Visuals enhance learning for me. Even more than illustrations, I often learn more reading a transcript of a presentation than when I simply listened to it. This month’s One Word challenge both inspired and enlightened me while exploring what Hope looks like through photographs captured in my daily interactions. Unlike some more cerebral words, Hope is best described by experiencing…
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What Hope Looks Like
Dancing with a Limp
Traveling a grief filled month, of childhood memories of my Mom and Dad’s birthdays, wedding anniversary, and my first Mother’s Day since my Mom’s death four months ago, not to mention my estrangement from two of my children, found me seeking healing for many wounds. Learning in the process, some wounds fail to heal completely. Yet I can still find…
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Trusting God While Sowing in Tears
Navigating this current time period between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day often yields bittersweet emotions. Feelings of regret and failure dominate even the best parent-child relationships. While doubt and despair cripple those loving prodigals. Trusting God while sowing in tears may be one of the most difficult seasons parents endure. Honored beyond words, my sweet friends Andrew Lindberg, Elementary art…
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One Beautiful Life
Each calendar month holds memories. While most greet us with pleasant reverie, some harbor painful remembrances. Even before April waved good-bye, May’s grief began gripping my heart. Despite this month’s perpetual sadness, this year, the memory of one beautiful life now in heaven speaks a different kind of sadness. Growing up, the month of May was a big celebration month…
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Reflecting the Creator’s Beauty
Few things equal the magnificence of the reawakening of a spring garden. Though many of the same plants return year after year, each year reveals its own loveliness. Reflecting the Creator’s beauty, the intricacies of individual flowers amaze me with new facets of God’s glory. The hands which formed the rugged mountains and carved out valleys, lovingly molded the delicate…
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Wounded Healers
Glancing at my hands one recent evening as I prepared for bed, brought a measure of sadness to the surface. Cuts, abrasions, scars, battered nails, and joints disfigured from arthritis. Told I had beautiful hands at one time, the current reality portrayed quite a different story. Yet the now time altered hands whispered a deeper truth, one that held the…
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Surrender As the Pathway to Healing
Recently sharing with a friend and spiritual mentor, I learned an incredible lesson about surrender as the pathway to healing through my almost nine-month-old dog, Shalom. When Shalom came into my life, at twelve weeks old, her name was already written on my heart. An integral part of my well-being, Peace tops my daily self-care list. After praying about getting…
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April Acceptance: Share Four Somethings
Waving farewell to another month, I rejoice in a glance back at my April Acceptance joining Jennifer Goodwin as she hosts a monthly feature called, Share Four Somethings, where writers share the fourth Saturday of each month something in each of four categories from the previous month. Many readers notice I choose a theme for each month, which often reflects lessons or themes from…
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Vulnerability as Your Greatest Strength
Relevant for our times, the much talked about trait of vulnerability sparked much debate in my circles over the past month. One thing was common to all conversations, whether “for” or “against”, all failed to imagine vulnerability as your greatest strength. Routinely viewed as weakness, vulnerability actually demonstrates the courage to show up and be seen, regardless of the outcome….
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