Category Archives: LIFE

healing, Hope, Michele Cushatt, Questions?, trust

I Don’t Feel Safe

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As I have listened in on conversations or processed life with clients or friends, a theme I hear often is “if God is good, why is life so hard?”

And when the challenges and losses of life threaten us, it is hard to feel safe.

And when we don’t feel safe it is hard to trust that God is present, let alone in control, let alone good.

Oh we might night say it, but our behaviors often reveal that we are not sure we believe God is who he says he is.

I’m not immune to the struggle.  A few days ago Continue reading I Don’t Feel Safe →

Broken, grief, healing, Hope, influence, LOSS, Offering Hope

So. Much. Pain.

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I’m in the people business
Know people
Care for people
Feel for people

Because of this I have to be very aware of how I take in the emotions & pain of others. It can effect me not only emotionally, but physically as well.

Over the last few days a series of losses took my breathe away.

Death of a 26 year old friend of Leisha’s
Death of a 16 year old friend of a friend
Our friend’s 17 year old fighting for his life

Watching our parents process letting go of strength, while mourning each week the death of another friend or loved one.

Watching the girls navigate life and wondering what’s ahead for them and any future generations.

I’m not trying to take on all this pain but I’m struggling about what to do with my own emotions as I create a bigger picture for ministry I know I am part of
That involves more people
More stories
More pain.

Ah!
There it is!
The truth!

I fear feeling more.
Hurting more.

Then I reflected on the other messages
Continue reading So. Much. Pain. →

Broken, Hope, life lessons, prayer

Plans to Give You Hope!

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I’ve read this passage so many times.
I memorized it as a child.
It was given to me in cards and notes over and over again after Leisha died.

God has plans to prosper me- not harm me

God has plans to give me hope and a future.

But I today I read the verse in context of chapter 29.

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

First thing I notice is to be in exile is the condition of someone being sent or kept away from their own country, village, home, etc.  CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH DICTIONARY

The Lord tells them through Jeremiah to:

Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Hmmm?  Sounds like God is saying make the most of the situation you are in – whether it is good or not, whether it is where you want to be or not.

Then in verse 10 the Lord says; ”

When seventy years are completed in Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 

And that is where Jeremiah 29:11 comes in.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

SEVENTY YEARS????

Continue reading Plans to Give You Hope! →

emPOWERful 2017, Green Grief Gathering, Lovely Traces, make a difference, Tracing Hope

WOMAN: the difference you make

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Hi!  This is Kathy Burrus from Green Hope Coaching!

I, like many of you, have been pondering the images of the past weekend of the inauguration and the women’s marches.  Now I’m not here to use my platform to make a statement one way or the other.  There may be a time I do that, but this is not that time.

I’m here today because I was struck by one thing: WOMAN. Not one particular woman, but woman like you and me.

Click here for a complete transcript of this video.

 

EmPOWERful Series:
Five week phone sessions over lunch designed to help you accomplish the ONE THING that will make the greatest difference this month. Click here to register.

 

TRACING HOPE groups:  

Group sessions hosted virtually designed to help women look at their own story and glean from it the significant, defining moments that influence how they live and behave.

Embrace the wonderful story of you and live MAD-ly! (Make-A-Difference)

More details will be coming out soon.  Click this link to sign up to receive upcoming emails regarding these groups.  Whether you live nearby or far away, you can be part of this interactive session.

GREEN GRIEF GATHERING: Green Grief is designed to help us find the slivers of green – the Lovely Traces of Hope in our losses.  As we begin to see the hope in our story, many times we are able to take our next step toward the difference we want to make through it.

Again, click this link to get updates on this event- which for the time being will be local.  If you are interested in a virtual group- send me an email and we will find a way to make that happen.

Here’s to you making the difference you were meant to make.

Kathy
Green Hope Coaching

Bucket list, emPOWERful 2017, GHC opportunities, influence, LIFE, Living Intentionally, make a difference, Questions?, roles and relationships

A Conversation about YOU: Woman!

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What started with simple greetings and an order of coffee, became a conversation about YOU.  Not you personally, but you WOMAN, family member, friend, professional.

