29 | surprise!!!!

i am generally pretty low key about my birthday. (well, maybe except for my sweet 16th when i had fliers made, a dj, and a bunch of people - many whom i barely knew - at my house for a full on dance party. but that was another life ago.) this year, i had planned on going to work, having a quiet dinner with heather, and going to rehearsal. easy peasy. 

in fact, i woke up feeling kinda sick and wondered if i should work from home that day. but my manager, richard, had put a hold on my calendar from 10-2pm to have a generative conversation about ux/ui design for a website. i was really looking forward to that meeting, so got myself together and showed up. 

10am rolls around and i don't know where richard is. i head over to the zamzee office and receive a spontaneous happy birthday song, and find out that richard's not there. in fact, lance (who was also supposed to be part of this meeting) says, "i don't have that on my calendar, and neither does richard." my face contorts. i'm confused. 

i head back to hopelab, and richard rolls over to my cube and asks me to hold put until 11 when he'd be done with his meeting. "well, chris and i were going to get tea...is it okay that i come back by 11?" richard's face stalls and he hesitantly says, "uh yeah, i think that'd be fine." i'm confused.

i go to chris' office to say that i only have about 30 minutes to grab some tea, but ask if he'd still like to. he doesn't really respond. hahahaha. he wishes me happy birthday and hands me a gift. i open it and LOVE it. the gift is so him -- oozing thoughtfulness and creativity!  anyway, while i'm sitting there, heather shows up holding up a large sign that says, "are you thankful for lizzy? of course you are!" (that has georgia mae's beautiful artwork all over it!) while shouting those words and blowing a birthday horn. oh! and pulling a garden wagon with a tree in it!!

shock. 

continued shock...

anyway, my friends/colleagues were encouraged to write something they're thankful for about me on clear ornaments with a white sharpie, and then to hang it on my new tree! (which, i might add is a very resilient tree - a characteristic that heather heeded to mention several times, perhaps subconsciously since i managed to kill a japanese maple earlier this year.) eep. :\

after all of the office shenanigans, heather whisked me away to get a pedicure and to eat lunch. we walked around downtown redwood city with happy birthday crowns on our heads, while a small yellow cloud of balloons followed every step. hehe, we also brought joy to people who cared to stare. :-) 

the day was sheer delight! every part of my birthday was perfect - spontaneous, unexpected, meaningful, fun!, & quite peaceful. the gift of being surrounded by people i love and who love me, is better than anything i could've hope for.

i am so grateful for this amazing life i've been given. truly, i have been experiencing a transcendent joy, bringing me right into the heart of Love. 

thank you everyone. 

in particular, thank you richard for using your boss rights to place a fake 4-hour meeting in my calendar & thinking quickly on your feet! ;-) and thank you heather for knowing me so well, for loving me so well. i can't imagine my life without your friendship. 

28 lessons learned in year 28.

i'm turning 29 tomorrow and i've been feeling particularly reflective given that i'm about to enter my last year as a 20-something.
i learned a few things (or re-learned) (or had it drilled into my head this time around) this past year and thought i'd share my list.

1. be honest

2. choose vulnerability. be vigilant about this

3. fight for simplicity

4. leaving an interaction enlarged is a wonderful feeling; be someone who enlarges others

5. look at the data; break the cycle of inference

6. question certainty; it's an opportunity to wonder

7. practice gratitude every single day

8. don't shy away from structure and commitment; they can actually help create more freedom.

9. commit. go all in

10. be open, stay open

11. risk

12. if it really matters, try again & again & again & again

13. learn to say no if it's not important to you

14. pay close attention

15. follow your heart, always

16. don't strive to make something happen, let it unfold

17. live wholeheartedly

18. please, laugh at yourself

19. trust your gut

20. stay present to what you're feeling and feel it all the way through

21. love what you love

22. examine your values, especially the old dusty ones. take them off the shelf, blow off the dust and remember why you keep them there

23. stop comparing, stop it; it's the death of creativity

24. reach out to the people you want in your life, be intentional

25. say yesyesyes! especially to the things that both excite and scare the shit out of you.

26. your perspective, who you are and what you bring, is unique in all the world. 

27. stay engaged, no matter the outcome

28. i am beloved.

already?

so, this is who i spent the weekend with.

norah is now one year and 4 days old.

her little expressions are so.freaking.adorable.

28.

this birthday weekend, all i wanted to do was be under the stars, overlooking the ocean, & camping in point reyes. since i fractured my foot, i've avoided being in nature. it was too hard to be somewhere when i couldn't experience it the way i have found feeds my soul. so i stayed away from these tremendous places i called my home...my love.

but the hills, they waited for me
and they continue to,
until i can run again.

backpacking seemed okay to do though. ;-) he he
so i planned a little adventure that started on friday morning and ended on saturday afternoon.

just under 30 hours of:
persimmon & fig finds, milk tea,
a coffee search in the city.
trekking to the campsite in light-but-adds-up-to-be-a-lot rain
to set up shop under a slightly harder rain
a dusk-to-dark walk on the sand along low tide crashing waves
lentil soup in the rain
a leak
sleeping under the markings of a storm
waking up at 3am under a full belly moon that lit up all that its glow touched.
we looked at each other blissfully
while i ate a beloved persimmon.
a morning walk to the beach,
tree swinging
and a trek so beautiful it transports me to another world i never should've known, but now know.
i see amy walk out of her complex, with a mission.
as soon as i see her, i know that we were meant to exchange life that afternoon.
tears, stories, love exchanged.
we bovine bakery it up and head back to the south bay
on a mission to get matt into a theater seat to watch harry potter.

i love that point reyes invites me to just be. i feel absolutely myself when i am in that space. it's refreshing in every way. it was the perfect way to affirm all of year 27, as i embark on year 28.

to remember my last days as a 27 year old, i asked my very talented friend matt to take a few snaps of me while we stood on that beach saturday morning. i dislike being in front of a camera (photographer's honest confession), but it's been such an incredible year...i wanted to memorialize it (even if it meant i had to wear a mustache).

& of course, thank you so much for exceeding my birthday goal of $2828 for charity: water.
we raised $3000 together and helped 150 bayaka people in CAR get clean water. what a tremendous way to start this new year. fantastic!

27.

so, i guess it's official: i'm in my late 20s.
i wish i had some profound insight to share about turning 27. but, i don't.

all i have to say is that i finally feel like i'm getting older. three more years until i turn 30. i have a feeling it'll whizz by and before i know it....i'll be married with child. ha! uhhh... :\

i've been a little afraid to dream...BIG....but i get excited thinking about the unimaginables of what the next few years could hold.

anyway, just wanted to share some pictures from a little get together tonight. cake. fruit. beer. ice cream. & good company. (we ate a communal cake tonight :: forks straight in and straight back out into our mouths. then repeat. i liked it & you should try it.)

thank you friends.


ps. i'm back from kauai and have much to share as it unfolds.