Life is big and crazy and weird. Sometimes a little empty snail shell on the sidewalk is all it takes to remind me it can also be very small and beautiful too.

I wear a great deal of hats. Not physical hats, but metaphorical ones. Hats that stand in for the different responsibilities I handle in the many roles I play in daily life. The work hat, the mother hat, the student hat, the research hat, the teaching assistant hat. The constant swapping of roles can take a toll on me occasionally. All things considered, I feel that I roll with the punches as best as humanly possible. Today I was just getting into work and noticed a small snail shell on the sidewalk… I picked it up and noticed the snail had moved out, but that it was perfectly shaped, almost conical, and slightly larger than the ones my daughter and I have been finding in the backyard of late (she loves bugs). This tiny, perfectly shaped little marvel of nature brought me down to earth this morning in a completely unexpected way.

I wrote these as sort of a personal manifesto- a set of rules that I want to try to live my life by. It may not work in the end, but I think I’ll be a better person for having tried. I was inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s post on the Happiness Project, my own personal take on my fair-weather Buddhism, and a few choice personal flaws and/or failings.