Take what I got, and I got what I take...

this needs to be said. 

Well, this and more, but i should start by pathetically, albeit confidently claiming that someone has tapped into my dome. It's that, or what I read seems so right, to the point where it has been my own and it will be my own. That's where it becomes a straight shot of Bacardi 151 sized encouragement. To feel like a direct line is tapped into another persons ambitious intelligence feels good, and because of that, i'm not offended. I have always and always will root for him. He will go unnamed, but if you keep up on me enough, i'm pretty sure you'll know who and what I infer.

To comment directly on his coattails, it's really all about us.

It's not about the strength an individual has in their weakness. It's not about living as to hide that weakness. But it is about this.

It's about a young girl from Louisiana who dreams of people knowing her name. It's about her ambitious attempt to rise above and around her obstacles that are as follows; an alcoholic abusive dad who can't stand her mom, a mom who can't stand imagining her daughter not making her a buck, a childhood that consists of make-up and dresses instead of making cakes and dressing dolls. It's about that same girl who gets off on the reaction, which when elicited, only is attractive to a bigger reaction. This is about her children who grow up being chased by countless vultures, Canon's in hand, to turn a buck. It's about her.

It's about a man who's heart is broken after letting his heart break for someone. It's about his idea of the ideal, that hopefully one day he'll find that the ideal should be his idea of the ideal and not someone else's. 

It's about the guy behind these words, who knows that when he finally gives himself a chance to try something right, he'll be able to feel absolutely satisfied. In that satisfaction he knows that the reader will believe, and as an effect, the mother will believe, and the brother, and the father, and the barista at Starbucks who hears something good while at work in San Dimo CA, and unfurl, reality to the world. It's about his confidence that keeps him in check from cockiness. Believe him, trust him, but challenge him.

It's about the girl who never fits the mold, and never finds the gold, cause silver seems good enough. (It's not bad to quote yourself) This is about simple math: take the self out, and you have pure and mighty consciousness. When adding the self back into the equation, it makes things "toxic", something this generation really buys into.

And so to that i say live love. Find a book you'll never, ever, read again and turn to page 45. Rock the boat. Take a trip down memory lane, only to create something the future needs. We need you, he needs you, mom needs you, your sister needs you. Run. Sit in an empty place and write. Tell yourself you will care more. And like my mentor said first:

root for someone else.

And overall, be sad when your sad, be pumped when you're filled with excitement, and smile when someone makes your heart beat a little faster. Try wearing your heart on your sleeve. 

Real rubs off fast and hard. I'd love for this to be the final equation of our generation:

(self-consciousness/self-consciousness) + real = love + (consciousness/consciousness)

facilitate that.

much love,

SL

Listen to the shivers in your head...

It's easy to say its hard to find, but it's there...ipso facto...persistence pays.

Daughters...

First and foremost... 1.)I am lazy, 2.)I am ambitious. 3.) And I am ready. More on that to come and how 2. will beat 1. making 3. a lot easier.

Sometimes you find the oddest messages from the oddest sources. From my perspective, the following seems like a lil' much at first take.

"Support Strippers."

Insecurity. Desperation. Insignificance. Add them up and you've got an issue. Always have, always will. Now i say always "will" as a challenge. You won't. There's no way to take something so functional (woman gets paid, man gets laid) and make it absolve with love and care and a dream for something better. There's no way. Or is there?

Is there any possible way the author of this bumper sticker could have really been optimistic. In your assumptions, you were (I was too) too busy thinking, "it's support for things like this that just create more and more hurt, why?".

Stop for a second and take the author for an optimistic realist who feels as if we don't, and should, support the whole individual. We don't make it "functional" to support the food and family behind the job. We don't support the creation and development of a real dream.

All i'm saying is support the stripper. Be good to your Daughters, cause daughters will live like you do. Those girls become lovers, who then turn into mothers, so mothers, be good to your daughters too. Thats all for now, thanks to all who came out for songfest, it was fun. Get ready for the real stuff, it's comin full steam.

peace and much love,

SL

...align//loveshow\\...

