At the end of each month, I’ve been reading over my journal entries with a highlighter in my hand. I spend most mornings writing a couple of pages, working my thoughts out or trying to capture what I’m feeling that day. Usually, day after day of writing, a theme starts to emerge. I say the same things over and over, and as I reread what I’ve written, those are the things to pay attention to (and highlight). What I wrote about most in March is depth—how hungry my soul is for deeper things, how …
goal setting
Discernment in Using Your Voice: February Recap
For being such a short month, it seems like February should have flown by. I feel like I should look up surprised that March is here and wonder where the time went. Instead, each week of February felt like a month unto itself. The weeks felt disconnected and I got to the point where all I could do was ride it out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, only that my expectations for the month (if I really had any, honestly) were nothing like what happened. Nothing. The theme for the Literary …
How to Measure Happiness: January Recap
I don’t think I’m a very happy person naturally. It’s not a word I’d use to describe myself, and I’m always surprised when someone uses that word to describe me. I think it goes back to my Christian upbringing, which placed a higher premium on contentedness and joy than happiness. Happiness was fleeting, but joy could endure. I wonder now, as an adult and still a believer, if that’s true. Can we feel other emotions and still be happy? Can we feel the darkness and still be filled with joy? …
A Year of Literary Happiness
I’m not one to rip off other people’s ideas, but when Gretchen Rubin, on her podcast, suggested trying a happiness project in the new year, it got my wheels turning. To say I was unhappy last year is an understatement. I don’t want to belabor that point and keep saying it was hard (even if it was). What I want to do is turn the page and head in a new direction. Part of that is adopting my two mantras for the year: DO THE WORK and ENJOY IT. Do the work because this is the year I’m going to …
Looking Ahead to 2015
It's hard to not make a grand statement recapping this year and making meaning as I connect the dots. This year, I started my photography business, I started this blog, I read fifty-two (52!!!!) books cover-to-cover, I made a list of birthday goals (and I've already crossed off quite a few), and I fell pretty hard for still life. These things are all good things, and when I look at the year as a whole (and the last few years, too), I can see how one thing led to another. I can see how even …