Casting my ballot this morning for the first time since moving to Berkeley, I caught myself getting emotional. Tears welled up in my eyes when I watched fathers taking photos of their children holding their ballots, of the poll workers beaming with smiles as they handed me my “I Voted!” sticker, the buzz of excitement … Continue reading »
A recent lover of mine thanked me for being so free with my body. I was taken aback for a moment, because in context, I could not imagine not being comfortable in my own skin when being intimate with another person, but here we were, in a situation where she was thanking me and I … Continue reading »
In my usual morning of trolling through my friends Facebook posts that range from what they had for breakfast to truly inspiration messages, I came upon this amazing gem. To my amazement, I sat at my desk, at 9:30am, with tears streaming down my face. I’m not one to cry at work. Ever. But this … Continue reading »
That’s what I’ve called this phase of my life as I throw myself into fitness and working on my body in a way I’ve never done before. Beefcake is one of those terms – when I actually think of it, I think of meatloaf. Not a wholly inspiring vision for the direction I’m trying to … Continue reading »
Self work is much more than working on the physical self, it’s working on the emotional and mental self as well. We often work these into our yearly schedule as new year resolutions. I like to think of my self-work as more than just resolutions introduced at the new year, but resolutions I introduce on … Continue reading »
This past Tuesday marked my parent’s 36th wedding anniversary and the 10-year anniversary of both of them being cancer free. Both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer in 2002 – my father with stage 4 neck and throat cancer and my mother with stage 1 uterine cancer. I was a junior in college and … Continue reading »
We all have them. In our adult lives they could be our parents, grandparents, friends, thought leaders, philosophers – or we may not even have a hero anymore. The concept of hero might be like the concept of Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. We simply grow out of the idea. As kids, our heroes … Continue reading »
With the 2012 summer Olympics in full swing, I find myself musing on the concept of greatness. This musing isn’t the passing thoughts of “What is greatness?” but a deeper investigation on what greatness can mean to me, to my community, and to the greater community that each and every one of us is part … Continue reading »
This weekend was one of reclamation. A weekend where I reclaimed my motivation around self-care, this blog and the work I’ve dedicated myself to the past nine months. Let me give some background… Before I started Speaking of Elephants, I was just learning to focus on goals. The big one in October 2011, a month … Continue reading »
There are moments in your life where you hit this point and you have to take a step back and say: It’s not me. It’s the world. The past year of my life has been a turbulent one, but also one of immense personal growth: I left a long-term relationship, I started exercising and setting … Continue reading »
