If there’s one important thing I learned from this year of leaning, it’s that God is always there to offer hope. I simply have to intentionally lean in a different direction than the challenges I’m currently facing to embrace what He’s saying. November was a month of leaning beyond personal limits. We all tend to […]
How I Learned the Painful Way Why I Should Lean Up Straight
I rolled over and felt the stabs of pain right between my shoulder blades. 3:00 A.M. never looked so annoying! I muttered as I tried rolling to the other side. Nope. I was greeted by a disagreeable sensation in that shoulder as well. I’ve always tended to carry my stress there, as much as I’ve told […]
The Important Work Waits Where We Lean Down to Find It
I’ve made it a tradition to write a back-to-school letter every year on the eve of the first day of classes. I had quietly been planning the letter’s contents for weeks. The theme was going to be, “We have important work to do.” I was determined to write the letter before my head hit the […]
The Simple, Difficult Act of Leaning Forward
Parkinson’s disease officially joined our family about 3 years ago. It began taking hold of my dad years before the diagnosis, but since that day when he sadly and resignedly admitted, “I have it,” it’s taken our entire family on a different journey. It’s devastating to watch a disease work to overtake his brain, drain […]
Lean Back
My One Little Word for this year is Lean. My goal was to focus on a different direction/aspect of how to lean in order live a healthy life. I kind of skipped April and May because life happened, and I got overwhelmed. Somewhere in the middle of those months, I decided that June would […]
Why It’s Imperative to Lean On
I watched her grade drop by the day. Another assignment not turned in, another excuse or knowing giggle when I talked to her about it. After two years, she and I have learned to be real with each other about parts of our stories that we had carefully guarded, building a trust that suspended the […]
February: Lean Around
“I’m totally judging you right now.” A student’s snarky response to what was an attempt on my part to connect with him cut me right to the core. I know better than to take things students say personally, and most of the time it’s easy for me to let statements such as this one roll […]
Learning to Lean
My one little word for 2017 is Lean. It’s not a word that is commonly considered beautiful, and I would have never even considered it until I heard it this summer on a raft, dodging rapids down a feisty river in Colorado. The truth of the matter is, I am terrified of large, ominous bodies […]