My desire is to give an honest representation of what it’s like to live in Southwest Alabama and glimpses into its joys. Whether you’re here for a little while or the rest of your life, everyday should be a day filled with optimism and opportunity!

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Good Medicine

An ounce of encouragement is worth a pound of self-doubt. You can quote me on that.

Fear may stop me in my tracks, but discouragement is a spirit killer, an incentive crusher, a fire extinguisher.

Give me fear any day. I’ll push past fear, head down and rushing forward. Fear, I can face.

Discouragement is like pinpricks or darts hitting when I least expect it, weakening the knees, constricting the chest, breaking the heart.

“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” Ain’t that the truth?

The most effective and positive way that I have found to combat discouragement is to surround myself with people who want to see me thrive as the person they see on my inside.

I was so nervous that those around me would laugh or, even worse, scoff at my new endeavor. How blessed I am to have found people still willing to pour love and encouragement into my life, even now that I’m middle aged!

May I always be a source of encouragement to those around me. I’m no Ph.D., but I can help to restore a broken spirit back to health with a smile, a thoughtful word, or a bit of uplifting conversation.

We can all do that. Won’t you join me? Bring a little bit of good medicine to your part of the world today too.

Bubbles

Little soap bubbles are iridescent orbs of floating light. The delights of watching and anticipating a bubble’s journey up and down on the rising and falling air is mesmerizing. I still indulge in this childhood fun regularly, prompting moments of peace and calm in my otherwise disordered mind.

About a year ago, during this observation, I felt a sad kinship to a bubble’s brief, unpredictable journey. The startling revelation that my life was exactly like a bubble, floating precariously except for the invisible, yet perceptible, whims of my circumstances, was immediately unsettling. Truth can really smack you in the face sometimes.

Astonishingly, at some point, I gave in to the belief that life was a series of events happening outside of my control. Simply put, I didn’t trust myself to know what was best for me or those I loved. My own missteps and failures cemented this fear. 

At this realization, I instantly felt shame and fear, so much fear. I began to cling oh so tightly to those people and circumstances that I trusted to make me feel happy and needed, giving in to self-pity and insecurity again and again. I dug little trench around my heart, hiding from my pain and disappointment, and wallowed there a while. In that pathetic place, I stayed in silence examining and reflecting on this misery I had brought upon myself.

Miraculously, however, every morning sunlight would penetrate my voluntary darkness drying my tears, restoring my hope. The light reminded me that a new day was opening and, just like a gift, it was mine to create and fashion any way I chose. 

Years of defaulting to the life of a bubble, forced me to dig deep to rediscover the essence of who I am.  It has taken the better part of a year, but I’m finally seeing glimpses of me. My shy little dreams once on the cusp of reality, are finally peeping through seeking the spring sunshine. My spring. This moment when hope and opportunity merge and I start inching out onto the greening limb.

Strangely, this is where my Hollywood crush Matthew McConaghy comes into the story. I read his autobiography, Green Lights. It was equal parts fascinating and disturbing, but it prompted me to buy the book that changed Mc’s life, The Greatest Salesman In The World (TGSITW), by Og Mandino. 

TGSITW has transformed many of my attitudes and actions. The extraordinarily ordinary principles in this book have fundamentally helped me to recapture that part of myself that I used to understand so clearly, the part that didn’t abdicate her life, but participated in its direction.

This article, blog, and website are part of my process. It’s a beginning. I’m pushing past needing safety and approval. Prayerfully, and convinced that God didn’t make an error in forming my gifts, I’m moving forward. 

If you ever find yourself a little lost or a lot stuck, step into the sunshine, remember who you are, love it, and bravely embrace your potential. Each of us are, as Mandino so beautifully describes, “… nature’s greatest miracle.”