Thrive As You

In the last decade or so, Thanksgiving has gone from celebrating the first meal shared between the Native  Americans and the pilgrims and  it has become more about gratitude, and celebrating what we are thankful for.   It has gone from Thanksgiving to Thanks+Giving, the act of giving thanks.   We see it all over social media with hashtags like #thankful, #grateful, #30daysofthanks, and so on.  People are taking time to count their blessings and share their gratitude with others.  I love this. Traditionally, Thanksgiving, the celebration of that "big day," is centered around a humongous meal that typically involves more food than any one family can eat.  This is what we remember.  This is what our memories are made of.  We reminisce about family crammed into a house too small to contain all of the visitors, some people sitting at card tables, some on the sofa watching football...traditionally women in the kitchen, football or parades on...

I seriously do not know what to believe anymore. Really. The world scares me.  People scare me.  The big thing right now is "truth telling," "owning our truth," "living our truth."  But is anyone?  Tonight I was talking to my best friend and saying that my book will sell like hotcakes because my book is the straight dope.  Forget about "truth telling."  My words are just straight, ugly, brutal, and raw.  I don't know any other way.  I'm putting all my junk out there.  I don't care who likes it and who doesn't and I never have.  I think I was hard wired that way.  Maybe it's the fact that I'm half Italian and half German.... come on.... what  a combo, right?  I'm not sure how I got this way, but I never want it to change.  In fact I'm noticing that as I get older and more comfortable in my own skin, the less I care.   The more I get to know about people and how truly disappointing they can be, the less I try to pl...

I've commented on this blog more than once how I don't take my own advice.  It's easy to do.  There are times when we are so close to a situation, we can't even see it for what it is.  We need to gain perspective. The last few months have brought about a lot of change for me.  I recently began a new job.  Leaving my previous position was a very difficult choice for me to make, and up until the very moment I walked into my new job, I regretted my decision to leave.  For a few years now I have worked with elementary students, my "babies."  I have developed amazing relationships with these kids and their families.  I have watched them grow, change, and develop right before my very eyes.  In fact, I think it's safe to say that I had at least a small part to do with that growth and change.  I love these children as though they are my own, and I don't say that lightly. But sometimes in a workplace, there is more than just "the work," and a...

I got this fancy new app so that I can blog from my phone while traveling. Yay! Sometimes I'm too lazy to travel with my laptop. #thestruggleisreal Anyway I've been doing some soul searching in my time away from home, and I've also been reading this little gem called The New Codependency.  It's made me think.  Codependency is another topic.  What I'm thinking about right now is this phrase a very good friend of mine and I came up with.  "UN"  You know how I've talked on here about people who come into your life and lift you up and bring you joy and deliver energy and just generally make you better? And I've also talked about the scary other type of person. The soul-sucking, life draining, try-to-avoid-at-all-costs takers. (Sadly sometimes we cannot avoid these people at all because they actually live in our homes.) And then there is the third type of person. The UN. Theses are the really  dangerous ones because these are the people that don't g...

Has anyone else noticed that I haven't written in.......... MONTHS? Yeah, me too. Which seems a bit odd, given that I had this utterly life changing  gift handed to me by none other than Elizabeth Glibert herself.  You know, that time she published me in a little book called, "Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It." The book that is currently number five on the New York Times Travel Bestseller List? I can't even dream this stuff up. So here's what I did. I choked. I'm not even going to sugar coat it or pretend it's anything else.  It's time for me to come clean.  These past few months I haven't been living my own words, my own mantra.  I haven't been thriving at all, I've been barely surviving.  I've been nearly choking on my own existence.   There's about 30 blog posts in here for sure, but as it relates to the book and the writing, and the website let me just say that my friend Jessica summed it up so perfectly...

OK so you know I have been OBSESSING to the point of a nervous breakdown over my website, right?  Ok well I just made a giant step forward in the advancement of website amazing-ness but it's still not exactly right, including the fact that not all of my most current posts are here right now!  Eeek!  Please know I am working tirelessly on getting it "just so," my OCD won't let me do otherwise.  Please stay tuned!