WOMAN who wants to make a difference in the world but feels enveloped by so many important things; spouse, kids, parents, job and friends.  These are surely the people we want to serve and influence for good. But sometimes there are so many ‘good’ things going on that we forget we ARE making a difference.

WOMAN who wonders if we truly know what we want to be true of our lives.  We find ourselves in a new place; an empty nest, a season of life, a change in job or relationships, and we puzzle over what we have accomplished in the past or whether we are on track to do all we want to have done at the end of our life.

Are we doing what is most important?  Or are we just reacting to the urgent that comes up in any given day. Continue reading A Conversation about YOU: Woman! →

Fresh start, Goals, influence, Living Intentionally, make a difference, Questions?, roles and relationships

How Do You Measure a Year?

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I love pondering mornings.  I love to ponder. So I don’t demand anything of myself on these mornings;

  • I turn off the alarm,
  • lay in bed till I feel like getting up and if I don’t feel like it, then I just stay put,
  • put on my ‘comfy’ clothes,
  • make sure I eat a healthy breakfast (I want to be able to think clearly.),
  • choose my favorite ‘wordless’ music station on Pandora, otherwise I spend all my pondering time singing along.
  • grab a blanket tablet of paper and a good writing pen,
  • and I ponder.

It’s mornings like these that allow my body to catch up with my mind and heart and spirit.  They are usually running ahead and if I don’t intentionally give myself some time to reflect, I end up getting all tangled up a few days down the line.

This morning when I flipped on Pandora, before I could click on my ‘wordless’ stations, the song Seasons of Love, began to play.  The lyrics start like this:

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure – measure a year in a life?

I’ve been fascinated with this song for a lot of years, but I thought it was especially poignant since my ‘ponderings’ for the morning had been largely focused on what I want to be true of this new year.

Wow!  There are only 525,600 minutes in a year?   Considering that one day holds 1440 minutes, that means we have already spent nearly 20,000 minutes of this new year!  I’m not usually into numbers, but this morning it caught my attention.

How do we measure a year?  

The song lyrics have some suggestions: Continue reading How Do You Measure a Year? →

Fresh start, Hope, influence, LIFE, life lessons, Living Intentionally, make a difference

New WORD for a New Year

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My Word for the year is EnJoy!

I am quite excited about this word.  Over the last 10 years my words have been  Hope- Hope & More HOPE!  I had that word for several years. It’s a great word, but it was a desperate time for me.

One year the word was TRUST, another year it was BE STILL. (I know technically two words, right?) Last year my word was FINISH which was appropriate since my goal was to complete the Lovely Traces of Hope book.

These were all great words and they were significant to me at the time, but they all had a urgency to them, desperation is still the better word.  Even being still was a challenge word at the time.

But this year, the word that keeps coming to me Continue reading New WORD for a New Year →

Jeff Goins, Tribewriter, Writing

I Am A Tribewriter!

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Occasionally I will recommend to you a resource that I believe in.  Usually it is a book or an author that has really spoken into my life and work.

I invite you to check out this one.  If you have ever had interest in blogging or writing a book, this is something you want to look into.  If you want to skip the story and go to the bottom for the post for the details, click here.

Otherwise, read on!  And yes, I am an affiliate of Jeff Goins.  I believe in him and in the Tribewriter course and community.  I’m delighted to share him with you- as well as the Tribewriter Course.

Just over a year ago, as Jeff Goins was launching another class of Tribewriters, I found myself desperately wanting IN!

I had been watching from afar for a couple of years, all the while trying to write a manuscript for a book that I didn’t want to write.  It was started by my 15 year old daughter, Leisha.  We found it in her journal the day after she died in a car/pedestrian accident. She only wrote one chapter, but in that chapter she mostly told my story and ended it with “and then I was born.” I knew this was a book that needed to be finished by me.  But I couldn’t imagine how I would ever be able to do it.

Then came Jeff Goins. I signed up for the the TRIBEWRITER Course- and got a ticket to the 2015 Tribewriter Conference.  That has made all the difference.

Continue reading I Am A Tribewriter! →