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Redemption

 When I think of redemption I think of second chances.  We redeem ourselves, if we have a desire to do so, when we are given a second chance. But who gives those second chances? Are you letting others decide when you get a second chance or are you taking the reins and making that decision for yourself?  I would encourage you to take control and decide when you get a second chance. BECAUSE here's the not-so-secret secret - you can make that decision for yourself. The Lord in Heaven is always ready to offer grace and love, we just have to be willing to accept it.  I think that's the hard part - trying to understand why someone would offer me, the very imperfect me, forever love and redemption. BUT when I acknowledge that I don't understand everything about the world and I don't need to understand it, I am suddenly able to accept His love and redemption. I'm able to offer myself love and grace. Which in turn helps me offer love and grace to others who have struggled li
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Grievances

I work in a role that entails daily interactions with grievances.  In my role, a grievance is a complaint that is brought forth and not resolved in a "reasonable amount of time" or a complaint that is brought forth after a patient is discharged from the hospital.  I receive hundreds each year.  Truthfully, that's not many relative to the patient volume at the hospital...but that's not how it feels to me. One day I'll have completed all of the grievances which are open and that very afternoon there will be four more.  (I know, you're thinking of Frank Sinatra singing "  That's life! ") When you provide a service this should be expected though, right? Someone will always disagree with something . Otherwise, we'd live in a very boring world... To be honest, I don't mind grievances. They remind me that there is always room for improvement.  I've recently been thinking about grievances related to my relationship with God. Sometimes I have
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Ghost writer.

Do you know what a ghost writer is? I had once learned about it in school I'm sure but long forgotten the term until I watched a documentary recently. It’s someone who writes a story that will be published under another person’s name.  For example, Johnny is a famous author but has writer's block. Johnny's publisher knows June can write very well and loves Johnny's style of writing. Johnny's publisher then hires June to write a book that will be published under Johnny's name - with June never receiving any credit for the work. It's an interesting concept and in my opinion, very applicable to every day life actually. How much of what you say and think every day is determined or influenced by the world around you? Do you check Facebook and see that someone posted a beautiful lunch and feel you need to go out to dinner to do the same thing? Do you see a tweet about a book then go read that book because someone famous did? Who's writing your stor
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What goes up, must come down.

Gravity. Science and John Mayer are the first two things I think about when I hear that word. Sometimes feelings are like gravity. One day everything's good, the next everything is awful. I'm trying to find the balance in these feelings.
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Time heals all wounds...

Time heals all wounds. Is that true? Do we really just get over things? I don't think so. I'm a woman who loves to eat, always have. One day on a family road trip, my two brothers and I sat in the old suburban passing around a bag of chips and playing a game where we'd guess what make/model of car was approaching (whoever was right from the farthest distance won). The crumbs were all that was left in the bag of chips other than like 3-5 whole chips, as I recall. So I ate the rest. Meanwhile, my brother complained to my mom who said something along the lines of "if you eat all those chips you're going to be fat and happy"...and my brothers proceeded to then call me "fat and happy Rachel" a few more times. That was probably 15 years ago. I'm still hurt by it. Silly, I know...but I haven't healed from my mom calling me fat. Sure, you may say she meant it jokingly but if you knew our relationship you'd know there was an undertone of hon
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Love.

A noun and a verb, with currently 13 definitions in Merriam-Webster. How can it mean so many different things to different people but still be universally understood? Sometimes being in love feels like happiness, other times it causes depression. No matter what the type of relationship is, if one's feeling depressed based on their feelings for another person, then it's time to reevaluate. Does this person love me? Is this person in love with me? How can we improve our relationship? Should we improve our relationship? .... I had to make a hard choice recently in terms of love. I love, still, a man who's been good to me. No, he's not perfect (but I'm not delusional, I'm not either), and there's many things I'd love to nitpick him about but in the grand scheme it would be silly to argue about the small stuff. Ultimately, religious views aren't small stuff to me and we had differing ones...very different. I ignored these for a long time, which may
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Parenting 2.0.

So let's come full circle with last weeks post.  I had no intentions of scaring people out of wanting to be a parent, though it is a scary thing and the hardest role you'll ever play in life.  I simply meant that it sucks to be raising something so beautiful, and know that they will be hurt and scarred and get torn down, and that your child will have to figure out a way to build themselves back up. Because you can't always save them, or they will be rotten.  That's the savage bit, yet again.  BUT, there's still beauty. There's beauty in that we can hope and we can love.  I believe so firmly in hope.  I believe that though at times it may be foolish and painful, there's  Give all your love to your child.  Let them experience how love should be given and received.  Teach them that they can hope and they can persevere through the rough times.  Show them that there's always light to be found in darkness.  And most of all, let them kn
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