Today is not a milestone. You are unimportant in the eternal unraveling of history. You will not single-handedly save planet earth or transcend reality. In one million years, no one will remember that you trended on twitter, starred in a film, ran a country, wrote a book or made a musical album.

Your name will not be relevant and your philosophy will be outdated. This is the harsh lesson of sequential time: all you possess is today. This moment only matters to you. This fact is not a discount to humanity.

You are a fragile splendor and despite all odds you are here. You are a simple miracle. The people around us may measure our success in dollars, but the quality of our lives are measured in modest instants, created and remembered only by us. Today is about delight.

Today is about sunshine through your window and chocolate for breakfast. It is about remembering the time you looked absolutely perfect but nobody got to see it— so you danced naked in front of the mirror for an hour. It is about saying yes to everything you are too humble to accept. Today is about kissing too much.

Today, remove the limitations that your mind has placed on you. You are the judge of yourself— so stop assuming your greatest fears.Today is about smiling because you are stuck in the blessed in-between. Today is about saying, “Fuck you, I am better than this,” and then feeling a million times better. Every single day should be a mental health day. 

Today is about forgetting all the bad things because they do not own you. Mostly, today it is about forgiveness. Forgiving yourself for letting them do that to you. This day is about breathing in and holding it. Nothing matters but the effortless act of breathing. Dedicate this day to laughter and tingling sensations. 

Set yourself to the task of creating a sustainable life. All you need is sunlight, fresh fruit and clean water. Oh, and love. Today is about enjoying you, because you are a natural satisfaction.

To make my delicious pizza you will need:

1 Homemade or Store Bought Pizza Dough

1/2 cup of Homemade or Store Bought Pizza Sauce (see below)

1 head of Garlic, Roasted

1 tsp. Olive Oil

1/2 cup of Fresh Basil, Chopped

1 Cup Fresh Spinach

1 can of Artichoke Hearts, Chopped

1 1/2 Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1/4 Cup Feta Cheese Crumbles

1 1/2 whole Tomatoes, Sliced

1/2 yellow Onion, Chopped

1 1/2 cups of sliced Button Mushrooms

2 pinces of Dried Oregano, Basil, Rosemary and Thyme

Step One: Pour yourself a glass of red wine, then pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. (If you bought pizza dough from the store, use the directions they provided). I used Papa Murphy’s pizza dough. They don’t let you buy their dough alone, so I asked for the dough without sauce and only with mozzarella cheese. That way I could build my pizza and wouldn’t have to buy a bag of shredded mozzarella! Cut the top off of one head of garlic and top with one teaspoon of olive oil. Cover with foil and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. When it is done it should look like the picture above!

Step Two: Your pizza dough should look like this. Nothing on it!

Step 3: Use a spatula to spread your pizza sauce on the dough. Make sure not to add too much, otherwise the center of the pizza won’t cook. I used tomato sauce with one pinch of garlic powder, basil, rosemary, thyme, salt and black pepper.

Step 4: Add the chopped onion, roasted garlic, chopped basil, feta cheese crumbles, sliced tomatoes and mushrooms.

Step 5: Add fresh spinach and chopped artichoke hearts.

Step 6: Add mozzarella cheese!!!!!

Step 7:  Bask in the glory of completing your pizza!! This is my cat Ollie, admiring my talents. In the background is my salad, made with Arugala, Tomato, Mini Cucumber, Red Onion, and Pomegranate Seeds.

Baking Instructions: Bake on the bottom rack for 13 minutes, this way the top doesn’t get over cooked and the center of the dough cooks well. After that, move the pizza to the top rack for 3-4 minutes. Then turn the broiler on low for 1 minute. Watch the pizza closely to make sure you don’t burn the top and leave the bottom uncooked! You should have a perfectly cooked pizza!

TA DA! Delicious!

For this salad all you will need is one hand full of arugula, one small diced cucumber, 1/4 of a red onion—chopped, one small tomato—diced, and two tablespoons of pomegranate seeds to put on top. This salad is best eaten with balsamic vinaigrette! I paired my dinner with a 2008 Tiziano Chianti (Sangiovese). It is a simple table wine that doesn’t over power the pizza but brings out the garlic, basil and artichoke! Yumm!!!

