Reflections From the Waiting Room

As I write this, I am sitting in the waiting room. Literally. My husband is having surgery today. While it is apparently a fairly common procedure in the surgical world, he has been nervous about it. I think the urgency with which his surgeon felt it needed to be...

How to Keep Yourself From Coming Unwrapped This Christmas

  Got peace? It’s no secret that while Christmas is a favorite time of year for many, for others it causes great distress and sadness. Christmas is just a few days away, and while many of us are getting increasingly excited, some are experiencing exponential panic....

All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Moving 17 Times

Moving, along with marriage, divorce, death, major illness, and a handful of other situations, is considered by mental health experts to be among the top ten most stressful life events. Stress is relative though, and I think after you move three or four (or 17) times,...

How Living By Your Values More Can Help You Worry Less

Has worrying ever helped you solve a problem, prevented something bad from happening, or brought you any kind of resolution or peace? Me neither. Worrying has, on the other hand, prevented me from relaxing, brought me all kinds of angst, and even made me physically...

Is There a Connection Between Faith and Freedom?

When I was a little girl, I loved sparklers. I wriggled with anticipation every 4th of July for the sun to sink low in the sky. Waiting for the pink and orange hues to fade into gray, I would watch for my father to retrieve that long, rectangular box from its hiding...

The Girls With the Hope Tattoo

They make me laugh until I cry. They have sat with me during some of the darkest days of my life, offering comfort with their presence when there were no words to ease the pain. They have told me the truth when no one else would. They have believed in me, when I...

When Life Doesn’t Turn Out The Way You Planned

Are you in need of some hope? It’s Holy Week, and there is no greater time to consider how faith in God might infuse your life with hope, especially when life doesn’t seem to be going according to your plan. My faith has certainly done that...

How the Diet You’re On Could Kill You

I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard that anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness. I was sitting in one of my graduate program classes, working on obtaining my master’s degree in mental health counseling, and this statistic...

Is Comparison Stealing Your Joy?

Comparison. None of us can escape it. Unless you live under a rock. Our current culture sets us up for it, and we dive right into comparison, every time we hop on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or whatever the favored social media spot is. I know I can be having a...