This is year I will turn 40.
And I love it.
Sincerely.
Without a doubt.
And my goal, as the minutes roll into days, roll into months, roll into years, is to live life upside down.
Last year I received a Lilly Teacher Creativity Grant and I started a YouTube channel called teachupsidedown. The purpose was, and still is, to create outside the box videos and lesson plans that reach every student with every learning style – looking at the way kids learn differently and capitalizing on those abilities.
That easily translated to my blog: liveupsidedown. Because I want to live life intentionally – reaching into every nook and cranny life has to offer and living every day as if it were the best day ever.
Because if today were my last day, I would want it to be my best day. Therefore, I want to live every day that way. I wake up and tell myself,
“Today is the best day ever.”
I can’t choose what happens to me.
But I choose how I respond to it.
And that means to choose joy.
So, this whole “liveupsidedown” thing. What does it mean? What am I striving for? What am I trying to accomplish? How am I going to live upside down?
I’m so glad you asked…
When I say “liveupsidedown,” these are the steps of the ladder I am daily breathing in – taking in as part of my lifestyle. Do I always get it? Nope. But there is a certain joy that comes with the journey to living the best life.
The Art and Practice of Living Upside Down
- Choose Joy (choose choose choose and choose again)
- Celebrate each day as the BEST DAY EVER (because if today were my last I would want it to be my best)
- Push the walls of the box (spend as much time as possible outside of it)
- Stand up for beliefs that mean something (don’t just say it, seriously stand up – even when that means everyone else might stand in the opposite direction)
- Face fears and be brave (the only thing TRULY to fear is fear – so don’t fear)
- Create, innovate (make, draw, paint, write, sing, dance, compute, invent)
- Live simply, organically, naturally (shed the excess, keep learning the definition of excess for my own family)
- Be vulnerable and transparent (raw and honest, real in word and deed)
- Treat relationships as more important than possessions (cardboard box rule – if I live in one, it’s okay – just surround myself with the people I love)
- Embrace kindness as an everyday lifestyle (even when it is hard)
- Adventure, adventure, adventure (climb mountains, bicycle my little heart out, seek new lands and new treasures)
- Glean from every soul met (learn from relationships, give to relationships)
- Get that crazy on (try new things, do new things, experience new things – take The Plunge)
- Love, serve (and love, serve again)
- Imitate Jesus (by allowing Him to do it for me – His strength, not mine)
Join me. Won’t you?
