Thrive As You

Oh my dear friends, it has been exactly 30 days since my last post!  Eeeeeek! Let me tell you why. I fell off the bandwagon.  Not just the "writing" bandwagon.  The "me" bandwagon. Sunday in church we were discussing testimonies and sharing our stories.  I do a pretty good job of sharing my story with anyone who wants to land on this website.  The interesting part of the sermon was that Pastor Mark was talking about sharing our story (in turn, sharing God's glory) before we are even actually healed. I'm even BETTER at that. So I stood up and said that, yanno, like to everyone in the congregation.  Don't worry, I wasn't the only one. I'm not healed.  I may never be "healed."  What does that even mean, exactly?  It's kind of like in the autism community when we talk about "normal."  Is there such a thing? To say that I am "healed" is to suggest that I have nothing going on in my life that causes me ...

Last week I was talking with a friend about Christmas.  This friend was a little "Bah Humbug" about it all.  And truthfully, I have been a little more "Scrooge" this year than I usually am and I haven't been able to figure out why.   Until now. So my friend is saying that Christmas is "just for the children."   And I went on to explain that I didn't necessarily agree (shocking) and that Christmas is about family -- the one you're born into and the one you choose along the way.  This just a few short weeks after spending a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with friends I've chosen along the way ~ so the subject was near and dear to my heart.  Friend continues to argue with me that the decorations and all of the surrounding hullabaloo are really just for kids to enjoy.   And guess what -- I think Friend may have been kind of right.  (Dear Friend, if you are reading this, you may want to print and frame this post because I'm quite certain I...