View your surroundings with fresh eyes: resurrecting potential

Photo by Stefan Cosma on Unsplash.

Recently, we hosted our daughter for the weekend at our little cabin in the woods. To view the space through her eyes for the first time reminded me of the reasons my husband and I fell in love with the mountain retreat when we, too, first laid eyes on it. Yet it’s too easy to forget its potential when confronted with…[read more]

Oh, what a knight: a sweet romance with a touch of sass

On the heels of my recent blog in which I shared news about my Valentine’s short story published in Woman’s World magazine, I’m excited to promote my latest 5-minute sweet romance, “Oh, what a knight,” on sale now in stores and online. The story opens with the heroine trapped between floors in an elevator alongside an Armani-clad stranger who holds the key to Sutton’s immediate predicament—and her financial future—both of which depend on an advertising campaign pitch that she cannot afford to miss. If you love a modern-day damsel in distress fairytale (swap out the horse with a limousine) paired with a touch of sass that is guaranteed to make you smile, then pick up your April 12 copy of Woman’s World today. If you cannot find the issue for purchase, I heard from one of my readers and dear friend that her library carries an online version. Which brings me to my weekly question:

Do you prefer to buy books or visit your local library?

Defeating the demons: pressing in to get your head (and heart) unstuck

 

In my recent post, “Make peace with the past…” I contemplate the choice to salvage the Someday mentality [“Someday my dreams will come true, I’ll accomplish X, Y and Z or fill-in-the-blank”]—or to let go of the one-sided dreams. You know the type—where the outcome centers on circumstances beyond your control. Today, I’m at a crossroads as I fight a few familiar demons: rehashing old habits, rethinking past choices, dwelling on the old. Yet the only way to reclaim my reality is to dig deeper, to press in to those areas which best define me: my passion and my purpose. To pursue, with greater intent, life’s simple pleasures and the transformative power of prayer, the mindful practice of gratitude and self-compassion. And to finally release those things which I cannot change in order to appreciate the life that’s smack dab in front of me. Not a million miles away. Not within the pages of a fairytale. But here, and now.

How do you defeat the demons?

Image source: askideas.com.

Word-of-the-month: wake-up call (n.)

[Image credit: Arvind Balaraman]

Last year the word-of-the-month landed on Memorial Day, too (see fealty).  This year the word is wake-up call.  One online dictionary defines it as “something that serves to alert a person to a problem, danger, or need.”  For some it may be the current state of our country’s political affairs; for others, one of the recent devastating weather events.  For me, a few health issues and the death of a former colleague have forced me to open my eyes.  What I’ve seen is I’ve put certain areas of my life on hold to hitch my dreams on an uncertain future.  Someday.  The day when it all comes together.  But my wake-up call says differently.  Today might be it: the desert my ocean; the articles I’ve had published the only time I see my name in print … happily-ever-after may simply exist in fairytales.  And as much as I want to believe, I need to work with what I’ve got: the present.

What is your most recent wake-up call?

Home, sweet home

[Image credit: Sura Nualpradid ]

We are homesick most for the places we have never known.
~ Carson McCullers

I wonder if this quote refers to exotic locales for the homebody, or the comfortable craziness of a loving family for the orphaned, or a whirlwind book-signing tour for the aspiring author or possibly the fairytale union for the romantic inside many of us.  Although personal experience is lacking in areas we’ve never seen or heard, tasted or touched, I believe there may be a part of us longingly wishing for these places McCullers writes about.  Perhaps this is where our pie-in-the-sky dreams are born and why we oftentimes make sacrifices in the name of glamour, unconditional acceptance, success or happily-ever-after.  Or maybe we are the holdouts, persevering until we attain it all — the whole package.  And instead of glitz and fanfare or whatever it is we had hoped for, we’re surrounded by a quiet confidence because we know we’re finally home.

Can you think of a particular place you’re homesick for?