Accountability Announcement: I’m starting Whole30 tomorrow. Creator Melissa Hartwig Urban describes it as “a short-term intervention designed to teach people how the foods they are eating impacts them, and ultimately create their own perfect diet.” It’s an elimination diet, not meant to be permanent, but rather a controlled experiment (with you as the guinea pig) Read More
Category: Self Development
Creating Balance
I studied the confident, serene, upright bodies gliding across the lake and it looked so easy. Now, on my hands and knees and looking anything but graceful, I pushed back onto the flats of my feet and made a wobbly attempt to stand. Splash! The cold water startled every pore on my skin and I Read More
Goodbye to the Season of my Discontent
Why do we always tend to look toward another time, season, life circumstance to find contentment? When I finish school and start my career… When I can quit my job and raise children… When my kids are older and more independent… When we are kid-free and have extra time… When we retire and have the Read More
Presence Over Perfection
I am walking on the beach, comforted by the steady constancy of the waves. Closing my eyes, I feel the warmth of the sun on my eyelids and my face. The wet sand gives way underneath the weight of my feet and collects between my toes. Opening my eyes, I scan the sand and find Read More
We Are Stories Still Going
We are wired for stories because we live them. We love hearing others’ stories because they help us make sense of our own. As human beings on this planet, we get to experience all the things: heavy and light, beautiful and difficult, hopeful and uncertain. Our stories are usually a balance of difficult versus easy, Read More
Finding My Voice
I’m not a hand raiser. In school, I often knew answers to questions but chose to recite them silently as someone else spoke them aloud. My teachers reprimanded me for doodling in class, even though I took in every word of their (let’s be honest, long-winded) lectures. Impending oral presentations justified lying awake in bed Read More
Pressing Your Luck
You don’t often recognize it as it’s happening, especially if your judgement is impaired. It’s more likely that you brush it off and move on, especially if it is a result of your own bad choices. A narrow escape. A fortunate outcome. Someone looking out for you… The capacity for denial is deep; the fear Read More
How Sobriety Helps Me Do Hard Things
A thousand miles away…. Seven thousand to be more exact. It’s hard when the one you do life with is so far away for so long a time. So far that when we look to the sky he sees the stars and I see the sun. So far that we can’t meet in our dreams Read More
Recovering Yourself
We’ve all been there before, some more often than others. For me, it was a constant cycle. Moving through the day in a fog, reacting instead of taking action. Willing time to pass so I could be finished with my daily obligations. Doing, saying, and expecting the bare minimum. And finally reaching the point where Read More
The Year I Barely Survived
It’s the time I still have trouble talking about, but feel the need to share. It’s a story of overcoming, and I hope it reaches the right person. I can write about it now, two and a half years later, because I can see the beauty that arose from the ashes. And I can bring Read More