Happy New Month Y’all! I hope you’re enjoying the long weekend and gearing up for fireworks and the 4th of July fun fare? This week, I will be writing about what i’d like to call “That Happy Place” so stay with me.

I find that we all have a point, a goal, an achievement that once attained we will get to a place of bliss. This ‘set place’ means different things to different people. For some, its getting a certain position or having a net worth of certain figures. It could be having a family, buying a home or owning a business or a string of businesses. The list is endless. But as ideal as these achievements are, once attained we may soak in it for a while but eventually an unrest that comes from within sets in and we need another conquest, another thing to aspire to in order to get back to ‘That happy Place’. The mirage of this ideal is the fact that the post keeps shifting and if we aren’t careful, we might go through life not having being present or sitting still long enough to be in the moment and just be plain old happy 😀 😀

My Definition of That Happy Place

Moments in life where you are at peace in the core of your being in spite of whatever’s happening in your world. You acknowledge that life is not and will never be perfect but as long as you’re breathing, you’ll keep doing the best you can. You are kind to your soul. You’re here now and will enjoy every moment. Tomorrow is another day!

A couple of days ago, I set out at lunch time without the gang to check out a coffee shop I had spotted a few days prior. It was a nice walk. The interior had a window wall system directly facing the DART with chairs lined up to enjoy the view. It took me a few minutes to take in the scene around me: the skyscrapers, people walking, the DART,…everything. As I sat there, it suddenly occurred to me that I was in a ‘Happy Place’. Looking back on my journey and how far I had come, the people in my life, the places I had been – the good, the bad and not so pretty – summed into this moment and I was….CONTENT.  It took me sitting at a coffee shop on a rather quiet day enjoying the view of the outside world around me to realize it… 😀 😀

I believe that a happy place should be points where in spite of what life throws your way, you are accepting of who you are and at peace with yourself as a human being and confident that whatever the future brings, you’re planting your feet in the sand –  and you’re ready to take it on.

Until I come your way again, I remain

Periwinkle Starr

Hey Y’all! Its been a minute since my last post and I want to thank you for checking in today. I trust your week has been off to an amazing start if your’re a  ‘Fun Monday’ 🙂 personality type but if not, the day usually begins with a little bit of pressure and tons of meetings Anyways, its Springtime and its been so exhilarating to not have to wear as many layers (Yes, It gets cold in Dallas 😦 ) except for this past weekend where we had a hailstorm that made a friend of mines apartment complex look like a scene out of a movie with so many windscreens completely destroyed. There were tree branches and leaves E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E! So disrupting.

But I was thinking to myself that the concept of springtime isn’t just for plants; I like to think of it as a time to change things up…just a little bit (wink). If you’re a regular on Periwinkle Starr, you do know that I don’t exactly find the concept of getting stuck, ruts or the idea of doing the same thing for long periods of time appealing 😀 I read an article somewhere that said: Doing something as simple as a task differently forces your brain to grow in another direction because (not quoting this verbatim), when a task is repeated over and over and it gets to a point where you do not need to think about it before executing it; your brain goes into what I like to call ‘autopilot or robot mode’ which leads to B-O-R-E-D-O-M in the long run. In my mind, I’m thinking about long factory assembly lines. Trust me, that ‘glazed-over, couch potato, in the zone’ routine takes the spark out of everyday living.

Lets Shake Things Up…A Little!

I can almost imagine a whiny voice saying ‘I just gave up so much for lent and now…THIS?! Lol, no one is asking you to give up anything…at least not today (wink). 😀 Just ‘try doing something you do on a regular or daily basis differently’. Thats It! 😀

• Take a different route on your way home. You just might discover some new development, new shops, a sports bar or some real estate potential. You never know.

• Step up and do something that takes you a tad bit out of your comfort zone – like stepping up to give a presentation for your team at work or volunteering to read to kids at your neighborhood library.

• Rekindling your love for amusement park rides and all things outdoorsy even though you still feel tremors from the last ride you had 7 years ago..ha ha!

• Try a new beverage at your favorite spot instead of getting that same old large caramel cappuccino with extra extra sugar E-V-E-R-Y T-I-M-E (a direct recipe for diabetes if you ask me …but its oh sooo good). The tweaking possibilities are endless so why not give it a try!?

It’s time to sprout this spring guys so don’t be afraid to go for it (trust me i’m speaking to myself as well)! 😀 Let me know what things you would like to tweak over the next couple of days. Lots of love to readers who’ve been patiently waiting on the newest post; life gets busy sometimes but its always fun sharing my thoughts with you. Until I come your way next time, I remain

Periwinkle Starr

Hello All! I hope your Monday has been off to a great start? I got to meet up with a few friends that I haven’t seen in a long time but somehow we always seem to continue right where we left off and I absolutely love it! Whats unique about this group is the fact that we all work in different fields, have different backgrounds but we always have a blast E-V-E-R-Y-T-I-M-E 🙂 🙂 After catching up, one of the guys starts talking about his current situation – You know it starts to get deep after a few cocktails (those annoyingly tiny glasses that contain all the calories you require in a day I am making a note to self to schedule an extra 20 minutes at the gym) ha ha!

Perceptions. 

Matt (not his real name) keeps seeing a girl he’s come to be intrigued by at his favorite spot during lunch hour on a regular basis. Now Matt is very particular and isn’t one to compliment ladies that easily so when he says ‘a lady is pretty’, trust me – you can take that to the bank! Anyways, he’s seen her a couple of times but hasn’t really summed up the courage to speak to her. She’s always on the takeout line, never eats in. He said ‘he thought’ she was single because she didn’t wear any rings. She was always well dressed and sometimes made small talk with the cashier. He ‘felt’ she came across as snobby, snooty or proud. He saw her come in on one occasion with a guy. He said they ‘seemed’ pretty close, friendly and talked a lot so he ‘assumed’ the guy might be her boyfriend. At this point in the conversation, it almost sounded like Matt had begun to dislike this girl he hadn’t technically met but was even more intrigued by. He had also built up an entirely new persona of this girl based on his ‘perceptions’ or ‘pointers’ (don’t even know how on earth he measures those yet) and wanted my take and the views of some of the ladies in our group on the issue.

Now, I like to sometimes consider myself to be a holistic individual – not making hasty conclusions or decisions based on lopsided or one sided information. I love to mentally remove myself from a situation and look at it from an outsiders perspective, then put myself in each parties shoes before I make ‘assumptions’ and even then I can’t be 100 percent accurate because I (quite frankly) do not reside in anyone else’s brain besides my own. I feel we (myself included) as people have become lazy in the sense that we are so quick to sum people up, situations and or events based off of a few pointers (we A-L-L have those) – because it saves us the time and discomfort of actually doing the work.

At the end of dinner, we (guys and gals) all agreed that Matt needed to go back to the restaurant and the next time he saw the mystery girl – He should take a deep breath, walk up to her, introduce himself and A-S-K her if she wanted to eat in and maybe get to know her a little bit more – instead of whining to us for half the night (love you Matt!! ha ha) because the bottom line is: In life, you can never quite tell and if you sum up the courage to ask, you might be surprised at what you just might learn!

Feel free to let me know your thoughts and experiences on things you had assumptions or perceptions about  that turned out to be directly opposite to what you imagined. Until I come your way again, ciao for now!!

Periwinkle Starr