Olive: Grandpa, am I pretty?
Grandpa: You are the most beautiful girl in the world.
Olive: You’re just saying that.
Grandpa: No! I’m madly in love with you and it’s not because of your brains or your personality.
Have you seen Little Miss Sunshine (2006)? Olive Hoover stole my heart from the minute I met her. At 7 years old, Olive believes that if you want something bad enough and you work hard, practicing every day, you can achieve your dream. When do we stop believing this? Most assuredly, adulting kills the Olives of the world.
I first met Olive when I was 36 years old and I remember thinking “What a glorious personality! I wish I’d met her when I was a child! To feel free to create, perform, dive in head-first despite the fear! Who doesn’t love Olive!?” But, I soon left Olive behind because the very next day my 3rd son was born and, as they say, life took over again. I haven’t thought about Olive for years. Until today.
The purpose of this blog is to feed women funny stories, tidbits of energy, ideas to help us all push forward into another day. We might talk about things as big and terrifying as opening a business and as small and insignificant as eyebrows and socks. Maybe you’ll see things about coffee or wine, how to find balance, or how to find the car keys. We’re most definitely going to talk about how to stop beating ourselves up with our negative self-talk. We’ll just see where this journey takes us. And all blogs need a name and a personality so sweet, beautiful Olive popped right into my brain today!
This blog is written for women. Women who work, women who work at home, women who are raising kids, never had kids, who are married, divorced, single. Women who are having a good time or a rough time, women who just want to make the most of what time we have. Women who are trying to train a new puppy or raise the most challenging child. Women who have lost something precious, who are sick to death of social isolation, women who need a reason to smile right now. Women who wake up with energy, thinking “Today, I will…” and then subsequently hit the pillow that night thinking “Dammit, I fell short again…”
Here is what I am. I am a dentist. I recently opened my own business after working for others for years. I am married. I have three teenage sons. I am more introverted than extroverted. I love my small group of friends and I love my alone time (introvert, after all). I listen to all types of music, I read all kinds of books. I love to learn about new things and share the thoughts that pop into my head. I love words and I like to write. I’m awful in front of a camera and I think my voice sounds ridiculous when I hear it played back to me. Hence, a blog.
Here is what I’m not. I am not a business expert, parenting expert, financial expert. I’m not a gourmet chef, exercise aficionado, or fashionista. I don’t have connections or links to things that will make your life a million times better by Saturday. I don’t have all sorts of tricks, tips, or easier ways to do things. I barely know how to run Instagram. I’m not a crafter and my house will never be Pinterest-ready. I don’t think I really have very many answers. But, I do love a community of women who want to support each other and that is what I want to grow.
I’ve entertained the idea of a blog for a while now. Content would pop into my head, I would get that excited, butterfly feeling that it was interesting and worth sharing and I would resolve to get the blog up and running. And then a few hours later, the inspiration would fade into this:
Poof. The inspiration fluttered away into nothingness. This has happened at least 150 times in the past two years. But it just so happens that I picked up Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear and on page 90, she gave me a permission slip to write this blog:
“All of which is to say: You do not need a permission slip from the principal’s office to live a creative life. Or if you do worry that you need a permission slip — THERE, I just gave it to you. I just wrote it on the back of an old shopping list. Consider yourself fully accredited. Now go make something.”
So, here we go! I’ll post every couple of weeks (ish). I’ll share ideas and observations about all kinds of things. Business. Work. Family. Recipes. Funny things I see or hear. My only real agenda is to bring more of our internal Olives front and center. Welcome to Beautiful Olive!