Life in Words.

It is a subject that 99.9% of women (that is my “scientific” guess) talk about, think about, and wrestle with every day from the time we are about 12 years old. If you become a mom, it grows like that weird talking plant in Little Shop of Horrors. If you don’t become a mom, it buzzes in your ear like a rabid mosquito. If you work, it nags at you. If you don’t work it is a little voice in your head chattering away at you. And I would be willing to bet it is a topic of conversation when you are with your girlfriends. It causes tears and anxiety, frustration and insecurity, and the worst part is, it really only plagues women. I have yet to heard a group of guys stressing over being “good enough” (I shall eat my words when this happens). We are never enough. Let me rephrase that…we never FEEL like we are enough.  The other day I was juggling my three boys (thank you Fall Break…I mean, didn’t we just start school?) and work and breakfast and all of my usual adult duties. I sent out

There are a million books and theories and thoughts these days about how THINGS just clutter up your life and make you crazy. Well, I'm here to disagree. Tonight I organized (sort of) and decorated my office and I was reminded of how much I love my stuff. Someone asked me what the style of my new house is and I said, "cluttery eclectic." YES! Its cluttery because I love walking into a house that is full of interesting things to look at. If you have ever been to my aunt Sheri's house, you know what I mean. There is a huge difference between walking into a cluttered house and walking into a house that tells a story. If you come to my house, I can probably tell you a story about almost everything I own. For example, let me take you on a tour of my office. To my right is a collage that I made one afternoon with my sister-in-law Julie and my niece Ellie...two humans who I love beyond words. To my left is a collage my mom made me. There is a photo of me as a baby with my

I read recently that there is about to be a cosmic shift in the emotional health of our planet. To be perfectly honest, I don't remember the details of why, or how it will be measured, but I remember thinking I liked the sound of it. There are powerful movements brewing that are demanding equality, which in my simple little head means that people are marching and speaking up so that everyone is treated well. And when people are treated well, they are happy. And more happy people will make for a happier planet. I realize this is almost insultingly simple when there is horrific tragedy happening all over the world. Please know that I am aware of the heartbreak and I don't meant to take anything away from the work that still needs to be done. But for now, I want to talk to you about something really simple. I love you. I am lucky to come from a long line of lovers. My family loves big and they aren't afraid to say it. It is rare to leave a family gathering - and there are lo

First, Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate Easter. It is that Sunday and, as predicted, the egg and basket hunt took all of ten minutes and now we clean this grubby family up and head to church. For the record, my kids are wearing athletic apparel because Jesus doesn't care what they wear to church and I got no fight in me today. I grew up in a great church where the attendees probably qualify as family and everyone had an unofficial assigned seat. Ours was about six rows from the front, left side, every Sunday. I was raised to church. As I logged more years, I struggled to believe what I was taught and what everyone around me seemed to believe so hard. Let's be honest, the Bible stories are a little far fetched and yet bazillions of people are all in, on fire for Jesus. I had so many questions and I fought the mainstream hard on it. I even fought it at the Lutheran college I attended. I fought it when I had a professor who was a Doctor of Religion and a Doctor of Psyc