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…
Tag: Encouragement
Motivation, hope, beating blues, defeating depression, taking a pause, lifting up
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…
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,…
When the Wave Crashes Over You
When the day to day becomes like a tidal wave threatening to pull you under how do you cope? This occasionally happens to all of us sooner or later, that overwhelm engulfs even the most self-aware among us. I wanted to be “on” for the people I was meeting for the first time and the…
Beautiful Things
There are times I’ve looked at my life and seen only lost opportunities, broken relationships, and devastating mistakes. My attempts to move forward in different careers or straighten out finances were tripped up by numerous setbacks and delays. Even now, I can point to others who raised their children better, found their perfect mate and lived…
Setbacks and Silver Linings
Do you have the perspective that we don’t always get what we want in this life and that’s just the way it is? What if there’s really more to it than that? I seem to find a lot more silver linings these days. Maybe because I’m always watching for them. While reading Dean Graziosi’s book, Millionaire…
How Bright Is Your Future?
If you’ve ever taken a science class and studied rock formations, you know that it is possible to change the face of a rock, any rock over time, by repeatedly applying something. Water dripping in the same place on a rock will eventually, molecule by molecule, wear a path into that stone. The longer it drips,…
What Time in a Clay Studio Taught Me
Have you ever had something that was a big part of your life? You could be in it every day for so many months or even years. And then something changes. One day you realize it’s in the past, buried under a bunch of time. You might not think about it for so long that…
Juli Ocean 