After a few emotionally stressful weeks at work I decided I would take today off as a “mental health day”. It was wonderful. I headed off on foot this morning armed with my laptop and camera and spent the morning at my favorite coffee shop, Caffe Sola. I then spent some time down by the river taking pictures – that part didn’t work out so well as I realized after […] Read More
It’s been a stressful, emotionally draining week – too many difficult situations in rapid succession was wearing away at my emotional fortitude. I hope I can find some refreshing this weekend. I was pretty fried by the time I hit Friday. In spite of the difficult things I’ve had to deal with this week I have much to enjoy, appreciate, be thankful for. I have a couple of blogging friends […] Read More
Waiting is hard. It feels like I have been waiting for a long time for a change. This summer it will have been 2 years since I decided it was time to change. I have tried to be patient. I know God has a hand in directing my life and I choose to trust Him in His timing and His way. But it has not been easy. I have had […] Read More
10 years ago today my husband passed away. 10 years ago today my world shattered. A wave of sadness washes over me as I recognize this day. I am forced to look it in the face. I don’t want to re-enact the past. I don’t want to remember the suffocating sorrow. I don’t want to feel the fear, the panic. I don’t want to think back on how reality became […] Read More
I rarely ask myself “what are the things I love to do?” I am far more focused on the things I feel “responsible for”. Things like: – doing a good job at my workplace – taking care of my family or should I say “my household”? (ie: cleaning up, doing laundry, making meals/lunches, getting the kids ready for school, getting groceries, etc.) Between my workplace (which eats up over 45 […] Read More
What is “success”? How is it measured? If I were to think about the messages about success in our society I think of the following things: – Size and age of your house – What kind of car you drive – How often you take vacations to sunny destinations – Holding a high-ranking position in a company – The kind of clothes you wear – Your annual income Are these […] Read More
It’s a new year. And hopefully of new beginnings. Hope… Hope…it’s what keeps us going. Hope…one of the “these three that will remain”. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12) ‘Hope’ is a powerful thing. It provides us with the strength to endure, to persevere, to ‘hang in there’ when everything inside us wanted to just lie down and give up. […] Read More
I absolutely love this quote: “Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we can do. Our capabilities seldom match our aspirations, and we are often woefully unprepared. To this extent, we are all Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart.” – by Lloyd Alexander If you haven’t read the “Chronicles of Prydain” series or “The Black Cauldron” you probably won’t understand the last part of this quote but […] Read More
I’m sitting in the waiting room of my daughter’s ballet class. I’ve been doing this on a largely weekly basis for the past year. My daughter’s class is 45 minutes long and I’ve filled the time mostly by reading. Last Fall I started reading classic literature. In my time spent in the waiting room I’ve made it through “Robinson Crusoe” and “Flatland”. I just started reading “The Count of Monte […] Read More
I have described myself in the past as a chameleon – I would be what I perceived people expected me to be. That way I wouldn’t get into trouble. Trying to live up to expectations and being responsible for everything was my way of keeping myself “safe”. It wasn’t until I was dating my current husband (and through a number of circumstances that landed me on stress leave and seeing […] Read More