If you, like me, have found yourself slipping into the familiar territory of comparison and discontentment, here are a few practices to help you consume social media with a new cognizance.

I’ve wrestled deeply with how I may have been complicit with systems that elevate white supremacy & compounded the problem of systemic racism.

I’ve wrestled with the deeply rooted history of racism in America of which I am a citizen & more specifically in my beloved home of the south.

2018 is almost in the books & the girl who once-upon-a-time cried when her parents made her read, finished book #83 year.

Oldies but goodies were mixed in with new titles, my fiction game isn’t strong but I’m getting there.

Here’s a recap of my favorite reads of 2018

There are things you wish you had done, there are things you want to do.

But shoulding on yourself won't change the past & it won't motivate you for the future

Sadness won’t level you because you’re far more resilient than you think.  

What you might also find when you lean in and feel through it is someone who will be there with you.

Our days of waiting are days of becoming.

We can wish them away or we can dig in and grow.

If things are going too well, surely the other shoe is about to drop we believe.

Gladness is why gratitude feels so scary. 

Gladness is what makes gratitude feel so vulnerable.  

You will never in all time get this moment back. So what will you do with it?

When the team gets is out of sync during a trauma resuscitation, things get chaotic and off kilter, someone will call for a reset.  A ‘reset’ is common language in the trauma bays.  It means that the entire team stops and resets the resuscitation.  We needed a reset in our marriage, so we called for one.

I first met you in 8th grade.  I did not know you by name for a while, but I did notice the thrill I felt every time we brushed up against one another, it was like nothing I had ever experienced before.  

The further from those mutual childhood apologies you grow, you are confronted with the truths that sometimes, you’re the only one in the wrong or, sometimes the other party won’t apologize.   

All the bringing, doing and be-ing comes at a cost, the cost of carrying this empty sort of feeling and experiencing a disconnection from others.

So I’m coming to a screeching halt with all this bringing, doing and be-ing. I’ve been so busy bringing, doing and be-ing that I’ve failed to just be, to simply show up.

I went into the wrong profession and it’s taken me five years as a nurse to finally realize this.

When you approach time from a place of scarcity you will never have enough.  But if you approach time from a place of opportunity, you just may be surprised with all that you are able to accomplish

today as I slip into my jeans that are a size bigger and that are more forgiving of these extra layers I’ve accumulated, I hope to be more like that for myself and others.  

Forgiving.  Understanding.  Gracious.

What I realized in that moment after twenty-six years of being a female in a skinny saturated society where anything less than perfection is not good enough is that one of the greatest gifts I can give my husband is being confident in, comfortable with & kind to my body.

Nothing destroys contentment like comparison and when contentment is absent in our hearts, gratitude cannot take root.

In a season marked by gratitude and celebration, I was struck by the irony of how much loss and grief many of us are carrying into this season.

it’s often not until the moments are upon us that we are aware of just how sweet they are.  Often it is not until we have lived the sorrow filled ones that we realize how sweet moments passed were.

That simple belief ran off the judgment that was lurking, waiting to pass. 

The simple belief snuffed out the shame that wanted to continue its reign. 

But in those moments around that table I felt courage in a new way, not despite shame but in the face of shame become I had someone there who got in it with me.

despite the reality she could have faced with the unkind words, disapproving stares and judgment from others, she came because she needed help and she wanted to change.

And that is truly brave.     

Be willing to be interrupted. 

See what opportunities may arise, what conversations are waiting to be had, and what beauty there is all around

Taking the first step in direction of becoming the confident woman that I want to be means recognizing the vulnerability of receiving a gift, and then choosing out of humility to receive the gift of another’s words to me. 

Making space silence feels more like making space for the anxiety, the noise, the clamor, and clattering of life to crescendo at a piercing volume.

But somehow I have found it’s the opposite, the silence silences. 

The silence calms.

The silence heals and restores.

What I found was that I didn’t get so banged up and pushed around by the change.

What I found was that change didn’t destroy the nice and tidy little life I was trying to keep.

What I found was that the change was going to change me, whether I liked it or not.

Over the course of this year I’ve read nearly 70 titles and today I’m sharing a few of my favorites that hopefully you can pick up and find the magic in as well

When we forgo the opportunity to celebrate, even the small things, we miss out on the sweet joy and deep gladness in our hearts that bubble up like our champagne flutes when celebration happens.