Tag: inspirational authors

Lean Into the Shadows of You

September is a great time to determine what you’ll focus on pursuing or releasing the final few months of 2024. Your answers to these questions can pinpoint your heart’s desires, your life’s calling, or your need to delve deeper within. 

Set aside some quiet time to courageously listen, pray and journal. During that process, name your fears and claim the bold ideas and dreams that lie just beyond them.

Taking this path may require you to stand alone for a season – perhaps to foster your pruning and perfecting. 

On other days, you may be compelled to stand by as others race past – giving you an opportunity to celebrate their wins, as you take consistent steps in the right direction. (Trusting that there are enough to go around.) 

Every day, you can choose to stand in light and love, so that as you give it, you become it.  This effort may be the most important of all, so that as you lean into becoming “what” you have in mind, “who” you are becoming simultaneously aligns.

What better way would there be to end this year?

Simple Moments of Wonder

A late afternoon appointment yesterday took me to an area of town I used to frequent. As I passed the large lake with the walking trails I used to enjoy, I remembered the sneakers I keep in my trunk and decided that my Wednesday evening walk would be one down memory lane.

My trek around the lake was lovely and peaceful, and many of the markers I’d seen many times before struck me differently this time.

The matted goose “matter” I had to navigate along one tiny stretch of the otherwise pristine path was a reminder that sometimes we have to navigate around or through life’s muck and keep going, with our purposeful goal in mind. 

The sign asking walkers to use an underground tunnel, rather than cross the busy street to get from one side to the other, served as a metaphor for us sometimes needing to take the less-glitzy path to reach our destiny in a safe and timely manner. 

The Environmental Protection Area sign? A nod to remember that rules of conduct matter. What if we set boundaries around our hopes and dreams and hearts that allowed others to connect with us, yet only in enriching ways?

And then there were the lake, the small bridges and the path itself. All organic reminders of the Creator’s talent and majesty, and of our privilege to experience it – with the only cost being to help preserve it. 

What a walk. On a familiar path, yet enjoyed with child-like wonder.

Wherever your To Do List or path leads you today, consider experiencing some of it in silence, so you can fully see and hear what being present in those moments reveals to you. 

My mile-long adventure yielded gratitude that will linger.

Stacy’s shots along her walk. Chesterfield County, Virginia

Decide To Thrive

Every day that we’re granted is a new opportunity

to listen, learn, grow and love –

More to and for ourselves,

so that we can better hear, see and understand others.

No people pleasing or forcing your way is necessary. 

Just be; accept, and even embrace what is, so you can thrive in the garden in which you’re planted.

Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com

Start Where You Can

Live with an open heart.

Explore. Take a risk. Fall down.

Get up. Grow wiser.

Rise. Fly.

Stumble. Grieve. Learn more.

Love more. Laugh.

Rest. Discover. Press through.

Rise higher. Gain more wisdom. Care more deeply. Stand taller.

Trust yourself.

Appreciate something about each day.

Soar. And then, because life is a cycle and a journey and a process, rinse and repeat, gaining more clarity, more strength and more joy as you go. 

Stay the course and be patient.

Along the way, your calling and purpose will rise to meet you. 

Life’s Calling – Pay Attention

Today, pay attention to the little things – words spoken or unspoken; gestures rendered or withheld; opportunities offered or missed; your struggle between fear and confidence, or maybe a focus on all that’s wrong instead of dwelling in the beauty of all that’s right.

Watch yourself and others, and consider the consequences of words and actions;  listen with your heart as well as with your ears; assess whether being glass half-full or glass half-empty serves you best. 

Change whatever you must to grow and be content; and give others the space and the grace to do the same.

Stretching and growing isn’t always easy, but having the courage to embrace the process (while being thoughtful and respectful of others) can guide you to greater places, both within and without. 

You’re Worth It

The best kind of challenge to undertake is one with yourself, for yourself.
It’s worth it to you to circumvent roadblocks, push past fear or doubt, seek knowledge to help you grow, and love yourself as you are, so that you’re prepared to step into all you’re becoming.
Envision that version of you and welcome it.

Love Deeper

Love is a word that’s often misused or misunderstood. But it’s also a reflection of giving, serving, leading, and leaning into doing your best to be part of others’ peace, fulfillment, joy and growth.

Love is hard, especially when it’s being executed by imperfect beings. Yet, given that it’s the foundation of all humanity, it’s also worth it – even when it means persisting at it, or letting go, or being more vulnerable, or standing tough.

Work hard at loving yourself more deeply so that it becomes effortless to give the best TO yourself, and in the process, pour out a more authentic, loyal and lasting love to others. Hate won’t end until we push harder to help love win.

Trust Your Process

A reader friend of mine, Sarah Brooks, is a gifted artist who raises funds for World Vision each year.

About 10 years ago, she decided to solicit donations by designing a card that includes a quote from one of my novels – Nothing But The Right Thing.

I share this encouragement today with a reminder to have faith and trust the timing of your life.

Be Still, Yet Open

We live in a world that flits past the present moment while glorifying the future. Today, join me in choosing to buck that trend.

Lean into THIS moment, whether it is wonderful, amazing, challenging, scary or uncertain. Give thanks for it, knowing that if it has come into your existence, it has come for a reason – to teach you, heal you, strengthen you, reward you, prepare you or perhaps protect you.

Don’t be paralyzed by the noise in the world around you; focus inward.

Count it all joy and embrace your present, so that when you reach that place known as the future, you’ll be ready to experience, appreciate and celebrate all that it holds, too.

Bitter or Better?

We’re all works in progress, serving as “general contractors” of our very existence.

Managing your “life project” may be daunting or complicated or lead you down some unexpected paths;

But don’t dismiss opportunities to change and grow, love and serve, appreciate others’ gifts, and be good to yourself along the way.

Only you can decide whether your experiences will make you bitter or better.

Choose the latter and you’ll make the world around you better, too.