You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby! (Living Authentically — part 3)
Confession #1: Through my childhood and teen years, my room was a mess. I only made my bed if absolutely forced to, and any projects I was working on, books I was reading, and school stuff could almost always be found laying around on my bed or desk or on the...
You’re So Strong!
Between you and me, there have been points in the past few years where I have had to grit my teeth and smile when yet another person has said to me, "You're so strong!" There have even been times when, upon hearing that phrase, I wanted to lash out and tell the...
Making “Good” of Even the Worst
Several months ago I heard about "Hello, Mornings!" an online website/group that helps women who are trying to develop a more productive, positive start to their day. I've never been a morning person, and I knew that what I was doing -- rushing around in the...
Accountability
Several things occurred this past week that, to be quite honest, put me in a funk. I spent much of Monday running errands; dealing with traffic congestion, long lines at the few stores I had to visit, a mix-up at the pharmacy that required a 30-minute wait, etc....
Thoughts on Father’s Day
Of course, Americans recently celebrated Father's Day, a day on which we recognize our Fathers with a gift and/or a carefully-selected or hand-made card. Across the country, children of all ages made a special effort to spend the day with their father, many of them...
Living Authentically (part 2 — Simplicity)
"A man's home is his castle", and "Home is where the heart is." Just two of the hundreds of quotes that speak to the importance humans place on the idea of home. Libraries and book stores have hundreds of books on home improvement, decorating, design, architecture,...
Living Authentically (Part 2 — Physically)
As I studied what it meant to live authentically, I found (as I explained in my last post) that the key points I noted fell into one of four life categories: spiritual, physical, relational, and emotional. I decided to focus on physical authenticity first simply...
Living Authentically (Part 1)
In mid 2011, I heard about an online scrapbooking class that involved choosing one word to focus on throughout the year and then scrapbooking about how that word in some way "played out" each month. Being passionate about words (which no doubt was either caused by...
The Quiet After
This past Friday, my daughter and I -- she in a u-haul with all of her furniture and I in my car loaded down with some of her clothes and other odds and ends -- were moving her from my home to her new apartment in the city. Just as she pulled the truck up to the...
Oh, the Places I’ve Been! (apologies to Dr. Seuss)
When my son graduated from kindegarten, my husband and I gave him a copy of Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go! with a note from us written on the inside front cover. We moved a year later, and my daughter attended kindegarten at a school didn't have kindegarten...