Making sense of Hard times

Some moments stick to your soul.

It’s when you get the “before” and “after” sensation. Sometimes you recognize it in the moment. You drop a road marker and think, I need to come back and think about this later. Other times you recognize its significance as you glance in the rearview mirror.

These moments often shift our worldview. They can come cloaked in a diagnosis, a failure, or an accident. It might be a time when we wished we said or did something differently. Maybe we spoke too fast or stayed silent too long.

3 Things Every Christian Needs Before Their Next Conversation

Many of us feel more divided from other people than at any other time in our lives. Animosity weighs heavily on our hearts. You might not know what to talk about with other people because even the weather can be polarizing. It’s a helpless feeling to wonder which conversation is going sideways next. There is something you can do.

Prickly conversations latch onto us and can be hard to shake loose. Growing up in Texas, you needed to be careful about sticker burs. These nasty buggers would grab hold with one little prick and it took work to get them off. Walk through a farm field and you would find them attached to any number of places on your clothes. These itty bitty seeds hobble even the largest of men.

Rewrite the Narrative

For most of my life, I struggled to gain a firm grip on confidence in myself. Ebb and flow was about all I could muster. Some years or seasons it would rise and others it would bottom out.

It was so much easier to recognize the gifts and strengths of other women and diminish the value of my own. Interestingly, this gift-recognition superpower is helpful when I am working one-on-one with another woman to overcome her own self-doubt. Train that power on my social media feed and it is an altogether different outcome.

The Battle We All Need to Win

Our Inner Critics are having a field day.

You know her voice. She’s the one who numbers the reasons why you don’t need to get involved. The one who tells you to remain silent about things you know are important.

An Inner Critic has a certain finesse about the way she speaks. She makes it easy to pull up a barstool and listen as she spouts her nonsense. She has an opinion about every last, little thing. And she’s a great gossip. Her subtle, back-handed compliments and passive-aggressive ways make it hard to break up with her even when you feel awful after bantering back and forth with her.

My Inner Critic Took Me Out At The Knees.

Literally.

As I bent over to lace up my walking shoes, my frenemy pointed out the wrinkles above my knees. I know I shouldn’t have paid any attention.

You Can Thrive Even When Things Are Uncertain

Re-Entry is on a lot of people’s minds and there are many questions we should be asking ourselves. One question I have danced around but had not put into words for myself is this:

Can I still bloom?

Can I flourish when the circumstances in which I thrived in the past are now unknown?

The landscape around us has changed. Uncertainty abounds about what the future holds. As with much of life, we have more questions than answers. We’re ready for life to go back to normal and are not sure when this will happen.

The Question to Ask Right Now

I expected it. I didn’t realize its full impact until days later. So much has been canceled, but I held onto the hope that this late June gathering of writers wouldn’t be another victim of the virus. The joy of looking forward to something glimmered until the email arrived. The organizers were unable to create a plan that was safe for all of us. We were going to meet virtually.

Instead of “Pomp and Circumstance” or the “Wedding March”, the soundtrack of this Spring might be more akin to the sound of air escaping from a balloon. You might even be feeling a little deflated yourself.

The young adults in my house are tired of living in a cage and are restless to spread their wings again. Honestly, I am too. The good old standbys of comfort baking and Netflix no longer provide the solace they offered a few weeks ago.

Seven Seconds that Might Save Your Sanity

Social distancing and sheltering-in-place affect more than how many feet separate us in the grocery check-out line. Driving home from the store the other day, my mother commented about other drivers allowing more distance between their cars.

A psychological shift occurs when our social cues are altered. So much has changed in such a short period of time.

It’ll be a while before we’re able to gather in ways that feel familiar. Part of loving our neighbor will mean wearing a mask. It protects you and those around you. It also helps our medical providers by keeping infection rates low.