Transform Your Life With Better Expectations

To avoid disappointment don’t lower your expectations; lengthen them. No one wants to be disappointed. And to prevent it some of us think it’s better to lower our expectations or, worse, kill them completely. But, that doesn’t work. Lowering your expectations is like giving up and it’s almost practically impossible to do. If you expect…More

The Best Thing About Our Baby Having a Cleft Lip and Palate

Our son was born with a birth defect called a cleft lip and palate. This happens when the lip and roof of a baby’s mouth doesn’t fully close up in the womb creating a gap, thus the “cleft.” During almost all of the pregnancy, we went about our lives completely unaware of it. Finding About…More

This Perspective Helps You Live

Stories of death have been haunting me lately, helping me view the world, better. This week I read two posts about people I know who lost loved ones, not to the pandemic, but tragically nonetheless. One lost a young wife, and the other, a baby who was stillborn. And while my eyes pored over the…More

You Are Blessed Today

Each day is a blessing. If the virus has taught us anything it is to appreciate the fundamental things in life, the essential, like life itself. If you’re breathing, that’s good. It’s great. Your lungs work as they should. You’re not on a respirator fighting to catch a tiny breath, feeling like your drowning without…More

Finding Rest Right Now

We’re tired. Fighting a pandemic is exhausting. Even if you’re home alone or with kids or whatever, this is taking a lot more energy than we ever imagined it would. Who knew homeschooling was like herding cats and trying to teach them math. And then there’s the militaristic effort to sanitize everything—I mean everything—before it…More

Good Grieving

It’s good to grieve. We should. Because, you know, the new normal is too new and it shouldn’t be normal, and in general things just suck right now. I won’t visit my mom to avoid any chances of getting her sick. But I visited a friend while standing over six feet away from him and…More

This Is the Freedom You Can Hear

A choir of birds chirp outside my window each morning. And the melodies breathe a refreshing breeze into my soul that helps me face the day. It’s a simple sound, never ceasing to surprise and delight me, reminding me of something greater. Taking pleasure in the every-day moments, common yet majestic, can bring mirth even…More

Be More Unrealistic

“Let’s be realistic,” is a dream killing phrase, and I hate it. Don’t be realistic. Be foolish. Do that thing everyone says don’t do. Try that crazy idea that everyone says will fail. Go to that place everyone tells you not to go to. Failure is better than regret. With the former you learn. With…More

One Great Thing From Social Distancing

Strangers are waving at me, and I find myself waving back. They smile, and so do I. And you know what? It feels really good. In all of this we’re learning to appreciate strangers. There’s a longing for connection that we all have, especially when we’re as starved of it as we are these days.…More

Mistakes Are One of the Best Things You Can Make

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is making no mistake at all. Learning new skills, trying new things, growth, solving problems all involve some sort of failing. So don’t be afraid to make mistakes; be afraid of never making anything. See, to create, to get better at a craft, you start by making…More