Traveling Thoughts

Words carry unbelievable power. Words have the unique ability to help, to bring joy, to encourage, to destroy, to cause pain, to shame, or to humble. Our words matter. This not only applies to the words we speak to others, but what we say to ourselves. I strongly believe that we can be our own worst critic and say things to ourselves that we would NEVER dream to say (or think about) to other people.   Knowing my tendency to listen to my inner critic and leaning into the idea of living a purposeful and meaningful life, ( check out the first part of the blog here ) I decided at the end of 2013 to select a POSITIVE word to live into in the coming year. That started a chain reaction of going year to year over the last 5 years as a way live a meaningful story and a practice I plan to continue.  My inspiration in sharing these past words and the word for 2019, comes from a graphic artist friend, Adam Cassidy . Adam created a logo for the Kettering  Before...

“Death is a powerful tool that allows us to rethink our outlook and wakes us up to the things that matter and makes our lives meaningful.” I wrote this sentence down just a little over two years ago. Working within a church you are invested in the lives of people of various life stages and I have found that death goes beyond the loss of a loved one. I realized that that death can occur in our jobs, our relationships, and seasons of life. My experience with death for most of my life had been very limited. My paternal grandparents had passed when I was very little and my only other experiences came from walking with friends as they experienced the death of loved ones. Then two years ago, I received an unexpected (and unwelcomed) call that didn’t allow me to avoid death anymore but face it straight on. My 40-year-old cousin suddenly passed. I had just talked to her on the phone the week before and now she was gone? Now very awake to the new outlook that death provides, I watch...