2015: Dreams, Themes and Goals

I like dreaming.

I prefer dreaming to reflecting probably about 95% of the time. I really only prefer reflecting when it’s masked with reminiscing about happy memories, and sentiments of ‘this should happen again’, ‘I loved this’, or ‘wow, what a great time’.

This preference is both exhilarating and debilitating, depending on the scenario I find myself in. Example; when thinking of all the possibilities 2015 can hold, this dreamer preference is pretty fantastic—There is no end to the things I can visualizing myself accomplishing in the New Year. I can try absolutely anything, succeed, and find a sense of self in the variety of futures I can imagine and place myself into… I’m basically living out everything on my Pinterest account.

While all this dreaming is simply marvellous, it is only when matched with reflecting on the year past I am able to pin point what it is I should actually be doing; where I should be focusing my time and energy, and creating a vision for what I want to see happen in the new year. This reflection needs to take into consideration all moments during the past year which were monumental to me; the good and the bad, every event that was life changing in some way.

These ‘life changing’ episodes are different for everyone. They can be the moment you realized, despite your best efforts, you still genuinely dislike olives, the times you realized your life isn’t going to continued as planned, and even the times you felt lively crafting a handmade card or playing with your cat. All these little moments give insight into what makes us feel alive, what fuels us and where our true passions are—which is where we need to spend more time channelling our energy. Start identifying them in your own life as I continue.

Now, yes, OK, playing with your cat is the best thing in the world, but let’s look a little deeper into that. Why is it fun? Is it because you weren’t doing anything all day? Is it because you were having a bad day and that quality cuddle time with your furry friend made you happy? Seek out the reasons behind the things you either enjoyed or disliked and you’ll find where to establish the focus for the New Year. In this hilarious (yet oh so true) cat situation, I enjoy fun times with my cat when I’ve been really busy and need a bit of a break. What I learn from this is my life needs to involve easy ways to take a few moments to recharge and re-energize after a long, busy day. Keeping some easy and creative projects around, like say knitting that winter scarf I’ve never started, leaves me an opportunity to knit a few rows which will de-clutter my mind and leaves me feeling like I am accomplishing something fun that I enjoy doing, but don’t always have time to do. Hanging with my cat fits into this same category, as well as reading a book or magazine.

Take a look at the rest of life’s moments that stand out as monumental from the past year and examine them for their deeper meaning. Write them out and soon you’ll find yourself easy themes to help navigate your goals for 2015.

When I look back at 2014 I realize I had a year of ups and downs, challenges, overcoming those challenges and, overall, making a lot of decisions that change the course of any plans that were once had. A few themes that stand out for me are how I thrive when I get to be creative, make beautiful things and capture their beauty the best I can, when I get to spend meaningful time with those who hold value in my life (even if it’s a short amount of time), intentionally growing my faith, and helping people in some sort of way whether in the form of travelling over seas, or helping friends with areas of need. 

Follow me on Instagram: @LoveInspiresChange

In shorter form, my themes for 2015 become:

- Creativity

- Relationships

- Faith

- Serving

- Health

A theme has more rooting to it. It creates an expression of following passions and living out the deeper callings of your life, embedded by God, to keep you moving in the direction to be His light to the world in all you do. My chosen themes, while somewhat vague, give me an amazing focal point for the New Year. Anything that doesn’t fit itself easily into one of the above themes is not going to serve me well. It’s kind of like creating a filter for yourself to live your best in 2015, which is pretty amazing.

My 2014 goals were accomplished, and I’m looking forward to growing on them and sifting all my dreams through the theme filters I’ve created to create an amazing 2015. I can already tell you a few of my goals:

- Blogging to take more of a lead role (which easily passes through every filter!)

- Baking to continue to be a focus, including collaborating and sharing my creations via my blogging platform and customers

- Take at least one workout classes (instead of just working out at home like I always do!) 

- More dedicated Faith pursuits (attend conferences, studies... you name it, I want in on it!)

So this year, as you dream, reflect, and visualize where you want to go in life, I challenge you to figure out the themes of where you thrive, and pursue all your goals and dreams with your themes shining brightly, guiding every step.

Cheers to an absolutely amazing 2015!

*Interested in setting goals? Check out my post last year on Positive Goal Setting

Love Is Sweet

One of my closest friends, Bridget, was married to her best friend Jay this past June. During an extremely hot ‘first day of summer’ in rural Manitoba, they pledged their commitment to each other in front of their closest friends and family. It was a perfect summer wedding—outdoor ceremony with lawn games and iced tea before the tented BBQ style reception. The property where the wedding took place simply blew my mind—the house was the epitome of Pinterest gorgeousness and the yard had enough various landscaping areas to create nothing but flawless pictures. 

