Perhaps you were created for such a time as this

Choosing a Word for 2026 (and Letting It Choose You)

2026/01/01 Gayle 0

For several years now—at least back to around 2008—I’ve chosen a word to guide my year. Not a resolution.Not a checklist.Just a single word. It’s a practice that really took shape for me around 2012, when my Sunday school class read My One Word by Mike Ashcraft together. Ashcraft describes the purpose of choosing one word simply and beautifully: to help people walk with God. His book offers a kind of manual—choose a word, pair it with a scripture, meditate on it, and return to it again and again as the year unfolds. That framework stuck with me. Over the years, I’ve chosen words like heal, laugh, yes, and energy. Some of those words shaped entire seasons of my life. Others worked more quietly, doing The rest of the story

Taking Care of Your Mental Health in This Scary and Confusing Time

2025/02/06 Gayle 0

Right now, it feels like the world is on fire and sometimes it seems that I am on fire with it! My anger is boiling – perhaps because anger is an easy emotion for me. After all anger is a powerful emotion and I, an enneagram 8, Capricorn, can’t show weakness….perhaps that’s another blog post! It’s a dumpster fire of all dumpster fires We are barely 3 weeks post-inauguration and new administration and quite frankly it’s a dumpster fire of all dumpster fires! The U.S. is grappling with political unrest, economic uncertainty, climate crises, and the everyday struggles of just being human. Add in the never-ending scroll of social media, where every post is designed to provoke a reaction, and it’s no wonder so many of The rest of the story

Lincoln's Second Inauguration

The Path The World Is On

2025/01/25 Gayle 0

I have always been a fan of history – especially US History. I am drawn especially to two times in US history, the Civil War and World War 2. The first, I think because it happened on the lands where I have lived my life, The South, and I have an ancestor or two who fought in the war – on the wrong side, but that’s another story (although I adore, and always have the idea of being a rebel). I think my mother is the catalyst for my fascination with World War 2. She has vivid memories of being a young child when the war began and of the war effort, I believe it came in her formative years, which indeed formed her. In The rest of the story

A Christmas Lesson (good all year)

2020/12/14 Gayle 0

So I’m a little bah humbug on Christmas this year. Nothing will be like every other year…we’ll be home at dhachaigh rather than Tobaccoville at mama’s (where I’ve spent every one of my 57 Christmases). I can be curmudgeonery anyway and this year has a millionth dose. Anyway, last Saturday night I got all excited to put up a tree! So we bought a coupon – a $40 tree for $28 – an NC TREE from a local store! Win – Win – Win, right…nope all their $40 trees were ~4ft (who wants to look down on the angel?). So I bah humbuged and grumbled (and grumbled about Christmas, about spent money, about…well, everything – it’s a rabbit hole). During the week we went to The rest of the story

Riding Into Lent

2017/03/03 Gayle 0

Riding my bike daily is one of the practices I have decided to take up for Lent. While we often think of Lent being a time when we give up something or when we take up a ‘spiritual practice’, something like prayer or alms giving, Lent can also be a time of reflection, repentance, and change. I need to turn from my unhealthy practices I have fallen into and take up healthy practices – my bike is quite literally a vehicle of change. My goal is to ride 40 minutes each day for the 40 days of Lent. There is no speed goal. No distance goal. Only time and movement. The first day I fell short by 9 minutes. On day 2 Jenn rode with The rest of the story

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