I finished reading Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck a couple weeks ago, and there are a couple key passages from it still bouncing around within me. Although this little excerpt – we don’t take a trip; a trip takes us – was at the very start of the book (page [...]
An email arrived in my inbox with the subject line: Domain Expiring. I opened it, and was reminded that I’d declined the auto-renew of a very special domain, my first domain, the one, the only…. MarineChick.com. (This pic to the left was one of my main feature photos on MarineChick.com for awhile). [...]
"Once you start making the effort to 'wake yourself up' - that is, be more mindful in your activities - you suddenly start appreciating life a lot more." ~Robert Biswas-Diener A new technique one of the dog trainers I work with suggested using an old wooden cooking spoon, putting a dollop of peanut butter on [...]
I had a friend post something on Facebook today saying (and keep in mind, per usual, I’m paraphrasing here) that she had people questioning how her Christian faith and her liberally-oriented political stances could rightly coexist. Liberal equaling progressive, feminist, etc. Her initial post answered the query and followed up with a question of her [...]
“Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.” ~Brené Brown I awoke this morning with no voice, a hacking cough, sleep deprived, sore throat/neck/back/etc…My [...]
One of my favorite Christmas stories is not my own, but one of my dear friend's. "Our family might have been a little more intense than normal because my father was a career Marine. He was dedicated to the Marine Corps in the true believer way that a career officer must be. An infantry officer, [...]
One of my teachers (yes, it’s Lisa again ;-p) had a sanskrit teacher who went to India (naturally) to study for awhile. This woman practiced yoga daily. It was a regular part of her life. She noticed, though, that in this little village in which she lived that she was the only one [...]
“Don’t aim at success – the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the [...]
“Honor the space between no longer and not yet.” ~Nancy Levin The liminal space. Transition. Transformation. A sense of having one foot in one space, and one foot in another. In between. Liminality is the in-between moments, the space between an inciting incident in a story and the protagonist's resolution. It is often [...]
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” ― Albert Camus And once again, I found myself on the [...]
