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My favourite things this winter
I sit here in a beanie and Oodie, with the heater pulled in close. It has been a very wet and cold (for Perth standards!) winter. My office and house are always cold. I am constantly seeking comfort and warmth. It got me thinking about some of my favourite things over these past few months so I am sharing them with you. I know some of you are roasting in summer weather right now so maybe this list will be a helpful prep list. (Some of the links I will share are affiliate links. This means I get a small commission for purchases made but at no extra cost to…
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Holding space for your people in the midst of the to-do lists
As I think back over the past week, do you know what stands out in my mind? Not the amount of tasks I crossed off of my to-do list. Not how clean my house is or isn’t. Not the meetings or steps taken towards my goals. What stands out most is the moments with friends and family. So much of my time and energy is spent on the “not” list. I could have easily let the opportunities for connection slip by under the guise of being too busy. Honestly, I almost did at times and I know there were other opportunities missed. It is far too easy for me to…
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Finding treasure in our experiences
This past week has provided many opportunities for getting discouraged, responding with negativity or being buried in overwhelm. It has also held moments of joy, growth and connection. Maybe you know what those weeks are like? How do we live well in these weeks of life? Really, every week of life could fit that description. There are seasons where one extreme or the other weigh heavier in the mix but no week of life is free from the mix of seemingly positive and negative. I have found that our perspective and response to these experiences in life determine how we experience life in many ways. I can choose to see…
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What I Learned This Winter
Suddenly another season is done. I stop once more to reflect on what I have learned. Honestly, this season has been intense and full of good things, hard things and growth opportunities. I have not been keeping track of my learning and reflecting as I normally like to do. That makes this time of stopping and reflecting even more important. I don’t want to rush past this opportunity and overlook the incredible growth, fun and goodness that have occured in the past three months. Launching a book is fun/terrifying/hard work/takes intention “Stepping Up In Leadership‘” released in August. It has been a surreal journey seeing the words that have lived…
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Sneaky preview of the first chapter…
You, my reader, are why I write. I listen to your pain, your frustrations and your struggles and I draw out the encouragement for you that lies in my soul. As a thank you for taking time out of your day to be here when you could be scrolling through another corner of the internet, I wanted to share not just a few quotes, but the whole first chapter of my book. Only 1 more week before this releases into the world! Why this book? My mobile phone rings. I know there is little battery left and I run to my bedroom to plug it in. I answer the phone…
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Advent: Your invitation to savour (and a free gift for you)
Can you feel the shift? The tip over towards Christmas? That usually leaves you feeling either excited or completely stressed. The to-do lists seem endless. The expectations on ourselves and our circumstances seem beyond reach. The wealth of opportunities can feel like pressure to add more and more in our days. This doesn’t have to be the case. For the past several years, I have intentionally engaged in Advent. Far from being the out-dated tradition that I thought it was, Advent has become a time of intentional focus for me. It has become my invitation to slow down and savour the season. It has become the opportunity to help us…
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Bite-sized Inspiritment Day 31: Close
As October and the Write 31 Days Challenge comes to a close, my mind immediately turns to look at what is next. What project do I need to focus on? What writing will I do now? Do you do that when you come to the end of something? Do you also forget to celebrate the achievement and what has already happened? I want to celebrate the fact that I have written and posted everyday for 31 days. More than that, I want to celebrate the connection points and encouragement that it has brought into my life and yours. I have loved seeing comments and having conversations with you…
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Bite-sized Inspiritment Day 25: Capture
Do your days feel like you are trying to capture fog? Does time seem to slip through your fingers with little to show for it (or so you think when looking at the unchecked items on your to-do list)? I know that feeling. I know what it is like to grasp for achievement, productivity and effective use of time and yet be completely baffled by how little I have got done. In my case, I am realising that I way underestimate how much time I need for some tasks and way overestimate how much I can achieve in a day, especially when I factor in extra tiredness, injury…
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Bite-sized Inspiritment Day 20: Audience
We are surrounded by an audience always. Whether that audience is social media, passers by, our family, friends or neighbours or the audience of God whom I believe is there. This follows on from yesterday’s post on “who” and still has me thinking about what audience I am tuning in to for a response, for affirmation and for direction. Do the random thoughts of a passer by matter? Do the judgements of people out there in internet land who don’t know me matter? What audience are you listening to and watching for? For me, the audiences I want to count are God, my family and my friends. This isn’t to…
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Bite-sized Inspiritment Day 17: Pause
This is your invitation to pause- really pause. Take a breath. Let it out slowly. How often do we allow ourselves to do that? I have times of doing well with this and then I forget. I fill up those little moments that could be pauses with social media, noise or little busy odd jobs. It takes so much intention and focus to build pause into our days. Our souls are crying out for it. They are loaded down with everything that we absorb from around us. Let’s make a plan to stop, pause and breathe. What prompts can we use to remind us? Is there a particular cue that…
