This past week, my daughter lost a mentor. Denny Griffith had been the president of CCAD, Columbus College of Art & Design while she was a student there. She describes him often as such an instrumental person, a spectacular man, an artist, and a person of influence.
I always marveled at the closeness she felt toward him. And then I read one of her Facebook posts this week. She wrote: Continue reading That’s Influence!
I just had a birthday! It is one of the middle ones not ending in a 0 or a 5. It’s a non-consequential birthday! Not one we celebrate in a big way. Just another birthday.
But birthday’s always make me stop and think. Perhaps they do you as well. Another year has passed. I find myself asking,
What did I do in the past year that made any difference?
What do I need to be about in this next year to make the difference I was meant to make? Click To Tweet
Sometimes we get caught in the trap of being so busy we don’t stop to ‘ponder’! I love that word ponder because it denotes a slowing down, maybe even stopping to sip a favorite cup of tea. We take time to notice. We look around and see the new buds on the trees and the new blooms in the garden. We breath in the air, still crisp, yet warming. We feel the sun on our arms that have long been covered by winter coats.
Birthdays, Holidays, especially the New Year cause us to ask questions about our life. I know I’m not the only one pondering questions. I talk to many who are. Friends, Family, clients- so many are asking questions like:
Or we find ourselves saying things like:
Even this week as Rennie was listening to the trailer for the new movie Batman vs. Superman (No, I’m not endorsing here- just using as an example) I heard a woman say something like,
“We get so caught up with what we can do, we haven’t asked what we should do.’
How do we know what we SHOULD be doing? Who says what we SHOULD be doing? How do we know when we are doing it? Or not doing it?
Sometimes life gets so busy doing things we feel we SHOULD be doing. But somewhere after doing that for a while, we are suddenly forced to stop and ponder!
Were we so caught up with what we SHOULD be doing, we lost sight of what we were MADE to do? Click To TweetThat’s a question we will be asking at the new group Green Hope Coaching is offering in May!
We will be asking the questions
The actual questions and answers will depend on you!
Cost for the class is $20 per session or $150 if you pay for all 8 sessions by May 1st. (that’s a $10 savings)
will include:
Register by emailing Kathy@greenhopecoaching.com.
Write I’M INTENTIONAL in the subject line.
You have much to offer you world!
You make an extraordinary difference in your world being your ordinary you! Click To TweetEven if you don’t see it!
But … there are many things we can do to intentionally make the difference we were meant to make.
Are you ready to take the challenge?
Join us! Email me today!
The gift of a woman’s story is often what God uses to speak hope into the stories of others. My friend, Dr. Michelle Bengtson has told such a story. It is my honor to share it with you today!
Dr. Michelle Bengtson
We’ve all heard the childhood rhyme, “Sticks and stones may break by bones, but names will never hurt me.” I knew from a very young age that that was a lie. Even as I said them on the playground in response to a peer’s cruel taunts, I knew it wasn’t true.
Words hurt.
Scripture tells us that the tongue has the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21), but do we teach our children that? Or do we perpetuate ignorance by reciting simple rhymes?
Having worked in the field of psychology for over 20 years, it’s evident to me that children don’t realize the long-term significance of what they say. They behave toward others in the very same way that’s been modeled to them.
As an adult who has been wounded by the words of others since early childhood, I probably err on the side of not saying enough—not wanting to draw any more attention to myself or risk further rejection.
Only three years old when I was stricken with an undiagnosable and life threatening illness, I was left to deal with the physical and emotional ramifications the rest of my life. Continue reading Words of Life or Death
I was recently reminded of a little illustration I have used often. It goes something like this.
When you drive home today, you’ve got a big windshield on the front of your car. And you’ve got a little bitty rear view mirror. And the reason the windshield is so large and the rear view mirror is so small is because what’s happened in your past is not near as important as what’s in your future. –Joel Osteen
Ok! There is much truth there. It is important that we get a clear perspective of what is ahead and where we are going. With that in mind we can increase the momentum to reaching our destination. If we spend so much time focusing on our past- we can literally come to a complete halt with any forward movement.
But ya’ll! We have a rear view mirror for a reason! Continue reading Check the rear view mirror!
Recently a new friend asked the common question, “What do you do for a living?”
I hesitated for a moment. Thoughts flashed through my head of the past couple of weeks. Of conversations I’ve had with clients and friends. I know what my job description is, but is it what I actually do?
I became a life coach because I got to help people, particularly women, identify where they are and where they want to go! One of my favorite things to do is to partner with someone to create an action plan for their dream.
However, recently I’ve been more of a Psalm 77 coach than a life coach. Have you never heard of a Psalm 77 coach? Yeah, me neither. I just made it up!
Here’s why I use the title Psalm 77.
When I start working with a client, I often ask just two questions.
1) What do you want to talk about today?
2) What do you want to have to feel successful in this session?
If a client can answers those questions at the beginning of the session, we can make incredible progress.
However, what I find most often is before a woman can accomplish what she wants to be true of her, she has to grieve what isn’t!
It sounds something like this! Continue reading What do you do …?
Dear Brielle,
All day long I have thought of you! Since 7:28am this morning. It is almost unfathomable to realize it has been 26 years since the date of your birth!
This evening I just sat pondering your birth.
We lived in Honeybrook, PA. I remember waking up in the middle of the night, about 1:00am and by 3:00am we were making our way to the hospital. It don’t take long at all after that. You couldn’t wait. There you were! 7:28am.
It was amazing! You were amazing! Continue reading For 26 years…!
I was challenged by my story partner friend to take Kate Motaung’s challenge to write a letter to grief. Since it ties in with my recent series on Living Open Handed, I choose to share this here also.
Dear Grief,
I don’t think I want to talk to you!
I’ve spent so many years struggling to survive your choke hold on my life!
I’ve crawled through your tunnel
Filled with muck- dark and slimy
So deep that with each step I sunk farther
O
Until it began to paralyze my legs
Then my torso and my arms
Finally my face
Silencing my voice
Blind folding my sight
Dulling my ability to hear as you filled my ears with your lies.
I could barely find my next breath
OH
let alone move.
Reposting with permission of the author, Jeff Goins. As we close the year, do we dare to use the voice that God has given us, to pursue the dream that was planted in us. Here’s to being the prophet or the poet – and influencing the world!
