Weekly Inspiration: Ellie Goulding's "Lights"; and Sarah

The cover of Ellie Goulding's new album, "Lights."

Anyone who says nothing good happens on Regis and Kelly (I've taken some flak for admitting that I love Kelly Rippa; I think she has the best style of any petite woman on television) clearly didn't see Tuesday's episode, when Ellie Goulding sang "Lights," the first track on her album of the same name.  It's always a good sign when a live performance manages to pique my interest.
Somehow I've never heard of Goulding, but I haven't been this excited about music since I purchased Florence and the Machine's "Lungs" last spring.  I purchased Goulding's entire album on iTunes and am making my way through it as I type.  I have a feeling it's going to get better the more I listen to it, the way the best albums do.
Goulding also has seriously awesome hair.

Almost makes me want to shave my sideburns.  Almost.

My second inspiration this week is my sister, Sarah.
As many of you probably know, Sarah has worked her way up from lowly intern to associate producer at National Geographic in just two years.  She started what we all thought was going to be her dream job late last year, working on a new series about predators.  Unfortunately, our dreams don't always turn out as we hope they will.  Sarah has had more bad luck while attempting to plan her shoot in Mongolia than I would have thought possible.  Seriously, what are the odds that one of the wolves she was planning on filming would die just weeks before her trip?  If Sarah had had any idea how difficult this shoot would turn out to be, I'm pretty sure she would never have suggested it.  But Sarah has been wanting to go to Mongolia for ages, and despite the fact that it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing, I just KNOW that if she can hang in there one more week, it will all have been worth it (well, maybe not all of it...but most of it anyway).  In the face of freak blizzards, camera-shy Pallas' cats, surprise wolf pregnancies, and a "difficult" boss, Sarah has continued to work day and night on this shoot.  If that's not a lesson in persistence, I don't know what is.

Me and my beautiful sis.

Could this posting possibly be a passive aggressive means of telling Sarah I don't give her permission to throw in the towel?  Perhaps.  Regardless, Sarah has always been an inspiration to me, and her ability to claw her way through whatever challenges life throws at her is one of the things I admire most about her.
I love you babe, and I know you can do this!

And everyone - please keep your fingers crossed for agreeable animals, fair weather, friendly Mongolians and no sudden dips in a certain person's Serotonin levels.