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Moving into the month of February, I want to touch base with myself and my readership and describe where I am and where I am hopefully headed. Self-care has been a focus for me of recent because so much of the holidays feels like it’s not about me but about us as a family and…
It saddens me to think of all that power I have given away to others in my life. To my ex-husband and the bosses who were unkind to me. To the people who rejected my creative submissions or didn’t hire me or follow through for me. I made choices based on what I thought people…
It sickens me to think of all of that power I gave away to others because I assumed they saw the real me. The one who wasn’t enough. That’s why they made the choices they did to berate me and abandon me. I was sure that I had to get permission to be separate. I…
Being authentic, honest, or forthright is still considered a crime in our modern society. It’s understood that if you tell the truth about your background, heritage, or state of mind, you are asking for trouble. You could be judged and shunned for these truths. It’s crazy-talk to be outright honest. Many African Americans “passed” as…
I was reminded of, or perhaps gifted, a thought today by a wise online connection, Anna Lovind. She said, “I am the person who is allowed to change. I don’t owe anyone consistency. I don’t need to be faithful to what I used to be (unless I want to).” We owe no one, not even…
This morning, I was considering how hard it is sometimes to make a decision. Especially with our epidemic perfectionism, we are often paralyzed by the idea of making a “wrong” decision. But truly, the hardest part about making the decision is making the decision. The carrying out of the decision and the consequences are a…
If I had a dime for every time I heard, “Oh Shalagh you are so creative”, I’d at least have five bucks. This became one of those phrases that made me twitch perhaps because I didn’t think of myself as having any kind of creative superpowers which was obvious to them but not to me,…
Having just returned from a two night quickie vacation to Pennsylvania to visit friends and see Gettysburg for the first time, I am still feeling the remnants of a perspective shift. It is kindness to give yourself a break this way occasionally as day-to-day workings can get kinda repetitive. And what the break gave me…
I notice that sometimes there are items that will sit on my to-do list for an uncomfortably long time, taunting me with their incompletion. The reasons why they are not being accomplished had evaded me. But they linger like a pain deep in my hip saying there’s something worth an x-ray going on in there….
For several years running, I’ve joined the “pick a word of the year” clan. From the first time I read about it, I thought this was an excellent idea. I love the inspiration that some words embody. And when you are stuck, you can meditate and ask how the word can show you a meaning…
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