Rory Freedman's Tips for A Better Life

1. Don’t say “yes” when you mean “no.” It’ll make you resentful. Say what you mean and mean what you say.


2. When driving, if someone wants to get in front of you, let him in front of you. And do it with a smile. It’ll make his day better, and it’ll make you feel good. You just changed the world.


3. Try to make a gratitude list each day. Include big things and little things. Invite your friends to make their own lists; you can all email one another each day, sharing your gratitude.


4. Don’t be a problem solver when a friend just wants you to be a listener.


5. Call your parents or grandparents. Sometimes, a five-minute phone call is all they need to feel loved.


6. Be a good neighbor: Be considerate inside and outside your home/apartment so your noise doesn’t bother those around you. That includes opening and closing your front door quietly.


7. Pee in the shower. If we each did this once a day, it would save an enormous amount of water and toilet paper (trees).


8. Write a “fan letter.” Tell someone you know, or someone you’ve never met, why you admire him or her. You’ll make someone’s day.


9. Curb your jealousy. Be happy for others.


10. Be willing to be wrong. If someone has a grievance with you, really try to see her point of view. If called for, apologize. It’s hard to do, but it feels really good and makes life so much easier.

11. If you are in a room with someone you don’t know, introduce yourself right away. It takes away the social discomfort immediately.


12. Pick a cause close to your heart, and get involved. You don’t have to quit your job and dive in headfirst. Just get involved on some level and do what you can when you can. Go slightly beyond your comfort zone but don’t overextend yourself.


13. Be a good friend to your friends. Tell them what’s good about them, that you appreciate them, and make the effort to spend time with them.


14. Go vegetarian. Animals raised and slaughtered for food suffer immeasurably. Visit GoVeg.com for a free vegetarian starter kit.


15. Do your best to think good thoughts. They affect your health, happiness, and the people around you.


16. Do something frivolous for someone you love. (It doesn’t have to be extravagant.) It feels so good to do nice things for other people, it’s almost selfish!


17. Practice accepting compliments. The person complimenting you is giving you a gift. Receive it graciously, even if it is difficult.

18. Be generous with your compliments. Don’t blow smoke up anyone’s ass. Just say nice things when they occur to you.


19. Forgive those who have wronged you. Holding onto anger and resentment poisons your body and your life. There are no benefits in staying mad. Let go. It’s okay.


20. Forgive yourself. It’s okay to be imperfect and to have made mistakes. Try to do better, that’s all.

better, not bitter

Dear LORD, I choose to let the struggles of life make me better and not bitter. I forgive those who have hurt me and refuse to hold a grudge. I will look for the good in every difficult situation and think the best of others. Let me love and be loved. Let me focus on the joy of acting in love, not the risk of being hurt. Make my character like yours. I know that a bitter heart produces bitter fruit, and I refuse to allow my heart to get caught in that trap. Now, Lord, help me accomplish what I have just confessed.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Strangely Beautiful

“One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson


“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”
— Muhammad Ali


“Life without music would be an intolerable insult.”
— Edward Abbey


“We loved with a love that was more than love.”
— Edgar Allan Poe


“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
— Henry David Thoreau


“Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.”
— Bruce Almighty


“Fairy tales, are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated.”
— G.K. Chesterton

[photo credit: pearled]


Fact #345: Pearls are my favorite jewelry to wear.

4 letters

"Love me when I least deserve it because that is when I really need it"
—Swedish Proverb

I feel like I don't deserve it on a regular basis. I still try to love others even though it ends with me getting hurt. So, I hurt on a daily basis too. How about you?

He said I was beautiful

and my night was complete.

you make me happy

“Make one person happy each day and in forty years you will have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little time at least.”
— Charles Wiley

A crush the color of ginger

“I will carry you
pick you up into my arms
and take you away.”

Who are you anyway?

It's so nice to get mail. It's extremely nice to get mail when you're in love. In love.
In love with the weather, the way the wind feels against my bare neck, the way words move in my head to form ideas, the time I spend knowing people, the warmth that comes from much needed hugs, the way that people I care for provoke laughter in me, the way a stranger smiles at me without knowing the pain and hurt I've experienced or the battles I fight each day, the way God makes me feel when I spend time getting to know Him and being grateful for all that He does in my life and the people He blesses me with, and the way this post is not only an inspiration but a refreshing word of someone like you who found love. Helplessly and hopelessly in Love. Love changes you. Because when you're wildly in Love with Someone, it changes everything.



Thank You Amy for your letter, it encouraged me greatly. I'm glad you find my ongoing romantic pursue with God to inspire your relationship with Him. It's a Divine romance. It's better than anything and anyone. It's better than having everything in this world offered at your feet. It's better than a written song, a hurt friendship, clothing and popularity. It means being overwhelmed with desire to be better for God, despite Him loving you the way you are. I need nothing more. You need nothing more.

