Tag: #liferealrawbrokenbeautiful
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Behind the Smiles
We took a couple of days to get out-of-town at the beginning of last week – just the four of us and the dog exploring a local mountain town. If you try to piece together our time away based on social media posts, you’d assume it was a relaxed couple of days full of food…
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TimeHop, 20/20 Hindsight, and Dyslexia
I try to not live with regret. But when it comes to my kids, there are definitely things I wish we’d done better, or sooner, or different. Hindsight is 20/20 and thanks to social media, I am often reminded that sometimes there are warning signs we don’t always recognize as warning signs in real-time. This…
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Make a Wish – Part 2
In the first part of this post, I talked about World Mental Health Day and how the significance of that date was different for me this year, as my son was about to turn 13. That was yesterday. Now we’re at today, and suddenly I have a teenager living in my house – a teenager…
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Make a Wish – Part 1
October 10th. World Mental Health Day. Also the day before my son turns 13. When he wakes up tomorrow he will have made another trip around the sun while living with anxiety and depression, and will morph from being a child battling mental illness to being a teenager battling mental illness. The fact that the focus…
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It’s Okay To Keep Walking Away…A Letter To My Middle School Aged Kids
Dear O & K, Yesterday, I watched you both walk away from me and toward your middle school. Together you walked for the first time toward a shared experience that is all yours and not at all mine. As you walked away I was reminded of another time I watched you walk away from me,…
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On the Bookshelf – I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel
I am a reader. It’s one of the ways I define myself. Sometimes I read to escape. Sometimes I read to grow. Sometimes I read to laugh. Sometimes I read to cry. Given the opportunity, I’d rather be reading than doing many other things. I know I’m not alone in this sentiment. Anne Bogel of Modern…
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Grace, Grit, and an Unfinished Story
The idea for this blog first took root in my heart as I sat in the sanctuary of Riviera United Methodist Church on Maundy Thursday of 2016. This is the church that has been my spiritual home for 17 years and my place of employment for almost 7 years. It is also the place where…
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Unexpected Visitor
As we were finishing up dinner tonight, we heard a voice at the front door saying “Hello?” It was a friend of my son who he has not seen in over a year. A friend who was both his fiercest ally and biggest source of heartache through the final two years of elementary school. For…