RIP My friend. You will always be loved. And missed.

Normally, each November I write a daily gratitude post about all the wonderful things in my life that I’m grateful for. But this year…..I didn’t feel it, so I didn’t start the traditional posts. At first, I thought I was just rebelling against the “trend”, but after a couple days I realized that I really wasn’t feeling grateful at all…..and that concerned me.

I admit, I’m weary. But the only way out is through….

I really used to dislike the phrase, “it is what it is”. It sounded so defeatist to me, and I just didn’t want to live with that “negative attitude.” Isn’t it funny how experiences can change our perspective? If I have learned one thing from 2020 it is that perspective matters….a lot….in how we function in times of chaos and uncertainty.

This year has been an ongoing lesson in waiting, hasn’t it….waiting for answers, waiting for test results, waiting for quarantine periods to end, waiting for what’s “next”…

I have three magnificent magnets on my fridge…they are brilliant….

These last few days I’ve been wrestling with this thought about “hope”---what is it, why do we search so hard for it? 

I used to believe that things like homemade banana pudding were outside of my ability, so I didn’t even try to make such things. I let that limiting belief be the final word on my ability. Until I decided to re-examine that mindset….

This was a hard work week for me.  Not only was I busy with some complex things at work, I was watching a nasty storm brew in the Gulf of Mexico, and as much I was telling myself and others that I wasn’t worried about it….

Today I remembered something that I think I knew before, but it still felt new this morning. The first rule of improv is “yes”, followed by “and”. You don’t have to like what you’ve been tossed, and it might not be how you would have scripted the scene, but to keep the improv going you accept the toss. I think there’s a lesson here…

I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers for my birthday. They sat, beautiful and fragrant, on my counter for a week before any of their beauty faded. But, as all flowers do, they had a time limit on how long they would bring their special kind of beauty to my world.

I’m officially overwhelmed and heartbroken at the state of affairs in our country right now.  When I look at social/”mainstream” media I have the distinct feeling that I’m standing in the middle of a huge “shouting match”. We need some new listening skills.

I’ve been asking why for most of my life. Recently, I’ve been studying temperaments and enneagrams to help better understand myself and others.

As we move to re-open, I’m hoping we don’t rush back to how things used to be. There are new things to keep and some old things to leave in the past.

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately about what it takes to get through this current season. I’m taking stock of what’s important and I think I may have found the key.

I have an enemy, and that enemy has been kicking my butt recently….and it’s not the enemy you might be thinking of.

Patience isn’t my strong suit. Last night I decided I can’t live in the “waiting room” any longer.

I’m not sure where I learned it, but I grew up believing the saying: “Winners never quit and Quitters never win”. It has informed my whole life… until now.

Is it just me, or did January take all year to be over?

My wrestling today has brought me some new awareness for how I can approach hard things (because I don’t think there will be any lack of hard things in the future.)