Just what you’ve always wanted, right? Right! The {new!} weekly round-up of some of the yummy snackages I’ve discovered around the web. Have a click.

• {Blog love} – Walk Talk Chew Gum
  Y’know when someone starts a project and they hit the ground running at light speed? I introduce you to Sara Davidson, a whip-smart woman who just started her blog and, well, just go check it out. “Just Stop Faking it Already!” speaks to authenticity in marketing and the social web, as well as self-honesty. It’s gold. I am looking forward to more of Sara’s projects and writing. [And when she and I get to meet IRL, I have a sneaking suspicion we're going to be BFFs Foreva.]

• {Behold the power of the Internet} – Love Harder
  I unabashedly believe the social web is a supportive, idea-rich and ripe social sphere…one that is capable of amazing friendship and compassion. And the social web came together to support Brandy and her man and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. Read this first, go check out the video put together by some awesome (and funny!) bloggers, and send some positive thoughts (or $5 to MMRF!) to Brandy and her man.

• {Project} – FAILweek on The Think (here) Blog
  Jason Markow is working on some good stuff in entrepreneurship and challenging the status quo. I’ve been fortunate to connect with him and I’m going to be participating next week in FAILweek: writing about failure, sharing on Twitter, reading others’ stories and opening a dialogue about what it means to fail. In a good way. :) If you have a [failure] story to share, I suggest you do the same. From Jason’s FAILweek project:

  “The first week of February is ‘#FAILweek‘ where entrepreneurs and bloggers of all industries, experience levels, and from every corner of the globe come together to celebrate their past failures.”

• {Eye candy} – OnceMany
  Um, hello. Insanely great idea. Which day is YOURS?

• {Photograph} – Walls (via Bear)
  Yes, yes indeed.

• {Tune} – Sacrifice from The Roots
  This is a long-time favorite song of mine…and one I’ve been listening to quite a bit lately. Good message.

I just spent a week in Central Florida. And though I had high hopes to get reptilian, I did not wrestle any gators. I mean, a blonde alligator gettin’ her wrassle on? C’mon now. I woulda won. I suppose the Florida gators will just have to wait until the Caligater returns.

I had time to do a lot of thinking and writing while I was in Florida. And while I was thinking and writing, several things emerged that I want to work on. Here are some photos & thoughts from my trip.

knuckle & brawl

The Wine Room on Park Avenue in Winter Park, Florida, serves enomatic wine—it’s basically a restaurant-sized vending machine for wine. I vowed to pick wines solely by the silliest labels. This bottle, with a Popeye-esque boxer on the label, was delightful. And it reminded me to keep knucklin’ and brawlin’—to keep fighting the good fight. Even if I didn’t get to wrassle any gators.

float more

In Wekiwa Springs State Park, it was a brisk 50 degrees out, but the spring water was 72 degrees. I swam (okay—I doggy-paddled) in the clear water with minnows, cichlids and catfish nearby. I floated on my back for some time. With my ears underwater, all the noises of the state park were blocked out and my range of vision was only the sky. And I just floated. It reminded me to bring that kind of (figurative) buoyancy and quiet suspension to my day-to-day life.

shine brighter

203 steps lead to the top of Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, the second tallest masonry lighthouse in the United States. The lighthouse is solid brick and the Fresnel lens at the top can throw its light 20 or more miles to the horizon. Wow. 20 miles. And it made me wonder how far my light reaches. I want to shine brighter.

step into the shadows

It’s been about ten years since I’ve seen the Atlantic Ocean. I walked along a frayed and tired Daytona Beach, with piers in disrepair and hotels boarded up. It was late afternoon and my shadow was long. Despite my desire to shine brighter, I know there will be shadows. And I want to keep moving into shadows—because if I’m stepping into a shadow, I know there is light behind me.

manatees are awesome

Sea cows are adorable. I want to adopt a pet manatee, name him Herb and keep him in my bathtub. Hey, I’d settle just to hug a manatee. Can you imagine?

Blue Spring State Park counted 195 manatees the morning that we visited. They usually weigh a ton, eat up to 60 lbs of plants per day and have whiskers on their snouts. WHISKERS! Nothing profound here…manatees are just awesome.

icing on the cake: joie de vivre

Near the end of my trip, a friend and I exchanged some DMs on Twitter, and he gave me one of the brightest—and most humbling—compliments I’ve ever received: “Your joie de vivre is uplifting and inspiring.”

*melts*

I didn’t even know that I manifested a joie de vivre—a joy of life—even though I do have a joyful outlook on life, despite the trials and the shadows. But I realized that a joie de vivre envelops all of the things I’ve listed above. These are the items I want to work on in the coming days and months: knuckling and brawling, floating, shining and moving into shadows.

And maybe I’ll get to wrestle a gator. Or hug a manatee.