So i've never had braces. Looking in the mirror the other day, i noticed that the dentist might have been wrong. Looking for a way to solve what i thought was an issue, a small issue at that, i heard about a lil something called Invisalign. The products tag-line: 

it's clear, 

it's convenient,

it's custom made,

it's you

my first question... really?

Now all mommas drama aside, i'm not associating anything negative with the actual product but stick with me, it's where my idea flowed from.

it's clear: meaning, for some reason, somehow, your trying to hide something. It's as if you want a piece of something great but aren't willing to come to an understanding with the negative consequences.

it's convenient: it's unobtrusive and doesn't cost much. We don't risk anything by convenience. It's not throwing something into the ring we actually "hold dear" to achieve a greater good. 

It's "throw it in the microwave" 

it's "i don't have time for that" 

it's "i'll do it tomorrow, when i can do it today just as good".

it's custom made: implying that someone knows us better than WE. Who really knows what fits you right?

Is this real? Throwing shortcomings on the back porch only to hide the weakness and show our "strengths".

Build a house of gold to cover the faulty foundation and the walls made of Saltine Crackers and Elmer's Glue.

The breakdown: Don't make people know where we get awkward and ashamed. Try and allow access to that area of your mind, so it just isn't as awkward anymore. 

My advice to you on this:

-do something that makes you feel uncomfortable, if the words "wellll, i'm super comfortable right now" ever crosses your mind, find a way to rock your own world and do something that changes whatever got you feeling ok. 

(//I am that kid in the cafe who constantly checks his phone waiting for the text that never comes, and maybe if he looks busy, no one will bother him,

I am that girl who never fits the mold, and never finds the gold, cause silver seems good enough,

I am that guy who keeps going back to what he's done, cause he doesn't know otherwise,

I am the mom who tries so hard to wipe the hurt off her face, but she needs a reason to,//)

Come get it, go get it... it won't hurt.

SL

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

Every snowman starts somewhere small,

Every wave begins miniscule and falls,

Every building starts down by your feet,

Every creature small and finally complete,

I hope oneday this world can find,

what it really needs, patiently waiting on time,

is it the world, the order, or our own pollution,

love him and her more, and you'll find the solution...

Cheesy i know but it's completely off the cuff...

Patience. 

much love,

SL

Covered in rain

Think about being fully engrossed in what feels like an absolute disaster. Each and every step just gets incrementally and exponentially worse than the previous. The escalator heads down without a way up, much like those bee traps people have outside in the summer at the pool. No way out. Or at least it seems.

Close your eyes, write something down, throw down on your pillow, get lost in your comforter, and think about what it feels like to not feel what that feels like.

Take pain and create joy. Take struggle and create ease. Take conflict and create peace. Take anger and create forgiveness. Take negativity and create positivism. (think about the common link in those things, you have control)

The good thing about being /covered in rain\ is that everything that follows can only get dryer, and when things get dry again, well, then comes more rains that sometimes get heavier.

(My goal is to make this the last time I use someone else’s metaphors to unwrap some good ideas to live by but take this for what it’s worth, and I think it’s worth a lot. This is a premium message that helps remind you that even broken bones heal stronger, so listen up.)

This idea of being /covered in rain\ makes things interesting and ironically, hopeful. It’s the idea that every inch of your body is vulnerable, and absolutely and completely COVERED in r(p)ain. (They are synonymous in this metaphor, so stick with me.) I’m willing to say this pain is unavoidable, in all we work for and strive to become in this journey, its conceivably inevitable. And thanks to Noah, sometimes, when it rains, it pours. Here comes the release… really though, even he had Mt. Ararat. So in the words of Hilary, let the rain fall down.

Bring it. Handle it. And create your own way out. Put on your rain coat and your goulashes and forget the fact that it feels like it might never stop. Really though, what’s some sunshine without a rainy day.

I’ve made this my outlet, make it your inlet.

Much love,
SL