Truly Brave

What do you get when you team up talented musicians like Cyndi Lauper and Sara Bareilles and amazing TV personality and breast Cancer survivor Hoda Kotb to raise money and awareness for childhood cancers? You get something which is nothing short of breathtaking, outstanding and heartwarming.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, I will be sharing it below. It really doesn’t need any other explanation. It is Cyndi’s song True Colours, and Sara’s song Brave in a remarkable mashup song and video.

The words of the song speak volumes even without the video imaging, but the video is outstanding. If you are anything like me, you will need tissue. This video has been viewed 1, 602, 355 times. It is something that will make you smile, sing and probably tear up.

True Colours:

You with the sad eyes
Don’t be discouraged
Oh I realize
It’s hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small

But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow

Show me a smile then,
Don’t be unhappy, can’t remember
When I last saw you laughing
If this world makes you crazy
And you’ve taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I’ll be there.

Brave:

You can be amazing
You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug
You can be the outcast
Or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love
Or you can start speaking up

Nothing’s gonna hurt you the way that words do
When they settle ‘neath your skin
Kept on the inside and no sunlight
Sometimes a shadow wins
But I wonder what would happen if you

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

Everybody’s been there,
Everybody’s been stared down by the enemy
Fallen for the fear
And done some disappearing,
Bow down to the mighty
Don’t run, just stop holding your tongue

Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is

Thursday Thoughts

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, you know I enjoy my TV shows. People actually message me about shows and if they are new episodes or in the summer when the new show season will be starting. I have written about my love of my PVR.

So, with that I will tell you that I record some ‘trash’ tv, like the Kardashians, The Real Housewives (only NYC and Bev Hills) and anything with Tori Spelling. I can’t help it. I hate to use the analogy but she is the car accident you don’t want to look at as you drive past.

Okay, so now that I have made my confession here comes the interesting part. This week’s episode was about her seeing her ex husband to apologize for the way their break up went down eight or so years ago. She had a very emotional meeting with him and came home and Dean wanted to talk to you and she didn’t really want to talk to him, but did.

He asked her if she had regrets about being with him. She actually replied, “sometimes, but then I wouldn’t have my babies”.

How do you handle the regrets that you may have in your life and then realize that the outcome may not have happened if you had done something different. This is an underlying theme that plays in my head. Would I have done anything differently if I knew what the outcome would have been?

There is a movie that starred Gwyenth Paltrow. It is called Sliding Doors. Didn’t win any awards, but the message in the movie is very profound. The lead character loses her job and leaves the office….she is running to catch the train. The movie ‘splits’ in two – one story where she catches the train, and the second story where she misses the train.

And there we have the plot line. If it were only that way in real life. For every path you take, there is at least one (or more) paths not taken. Maybe you would have gotten to the same end result on another path, or maybe not. If you haven’t seen this movie, I suggest you figure out how to get a copy and watch it.

I have referred to it like jumping off the cliff. You could spend years standing on the edge of the cliff not knowing what could be at the bottom. Maybe it is the pot of gold? How do you know if you never jump. And then you are pushed. You will land, and you will find out what is at the bottom.

When you land you could be landing right in the pot of gold. Wonderful. And it if turns out not to be the pot of gold (maybe it is a pot of s**t), you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep moving, because there is another cliff right around the corner.

Camera in your pocket

IMG_0004I am not a fan of photos taken from smart phones. I know that the Iphones and other smart devices have a pretty decent cameras and they are okay for posting on social media, Facebook, twitter and Instagram, but not for really good quality photos.

I have a DSLR camera that I travel with, use for photo shoots with my friends families, and events. I also at all times carry a pocket Canon Elph camera. I really don’t go anywhere without it.

As you may be aware if you are a friend or follow me on Facebook, I am a foodie, and take food photos all the time. A lot of friends that eat out with me already know not to take a bite of their food until I take a picture of it. I know it is annoying and I am sorry to those who I share meals with.

If I am only posting to Facebook I may use my phone for the ‘check in’ or instant share. Otherwise, I will use the camera for future posting. I foresee a lot of foodie related posts coming this month. This is just the start.

IMG_0005Take these photos in this post for example. I was at an event at The Thompson hotel this summer and they had this amazing cheese display at one of the stations. I loved the way they had the cheeses cut in different shapes pared with the fruit and these really cute baskets for nuts. They also had a nice display of flat breads in glass jars. It was great to take photos to remember these types of displays for future reference. Events, parties everyone is always looking for new ideas to display the same types of foods.

I am not saying that you should run out and buy a point and shoot camera (if you don’t already have one) but it wouldn’t hurt to carry it with you when you are out and about. You never know where the next cool shot will be.

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