Every month, our local thrift store calls and asks if we have any donations, and every month we say, “Sure, we’ll leave a bag on the porch for you.” It forces my husband and I to walk through our entire house every 30 days, dig through all our closets, and ask ourselves what no longer...
Tag: goals
Wisdom Comes From Reflection
It’s that time of year again. Time to set my New Year’s goals and resolutions. Time to settle on my 2018 business plan. Time to think about changes I need to make and things I need to do better. Time to get serious about some very serious goals. If I buckle down, I can: Finish...
Never Tell Me The Odds
The other day, I listened to a woman who was a 28-year survivor of cancer tell about the day she received her diagnosis. When the doctor gave her the bad news, she started to cry, of course. Then she asked, “What are my odds of survival?” “It’s just a number,” the doctor said. “Then don’t...
Getting Back to What You Love
When I was in junior high and high school, my teachers told me, “Teresa, you’re a very good writer. You should be an author someday.” And I took their advice happily. It’s all I ever really wanted to be. After my first novel came out, I started speaking about my book, and event coordinators told...
Are You Living Your Art?
In late September, my cousin Geoffrey Beard passed away at the age of 54. He’d been battling a disease his whole life and fought it right up to the end. This was a man who passionately wanted to live and to live his art. And he did just that. Geoff was five years older than...
New Video – An Open Apology to My Creative Self
Enjoy my newest video revisiting one of my most popular posts from this blog, “An Open Apology to My Creative Self.” Feel encouraged again to embrace your creative energy and the joy it brings to your life!
Spontaneity vs Planning
I was sitting in a focus group the other night, and the facilitator threw out an icebreaker question: “What do you miss most about being a kid?” I said, “I miss spontaneity. You know, deciding you were in the mood for tag and then knocking on doors until you found someone who could come out...
How to Have it All
New Year’s Eve is fast approaching, and the radio ads remind us to enjoy “all things in moderation.” But it’s not just this time of year that we hear that advice. To many people, that phrase sounds restrictive or even punitive. Not to me. It’s my personal motto. Has been for a long time. You...
An Open Apology to My Creative Self
I’m sorry for the times I pushed you to move forward when you weren’t ready. I’m sorry for the times I believed people who said that in order to do your best work, you had to starve. I’m sorry for the times I drove you to the point of exhaustion and frustration, and for the...