Archive for the “Personal” Category

I am very happy to have the opportunity to share this incredible book with you. I came across it several years ago when I was in college and it has since literally changed my life. In many ways it is a very simple book and a summary of its contents actually fits on the inside sleeve of the cover. The effects it has had on my life, however, are profound and I have been a fan of Don Miguel Ruiz ever since.

The ideas shared here are based on ancient Toltec wisdom and may appear deceivingly simple:

Be Impeccable With Your Words
Don’t Take Anything Personally
Don’t Make Assumptions
Always Do Your Best

I believe that the entire book must be read to really learn the incredible wisdom behind following these four agreements. To share more, here is the actual text from the cover:

“Be Impeccable With Your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don’t Take Anything Personally: Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Don’t Make Assumptions: Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always Do Your Best: Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.”

You’ll find over 600 glowing reviews on Amazon as it has now become a relatively popular and well known book. Yet another book also by Don Miguel Ruiz is The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship. This was actually the first book I read by this author and I recommend both of them with all of my heart.

Mike

We’ve just updated the ‘About us’ page on the blog. Learn all about our guilty pleasures, a few things we’re crazy about, and other lesser known facts from our life.

Check it out!

Mike and Natasha

While attending the wedding photographers convention in Florida we had the pleasure of meeting and being shot by Huy Nguyen of f8tudio. Amazingly talented and greatly respected, Huy was WPJA’s photographer of the year in 2005. It was an honor for us to have a few photos taken by him and we were inspired to meet such a humble and down to earth star.

His style is fresh, unexpected, and sometimes referred to as characteristically quirky. When we learned that he is offering to take a few shots – right then, right there, with your camera if you want to. We’ll try for an instant portrait – we were the first ones in line!

Here are a couple of our favorites:

Huy asked Mike to put on my glasses so by the end neither of us could see anything :)

Natasha