Love is a Garden, And We Have the Exceptional Privilege of Being the Caretakers and Stewards of It. To My Love Bonnie, It was a somber, overcast sky in the early Seattle morning of April 10th, 2020. It was my birthday. I was 32 years old and driving back to my hometown of Chattanooga after... Continue Reading →
We Will Never Be “Ready” To Start Something New, and That Is Okay. Do It Anyways!
If we wait around to do something new until we are “ready”, then we will likely never do anything at all. I want to keep reminding myself of this truth. I start a job next week and I have been less than positive about it, even though it is a good opportunity. It’s my reintroduction... Continue Reading →
Using the Struggles of the Past for Inspiration of the Future
There are days when I feel defeated, broken, and beaten down, but there’s one thing I can do that helps put everything into perspective. For me, I like to look back at my past struggles and where I came from in an effort to appreciate where I’m at in this current moment. How easily we... Continue Reading →
The Subtle Art of Being Alone With Your Thoughts
I think back over the past decade and can’t help but think about how much time was spent on my phone. It’s astonishing if I think about it. Communication and distractions on phones take up a large chunk of our lives and have fundamentally changed the routine of our days and our interactions with our... Continue Reading →
Transforming From Victim to Being the Boss of Your Life
It’s funny how life has presented me with recurring epiphanies about how I am in charge of my day, or maybe it’s a sign I need to pay more attention and apply what I have learned. Either way, I had a recurring epiphany this week when I was feeling stressed, discouraged, and like I just... Continue Reading →
Feeling Lost in a Strange Place
It’s been a couple months since I moved to Arizona on my own and while I am elated by the sense of a new place and new adventures, I have recently been feeling homesick. It gets lonely here sometimes. I have new friends and coworkers I have met to keep me company but it’s not... Continue Reading →
Creating Something Beautiful Out of the Pain of Heartbreak
I have been known to board up my emotions during turmoil and tragedy. I can remember back in my early 20s breaking up with my first serious girlfriend of three and a half years. I was so jaded and exhausted by the time we broke up that I don’t ever remember crying afterwards. I pushed... Continue Reading →
For Those Who Are Not Kind to Themselves and Want to Change
The stress of starting a new job and being in a new location has been getting to me the past week or so. There are a lot of unknown variables going into a new situation. What is the workload going to be like? What are the people I work with going to be like? I... Continue Reading →
Learning Lessons and Finding Encouragement in Failure
When things don’t go as expected, we tend to think we failed at something and we can easily be subdued by burdensome feelings of defeat. We have a choice in those moments, to accept the experience as a valuable lesson and move through it or to be overcome by loathing. It’s pertinent now more than... Continue Reading →
Learning the Power of Simple, Generous Actions
As I am training my mind to be more present and mindful, I also want to extend that out to affect others. I want to go beyond alleviating stress and anxiety and use my energy to be more compassionate. I want to put other’s first in my life and live community-minded. Most of my life... Continue Reading →