sit with me

Come sit with me and share the pieces of your heart that are troubling you
Tears have been flowing out of my eyes
And I am not sure why
Are you feeling similar?

Come sit with me and tell me what is making you smile these days
What is lighting you up, making you spark
Who is infusing your world with love
Where to find yourself most joyful

Come sit me 
Share you, all of you
The happy moments, and the sad times
Together let's lay them all out

I want to know what moves you
Where you are in this moment, right now
I want to hear about your dreams
Where you are headed, and how you want to get there

Come sit with me
I will look you in the eye
Listen to your heart
And hold your hand when the tears fall

Come sit with me

******
If you are the north jersey area I would love to sit with you in person and hear your story.  Let's get together for a little coffee conversation.  Drop me a note at lovenotesjb@gmail.com

give thanks

The world shows us it's brilliance, each and every day
The sun shines, the stars sparkle, the ocean makes beautiful music
This place we call home greets us
Embraces us, and sometimes test us
But above all it provides a place to roam, to be, to grow

Give thanks for this space you have been given
To make choices
To decide which path you are going to go down
To be irresistibly, marvelously, YOU

Give thanks for the friends you have met along the way
The ones who have been there since the beginning
The fleeting friendships that came along right when you needed them
The ones who make you laugh and push you to dream bigger

Give thanks for your family
Who you may not always agree with, but is always there for you
For the love they have given you throughout your journey
The memories created and laughter shared

Give thanks for the ordinary moments
The cup of tea before the house wakes up
The feel of the fresh air on your skin when you run
The sound of your niece laughing

Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks
For this beautiful life is so much sweeter when we recognize it's blessings
When you show gratitude for its greatness
And when you pause to simply say, "I am grateful"

names

"Hello Jennifer," the girl at my daily coffee stop said to me.  I was taken back.  I see her every day and not once had we exchanged names.  It felt nice to hear her say Jennifer.  She wears a name tag that I never looked at, until that moment.  

Our name is such a part of who we are and is not spoken that often.  When it is, it sounds really nice to hear.  Speaking someones name brings an immediate sense of connection and intimacy between you.  It feels personal and kind.  

I am terrible with remembering names.  They go in one ear and out the other.  But on that morning when Ingrid said "Hello Jennifer,"  I knew I had to change that.  As I navigate through my daily life I am learning the names of those I interact with that I never took the time to ask, like Ingrid who serves me my daily Chai Tea with the biggest smile on her face.  

Each of these people are a part of the path that I travel every day.  They are interwoven throughout my life and make my world a better place.  Knowing there name is something I must do.  

welcome!

When I moved out of my very first apartment in Mahwah I cried.  I was only moving across the street to a different apartment in the same complex, but I cried non the less.  Then when I moved out of that apartment to move here, I cried.  I told Dustin when we move out of here I will cry as well.  And today, as I am moving out of my old blog on blogger to this new space, you guessed it. . . . I am crying.  

I am nostalgic about these types of movements in our lives.  With each of the homes I have lived in, including my virtual home online, so many memories had been created within their walls.  Friends and family invited over.  New loves spending the night.  Relationships beginning and relationships ending.  Dinner parties.  Game nights.  Deep thoughts and dark cries.  Bad dreams startling me in my sleep and good dreams coming true, right in front of my very own eyes.  

Each door closed with a new beginning.  Memories tucked into my pockets.  Stories savored and remembered.  A new journey to take, a new space to make my own.  I have a lifetimes worth of lessons sewn into my heart.  I know the rough roads and the roads of glory.  With each beginning I have a new sense of confidence in myself that I could start again, this time a little bit wiser than the time before.  

I remember each time I closed the door for the very last time.  The quietness in the space.  The emptiness once all my stuff was cleared out.  My ending was someone else beginning.  A space holds whatever you put into it.  If you fill it with love, it will hold that love.  I am so grateful for each of the spaces that I have lived in.  The joy they have brought me.  The shelter they have given.  Each of them a safe haven when I needed it most.   After a long day they were where I had gone to retreat.  

This new space holds my past, but also has a bit more room for me to grow into the future.  I have brought together my separate worlds under one roof. Giggling in the Rain and Love Notes will now live within each other instead of along side one another.  Through this journey I am learning to declare that they are me and are not meant to be separate, but living blissfully together.  I struggled with that for awhile, as I still struggle with it with in the corporate world.  

But my voice needs to be heard and not just pieces of it when I pick and choose.  I am me. . . writer, photographer, gather of individuals, guiding others to find the goodness in their own lives.  This is the journey that I am meant to be on.  Keeping them separate is not serving me or the world the best it could.  They need to be brought together. 

So here I am.  With my heart on my sleeve, tears in my eyes, ready to begin this new journey.  Taking the leap into this grander space.  Opening up my heart and inviting you in.  Thank you for being here.  Thank you for being a part of my story.  I am so grateful to have you traveling along side me.  

xo
Jennifer

i'm imperfect & i'm enough

I am imperfect, and I am enough

This is a lesson I am learning over and over again with the help of Brene Brown.  Her book, The Gift of Imperfections has been my go to read each night as I travel down the road of whole hearted living.  

It is not easy to put ourselves out there into the world.  It is not easy to be seen, to be heard, and to not always be accepted.  But my goodness, it is oh so necessary to living.  

We must . . .
Show up each day
Show the world our smile
Be who we are

There will always be critiques.  People will always choose to judge us.  What matters is what we choose to do.  What road we decide to travel on.  Because it isn't the critiques that count.  What matters is that you took a chance, and showed up.  

And as Theodore Roosevelt has so eloquently said:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." 
 

true love

Love grows stronger and more beautiful when
you laugh with one another (especially when it involves giving the other horns in a photograph)
When you each are yourselves, utterly and completely
Without you being you, and them being them
Who are you?
Love needs each of you to thrive and flourish
I have been through the ringer in relationships
Controlling, lack of self confidence, cheating, non committal
It was a roller coaster ride of learning
But it taught me so much
About what I want, what I need
What I know I can never compromise on
And it was all so worth it
To meet my best friend
The one who makes me laugh and cheers me on, endlessly
We get along so easily
It is natural, real, kind, honest, trusting, and beautiful
We know we are meant for one another
I can alway be my silly, heart wide open, "hippy" self
And he accepts me with open arms
And I fully embrace his wild ways
It is the perfect dance
Together hearts commingling
Loving, encouraging, growing, and true