Amy, you made me realize that my life made a difference in your life. It wasn't about me, but through me, that you desired a change in your life. I love you girl, count on my prayers. God is not leaving you now.

[p.s. thank you for the CD]


"The world moves for love, it kneels before it in awe."
- The village


"No matter what anyone tells you; words and ideas can change the world."
- Dead poets society

Thrift Adventures

On tuesday my friends randomly invited me to go thrift shopping. I wanted to buy a dress for the Masquerade (coming up in two weeks) and a few accessories to go with it. Turns out I found a romper swimsuit, 2 pair of shoes, a fabulous dress, pearl earrings and a purse. I officially LOVE Goodwill! Especially since it all went under budget.
The dress has a mermaid cut in the bottom. It's a light green with beads all over it (it cost $9.07, but the label suggest the dress was around $125). I'm in love with it. Here are some pictures from that day


On our way there.







This was the previews dress I was going to buy. Reminds me of Pride and Prejudice for some reason


All I ended up trying



"THE" dress

We're all in this together

I just got my tickets, did you?

Love Revolution

Refuse to do nothing by showing someone kindness on purpose every day.

“For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself.”
– Galatians 5:14

“Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
…And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
– Colossians 3:12-14 NIV

“Do everything in love.”
– 1 Corinthians 16:14 NIV



Join the Revolution

Getting lost in the gaze of your eyes.

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish it’s source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”
— Anais Nin


“The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn’t, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there.”
— Monica Baldwin


“The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had means, time, influence and educational advantages; the question is what he will do with the things he has. The moment a young man ceases to dream or to bemoan his lack of opportunities and resolutely looks his conditions in the face, and resolves to change them, he lays the corner-stone of a solid and honorable success.”
— Hamilton Wright Mabie


"Because someone doesn't love you the way you want to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have"
— Unknown


God's Love is empowering, beautiful, exhilarating, breathtaking, amazing, consuming, great, joyful, perfect and all I needed. I just needed God. His presence. I ask Him to make me more like Him, because there are days I can't even stand who I am. There are days I can't look into the mirror because all I see is broken, flawed and damaged. Lord, you take me to the dark corners and you heal me. Thank you. I am grateful for your wonderful being. It's just overwhelming to have an intimate relationship with Christ.

With that said, I won't be posting anything until tuesday of next week. I will be fasting from my social online networks, including blogging.

Thank you Jasmine. This is amazing.

My day in pictures

“Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.”
— Leo Buscaglia


“Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.”
— John Jakes


“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
— Carl W. Buechner


“Only as high as I reach can I grow. Only as far as I seek can I go. Only as deep as I look can I see. Only as much as I dream can I be. ”
— Karen Ravn


“Love yourself—accept yourself—forgive yourself—and be good to yourself, because without you the rest of us are without a source of many wonderful things.”
— Leo F. Buscaglia

Today was the perfect day for a perfect day. A lovely outing with two beautiful girls around downtown. We had a lunch in a bakery/coffee shop that just opened and it was truly splendid. After that, we went into a candy shop were the guy working there practically saw heaven when we walked in. He attempted to flirt with me, which resulted in a funny inside joke later on in the day. We basically spent the day running up and down the streets of downtown for pictures and concluded the day with a gelatto from crispers, that was surprising a perfect way to end the day. It was a beautiful day, lighting was perfect and I couldn't imagine better friends to be with.
[All pictures by me]

Walk with a skip

I want to know you moved and breathed in the same world with me.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald



Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.
— Charles W. Eliot


The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.
— Marcel Pagnol


Among those whom I like, I can find no common denominator; but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
— W.H. Auden


We do not do what we want, and yet we are responsible for what we are - that is the fact. Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.
— Nicolas de Chamfort


I haven't blogged in a while! i miss it... I've been so caught up with living, fellowship, learning and being responsible, that I haven't really taken time to blog. Last wednesday, me and a couple of friends, visited a youth group from a local church, and it was absolutely amazing! After having a little fun there, we went back to campus, which was a whole adventure by itself. We wanted to watch the stars from the soccer field, so we went. We started talking about the most random stuff until I decided to start making bird noises...that's when the sprinklers came on and we were trying to outrun them! You might think it's stupid but, I had my CAMERA with me, so I was attempting everything to avoid my camera (and me) from getting wet. I was successful on both accounts. It's funny how I thought things like that don't happen in real life. It was epic.

Today I plan to go thrift shopping with a friend, so hopefully it'll go nicely. Im starting to read a book called "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. It's life changing.

Other than that, Enjoy this inspiring post, courtesy of Raychel's amazing pictures.