We live in a post-Freudian, self-help, pop-psychology saturated era, where culture is obsessed with diagnosing and “fixing” the layers of our inner-world, to arrive at some magical state in our psyche of perpetual happiness and bliss. Because, as we all know, true joy and happiness don’t come from the external, from circumstances; no, they come…
Have you ever experienced a moment of overcoming where you were genuinely pleased with yourself? Where you were proud of your accomplishment? Too often we look to others, to people and the world around us to give us the atta boy or pat on the back we feel should be natural in these moments. Learning to shift focus, away from outside sources of affirmation, to a self-sustained, self-affirming inner world has been a big part of my learning journey the last couple of years.
There’s no point in sugarcoating it, the three p’s have been like slow-working poison in my life. They have led to all sorts of destructive thinking, choices, and behaviors. While it’s true that making sacrifices and doing hard things are unavoidable in life…
Where are all my fellow recovering perfectionists at?? This one is for us today! Some of my words might make your skin crawl a little, but I believe in us and our ability to overcome. Friends, I am so determined to break out of this destructive paradigm that I find myself running head-first to ideas…
Rather, it is in the spirit of unity among believers that I extend an invitation to my friends and readers to participate in Lent this year. Because Scripture is loaded with verses encouraging unity among believers…
Gardening and growing green things (including house plants) has never really been one of my skill sets. This fact has been a source of great frustration. One of the first jobs I found myself as a young adult was delivering flowers. I loved that job! (Minus funeral home deliveries, because I always had to go…
Friendship. For the first time in my life I’m recognizing what a loaded word it is. Like love, it’s a word that triggers a million different memories, expectations and emotions. Familiar yet ambiguous, hopefully we can all say that we’ve experienced friendship, but how different is our experience or definition of it? And, given that friendship…
I’ve surprised myself with my attitude and ambition for 2022. Maybe I’m fired up over all the struggles, crises, and chaos—worldwide and in my small, personal reality—over the last two years; or, maybe the optimist in me feels like both myself and the world at large are just due for something better … I don’t really know. What I do know is that I feel anticipation, excitement, and hope for what 2022 has in store. More than just dreaming about what could be, I want to approach this next year with a strategy, a reasonable plan of how I’m going to make moves and take risks!
My husband and I have been in the remodeling business for more than a decade, and we have learned first-hand how unpredictable the renovation process can be. Reality television magic, the kind on stations like HGTV, fail to expose the true stress and hardship of the process. Their attempt at dramatic effect, like an unforeseen…
Dear Fear, I know you’ve got good reason to be here and I know why you’re shouting so loud. The case you’ve presented, the argument you’ve made, it’s valid. The circumstances are definitely messy. It looks bad. And no, I don’t have any ideas or solutions on how to fix it. Yes, I feel the…