The lovely couple was married on top of a bridge with a heart shaped pond under them, iced tea was served in mason jars with chalkboard labels so you could keep your glass all night, and custom printed wine bottles and uniquely potted succulents created a simple focus at each table. This picture-perfect outdoors summer wedding was exactly what the bride and groom wanted and they couldn’t feel more joyful in how everything worked out.

As favours for the wedding, and as for snacks for guests between the ceremony and reception, Bridget requested a Cookie Bar! As a lady who loves to bake I couldn’t help but say yes and immediately start to brainstorm cookie flavours and set up options. One of the reasons it was cookie bar, and not something more generic like a candy bar, has a lot to do with Bridget and Jays relationship. Since the beginning of their relationship, Bridget has always baked Jay chocolate chip cookies for his lunch kit. Every week she would make a big batch and by the end of the week they were always all gone! To this very day, Bridget still bakes Jay chocolate chip cookies every week. It’s such a cute story so it’s no surprise cookies were going to be a feature!

For the guests to enjoy and take home were over 6oo cookies with the appropriately named Jays Chocolate Chip being the main attraction (and largest cookie jar!). The classic chocolate chip cookie was joined on the table with Ginger Crinkles, heart-shaped Sugar cookies filled with sprinkles, Peanut Butter cookies, Oreo Chocolate Chip cookies and Lemon Coconut Crinkles. It was so fun to bake such an exciting variety specifically picked to please the taste of every sweet tooth in attendance. The cookie bags themselves were incredible adorable—hand stamped with the name of the happy couple, their wedding date and the extremely fitting sentiment of ‘Love is Sweet’. The great thing about the stamp, it can be used for Thank-You cards!

The Cookie Bar featured hand-painted signs letting guests know it’s a cookie bar and, of course, “All you need is Love… and a few cookies!” Decorated with heart sprinkles, dashes of coconut, lemon slices in one jar and chocolate chips in another, and vintage crates for visual interest. All the cookie jars were decorated with lace-tape around them (so much harder to put on than you would expect—just ask a fellow bridesmaid and I) and hand-written chalkboard labels. Of course, a frame with the story of Jays Chocolate Chip Cookie was there for guests to read to explain the cookie bar and share a little insight into one of the couple’s special moments.

Seeing folks enjoying the cookies was like icing on the cake to an already flawless wedding day for one of my best friends. It was an honour to be in her bridal party, give the ‘toast to the bride’, and contribute to her special day using one of my passions. I pray for their growing love to be as perfect as freshly baked chocolate chip cookies- soft and sweet on the inside when they share their intimate moments together and crisp on the outside, to shelter their love from the harshness of the world and to keep each other safe and strong.

*All images courtesy of the always gorgeous Steph Schulz Photography

Back to School

Original image by the talented Meagan. We like to style
things and she likes to take pictures.

While I have no need to prove to my dad I’m not a fool, and I really really don’t intend on getting in any fights, I am most definitely heading back to school!

My “back to school” journey really began a couple years ago…

During my stint with Not For Sale I had really become sold on the idea of Open Source Activism—the idea of using your own skill set and talents to create positive world change. Everyone is good at something, and normally everyone is good at quite a few things. The goal is to take those things you are good at, and use them for good. Using your talents for good could be anything from playing music with a positive message, making crafts you sell for fundraising purposes, sewing clothes or knitting warm scarves and mitts to give to shelters, cooking meals for families with new babies, the list really does go on and on…

While with NFS I had a few ideas on how I wanted to pursue and implement in my life the ideals of open source activism. One idea was to become a career counselor— when survivors of human trafficking would be going through their rehabilitation programs, I would be there to provide career assistance. This would be everything from assessing their current skill sets and passions to working on interview skills, interview outfit shopping and bringing confidence to the forefront. It was an awesome idea and combined my love for helping others succeed and flourish with my passion of ending human trafficking. While it was a great idea, and while I’m sure I would have enjoyed it immensely, there was another passion I knew I needed to feed.

My "I'm going to school" announcement on Instagram.
Follow me: @LoveInspiresChange

I had (and still have) this growing love for baking. It’s amazing the joy that comes from creating something delicious, attractive and shareable. Baking had been a past time and hobby for me for quite a while—especially once moving to Winkler, Manitoba. After being creative on my own time with baking basics and ambitious decorating adventures, I thought it was time to perhaps take this passion to a new level and pursue it as a career. You see, open source activism can really accommodate any skill or passion you have. For myself, baking is going to be how I positively influence and change the world.

