fueling your fire

some people think i have too many shoes...and you know what? they're probably right. my closet is stacked knee deep with enough shoes to sink a battle ship (those platform stilettos are heavy!). and i will admit, i may have had a love affair with certain ones over the years. there's "christian"—you should see the smooth red bottoms and kicking curves on that pair. and of course, my current favorite, "michael"—tall and strong, strappy yet supportive, always a scene-stealer :)

but today's inspiration comes from a different sort altogether. my nike id's. i made these bad boys a couple years ago because i needed a new pair of running shoes and couldn't find anything i liked. i searched all the shops, scoured all the brands, and ended up deciding i could do better than anything else i found out there.

i hopped online and went to work. shox? check. lightweight and breathable? check. fierce colors and a bit of flash? check and check. now to name them...nike id will allow you to designate a name or word that they will stitch onto the back of your shoe. the ultimate signature. your own personal brand. 

"celia"....somehow adding my name to the back of my shoe seemed so pedestrian. like taking out the black sharpie and writing my kids' names on their clothing labels so they could be rightfully returned if they ever got lost.

i saved my shoes and logged out. surely inspiration would come after i went to bed, maybe in the middle of the night, so i could jolt awake, jot down the word, go back to sleep and then wake up the next morning and buy my new shoes.

that night and into the morning...nothing. but i was itching to place the order. i went back online and pulled up my saved file. they were hot. i zoomed in, zoomed out, spun them around in a couple 360s. they were totally "me."

i clicked through to the last screen before the shopping cart.

"fill in the text box to customize your shoe."

"i-n-s-p-i-r-e"

from the time i ordered them through to today, every time i put them on, i smile. even when i feel like a slug, on they go and there's a hop to my step. the shox, you ask? perhaps...but it's also from the fit. not just how they fit my feet but how they fit "me."

inspired by fashion. inspired by flair. inspired by being fit. inspired by the fire under my ass when i put these babies on to run.

what lights your fire? i'd like to think that my shoe fetish goes beyond the superficial (but if you're calling me imelda marcos jr. as you read this, i probably deserve it). and yes, the guy who was watching me in the park gyrating to shoot pictures of my shoes in a field of clover and holding them up to the heavens like simba being presented to the pride on "lion king" must have thought i was a cuckoo, but nonetheless, here i am, writing about them in sea glass, and stitched on the back of them many years ago is my mantra: "inspire".

the moral of the story: find ways to snap out of the slumber of routine, or boredom, or everyday life. find some motivation, fuel for the fire within. for me, it's personal expression, creative exploration, food, family and fashion. for you, perhaps it geekiness or gadgets, decorating or dreaming, music or muffin-making, toiling in the garden or trolling for adventure.

there is no dress rehearsal. every day can inspire. to quote one of the best and admittedly most overused taglines of all time, "just do it." true now as it was then.

the power of anthems

last week, i wrote a post about an alan watts video that equated life to a symphony. it got me thinking about the role of music in expressing human emotion and, at the core, making us feel. love, hate, joy, sorrow, suspense, excitement, connection, loneliness, defeat, triumph—there are few things that can move us, that can truly capture our raw feelings, like music.

so this post is about anthems. what do i mean by "anthems"? not the songs they play on the radio ad infinitum, on ten different stations, nearly every minute of every day, so by default they are seared onto your brain, and your lips mouth the words, whether voluntarily or not ("p-p-p-po-ker-face...").

no i'm talking about songs that stir you. that make you stop in your tracks. that interrupt your pattern of daily existence and rock you...to the core.

anthems can be motivating, inspiring—but the true power lies in the fact that they're timeless: they are at once emblems of where you came from and the spark to get you where you're going. when you're in a funk, they can fuel your fire. when you're running out of gas and you can't run another minute, an anthem comes on and you can run another mile.

i could list off countless anthems that move me, in just about every genre from rock to pop to r&b and punk, but i'll pick one of my all time favorites, and it's not just because it was the sopranos' swan song (i was after all in the journey fan club back in the day). it's an oldie, but still such a goodie: "don't stop believing".

this song had all the essential ingredients for a killer anthem: great lyrics, a catchy hook, sweet guitar riffs, big hair and bad outfits. but just in case you'd beg to differ, that's another reason anthems rock: because they're personal.

they sum up you, your ethos, your call to arms...and they make great fodder for "best song ever" debates. so fire up your lighter, put your pinky, thumb and index finger in their best devil horn formation, or throw on your dancing shoes if that's your flavor...and rock on!