The Single Woman’s Dash of Sass: Something Like Olivia

Quotes of the Day:

“Never lose your childish enthusiasm, and things will come your way.” ~Under the Tuscan Sun

“Wherever you are in your day, I hope you’re giggling.” ~Alyssa Milano

“We never lose our girlish selves, no matter what sort of women we become.” ~Libba Bray

The Single Woman Says:

My niece Olivia (Who we call “Livi”) just turned five and she is a hoot and a half. She has such a distinctive little personality. With her golden hair and merry little giggle, she can walk into a room and automatically light it up. She and her sister, Emma, who I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, are two very different people…and it’s so fascinating to watch them grow and change and start to show traits of the women they’ll become. Livi is great with one-liners. Not even meaning to be funny, she’ll regularly come out with an unexpected zinger that will leave you in stitches. She does a mean Nicki Minaj impression. And she’s famous for never smiling in photographs. No, we can’t get our Livi to smile normally in front of a camera for anything. You know how on “Friends,” Chandler never smiles right in photographs? Well, Livi is the Chandler Bing of our family…and we have pic after pic of her standing in front of amusement park signs and giant stuffed characters and Santa Claus with a grimace on her face. (And of course, five seconds after we snap the picture, her grin magically returns.)

What I love most of all about Livi is her joyous heart and spirit of sunshine. The way she comes running when I walk into a room, arms outstretched and ready for a hug. The way she elicits the humor from ANY situation. And the way she bops around the room when I turn on “Something Like Olivia” by John Mayer. She’s such a picture of unaffected happiness, it makes me want to recapture that magic of being a little girl, before the many layers of life and various trials and heartaches of adulthood added their weight to my personality. Recently I’ve started trying to do things in my own life to get back in touch with my childish enthusiasm. There is a beautiful innocence about childlike faith that invites magic, and wonder, and serendipity. Today I want to encourage you to take a few moments and tap into that trusting, wide-eyed, idealistic side of yourself that you thought you lost a long time ago. She’s still there. Underneath the disappointments and the heartbreaks and the betrayals and insecurities and fears and worry…beats a heart of innocence and youth and hope and whimsy. Life doesn’t always have to be so serious. You can set down that load you’ve been carrying for a day and kick up your heels. Dance. Smile. Giggle. Marvel. And most of all: TRUST. HOPE. LOVE. WISH. BELIEVE. At heart, you are still the little girl who twirled around like a fairy princess because she liked the way her dress swirled around her. Life hasn’t taken that from you. You can trust that side of yourself that once believed in fairytales. Why? Because a little girl’s heart never lies.

As John Mayer says: “I’m thinking something like Olivia…is what I need to find.”

Find your inner Olivia today. I dare you.