If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire.
– St. Catherine of Sienna
What do dreams, Bradley Cooper, and my last blog post all have in common? No ladies, I did not marry Bradley…keep guessing. Maybe some of you frequently dream about Bradley Cooper, but how would I know? Go on back to my last post and see if you can connect the dots…
Read MoreI have a confession to make. I went on a bender this past weekend…a Beatles Bender. It was excessive and glorious and I highly recommend it.
While 34,000 dedicated runners recovered from the St. Jude’s Rock n’ Roll marathon, I was happily sat on my back deck for the better part of Sunday chugging coffee and devouring the brilliant and arguably most influential sounds of all time.
Read MoreI grew up in Mobile, Alabama. Mobile is a charming southern city, dripping with history, Spanish moss, and extra syllables. My elementary years were challenged as a kid with all that humidity and resulting frizz. However, despite seeming eternal spells of awkward and frizz, my childhood was wonderful in so many ways. I grew up with parents who love and enjoy each other as well as their five wildly colorful kids (still do, I’m pretty sure), and siblings whom I call my closest friends to this day. My Dad is a seasoned entrepreneur, writer, teacher, and visionary. For many years he served in ministry, traveling all over to share his keen insight and passion for our unique calling as Christians in this metastory of life and faith. Even though we grew up in a small town, my world view and hunger for more got off to a big start. I attribute this to my Dad.
Read MoreWell, It’s been two weeks now since I “failed” my big test and I must say, I feel just fine. The feedback you gave me from last week’s blog post was invaluable and life giving, to say the least. Thank you for taking the time to thoughtfully respond and, as you will read, for widening my vision. There is something palpable and powerful about vulnerability in the face of a painful fall. It cuts through layers of nicety and ego, getting right down to the core of our insecurity. As scary as it was for me to admit my perceived defeat last week, your compassionate responses shed light on a profound truth I have come to believe more than ever as of late.
Read MoreThe enemy of art is the absence of limitations.
-Orson Welles
What is it that drives you? What gets you out of bed each morning? Perhaps it is a steaming hot cup of coffee, or the inevitable 8am commute to that blessed place called work, or training for a 10k, or… love? I am talking about that thing you love and desire more than anything else. It’s the thing that makes us depressed and edgy when we ignore it, yet freaked out and energized when we embrace it.
I am still trying to fully define this for myself, so if you are clueless, don’t worry…you’re not alone. More and more though, I think what drives me on many levels is healing and beauty. As broad as those may seem, it’s what I keep coming back to. It seems once we hone in on an area of interest, or the general concepts behind it, we can experiment and tease out the specifics over time.
For example, despite the fact that beauty and healing are pretty nebulous, I have learned that they really do show up in most of my daily focus. This can look like working with clients in a counseling setting or communicating through writing and/or song, or maybe even creating a space for others to enjoy it while connecting over a dinner table (assuming my cooking turns out beautifully). Thankfully, I havelearned that our drive, calling, passion, whatever you call it, doesn’t have to look a certain way. We can get rid of the boxes. Calling is birthed in desire and nurtured through ritual. It’s far less complicated than we make it.
Read More
