O Beautiful O beautiful for halcyon skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the enameled plain! America, America! God shed His grace on thee, Till souls wax fair as earth and air And music-hearted sea! –“America” an original poem published in 1893 by Katherine Lee Bates, later revised and added to…

Don’t Settle These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of both activities and emotions for me, mostly joyous but some distressing as well. Unfortunately, the negatives put a damper on the cheerful occasions. This has made life exceedingly difficult for me, which in turn has led to my losing focus on my calling. I…

Letting Go I was writing a blog post to wrap up the month of April, but I ended up scratching that one. It was full of doom and gloom and woe is me stuff, and I just couldn’t finish it. It was depressing me just writing it, and I don’t need any more negativity in…

Lead by Example Leadership. When you think of a good leader, who do you think of? What kind of characteristics do they possess? It may seem as if some people are simply born natural leaders. They appear to effortlessly project those innate qualities most would associate with a leader. Some of us may think we’re…

Paid in Full I am one of those people who don’t like to owe anybody anything. When I’ve taken out loans for things in the past, like for a car or for college tuition, I strived to settle those debts as soon as possible by paying extra whenever I could. I don’t know about you,…

Release Forgive me for being absent for the last few weeks. It feels like there are a million things going on all at once, and I have been struggling a bit with time management. My daughter’s high school graduation is creeping up on me, and she has many upcoming deadlines as she prepares for the…

God is Love Valentine’s Day was twelve days ago, and this post was supposed to come out at that time. However, I just couldn’t formulate the words I wanted to say. I was occupied with other things, and I wasn’t really feeling the love this year to be honest. It’s hard to write about something…

A Step of Faith Have you ever been faced with a challenge you didn’t feel prepared for or a task you felt unqualified to complete or a situation that took you out of your comfort zone? Did you step-up to those challenges, or did you turn tail and run? I’ve had such instances occur often…

Stick To It Well, we’re now three weeks into the new year. How many of you have already given up on your New Year resolutions? Right now, I’m happy to say that I’m still hanging in there, but it can be a challenge for sure. It’s a daily choice whether we’re going to stick to…

Clean Slate It’s a new year. Welcome to 2024! During this time, some look forward to a figurative clean slate, while others think nothing of another year…another new calendar…another candle added to an obligatory cake. A new year marks the time when many of us (me included) take inventory of the past twelve months, reviewing…