Friendly Friday - Ali Cross

Ali Cross has always been a dreamer. When she would tell her family what new adventure she wanted to embark upon, they’d roll their eyes and say something like, “Oh yeah? Well let us know how that works out for you.” Meaning, of course, that no one expected her dreams to amount to much.

She wanted to be a pilot in the Canadian Air Force, a Royal Canadian Mounted Policewoman, and Prime Minister of Canada.

She wanted to be a youth minister, an opera singer, and a ballet dancer.

She wanted to be happy.

The good news is . . . not all dreams stay relegated to dreamland forever.

She performed with Opera Idaho for five years and tried ballet for one magical summer when she was thirty years old.

She's discovered new dreams that are coming true even as we speak.

It’s true, she's a dreamer. But man, where her dreams have taken her!

You can learn more about ali by visiting her website, blog or drop her a line ~ she's always happy to make new friends!

I Heart Vlogging

Recently I’ve joined the vlogging world with a weekly episode each Friday called ask ali. I started the vlog on a whim: I wanted to find unique and interesting ways to draw readers to my blog and thought that might be a fun way to do it. Today is my fourth ask ali episode, and I can’t really say that it’s increased traffic to my blog, but there have been many other benefits.

♥ Trying to come up with creative ways to answer my readers’ questions has helped me be more creative in my writing.

I am a fan of the book and self-realization program The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. In it, Ms. Cameron teaches that feeding our creative self will help us reach our maximum potential in the creative outlet of our choice. If you’re a writer, you might find dancing, coloring, drawing, and sculpting, frees your creative self.

This is what vlogging has done for me.

♥ Getting in touch with my sillier side has made me happier.

In fleeting moments my mom was very silly. As brief as they were, I remember those moments as my most favorite. A few years ago my sister accused me of not being who I was supposed to be. She said I was just like Mom, full of silly potential, and that by not embracing who I was, by denying my sense of fun, I would end up sad, lonely and unhappy like our mom did.

Her words didn’t hurt me, rather they sang with truth in my heart. Since then, I’ve been trying to welcome the silly into my life. It’s not too hard when you’ve got kids, but sometimes I really have to give myself permission to laugh and be silly.

Recording my vlog each week has demanded it of me. The sillier the better. And man, it’s been liberating!

♥ Accepting myself for who I am.

I have allowed myself to get heavier than I should have. I’m no longer the cute and tiny girl I once was—now, there’s a whole lot more of me. Sometimes, I fear going to conferences or out to meet new people because I don’t like how I look. That poor body image has held me back a lot.

Putting my face, and body, into the public eye every week—in all my chubby glory—has been both humbling and liberating. It’s true I’ll not be winning any beauty pageants, but I’m coming to see that people are willing to look past the shell to get to the good stuff inside. And the more I feel confident about that inside-stuff, the less the outside shell bothers me.

Because lots of people have seen me on my blog now, I feel less concerned with letting new people see me out in public. I am who I am, and I’m no longer afraid to show it.

All in all, vlogging has been a really positive experience for me. I hope you’ll come on over and take a look, and leave me a question to answer in a future episode. And if you decide to give it a try, let me know—I’d love to see it.

Thanks for being my guest today, Ali. You always have such fun stuff on your blog. I love going there and hanging out.


Next week my guest will be: Karen Hoover

FYI -I slipped up and forgot to remind Melissa Cunningham that she was scheduled to be my guest today and she was extremely busy and didn't have time to do it. (Sorry Melissa) But if you'd like to go to her blog and take a look at what's going on over there, click HERE. Melissa will be back in April.