How are your muscles today? Aching a bit from strain? What has you straining? Is it from grinding your teeth at night because that’s how your body inadvertently reacts to stress even as you sleep? Is it from carrying that very attached baby of yours everywhere you go even as you work? Is it from hunching over mounds of paperwork as … Read More
Shaken, But Not Stirred.
A few days ago, I was in Brooklyn, New York sitting in the auditorium of one of the most illustrious churches in the country- The Brooklyn Tabernacle. Words cannot properly describe how meaningful that service was to me, just two days after I turned 30. But I will tell you that it was right up there with the Kenyan worship … Read More
10 Things I Learned in my 20’s
Well, it’s finally here: the dreaded last day of my 20’s. As much as I would like to deem tomorrow “The 2nd Annual Anniversary of My 29th Birthday”, I can’t. When the clock moves into the 2:00AM hour, while I sleep, I will turn 30. (I think I need a piece of chocolate.) As hard as the idea of starting … Read More
Writing on the Walls
Did you ever make a time capsule as a kid? I remember doing one at my school. I don’t remember anything that went into it or when it was to be opened, but I remember thinking about how awesome it would be for someone to find it some day. Now that I’m a grown-up, I live in an old Virginian … Read More
The Art of Writing a Letter
I’ve written all sorts of letters throughout my life. Letters to my parents from camp, postcards with short letters to my grandparents from vacations, entries in my diaries, cards filled with letters of encouragement to those having a bad day or suffering in a particular way, emails with updates on life with pen pals and old friends, letters of complaint … Read More
How to Journey Well
I can hardly believe that it has been three years since my shoes collected dust from the red dirt roads of Kenya. The two weeks my husband and I spent there will make for a lifetime of lessons and stories bound to live far beyond our own existence on this earth. So many times, my mind travels unrestricted by … Read More
Everyone Can Do Something
The other day, I was at a baby shower for my precious friend, Catherine. I met Catherine through work about five or so years ago. I was an Admissions Counselor and she was my go to Financial Aid Advisor for students. I could always count on her to make sure things did not slip through the cracks. Early on, much … Read More
Operation Baby Rescue
I want to introduce you to a little girl that I met three years ago this month in Kenya. She was about six years old. Honestly, I don’t even know her name. I do know a little bit of her story, though. When we arrived at the Lunga village (which translates as “upside down village”), I got out my tiny … Read More
Why You Should Kick The Bucket List
30 is fast approaching for me. I don’t particularly like that piece of truth. But it’s there, hovering over me like news of an impending hurricane. The past year, I’ve been doing everything I can to protect myself from this storm of a number. I’ve bolted my shutters closed, laid my rain boots out to jump into when both wind … Read More
How To Be More Interesting
I feel like I was a slacker in the reading department during 2013. In hindsight, I realize I started off rip-roaring through a lengthy biography on Daniel Boone, an awesome memoir by one of my former professors called, “Booked,” a Johnny Cash book, and a Dickens’ classic I had started a few months earlier. As a slow reader, I set … Read More