Have you ever had a dream of doing something significant?
Have you ever made a plan for doing that significant something, but it just lays on the pages of your notebook or in the files on your computer?
Me too! I’ve had a lot of ideas that have never come to fruition. I’ve had notebooks filled with plans and dreams that are still great ideas, but I haven’t yet followed through on them.
But not this time!
Because it’s a very special day!
(I apologize for the freeze frames in this video- but you get the idea!)
This week in a Video I made for the GHC community, I challenged you to take time to PAY ATTENTION to what you noticed that struck a chord in the core of who you are. (say that 5 times fast)
Well, I do try to practice what I preach…so this morning I sat in one of my favorite thinking spots and asked myself I noticed about what had happened in my week.
It was quite a week: Continue reading Two Views from my Thinking Chair!
This week’s Facebook Live Video,
INCLUDES:
Recently a woman I worked with spoke these words,
I never made it home.
Instantly I saw a split in the meaning of the words.
On the one hand she was saying she had never made the place she lived feel like home. Instead she had resented this house since life had fallen apart and she had been forced to settle there.
But the words resonated loudly for me with another, more poignant meaning.
I never made it home.
I’ve pondered that phrase often since the day we spoke.
How many times have women that I have met with uttered phrases very similar to that?
I never made it home. Continue reading Where Do You Live?
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!
I love pondering mornings. I love to ponder. So I don’t demand anything of myself on these mornings;
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?
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
Below, I am REPOSTING a post from a year a go. I wrote this during my first ever writer’s conference- TRIBEWRITER’s in Franklin, TN last August 2015. I remember being scared, excited, sick to my stomach and sure this was my next right/write step.
Today as I prepare to attend my second Tribewriter conference, I read this post agin. I am in awe of all that has happened in a year.
A year ago, I spoke the words “I am a writer” for the first time. A year ago I declared that I would finish writing and publish a book.
Now it is done. It took a great deal more to complete this task than I ever dreamed, but I have a book to show to the Jeff Goins as I thank him for helping me own who I am and for introducing me to Christine Niles and others who inspired and challenged me through this process.
I don’t know what I will learn this year at TRIBEWRITERS, but I’m scared, excited, sick to my stomach and sure this is the next right/write step. Pray for me!
*******
As a child, did you ever wonder what you would be when you grew up? 
I did often. It had everything to do with being a mom, and working with music and worship in the local church. And if I happened to be married to a pastor, that would be all the better. I never wanted to be anything else.
But today I sat in a room full of people and realized that is not who I am anymore. I still have the same gifts and abilities. I still love music and prefer to use it to lead others in worship. I still have a husband who thinks about ways to teach God’s word and loves to talk about church leadership.
The fact that I am not what I once was used to feel like failure, then just loss. But today I came to see in fresh ways that all that WAS is part of all that IS. All that I have learned is part of all that I now share.
From the memories of all that I am from to the discovery of the voice that has always been within me, I am still me.
Only more!
I’m more aware!
I’m more raw!
I’m more real!
And that is good.
Today I came closer to identifying and becoming content with who I am!
I am an entrepreneur. I own a business.
I am a coach and a speaker.
I am part of a tribe and I am a leader of tribes.
I am also a writer!
It is out of who I am now that I will write. It might suit you and it might not. I might speak to the core of your issues and I might not. I might write out of the suffering more than the healing and I might not.
But I will write because I must. I will continue to explore who I am coming to be because I will not go back. I will continue to share the truths that I am being taught.
From the memories of all that I am from to the discovery of the voice that has always been within me, I am still me. Click To TweetI will not count the past as lost, or wasted. I will see it for the training ground it has been. I will not fear the present or the future because I have known the hand of God in bringing me to this point. I will trust it as I continue on.
Today I have seen more of me.
And it’s ok!
So are you!
Who are you today? What do you need to embrace in this day?
Join me in the journey to be, won’t you?