Upon the decision of my wonderful husband and I to move to Ontario was also the decision that I was going to actively pursue baking as a career. I was leaving broadcasting behind trading the microphone for the spatula. My goal was to work in the field for one year. If during that year I liked it as much as I thought I would, I would plan to attend school at the year mark to really learn about what I was doing!

We are now entering August of 2014 with my first job in a bakery having started in September of 2013. Needless to say, I still love it. Ontario does this awesome Apprenticeship program. You spend four months of the year receiving in school training and the rest of the year working in a bakery that sponsors you and ensures you are putting your newly gained skills from school to use in a professional setting. It’s a great way to get the best of both worlds—school and work.

My "For the Love of Cake" board on Pinterest. Just the first few pins...
slightly cake obsessed. Follow me: Pinterest.com/aeleas

September 2^nd is my first day of school and I don’t know if I could be more excited. It’s been seven years since I graduated from college and I am looking forward to the challenges I will face, the knowledge I will gain, the frustrations I am sure I will face and overcoming those frustrations to be able to do things I could only image doing after pinning flawless images on Pinterest for the past few years. The Baker-Patissier Apprenticeship program at George Brown College in Toronto is about to receive a student who is not only excited to learn, but who is eager to apply and partner those learned skills with her dreams to be a force of positive change. Piping bag in hand, I can change the world.

How can you take your passions and use them to create positive world change?

Stop Participating In The Problem

My name is Aelea and I am an addict.

I am addicted to motivating, inspirational quotes cleverly placed on top of images of intriguing cityscapes, endless landscapes or any other generic beautiful thing that nature and creation has to offer.

I'm not sure when my addiction started but it has been fed by clever videos in church, Pinterest, Facebook, and artsy friends. This addiction has taken over my "likes" on Instagram and Pinterest, and makes the photo album on my iPhone full of images I scroll through when I feel a need to be pumped up or left in wonder of the world around us. One main contributor to this addiction is a certain Facebook page called Pure Nourishment. It's literally a page where most of the posts are epic images with matching epic phrases to make you feel good, make you say "ha, so true" or images that you want to share with others.  The most recent images that I have "liked", saved as images in my phone, and read through many a time are the following;

A black and white image of a trendy lady roaming the streets outside of what are most likely equally trendy coffee shops and cafes with the saying, "When a woman says, 'I have nothing to wear!', what she really means is 'There's nothing here for who I'm supposed to be today.'" - Caitlin Moran

An image of a whimsical underwater scene bursting with lovely shades of teal, coral, peach and pink with the words "Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

A simple white background with black handwriting declaring "Sometimes the easiest way to solve a problem is to stop participating in the problem." 

And a bold statement in white and red on a sky blue background boasting "Don't just talk about it, be about it."

The first two are fun but the last two are truly the most amazing and challenging. 

When I read the words "Sometimes the easiest way to solve a problem is to stop participating in the problem." I immediately thought of our daily choices and their contributions to slavery. Yes, our daily choices contributing to slavery-- the choices we don't realize, the choices we do realize but choose to ignore for our 'sweet fix' or 'It's just so cute I have to have it' mentality that leaves us thinking the more we have, the better off we will be. I will never tire of telling people about the issues of slavery, but there comes a point when I tire of telling the same people about the same issues just to see them continue on a path that completely ignores the very things they eagerly and passionately inquired to me about.

The famous William Wilberforce quote goes, 'You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.' To me, this quote needs an image behind it, cleverly designed in such a way that people 'like' it on all forms of social media, share it with their friends, save it to their phone photo albums, and allow it to penetrate their electronic life that is so heavily relied upon. Allowing themselves to be constantly faced with the fact they do know brings to light they can never again say they didn't-- that they can never again say they didn't have an option because the very fact they see the image every day reminds them they already have an inherent interest in how to be a change maker in the world. 

When it really comes down to it, we are all created with a level of compassion that seeks justice when someone is wronged. When something bad happens we all automatically want to do something to see the scales of the situation tilted in the opposite direction and have the wrong made right. The issue of modern day slavery is exactly the same and requires us to actively pursue the balance of seeking justice when we know injustice exists. The goal, however, is not to have balanced scales, but a scale where the justice is so evident-- so strong in comparison to injustice-- that injustice is no longer existent to even add a feather weight on the scale. 

As a goal we can all be active in pursuing, we can stop participating in the problem and be part of the solution. It's in our somewhat meaningless every day choices the most meaning can come from-- we can stop actively participating in the problem.

What is your most meaningless choice that you have come to realize contributes the most, to not only modern day slavery, but to injustice in any of it's many forms?