home from storyline

{photo credit: me}

home from the storyline conference and had such a great time! it doesn't seem like it's already been a week since i've been home. last friday i was drinking a hot fuzz latte at bongo java, listening to donald miller talk to a group of bloggers about the passion of writing. 

the conference was refreshing and inspiring. i didn't have an life-altering {eureka!} moment and nothing i heard was super profound. but everything that was shared by the various speakers was exactly what i needed to hear. messages of action, messages of inspired change, messages of "your story matters". 

one speaker in particular asked us to think about what old stories in our lives are we still hanging onto that are preventing us from living out new stories? good question. i think the old story that i hold onto the most is the story of the girl (me) who didn't know quite what she wanted to be when she grew up so she thought she would never figure it out. did that make sense? it's like my own precedent is keeping me from a establishing new one. did that make even less sense?

how about i explain it this way: i was encouraged to keep being proactive with my creative endeavors. making my jewelry and cards is what gets me going, it's what makes me feel happy and alive. i want to keep pursuing opportunities that will help me expand my craft line. i want to learn new techniques, i want to meet more likeminded people, i want to take more classes. i've always liked making things with my hands and have always appreciated the art of handmade goods, but i want to go further. i don't know exactly what that looks like as of yet, but things are happening people. things are a-happening. 

another thing i learned during the weekend? nashville is a cool, cool place. when we weren't listening to speakers like bob goff, shauna niequist, brandon heath, john richmond, and joshua dubois, we were out and about, exploring the neighborhood surrounding belmont university and downtown nashville. we went to some awesome coffee shops including bongo java and crema. we ate dinner at pub5, a cozy and delicious restaurant down one of the quieter side streets in downtown nashville. we walked as far as we could on the shelby street pedestrian bridge (which was not very far as the bridge was closed for a private party), we took pictures outside of the blue bird cafe, we ate fro yo at sweet cece's, we walked around green hills, we shopped at festivity. 

what a wonderful trip. i'll probably be mentioning it again as i go back through my conference notebook and process more of my notes. it's hard to recap an experience like this so bear with me if it takes a few more blog posts to cover all my bases. (i also want to show you guys the pictures i took, but i need to get a new camera cord. be on the lookout). 

if you made it to the end of this long-winded (for me) post, congrats! drinks on me.