Development Dream🍪🍪🍪

I'm grateful for the grateful side of me. I think, and hope, that I'm a person who genuinely is able to express thankfulness. Yes, one can train themselves to mechanically say "thank you" ,and that's fine up to a point,but when it really comes from the heart, and that feeling of true appreciation allows you to connect with someone else, it is magical. Both parties are bathed in good feelings. The world feels right. Someone gave, you received, you gave back, and they received that as well. It is one of the simplest, easiest, and truest ways to form connection. Giving thanks literally makes us better people.

I'm also a truly enthusiastic gift giver. I love giving gifts and making people smile. It's a challenge to find just the right thing that will be impactful, and I accept🙋🏼. My bro in law LL is also a talented and sincere gift giver, and we have a cute running contest of which of us is better at it, which is quite a nice thing to be competitive about. Everyone comes out a winner.

The path to Blaga has been a very specific, fascinating trajectory. I'm highly aware of each person, factor, and circumstance that has contributed to me being able to open my self up to be able to share with all of you. I'm blessed that it's quite a list. Fear not, this is not a long winded Grammy acceptance speech, but I cannot continue unless I thank Tzvia Rush. Her presence in my life is difficult to describe: she's family, she's a friend, she's a sister, she's my manager who takes all these thoughts, feelings, and ideas that have been swirling around in my head my whole life, and makes sense of them. She built a home for every emotion and concept I have ever had. They were lost and she found them. And it is her belief in me that made me find myself. My dream has always been to create from home. I'm very much a homebody. I can be pretty solitary. Not shy at all, I'm just satisfied in my own company, which I think is awesome. Sure, I can be super social and need to be hauled off the dance floor, but I am often all I need.

But, I was so creatively stifled and frustrated. I just didn't know where to go and what to do with all I wish to offer. And since connection is so crucial to me, I was sad that I couldn't fully connect to humankind on a broader scale. Tzvia was not having that, and she believed in me to the point where she essentially drew back the drapes, yanked off the covers, let in the sun snd declared, "Get up. We are doing something about this. Now." When objective people believe in you, it is life altering. I cannot thank her enough, and there is no one else who I'd let take my hand and lead me to such a degree. She allows me to sit in my space, cry, emote, laugh, express, dream, write, look up crazy shit on the Internet, and fling it all in her direction at breakneck speed. Then she packages it all beautifully and delivers it to you. Most importantly, she is helping me document myself for my children and grandchildren. I will not disappear without all this on record...

Lady Blaga would also not have been born without the talented, dedicated, creative GoLive team in California. They developed and built the site, and it was beyond thrilling to feel that "I have an actual, legit company working with me!!!!!", a true first in my life. GoLive is so aptly named because in helping me birth the site, they helped me birth myself. I feel reborn at this point in my life, and Lady Blaga, and especially all of you, have given me such added purpose and focus, something my soul was craving and crying out for. Ash, Tess, and the entire team has done more for me than they realize. One of these days I'll fly cross country and surprise (or scare) them with hugs. Until that day arrives, I thanked them with a true gift of the heart, and did what LB does best; I baked. The Jewish mommy in me loves and needs to feed others. To a frightening degree. Eat,mameleh!! I needed to bake something that would not get gross being shipped, so I chose my favorite chocolate chip peanut butter cookies from the Barefoot Contessa. I baked with such love and joy, so they came out super delicious. Extra intention yields extra results, always.  

Check out the JESScipe on today's food post!

How to package and send? I went to Michael's craft superstore, which is like Disney World for me. Endless creativity and happiness. I chose this particular box for the cookies since it has these beautiful messages printed on it. Packaging and containers are important! After all, that's what our amazing bodies are; packaging and containers for the soul and spirit. I so loved this tape measure ribbon, which represents time being measured. The piece de resistance is the card, which I kept in the natural and brown color scheme. I'm very tactile, and I'm a chick, so not only do I love stickers but three dimensional ones🙌🏻. I used the stickers to tell GoLive the story of my connection to them, and lay it on top of the tissue wrapped cookies. From my heart to their bellies🍪. They gave me the gift of aiding me in my expression, and I made them something in return. A perfect circle, much like a cookie. I'll leave you with this; believing in yourself is vital. But so is believing in others.