accentuating what you really love...

My girl Mandy is counting down the days to Valentines by naming all the things she fell in love with.

And then she posed opportunity for us all to join in.

What was your first love?

(Could be a person, place, thing, activity ... the possibilities are limitless.}

So. I decided to share some of my heart with you. All good and vulnerable like.

My first love, I believe, was sunshine.

I remember, as a very small child, I remember laying outside on a blanket in our yard in Provo just basking in the sunshine. Even more so I remember seeing pictures of myself doing that very thing. But beyond my love of literal sunshine, my momma has ALWAYS called me sunshine. The word holds a special place in my heart. As a child she would sing "You Are My Sunshine" to me all the time. Nowadays, when I'm really down or when I'm feelin kinda lonely, I'll sing it to myself {or at least hum it to myself}. I collect it on art/jewelry/clothes like nobody's business.

The best part? I know I really was/am my momma's sunshine. I knew without any doubt that I was her entire world -- and that she would do ANYTHING for me, for any of us. Sunshine, the name and the big lunar mass, were likely my first love.

Then came music.

Some of my earliest memories involve music. We're a TERRIBLY musical family -- from pop, rock, classic crooners, and soul ... to broadway and old school movie musicals. There was always music in my house (and, usually, with it--dancing). My mom would sing all kinds of songs with us throughout each day. Dad brought the goods -- i.e. Phil Collins. I have powerful and strong memories about singing the Phantom of the Opera with my dad -- who has the most BEAUTIFUL baritone voice. I would sing with him any day. The man can't read music -- but play a song for him once and he'll know the melody forever. My mom has a gorgeous voice -- the most soothing sound in my tiny child world.

I would sing anything and EVERYTHING throughout the house. (Then at one point I decided I wanted to be an Opera singer -- wow, my family regrets me discovering that.) The older I got, the more music became my release. From choirs, to competitions, to instruments, lessons and performances -- I channeled my heart outwardly through music. (Hence my audiophile ways.) Even still, sitting in front of a piano and playing and singing -- just for myself -- takes away the stress like nothing else can.

Quickly, maybe simultaneously, came books and reading.

I remember memorizing Ferdinand the Bull--but making my mom read it to me, regardless. And I'd say the words along with her. Then, as I got older, I got lost in books. I explored Narnia with the Pevensie children, I got lost in the frozen wilderness with the boy in Hatchet, I learned what to and fro of the world with Wilbur and Charlotte, I rejoiced and sorrowed with Jo and Laurie, I sought for equality with Atticus Finch and Boo Radley, chuckled at the opulence of Gatsby's mansion, and generally just escaped reality.

It was through books that I was able to understand my own problems -- through the experiences of others, to escape the sadness or mundanity of my own world in the freedom and fun of another, to learn the joy of the written word and discover what I wanted to do with my life.

These are just three of my "first loves". 

So, my friends ...

What was your first love?

xoxo.