There will come a time when you become exactly the person you hoped to be. We spend our lives working towards a goal: being fit, building a career, finding love, being a better friend or daughter.

The voices in our heads scream, ‘you have to be more.’ We try so hard to be strong, but we can’t compensate for the gap between who we are and who we wish we could be. That gap forms when we believe the lies that we tell ourselves.

We spend a great majority of our time convincing ourselves that we should have a certain lifestyle or relationship. Our minds are killing us one thought at a time, but our bodies will always tell us the truth. My body reacts when I live my life in a dishonest way. I get an uncomfortable feeling in my chest, I start to clam up and I become disconnected from my life.

Nobody is a happy liar. When you don’t live your life the way you want to, you are going to feel it. When we say ‘yes’ to that favor that we really don’t want to do, we get that ugly feeling in our gut. When we say ‘no’ to someone out of spite, our body tells us we are doing the wrong thing. We are harboring those lies because we are too afraid of what others will think and say.

What would happen if you left your spouse because he doesn’t treat you well? Could you survive if you called that person and said, “I’m sorry I hurt you”? Would you be forever broken if you said ‘I Love you’ and they didn’t say it back? Would you never find a job again if you asked for that raise? The answer is always no. You and your life are never beyond repair. 

Sometimes our lies are so big, we don’t even realize we are lying. We just know we are unhappy. If we quiet our minds and listen to our bodies, we can pinpoint what is causing us so much anxiety. You just have to be brave enough to cut the bad out of your life. It’s hard to get rid of toxic friends, hurtful relationships or un-fulfilling jobs because we believe our minds when we think it is our only choice. We are a new breed of selfish martyrs.

We are too greedy for true selflessness and too ashamed to accept unfiltered pleasure. We lack the conviction to choose a side. We skate somewhere between real and fake because we can’t deal with the fallout of picking a team. Be who you are and do it for you. The happiest moments in our lives are the ones where we say, “No dad, I’m not going to be a doctor like you,” or “Yes, I forgive you for abandoning me.”

When we follow our truth we will always feel joy because we are living our lives the way we should. Wedding vows are so powerful because we promise love, acceptance and honesty to another person for the rest of our lives. Why can’t we make that vow to ourselves? I do.

Hey everyone, I thought I would give you an update on my Euro trip coming up in May. I officially booked my ticket about a month ago. My journey begins on May 2nd in London.

I have set up a rough itinerary, which I won’t be telling you, because it is a big surprise! I’m sure you can deduce that the first part of my trip will be in the UK. After the summer months are gone, I might follow the sun south or continuing my journey east. That will be a surprise for you also.

I would like to thank the two anonymous people who donated to me online, as well as my friends and family that have donated. I really appreciate your support, it means the world to me. I recently bought my Osprey Meridian backpack.

This backpack/rolling luggage can do anything. I love it. I also bought a money pouch, packing cubes, a hostel bed cover and fast drying towels. I have researched many travel insurance options, I haven’t made a decision on which one to buy yet.

As for my flight, I booked it using www.skyscanner.net, which allows you to scan for the cheapest flights on all dates and airlines. The cheapest flight ended up being from www.cheapoair.com , my ticket was $425.00 including travel insurance! Very affordable. I registered with www.couchsurfing.org, which is a community of travelers that are open to letting you stay in their home.

The website verifies your identity through your credit card and verifies your location by sending you mail with a code attached. You can choose to stay with female or male hosts. Basically you run a search, read their personalized profiles, shoot them a message and if they accept then you meet in person.

I will only be staying with female hosts because I don’t want to have to mace the shit out of somebody. I have already set up my lodging in London and Paris.I have also been researching hostels using www.hostelworld.com. I have not bought a train pass yet, because taking a bus or flying using www.ryneair.com might possibly be cheaper. I am still researching the cheapest methods for travel between neighboring countries.

Lastly, I have found that the bank with the lowest exchange rate fee is Citibank, which charges 0%.  Citibank has partnerships with a couple of european banks, so if I use authorized ATM’s I will get the lowest exchange rate and won’t be charged any extra fees. I have exactly four months and two days until my departure. I can not wait.

Thank you for reading and supporting my dreams!! Stay tuned…I have some fun posts coming. xoxo  

Colorado Springs—Colorado

[gallery]