I hope your summer is going better than planned. With longer days, the workload has been ramping up here – but that isn’t a complaint. With extended hours of daylight, I’m inclined to go out and enjoy the company of others. Last week I overheard someone say that though it’s just now July, for them,…
The Astounding Effect of Little Changes
As bored summer kids in Sterling, Ohio, my brother and I used to set pennies on the railroad tracks. The train came by with dozens of cars which flattened and stretched them. The grownups who learned of our adventure discouraged us because of the possibility that anything on a track — even a penny — could…
What Are Your Big Plans for Summer?
A shout out to all the new followers who have come on board since the beginning of this year. I appreciate your readership. I love being outside. The sun, the heat, the beautiful weather. Now that summer has officially begun, I look forward to biking, hiking, and sitting by some body of water. Also, I’ll spend…
One Tiny Brave Step
I had a lot of fun writing a short story that went in unexpected directions. With good feedback from my beta readers I made some of their suggested corrections, found a fitting publication, uploaded the piece and hit “send.” And then, I forgot about it. Life continued. I wrote books and networked over many mugs…
Shattering Fear #1
My palms were already sweating when the first lady began speaking in front of a group of men and women in sales. The speaker, an ever-smiling chatterbox who clearly loved the limelight, had asked four of us to speak. This really was beyond my comfort level and I don’t know why I said yes. The…
End Wilderness Wandering
Have you been wandering around in circles trying to figure out your next move? How great would it be for someone to lead you straight to the place you need to be? Last week kicked off with Passover followed by Feast of Matzo. This was a daily reminder of how Moshe led the Israelites to…
Are You on the Right Path?
In another lifetime, you would have found me meandering around art shows perusing paintings, admiring pottery and wishing I had enough money to buy the whole collection of metal wind sculptures. To say I was immersed in art was a vast understatement. For years I drew and painted and sculpted and threw pots. My passion…
Purple Mindfulness
When nothing is certain, everything is possible. ~Unknown After many years, I finally took the plunge and launched my new business as a full-time professional writer. Before leaving my part-time office gig, I had just enough business to justify setting out on my own, and enough set back to carry me for a year. So,…
True North
What happens when the beliefs we’ve carried around our whole lives turn out to be untrue?
A Life of Choice
The baseball game blared from a portable television and everything in my apartment reeked of cigarette smoke: courtesy of a roommate for whom I didn’t harbor good feelings. I woke up one day to an iteration of my life that wasn’t pretty. Not much food in the pantry, all of my socks had holes in them,…
Refresh, Reset, Unspool
Hey, I’m glad you stopped by. How’s your new year going? With the crazy weather in Central Ohio, I’m already thinking of spring. One of my long-held beliefs is that if you do the same things; you get the same results. If you want to grow, you need to do something different to shake up…
Juli Ocean 