Every time I hear this song I stop….what I am doing, and just listen….really listen to the words. Baz Lurhmann was ahead of his time, or was he? Take some time and read this post, the whole way through….it really makes you think:

“Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99, if I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth;

oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you. Sing.
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss. Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch.
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..
Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…”

Many thoughts for the day….and the year…the year that a lot of the people I know will turn over into a new decade. WOW!

I love being an aunt. I think it is the greatest job in the world. I say it is a job because I think it is. As an aunt, you are an extension of their parents with the lessons and rules that they are expected to follow, but you are also a mentor and teacher for your nieces and nephews. 

A few weeks ago my two nieces spent the afternoon here with my at my condo. After giving them lunch we embarked on the fun part of the afternoon. They both took turns being my ‘teacher’ and having me practice my alphabet in upper and lower case, getting marked on my homework (getting an “x” when I didn’t do my upper case “J” properly), doing arts and crafts, and then of course the main event – making cookies. That is a tradition that my mom started with the children in her life coming to her house at an early age. All from scratch, cracking the egg, putting in the sugars, flour, vanilla – the whole deal – and of course what is more fun than eating the dough as you go along? haha…I digress.

I love every minute I spend with my nieces. They are not ‘babies’ anymore, which makes every visit interesting, to say the least. Zoe notices EVERYTHING, and will call you out on something if she sees fit. Everyone, including her, knows that my love for purple, and she even notices when I am NOT wearing something purple, and comments on it. When we went to Mexico for my cousin’s wedding I told Zoe that a “kiss” in Spanish is ‘beso’ and I would say to her, “give me a besito” which means a little kiss, or a peck. She started to kiss on both cheeks, and that is the way we always kiss. It is ‘our thing’ and it makes it special just for us.

And then there is Jaime. She is so different to Zoe and also such an amazing young lady. She is serious, and funny, and everything rolled into one amazing girl. We went to the dollar store and I had to buy a notebook for work, and I bought her one, and she took it home and started right away to do ‘her work’. She constantly wants to know, “how do you spell…this or that”…and is always watching and scoping out the scene, taking it all in.

And now my boy….Ezra….he is six months old now, and laughs, and smiles and changing so fast. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of boy he will be; how he will manage with the two girls; and what it will be like to be an aunt to a boy now, instead of just ‘the girls’.

As I said at the beginning, I think being an Aunt (or an Uncle) is a job. It is a job that starts the day your first niece or nephew is born, and you have that job for the rest of your life! I can’t wait to see how the job unfolds. Bring it on Zoe, Jaime and Ezra…I am ready for you!

Love Auntie Lisa (1)

I watched the Kennedy Centers Honours last night. One of the honourees was Oprah Winfrey. Sydney Poitier got up to speak about Oprah. He started off by saying, “there are 500 million friends on facebook, but I am sure that none of them are friends like Oprah”.

That statement actually has many different meanings to me.

Last summer I decided to reduce my friend list on facebook. I had 384 ‘friends’ at one point earlier this year. All that means is that at some points in my life I knew these people. Whether it was from school days, or BBYO days, or work, or clients or friends of friends of friends. Do I really KNOW 384 people? Do I correspond with 384 people?

What is a friend? There are several different meanings when I googled the definition:
– a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
– a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter
– a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile

Last night I received an email from someone that had actually been removed from my list in the summer. It was a brutal attack on me, on the kind of person I am and that it was ‘rude, cruel and mean spirited’. This is someone that was once a ‘friend’ of mine on facebook. Is that someone who knows me? Those three words, rude, cruel and mean spirited couldn’t be farther away from the real person that I am. This was someone I knew when I was about 14 years old, and have only bumped into this person a few times in my adult life. Does this person fall into the definition of “friend”? I don’t think so.

And on the TOTAL opposite spectrum, today I received an email from a friend that talked about how she thinks of me often and enjoys reading my updates and how they are happy and positive. She ended the email with, ‘you kinda inspire me Lisa’. Those five words meant so much to me I started to cry. I want to be someone that inspires others.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller

This may be cliche, and ‘so 80’s’ but really take something from that when you decide what kind of person you going to be each day you wake up.

Are you going to volunteer your time for a good cause – a charity, helping save a friend’s life, helping save a stranger’s life, giving up your seat on the bus for an elder person.
Are you going to actually stop and say hello to someone you were once friends with in the mall, and maybe reconnect and have lunch with that person and realize that as we get older, maybe you can be friends again in this time in your life.
Are you going to accept the invitation to hang out with someone, even when your life is busy and maybe you have to ask someone to watch over your kids.

Be inspiring, make a difference.

Happy New Year friends….may 2011 bring you good health and happiness to all of those in your lives.