Music for your Monday...

Exactly.

Anyone else feeling particularly ruffled today? For me it's just one of those days when even the post-work day already feels hectic, like do I go to yoga or the grocery store or pick up the drying cleaning that's been ready since Thursday??? ...will I leave the office early enough to do any of these items? Yoinks Monday you sure are a crazy lady!!

When the world gets too loud, there's always music to bring me back to my center and I've got a new artist to recommend today that's providing some awesome, soothing energy via my ear buds.

Sam Smith

Maybe you discovered him on SNL Saturday night (click HERE to watch his killer and seriously well received 2 performances!) or maybe like me you noticed his single "Money on my Mind" creeping onto the Spotify top tracks playlist a few weeks back... regardless, this UK import is sure to soul-sing his way onto American airwaves. Slow tracks like "Lay me Down" (his second song on SNL) have a John Legend-esque quality of painful romance and incredible musicality, while more funky upbeat songs like "Money on my Mind" and "Together" are sure to have you grooving down the street. Check out Sam Smith's music now and I promise this crazy Monday is gonna just melt away.

On Having a Bucket List.

Babs the Brave.

Yesterday my Mom went skydiving. Yes that's right, skydiving, as in voluntarily jumped out of a perfectly well-functioning airplane at 13,500 feet, only to fall fast and then glide slow all the way back down to earth. Fearless. Which is ironic, because my Mom is not typically the thrill-seeking type (a woman who once opted out of a family zip-lining trip in Costa Rica, she has certainly done a high-five worthy about face!) On this particular occasion however, Mom seized the gift certificate her daughters had purchased for her (after over a year of hearing "I'd love to go skydiving" we thought it was time to give her a nudge) and she jumped out of an airplane. Her exhilaration upon landing was adorable, endearing, exciting and empowering. "Just check this off my bucket list!" she exclaimed while making a gigantic check mark gesture... I think I was as proud of her as she was of herself. 

It was in this moment that I realized that bucket lists, or the pursuit of an adventure, experience, destination or challenge beyond our ordinary, are good for the soul. When looking at my mom's post-jump smile, I could tell she felt a truly unique sense of satisfaction - the type that only comes from accomplishing a seriously special task. And though it's much easier to come up with reasons not to pursue our lofty, silly or death-defying wish list items, life is simply too short not to shock even yourself every once in a while. So... what's on your bucket list?