Grief is a gift that our culture doesn’t take seriously or see as valuable. We do everything we can to avoid the process of experiencing pain, letting go of the past, and accepting that we might have been wrong. Doing these things, I believe, was meant to be the pathway to peace. A system…
Forgiveness might be the strongest power we possess. It is the reset button for pain in our lives, the almighty do-over. And yet this virtue is extremely difficult to master. What is it about forgiveness that makes it so hard to do? Even when all spiritual traditions and religions hold forgiveness as a core…
Defeat can be excruciating, especially for the person whose identity is adhered to the their activity. When you believe your strength is the thing that is now gone, agonizing feelings of loss and grief come alongside the physical trauma of an accident. This was my head-space when injury claimed my athleticism. I felt as…
Diet and exercise will sculpt a body. This powerful lesson was taught through my 2010 competitive bodybuilding season, and I was in awe of the extent of it. Like most people, I had bought into a common misconception that exercise is the antidote to eating poorly. As if overindulging could be erased by burning…
February 21, 2021 marks my first anniversary of blogging! The celebration is without cake and party hats but full of reflection and self-affirmations. One cannot commemorate a milestone without some applause! Think of how we gather around the highchair of our one-year-old singing songs and smiling praise! That is the feeling I have for…
Unfamiliar territory can trip me up! Recently during a delightful outing, a single unknown caused me to loose all peace and joy because I let fear carry the conversation the entire way. The experience is teaching me that I have not mastered my mind. How I approach new things has become deep set in…
Encouragement is the biggest reason I write. I need the boost as much as anyone, maybe more. Sometimes experiences are so painful…so discouraging…that it becomes difficult for me to see beyond them. So, I look for God’s daily encouragement in the Bible, and then I write it down. This every day seeking, finding and…
January 1, 2021 marked a new year with high hopes! It’s the day people, worldwide, threw away the 2020 calendar hoping never to return to that relentlessly challenging time. I too want to be done with the hard stuff and am hoping for a brighter year ahead! I’ve been praying that God is using…
When I began writing this blog, I had a lot to say about becoming untethered from hurtful thoughts and habitual behaviors. It’s a natural place for a recovery teacher to begin. However, there is more to living well and in alignment with God’s will than identifying false beliefs and refraining from taking action in…
