Friday Faves – Edition 30

 

Friday.

Edition 30.

It’s Friday!

This is where I round up my faves for the week.

I’ve been having a hard time finding the upbeat self that I like to bring to Friday.

Because:

Not just today… but for days.

Hurricane Irma.

Quite a few of you know that I am from Naples, Florida.

A rare native. Born there. Lived there until I was 30.

Directly in the path of Hurricane Irma… Naples, Florida.

And while I left Naples in 2008 and Florida in 2013, my family remains. Immediate…extended. Friends. I have friends in Okeechobee. The city to the north of the Lake Okeechobee that they are rapidly lowering so that it doesn’t overflow. I have friends from our last home on the East Coast. The Jensen Beach/Stuart area. Friends that live on the barrier island. Friends that live in low lying areas. Numerous other family and friends spread throughout the state.

And I am worried. Physical manifestations on my face…worried. Nauseous…worried.

My immediate family is staying. They live inland, which is currently on target for impact. They are in wood frame homes.

I wish they’d have fled.

It’s easy to say shoulda, coulda, woulda… but the reality is that people are running out of gas on the highway and many gas stations have no gas. Gas stations that do have gas are lined 50-75+ cars deep. It is taking about 4-6 hours to drive 80 miles.

I am deeply concerned.

And yet, I still have soccer games to attend this weekend, deadlines on Senior things, people to feed and keep in clean clothes.

Gratitude.

So for this moment…right now in this moment… I will focus on the things this week that I have been grateful for.

 

This Girl.

Yesterday the girlie in white turned 40. If you’ve followed along for some time, then you will know that this is my dad’s half-sister.

But in reality, she is almost more like my sister.

Jami and I were born 5 days apart and when we were 12, they moved next door.

I’ve shared some funny tales from our youth in this post and this post. At the age of 19, she was diagnosed with Lupus. There would be lots of health scares over the years, some nearly ending in death. A little over two years ago, I would dance with her at her wedding to “our” song.

And now she has crossed that milestone that we thought was so ancient when we were young, cruising around in my red hot rod, waving at random people.

Each year, I get to tease her for those 5 days that she is “so much older” than me.

This Face.

As much as Maverick drives me crazy by eating every random sock he can find, he also makes me smile many times a day.

He has a random peculiarity that makes me laugh.

He loves ice cubes!

One fell onto the floor early into our ownership of him and he loved it.

Each morning, when the ice maker starts to rumble to fill Miss Sunshine’s water bottle, he races to the fridge to await “his” ice cube.

This Camera.

(and my other cameras). They help me notice the details in the world around me.

This week, a friend asked me to take some photos of her staff. I was really stressed about it because I don’t usually take photos of people and I have perfectionist tendencies, which means that often I am not happy with my photography skills (an exception to both of those was this Wednesday’s post of Miss Sunshine waiting between games at her soccer tournament).

My friend was happy with the photos and my moment of gratefulness comes from the fact that she believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.

From that moment of pressing outside of my comfort zone, I have grown.

This mat.

Today I went to Pilates.

A text exchange with my mother right before I walked in the doors left me blinking back my tears. Tears of worry for my mother, my father, my brother, my sister-in-law, my two nephews.

And then I began to breathe.

Inhale.

Expand your ribs sideways.

Exhale.

Knit your ribs toward each other like you are tightening a corset.

Maintain that connection.

And again.

And again.

Space for a sip of air into the expansion.

Exhaling even further into the space.

I listened to her voice focusing my mind into this present space…of breath…of alignment…of finding my core….figuratively and literally.

And in this moment…I am grateful that today all of those whom I love…are safe.

This song.

The song that I’ve chosen this week was an artist that I stumbled upon quite by accident. Those of you in the U.K. may be familiar with him. I’ve been paying attention to synchronicity. A book I was reading mentioned the name Paolo and I thought that was the same name of an essential oil I’d just read about the day before (it was actually Palo  – Palo Santo). So I googled the name and this artist came up…Paolo Nutini… AND… he was from Paisley, Scotland. And ya’ll know how much I loved Scotland. Plus, I’m pretty sure I have ancestral relatives from Paisley. I definitely have some from Renfrewshire, as recently as my 4th great-grandparents, Cecelia Findley and James Scott. So this artist it was…I hope you enjoy:

May you find moments to breathe…to focus….to be…

Let your light shine!

Amy