Marilyn Meets Blog

For Christmas I received a deck of "30 Days of Mindfulness" cards and I decided to start them this month. I will confess, I haven't been able to complete every card, but I am not putting pressure into it. It has been very interesting to slow down and do things I had never even thought about in depth. We are so use to having routines in life, that it is actually nice to be more mindful for a change.  Some cards are as simple as really listening to a song you have never heard of, concentrate on the act of brushing your teeth, stare at a candle flame for 10 straight minutes, practice waiting, or even taking just one breath and see how it feels. Other cards state watching a sunrise/sunset, watching a movie and paying closer attention to it, take time to walk slowly,  speak a love letter to yourself into your phone and listen back, or even reach out to someone you haven't talked to in a while and thank them. One of the cards this week involved M&Ms and I wanted to shar...

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." - Helen Keller For most of my life, I have had a hard time being present. I often look in the past and say, "Awww, this happened a year ago today," and other things like that. While it's important to remember all the good times and cherished memories, we have to be grateful for what is happening in the moment as well. Because each tick of the second hand on a clock is time we will never get back.  My self confidence lacks a lot of the time. I convince myself that people don't like me when I very well know they do. I sometimes feel left out or even unappreciated. Me saying all this is not a cry for compliments, just being open to what goes on in my mind. Many doors in my life have closed unexpectedly and I may never understand why. They hurt and always will, and cause me to be afraid to open new ones.  But here...

We are two weeks into the new year, woo! Have you made any goals yet?? If you haven't, there is always time to do so. Let this be your motivation to get started! Besides creating this blog, another thing I wanted to try (and started in quarantine) was bullet journaling! I had the tools for it, but could not find the motivation. There is a lot more to bullet journaling than you would think! I already have a post about how I started, so if you missed it and want to check it out, click the link below. S1: E3 Bit the Bullet Since starting last April, I have only done 4 pages. But because I am a designer, artist, organization freak, and somewhat of a perfectionist, these pages take a lot of time. I have to plan them out, write it all in pencil before committing to ink, and don't even get me started on picking color schemes! I figured the new year would be the perfect occasion to jump back in and start again!  The pictures below show what I have worked on so far, and once again, it i...

Hi, Hello, and Happy 2021! If you are reading this, WE MADE IT!   2020 sent us all on a rollercoaster that we didn't pull down the safety belt down for. We started the year off with smiles and hopes for new adventures, and ended it hiding our smiles behind masks and staying indoors. It just goes to show how fragile life truly is and how we are not in control.  So here we are now, just about a week into a new year, but nothing has changed... YET! We must continue to focus on the good things on the horizon.  This is also the time people make resolutions, goals, or both. After the year we all had, it may be hard to think of things since we don't know what 2021 will bring. (PLEASE don't be 2020 round 2!) Maybe some of your items that didn't get checked off before will finally be completed now! Take this time to create new beginnings . As for me, I started this blog back in April of last year, yes, during the quarantine where I had lots of time, (ah, memories...) and since t...