“I woke up that Thursday morning, replaying the conversation in my head again. 

I hadn’t even seen my boss all week and yet I had told her already in 5 different ways about my need for time off…”

“I remember thinking, this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. It is supposed to be easy, fun, light, bright, full. But I was feeling dread, heavy, scared, unsure. It was the first time I really felt let down by life. I was young and had some idealistic thoughts of what life was going to look like. Or at least what it should look like. I couldn’t imagine what could possibly come next, what with this bursting of the bubble that I thought was life?”

“My mom was the epitome of unconditional love. Her love was simple and I think that’s what made it so easy. It was always the same toward me, no matter how she was feeling or what happened that day…”

“I didn’t know it but my feelings of failure were actually making me feel like I was a huge failure. I also had a big gap in my ability to like and have faith in myself. I think that’s why I compared myself so much to others. I went several years taking steps forward, steps backward, and constantly telling myself there was something wrong with me.” 

“I questioned my shortcomings as the days went on. Why didn’t I just water it? Why am I just watching it die? And I would just watch. It felt like a monumental effort to put some water in a container, open the door, pour it onto the plant, and put the container away…”

“I really looked at myself and plucked those thorns out one by one. It was grueling. I kept plucking them - painfully - until I finally realized there was a rose there all along…”

“I like to watch the mockingbirds perch on the corner of my house and sing. They sing all the time, especially in the spring…”

“My shell eventually became so hard that I found myself covered in self doubt, self judgment, and just overall worry about myself and everything around me…”

“…This was my son’s favorite song. It gave us an opportunity to talk about the meaning of a blessing and that led us to talk about the importance of wishing blessings for others whether they were friend or foe.”

“For the umpteenth day in a row I woke up and thought about the truth and what I needed to do about it…”

“How did all of this time pass?” I asked myself. Youth is wasted on the young, I heard in a song a long time ago.

"As I studied the now-wilted flower, I realized I could see myself in it. What was once open and beautiful had become closed and withdrawn."

“I didn’t receive my copy. When they were giving them out, mine must have gotten dropped, given to someone else, or lost.  I didn’t get mine.  Did you get yours?”  

“My patient felt a lifelong dream had been met and I felt I had literally accomplished the impossible…”

“Is he in space?”, my 3 year old son asked. “Ummmm, yes. He is.”, I replied…

“…I also now know that loss is inevitable.  How we cope is up to us.”

“ I thought of times when I had quite literally been transformed after the most horrible things I experienced…”

“The best thing I have learned to do…is carry her love out into the world…”

“Sometimes I felt like I was stuck in a hallway, waiting for doors to open…”

“…Sometimes we have to do a bit of weeding in ourselves to make room for new growth and new blooms…”