Nourished Inside and Out

"I'm not interested in whether you've stood with the great; I'm interested in whether you've sat with the broken." - Sue Fitzmaurice It is east at times easy to be drawn to the glitz and the glamour of the people, places and things around us. It can liven our soul to feel at the center of activity and attention. Inherently, there is nothing wrong with that. We just cannot ignore those that are hurting. It can be uncomfortable, even awkward digging down deep with someone

Image credit Shutterstock "Sometimes your belief system is really your fears attached to the rules." - Shannon Alder Years ago, I used to watch the Food Network and Rachael Ray would be cooking on her show and be using some sort of tomato marinara sauce. She would go on and on about how she could never understand why people would buy jarred marinara when it was so easy to make it. It would drive me nuts because I would say to myself, “because they don’t have time to make h

“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” – Wayne Dyer Geez, I have heard this so many times, it is quite annoying. Ironically, it is most often heard from my inner voice reminding me to get out of my own bubble assuming everything is about me or done because of me. And it’s not. Raising children for me has been such a blessing, as I feel I get to grow up again in sort of a way, and see the world through new eyes. The lessons often come faster than I ca

“You have to meet people where they are, and sometimes you have to leave them there.” — Iyanla Vanzant We were driving in the car (where everything happens these days), and there was a person who was intent on staying on my tail, pushing me to go above and beyond the speed limit. They obviously had somewhere they wanted to be, and in their eyes, I was hindering that goal. The kids all had their opinions of how to handle the speedster behind us. Go faster. Go slower. Yell

“We are all so desperate to be understood, we forget to be understanding.” – Beau Taplin I recently attended a screening of a documentary telling the story of those that have found themselves unhoused, or commonly referred to as homeless. It was a very emotional screening, depicting these individuals as humans with stories. And to that, we can all relate. I mean we are all humans with stories. As I sat in the room full of people who were attending this screening, I grew a

“When one door closes, another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” - Alexander Graham Bell My newly turned 4-year-old had an absolute meltdown the other day. It was over shoes. I mean, generally speaking you could fill in the blank as to the subject matter and the tears would still fall with the same ferocity. But this time, it was over a pair of Anna (from Frozen) boots that no

“Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing.” - Eckhart Tolle Surrender to that which you cannot control. Focus on your breath. Take a few moments every day to meditate. Stay in the moment. These are the things I know are crucial to managing, even to preventing, anxiety from taking over. And yet, it feels like these are the hardest things to do. My fear is strong these days, making it challenging to surrender, to bre

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe There was an echo in the room this past weekend as my husband uttered the words that I have been saying to myself, out loud, and even to that cat for as long as I can remember. “Can we just have a clean house?” he desperately gasped to no one in particular. He has been traveling, working on things around the house and after stepping on the black Hot Wheels mini c

I was driving through town the other day, had just picked up my preschooler and was running late to pick up my kindergartner, and I got stuck. The light turned yellow, and then red. As I was sitting, I watched the colors change, back to green and was waiting to begin motion again, when nothing happened. I looked ahead and I noticed a stream of cars in the intersection still moving as if their light was green. My first instinct was outrage at this disregard for the traffic

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” - Theodore Roosevelt As we headed into spring, I thought we were going to escape flu season unscathed. No such luck. First, my husband got hit, and down the line it went. I haven’t mentioned this too much, but among my fears is an intense aversion to throwing up. (So, if you want me around, don't tell me your sick. Equally, if you don't want me around, casually hint at your feelings of nausea.) Now, it’s not like most people do