Tag: brave

Be Brave

Posted on Tagged , , , , Leave a comment

Landen is on the Dana’s School of Dance drill team this year.  She goes to classes 3 nights a week (totally about 6 hours).  She is committed and loves it.  This past Saturday was their first competition as a team.  She was nervous, anxious and excited.  But mostly she was brave, bold and confident.  She danced beautifully and I am so proud of her!  I am proud of her attitude, her honesty, her determination and her shear commitment to this group and this process.  She said she loved performing (especially the applause) but not the awards ceremony.  Of course, I loved that statement even more.

I am thankful we have a found a dance studio that fits her personality.  It is serious but not too serious.  And it picks age appropriate songs, dance moves and outfits.

Next year she wants to do a solo.  I love watching her spread her wings.  Fly, baby, fly!

“All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.”
― Martha Graham

Growing Up & Being Brave

Posted on Tagged , , Leave a comment

“You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable.” –Ta-Nehisi Coates

Landen had a big weekend.  She started Cotillion and had a 5 hour dress rehearsal for Drill Team.  Lots of hair, makeup, undergarments, dresses, shoes and accessories!  And I got to be with her every step of the way.  I am so thankful!  And so proud of the young lady she is becoming.  She is kind, thoughtful, curious, observant, creative, meticulous and sensitive. Secure yet insecure.  Shy yet bold.  Scared yet brave.  Independent yet dependent.  Serious and silly.

 

“I don’t want to be little again. But at the same time I do. I want to be me like I was then, and me as I am now, and me like I’ll be in the future. I want to be me and nothing but me. I want to be crazy as the moon, wild as the wind and still as the earth. I want to be every single thing it’s possible to be. I’m growing and I don’t know how to grow. I’m living but I haven’t started living yet. Sometimes I simply disappear from myself. Sometimes it’s like I’m not here in the world at all and I simply don’t exist. Sometimes I can hardly think. My head just drifts, and the visions that come seem so vivid.” -David Almond

 

 

Big Dreams

Posted on Tagged , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

img_0396A love of food gets passed along.  Gregg has that love of food.  It’s grown over the years from a necessity to a relaxing obsession.  Landen has acquired his taste, observance, technique and desire.

Cooking shows fill the airwaves in our home.  WE watch, critique, admire and dream.  A couple of months ago Landen found THE show that was going to highlight her dad’s impeccable cooking skills.  And so we filled out an application. What happened next has been a ride that none of us expected, especially Gregg.  Had we known the amount of time it would required for Gregg to participate in this show, we may have thought twice. Instead we risked and signed him up for the competition.  Hundreds and maybe thousands apply for this competition so why shouldn’t we sign up the best chef we know?

Phone calls, emails, Skype calls and one sliced off finger tip and HE made it on the show!  I don’t know how Gregg has felt throughout this process, but I do know that there are at least 3 girls in TX that are proud of him.  Win or lose, we are proud.  And we are hopeful and we are excited and we are in awe.  And we brag and we share and we anticipate and plan for the big trip and the big show.  And we are all in NYC.

And after a 10 hour day, it is over.img_0458

The mixture of emotions that was displayed between these girls and their father was beautiful.  Joy and pride, anticipation and excitement, disappointment and yet appreciation.  I witnessed a level playing field of humanity tonight.  No hierarchy.  Just pure human emotion surrounding the events of the last couple of months and it was beautiful.  Risking big without huge reward.  Being brave.  They know.  

A lot of life is reacting to what ‘happens’ to us or accepting the ‘consequences’ of our actions.  This is how we respond to life and this is what we teach our kids.  Today Gregg taught us all how to be brave and to risk.   How to boldly go after something that seems crazy and beyond the expected life path and he did it with humility, hard work, and an open heart.  Most of all he taught our kids how go after your dreams and I am so thankful.