Reminders on a Friday.

It is beautiful out, but don't be fooled, it's still cold. I feel on the brink of a funk, and I'm actively fighting against it with Lauryn Hill and reheated coffee. I'm planning a lunch break on the porch with my book, too, in case those things don't work.

I broke down and went to get my hair cut at Great Clips yesterday. It was so nice paying only $13 for a hair cut, but I can't help but feel like I look like a little Asian boy today with my bangs all short and rounded at the sides. But I can't blame it on the nice lady at Great Clips, I usually feel like this after a bang trim.

I'm itching to get working on my new writing project again, but I slept in until 8 like a bum today, so that'll have to wait until after work. I'm most excited to tell my writing group and hear what they have to say about what I have written so far. They've been witness to my lack of inspiration lately, and it'll feel so nice to jump back into the groove with them.

While waiting for some down and uploads for work this morning, I stumbled across two links from Meg's blog, and though I think I've shared one of them already, I want to remind myself of the lessons in the perfect paragraphs of it.

Even just the title of Relevant Mag's "11 Things You Should Know at 25(ish)"  article spoke to me. My friend sent it to me months ago, and the lessons still ring true, especially the main point about giving your best to your friends and family: "Loyalty is no small thing, especially in a season during which so many other things are shifting."

This is the thing: When you hit 28 or 30, everything begins to divide. You can see very clearly two kinds of people. On one side, people who have used their 20s to learn and grow...people who know what works and what doesn’t, who have pushed through to become real live adults. Then there’s the other kind, who are hanging onto college, or high school even, with all their might. They’ve stayed in jobs they hate, because they’re too scared to get another one. They’ve stayed with men or women who are good but not great, because they don’t want to be lonely. They mean to find a church, they mean to develop intimate friendships, they mean to stop drinking like life is one big frat party. But they don’t do those things, so they live in an extended adolescence, no closer to adulthood than when they graduated. 

Don’t be like that. Don’t get stuck. Move, travel, take a class, take a risk. There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming. Don’t lose yourself at happy hour, but don’t lose yourself on the corporate ladder either. Stop every once in a while and go out to coffee or climb in bed with your journal. 

Now is your time.... Don’t get stuck in the past, and don’t try to fast-forward yourself into a future you haven’t yet earned. Give today all the love and intensity and courage you can, and keep traveling honestly along life’s path.

And I love the part about feeding yourself and others. It's one of my favorite ways to gather everyone I love together in one room until we're all laughing or cuddled together in the next room or right there on the floor:

Learn to cook. Invite new and old friends to dinner. Practice hospitality and generosity. No one cares if they have to sit on lawn furniture, bring their own forks or drink out of a Mayor McCheese glass from 1982. What people want is to be heard and fed and nourished, physically and otherwise—to stop for just a little bit and have someone look them in the eye and listen to their stories and dreams. Make time for the table, and you’ll find it to be more than worth it every time.

And then there's this, from Pluck magazine, about divorce at 23. I'm not married, but I'm closer than I've ever been, and reading things like this is a good reminder that I should never mistake complacency for comfort. I am sometimes the queen of hiding my hurt feelings, of letting my own insecurities compound and grow unknown to others, so knowing that this growing apart can happen before you know it is scary to me, but also valuable.

On another note, happy Friday!