But I don't care, and I'm not embarrassed. I don't feel like a failure. I feel like someone who's laying down the tracks as I'm traveling on them. I'll make missteps, try things that flop and go in directions that don't work. But as long as I trust my instincts, I know I'll be ok. I'll pick myself up, try something different and keep on choo chooing down the track.
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So much already planned for 2023
Happy new year! I hope your 2023 is off and running. I’m using this post as an opportunity to share three offers I have created for the new year. Some of this can get confusing if you don’t live in my brain (be so happy about that, btw!), so I’ll try to explain as carefully as I can what each offer entails. I hope you’ll be as excited by one or more of them as I am. A FREE, virtual, 3-day (re)Discover Your Spark experience Tuesday, January 17—Thursday, January 19 over zoom from 11:45-12:45 CDT. In September, I held my first-ever, free opportunity for people to get a taste of…
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Facebook memories inspired my word for 2023!
It's amazing to realize that on this day, five years ago, I would have hesitated to say why the year had been difficult and heartbreaking. I would have stumbled over the truth behind what made it joyful, surprising and blessed because I wasn't yet, we weren't yet, ready to openly share our story. Perhaps we didn't yet trust that this new phase would last, given how relatively effortlessly the shift from utter despair to absolute joy had arrived at our doorstep. I also know that shame was still part of our lives. It might have downgraded to a baby elephant, but given that they weigh 200+ pounds at birth, that's…
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Two+ years, five days, a full heart and an impatient mind
Two years and two weeks ago, the core of my (re)Discover Your Spark content was gifted to me by the Universe. Earlier this summer, I engaged two women to help me market this work to a larger audience. This time last week, I was waiting to launch my virtual, FREE 5-day (re)Discover Your Spark retreat, and now it’s all over. Isn’t time a funny thing? We spend so much of our lives waiting for something to start, the days and hours seeming to drag by. And then, when it finally happens, it flies by and is over in a flash. Let me share some of what I heard from people…
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UK spark lessons 🔥✨🔥
I was in the UK this past week with my dear friend Ellen, whom I met in one of the darkest moments of my life. We had planned this trip around a work event of hers in London. Of course, we had no way of knowing that the Queen would literally die the day I flew out or that we would be in Edinburgh and London on the same days that she was lying in state. That event certainly closed most of the streets but opened up doors to some incredibly interesting conversations with locals. In case you’re curious, Americans don’t have the market on feeling deeply and expressing loudly…
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Two parts of the same journey
We are here to create, to love, to learn, to grow, to share our gifts, and, very importantly, to experience joy. It’s not about getting to point B but “the journey,” as they say—and it sounds like a lie. But it is truer than we realize. What is point B anyway but number two in a long line of even more things? Yrsa Daley-Ward The How I’m a consistent re-reader of books that move me. I purposefully don’t have a lot of books in our home because I only keep those I know I’ll re-read multiple times. I have a system: I check out a book from the library, and…
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(re)Discover a candle to start an inferno
I looked around to take in the moment, to gather my wits about me and to recognize the enormity of what had just happened. I looked ahead to the field of trees that enclosed the beautiful French-style farmhouse where I was living, and I started moving toward it again.
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Flip the narrative to find your spark
More than three years ago, I conceived of a pretty audacious vacation with friends and family to celebrate a big milestone in my life. Dr Marry and I are providing a fabulous opportunity for people to travel and stay in a big, beautiful house that we're renting as our gift to them. But they still have to get themselves there, pay for food and other accommodations beyond the house since it's just for three nights. While some people have decided, for various reasons, that they can't make the trip work, a number of people have enthusiastically said, "We're in!" Just because I plan something doesn't mean it will work for…
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I’m FINE. How are you?
I'm facing some professional challenges that also feel like mountain climbing, too. This one isn't slippery; the challenge on this climb is that there are many paths from where I stand, all making their way up. While they all feel like they would be fine, I know there are some that will be better than others. Not easier, but better. How to choose?
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It’s time to recharge my spark
In so many ways, that talk in 2019 set a level of engagement and expectation that I have been trying to recapture ever since. I left that stage flying high, ecstatic over the interplay between the audience and me. A few months later, I gave the MSUM commencement address, and while the audience wasn't as effusive, it was clear the talk landed. Two months after that I spoke at Creative Mornings Fargo, and that audience was all in, too.
