Although I did not send the usual number of Christmas cards this year, I did receive several beautiful greetings from many of you. Thank you! So … what to do with Christmas cards after the eggnog has soured and the poinsettia is dead? Just pitch the cards while cleaning up all the decorations and torn …
As a life coach in a nonprofit for women, I often suggested an action step to help my clients move toward hope. The same idea can work for anyone — any time. When life unravels, whether through a personal tragedy or an unexpected circumstance — just do one simple thing. Do you find joy in …
Hope sometimes hides in simple places, often in one-word prayers. The prayer life can be taught by spiritual advisors and multiple resources, but I think God most appreciates our prayers when they come from the desperate places of our hearts. One-word prayers exist in that place where self-sufficiency ends. The gut punch past emotion and …
New calendars represent the epitome of hope. With their blank pages and colorful textures, they invite us to dare — to risk planning something good. For me, calendar shopping is a rite of passage. The old year has ended. Forget mistakes made and any self-condemnation fostered by regret. New calendars signal it is now time …
“The days are long but the years are short.” According to Google — that great know-it-all in cyberspace, Gretchen Rubin is the author of the above quote. It perfectly describes how it feels to jump into a new year. https://gretchenrubin.com/ I wonder if Rubin is a harried mom who feels as if she is working …
The colorful lights, packages wrapped with beautiful bows, Santa’s lap filled with happy children, the music of the season: all these joys spell Christmas. But what if you are smack in the middle of grief this December? What if some of the joy is colored by sadness? Over a quarter of a million families will …
Because life is easier when simple, I have decided to merge that principle into my holiday celebrations. What used to be a November and December filled with activities and the traditional holiday set-ups, I have now prefaced with the following questions: How can I simplify the holidays? What gives me the most joy about Thanksgiving …
Throughout our city, wherever we traveled, we heard it. In grocery stores, libraries, Target and Wal-Mart – even during church services where it occurred in stereo sound – one person in the aisle echoed by someone across the room. The Great Cough of 2016. In spite of vitamins, clean eating and daily spraying through the …
When I first read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, an a-ha flashed. Through its pages I learned creativity is a gift, a blessing from the Creator to each of his beloved children. The more I recognized my own gift of creativity, the more I began to nurture it. Artist dates, inspired by Julia, became …
A recent exercise in our Saturday Sisters group resulted in an a-ha moment. We were given a sheet of paper and asked to list our treasures. This exercise was a different thought process than just listing what we’re grateful for. We all know how to answer several ways to say, “Thank you.” But this was …