Happiness Archives - Page 27 of 70

City Mouse in the Country

October 17, 2012/1 Comment/in Family, Happiness, Photos /by Megan

I’d be the first one to tell you I know diddly squat about agriculture. I’m from Kansas, I should know better, but I have never lived in a rural area or had to make my living off of the land like so many in my state do. I learned so much from my long weekend in western Kansas, things like how the drought affected crops, how science is changing how we grow things and how a dead corn stalk can slice open your hand when you’re pretending it’s a sword (thank Lucy for that one…ouch!). I’m still no expert on any of these things, but it was endlessly fascinating to hear how a real, working farm affects our lives without us even realizing it. I was so impressed by everyone I met and talked to, and as the daughter of a scientist, I was intrigued to hear how farmers are using science and technology every day…maybe even more than I use in my daily life in the city. Crazy.

Thanks to the Coberly Farm for hosting us! You can like them over on Facebook, where they post videos of harvest and other happenings. Here are a few more images from our trip. You can view more here or here, or check out the entire set on Flickr.

It’s Really All About Choice

October 8, 2012/4 Comments/in Finding My Path, Grumples, Happiness, Work /by Megan

I’m in the midst of reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown (I couldn’t recommend this book enough, people. Pick it up, now!) and in one of her chapters she quotes the famous Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, who said, “I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” Those words have been haunting me since I read them, in a good way. Like if Casper showed up at your house and offered you a chocolate cake. I am sick of other people’s actions and choices determining who I am and what I think of myself. I’m so tired of feeling out of control of my own life. So here it is. “I am who I choose to become.” The rest of the world can suck it.

To remind myself of this fact, I made the above my desktop image. Every time I fire up my computer, ready to get to work, the above image is what I see. It gets me ready to go, ready to take on the world, and ready to mow down anyone who tells me I can’t do it!

In case you’re needing some similar motivation, I’ve made the image above downloadable for you all to use on your desktop of choice! To download, click here and then right click and save the image to your computer. I hope you enjoy and find yourself inspired. Happy Monday!

Cultivating Courage

October 1, 2012/1 Comment/in Finding My Path, Happiness, web /by Megan

{Photo via Andrea Scher}

I am not a naturally courageous person. I mean, sure, I’ve done brave things in my life. But in general, I am a person who tries to take the easy way out way more often than I should. For such a long time, I blamed it on the fact that I’ve been put in so many situations where I was “forced” to be brave, so when I had the choice, I wanted it to be easier. Well, you can imagine how well that’s worked out for me. (Read: Not so well.)

I’ve been working quite a bit on growing my courage this past year, and that, more than anything else, is what’s led me to the place I am today. Showing my vulnerability, both online and in person, and doing things that scare the crap out me have given me more opportunity and joy than I ever had doing things the easy way. It’s funny, the easy way is actually much more difficult than being brave…I mean, all that time regretting…ooof, it’s exhausting just thinking about it!

So you can imagine my excitement when I heard the fabulous Andrea Scher, creator of the Mondo Beyondo course and writer at Superhero Life, was putting together an online course focused on growing your courage. The course, called Cultivating Courage, starts on October 8th, and is a self-paced, 30-day program designed to teach the practice of being courageous in your life. I’m feeling a bit like I did before I started the Chookooloonks Path Finder course, which is a combination of terrified and thrilled, and I think that’s a pretty good sign.

If you’d like to join me in this inaugural session, please PLEASE click here. It’s going to be a wonderful time. Let’s be brave together.

Before I Die…

September 27, 2012/4 Comments/in Happiness, Kansas City /by Megan

A few weeks ago, during my first photowalk with my new camera in downtown Kansas City, I noticed the wall pictured above. It was a chalkboard fixed to the side of a building that said “Before I die…” and then was filled out by people who walked by. I found the whole installation to be so moving, I took several photos and posted one here.

Yesterday I found this TED Talk online, written by the artist who created the “Before I die…” project in New Orleans. She started the project as a way to heal after a significant figure in her life passed away, and the project ended up teaching her a profound lesson about living, dying and community. I highly recommend her talk, posted below (or click here).

Watching her story made this random installment in downtown Kansas City come alive for me. If you want to see if yourself, or add to the wall, it can be found right off Central and 21st Street, near Lulu’s Thai Noodle Shop. I highly recommend it.

What do you want to do before you die? I want to go to India. And start my own photography business. And live on the west coast….and and and and.

The Las Vegas Birthday Extravaganza!

September 24, 2012/5 Comments/in Fun, Happiness, Photos /by Megan

I’m back! And I didn’t spend my entire savings! Yay me! Seriously, y’all, if you need an idea for celebrating your 30th birthday, may I suggest finding four of the best, funniest, prettiest, most fabulous people you know and then going to Las Vegas with them? It will be the best time ever!

We all took bazillions of photos (mostly with our phones) and in approximately 90% of them we have flashbulb zombie eyes. But we are really pretty zombies, so it’s all good. Since my brain is still in the pacific time zone and I can barely formulate sentences, I decided the easiest way to tell our story is through a good old iPhone dump. So here, in no particular order, is our trip to Las Vegas.

Man, oh, man, did we have a good time! Thanks to Abbie for planning the whole thing, and to all the other girls (I’m talking to you, Hayley, Kristi and Theresa) for coming and giving me a birthday I will never forget. Awesome, just awesome.

Some things we did, and would totally recommend:

– Dinner at Lavo at the Venetian Hotel (where we stayed). Get the fried oreos. JUST DO IT!

– Dancing at Tao (also at the Venetian). Since we went to Lavo for dinner (and the Lavo club is closed Thursday nights) we received free entrance and wristbands for free drinks from 10:30 to midnight. We also got a free VIP table for an hour. Be sure to tip your bartenders, even though you’re not paying for drinks. We were the ONLY PEOPLE who tipped our bartender (which is super sad) and she gave us special treatment all night because of it. Tip generously…remember the drinks are free!

– Breakfast at Morel’s Steakhouse

– Shopping at Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Outlets (the Kate Spade outlet was incredible!)

– Catching a performance of the Cirque du Soliel Beatles Love show. I totally cried, it was beautiful!

– Dinner at Stack in the Mirage Hotel. Order the “hot rocks” appetizer, which is tenderloin that you cook yourself on hot rocks at your table.

– Walking down the strip and drinking rum slushies that you pick up along the way. Bonus for ordering the giant cup and using it to build glorious arm muscles.

– Rent a cabana at the Encore Hotel. This was generously given to us by Miss Abbie’s father-in-law (he’s the lone guy in the photos above), and we had such a blast! We chose to stay on the family side instead of the beach side, to avoid the crowds of yucky drunk dudes. Napping in the cabana is recommended.

– Watching football at Lagasse’s Stadium, where you can bet on games and watch in total luxury. Most of the girls are K-Staters and Abbie’s father-in-law went to Oklahoma University, so we went to watch the KSU/OU football game on Saturday night. It was super fun (and it helped that K-State won!).

– We ended up swinging by the club Hyde at the Bellagio Hotel and it was a trip highlight. We were lucky enough to have a buddy from high school working there and she hooked us up (Thanks, Kelly! You rule!). We sat overlooking the Bellagio fountains and enjoyed a few drinks while catching up. Good stuff.

– Our last stop of the Las Vegas Extravaganza was the club Bank at the Bellagio. Abbie’s awesome father-in-law treated us to a night we won’t soon forget, with a private table, drink service and lots of room to boogie down. We just kept looking at each other and saying “Is this real life?” It was totally amazing.

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