Turn Up Your Song — It’s My Favorite

Do you have a passion in your life that makes your soul come alive?  Does surrounding yourself with this one thing inspire you and awaken a unique energy inside of you that you can hardly contain? Music has been a lifelong passion in my life for the reasons I mentioned above. This post is about the abandonment of this passion, and how its presence returned stronger than ever in a moment that I will never forget.

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How To Use Mindful Listening in Everyday Life

In order to put our listening skills into action, we must be present.  Eliminate distractions.  Look the other person in the eye.  Clear our minds and focus on what is being said. Easier said than done, right? Listening can sometimes be an abstract idea.  How can we stay focused in this fast-paced world? How do we manage our emotions and our ideas when they differ from another person’s thoughts? The language of listening comes down to 3 essentials: our brain, our heart, and our courage.

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And Then There Was Us

Relationships are the zest of life.  Whether your “us” is a friendship or romantic relationship or both, connections with others bring different dimensions and perspectives to your world. Some are more significant than others, but they all have one thing in common: one second that person was not in your life, and then the next second they were, and that is the moment your life in some way changed forever.

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Kindness Confetti: Random Love Letter Challenge

The quote “Throw kindness around like confetti” is one of my favorite sayings, and one that I see everywhere! I’ve always thought of this quote as the perfect visual behind the idea of using random acts of kindness in our daily lives, but what does this “kind-fetti” truly look like to others?

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Friends in Sunny Places

Happy August, friends!  It’s so hard to believe that it is coming up on the 6 month anniversary of my blog, Citrus and Sun!  In this post, I am so excited to be accepting the Sunshine Blogger Award from a very special friend who I cannot wait to introduce to you!  I wanted this post to be so much more than just a recognition and acceptance of this special award. I am so thrilled to use this post as an opportunity to celebrate the amazing community of bloggers that I am so excited to be a part of, and to highlight some of their “sunny” places in this massive online world!

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5 Ways to Master the Long-Distance Friendship

What happens when you or one of your friends moves or no longer lives close by, and that convenience of just “popping over” or meeting at the coffee shop is no longer a possibility? While saying goodbye to a close friend can cause heartache and uncertainty, we do have some control over what happens with these friendships. I’m so excited to share some tips from my own experience on how to make a long-distance friendship last after a big move! I have found that sometimes our long-distance friendships can become some our closest relationships!

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The Piano Man

My life is composed of thousands of musical notes.  Each of these notes has been carefully placed in a particular rhythm and tune to make up the moments of my life.  There are musical notes that I have created on my own, and then there are certain musical notes that have been placed in my life’s song by certain influential people in my life. One of the most important people who has placed some this music in my life’s song is my dad.

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But First, Conversation

What makes the invitation to “meet for coffee” or “talk over coffee” so warm and alluring?  For me, it is knowing that during that conversation, something as strong as the coffee I am drinking is going to take place.  I never know what it is going to involve, or at what point of the conversation it will happen, but I know it’s a guarantee that I will leave that conversation somehow different than when it began.

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