Are You Loving Yourself Well?
Are you loving yourself well? It's a question we may not ask ourselves often enough, and we really don't have to look very far for the answer. Especially when we think in terms of how well we're loving others. As women, it's so easy to put others' wants and needs before our own. We're built to care for others and the world tells us we are more when we're doing more. We often sacrifice, pour out and lose sight of ourselves in the process. When we find ourselves investing so much of our time and energy on others to the point that we overlook our own needs and desires, it's time to take a step back. When we see we're overcommitted, feeling underappreciated, depleted, irritable, and even resentful it's time to recalibrate. How can I authentically love others well unless I first love Continue Reading
7 Ways to Make the Most of a Good Beginning
"A good beginning makes a good ending." These are the words encased in glass on the hallway wall of the university building I enter every day. Each year we welcome a new class of enthusiastic, wide-eyed pharmacy students eager to get to work and fulfill the requirements for their doctoral degree. They come from various states and countries with this one thing in common. And it doesn't take long before the novelty gives way to the reality of a rigorous and often grueling journey ahead. I always love the excitement that goes with meeting and greeting these new students. I've also always loved the process of preparing my own kids for a new school year. There's so many hopes of good things to come and expectations of great accomplishments. I think it's a prime moment in time when Continue Reading
The One Child-Like Truth that Changes Everything
Sometimes the difficult truth of self-acceptance is best learned from the heart of a child. She was about 6 years old with thick, brown ringlets draped across her pillow as she lay with folded hands to begin her nightly prayers. Her prayers were nothing grand. She spoke plain and simply to the God she knew very little of but trusted that He was as real as her best friend sleeping in the trundle next to her. This was her time to thank God for the largest and smallest joys of her day, and nothing was left to chance. Thank you, God, for my friend, for my grilled cheese sandwich, for my bubble bath, and for my new polka-dot socks. Thank you for mommy and daddy, my bubbies, memaw and pappy, and for all of my pets - turtles, beta fish, hamsters, rabbits, and dogs; the order never changed Continue Reading