“Just Do It” is a great slogan when it comes to Nike shoes and things like: “Get off the couch and move!” “Floss your teeth!” “Eat your vegetables!” Or: “Sit down and write!” But there are times when “Just Do It” doesn’t work and when trying harder only leaves me feeling depleted and frustrated. Motivation, … Continue reading For When “Just Do It” Doesn’t Work
Tag: essay
Putting Stories on my Heart: One Small Step
""As we are, our hearts our closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks, and the words fall in." --Parker Palmer
The Questions that Transform Me
The best questions--the kind of questions that can change your life--aren't meant to be answered right away.
A Gentle Reminder
Sometimes I get excited about really small things. Like seeds. Especially these seeds. These are seeds that I saved from a tomato that grew in my garden last summer. The fall before, I drove out to Milwaukee to visit my Opa in hospice. During that visit, in one of our last conversations, my Opa told me … Continue reading A Gentle Reminder
Freedom from the God-Box
Some of us grow into thinking that our beliefs--statements we hold to be true--are the most important part of who we are. I'm not saying that beliefs are unimportant or that every belief is right. But there is a danger in defining our deepest self by what we think about things.
Come and Eat
How can I feed my soul? What does my soul need? What wakes me up, the deep-down waking up? What makes me come alive, really alive? What opens up my heart? What prepares me for Presence?
One Small Slice of Shoreline
The discrepancy between my experience of Lake Superior and its Reality stunned me this weekend. There is something to this fact that is Truth. There is something in this Truth that my soul needs to sit with for a while. Sometimes small truths hit you in your heart to remind you of a Big Truth that your soul needs.
A Resurrection Story
"You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?" ~ John 11:25-26 (MSG) I am, right now, Resurrection … Continue reading A Resurrection Story
Leaning into the Wait
A few weeks back, I wrote about finding myself living in the ellipses- the ". . ." - a time in-between what was and what is to come. I struggle with the slowness of this time. I have a feeling that I am not alone. Have you found yourself in an in-between time--that space between … Continue reading Leaning into the Wait
Trading Importance for Infinite Worth
"It was going to be one of Rabbit's busy days. As soon as he woke up he felt important, as if everything depended upon him." -- A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner "I'll go and see if there's anything [Christopher Robin] wants doing, and then I'll do it for him. It's just the day … Continue reading Trading Importance for Infinite Worth