trust your heart if the seas catch fire

fact: ee cummings never capitalized anything, not even his name.

in one of his most famous poems, cummings wrote one of my favorite quotes. he said, “trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backwards.”

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this week flew by. it was an absolute whirlwind. but tonight brought me safely back to where i needed to be. i babysat for the first time in a long time and i was so thankful for those few hours i got to spend with three amazing kids. they reminded me of what it was like to have fun and to be carefree! to dance around like nobody’s business and to sing the ketchup song (coming to a music store near you).

my lyrics were something like, “do da ketchup (squirt it on your plate). do-do-do-do. do da ketchup.” we expanded the song to, “do da ostrich (pretend to stick head in sand). do-do-do-do. do da ostrich.”

 

to belt adele’s “someone like you” like you were singing for a crowd of 10 million.

she’s totally in that performance stage where all she wants to do is show you dances she’s created. i went through that stage once. i think i might still be going through it, actually. #ham

(she judged me for my knowledge of any-song justin bieber. sorry, i have the fever, girlfran.)

to remember how hungry hippos can get, by gollee!

or to remember how exactly the tooth fairy makes her appearances
(just a quarter underneath the pillow)
(oh, and the tooth fairy likes to listen to his johnny cash CD. her favorite is “ring of fire”—track 8.)

in which the little one cried, “now take a pictcha of my teef!”

anyways, they’re all tucked in bed. we thoroughly destroyed the house and got absolutely all of our energies out. but i cleaned up and the dishwasher is humming away. i’m sitting here, beside a tuckered-out dog, and it’s nice and quiet. perfect for reflecting (especially because there’s no internet to e-mail away!)

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this week’s been harder than usual. not because i’ve been busy, because, let’s be real, we are all busy. but this week, i’ve had a hard time trusting myself. trusting myself to know that deep down that i am capable of making good decisions and capable of knowing what to do. trusting myself to know that i am capable of choosing the right people to be in my life. capable of giving my 100% to everything and everyone. i am my own worst critic, you see?

nevertheless, the week drove on. quickly, i might add.

we went from painting banners…

(thank you maris, marli, and sonya for making them look beautiful!)

to planning our newest event, kids4kids, for saturday, february 4th

to stuffing our faces with ice cream. well, i held out, but a few others got down…

to raising money at the NCSU/UNC game…

to stuffing letters with the funniest girl I know

to sending e-mails like it’s 1989…

to spreading the word in hopes of reaching my fundraising goal…

it’s been a crazy week and that’s only the short list.

however, it’s been wonderful and rewarding and although there were definitely nights where all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and turn out the light and say, “see ya in the a.m. world,” i refrained in order to accomplish what needed to be done. to joyfully cross things off the list and calendar.

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tonight felt good to be silly. to act like an eight-year-old and laugh out loud whenever anyone farted or said things like, “we are having pizza with our chicken nuggets, right?!”

why, of course we are having pizza with our chicken nuggets.

i can’t believe that it didn’t cross my mind.

it was fun to make up rules to bingo with a two-year-old.

it felt good to not feel like i needed to capitalize tonight.

unconventional. me likey.

…trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward) 
honor the past
but welcome the future…

-- ee cummings, dive for dreams

cheers until another day,

carrie