As we establish priorities for the new year, focus on establishing priorities that bring you joy.

Food traditions connect us to our culture, our family, our community, and more. They also serve to reduce decision fatigue.

The actions needed to empower and inspire others may take many forms, but all will involve the act of encouragement.

What do you consider a vacation – relaxing on the beach, camping in the woods, climbing in the mountains, sightseeing in a city, a...

Kindness. What does it mean to you? It goes beyond being nice. It is demonstrating compassion, grace, empathy, goodwill, mercy,...

The pursuit of happiness. A right listed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence along with life and liberty. A call to personal well-being and growth. What can help us to pursue happiness? Make gratitude a way of life. Are you grateful? Not just this moment, or on Thanksgiving, or when things are going well, but even on ordinary days or when challenging times come your way? Is gratitude a way of life? Would you like it to be? So far in our series on gratitude, we defined gra

Do you want to be more successful in your personal and professional life? Who doesn’t!? When thinking about factors that could lead to greater success, gratitude probably doesn’t make most people’s top 10 list, but maybe it should. The second post in this series, Did you know gratitude is good for you? lists 30 ways we benefit from experiencing gratitude. We learned that the impact of gratitude is measurable and may be greater than we thought. One area in which gratitude c

Do you feel grateful? Do you say thank you or write notes of appreciation? Are you characterized by an “attitude of gratitude”? In the first post in our gratitude series, What is gratitude? we explored how we can feel, express, and embody gratitude in our lives. Does having grateful feelings, expressing them, and making gratitude a way of life make a difference? Yes. A big difference. Bigger than you might have thought. Gratitude is good for you. Let me count the ways. The b

Gratitude. That’s a word one hears a lot at this time of year, the season of Thanksgiving. We are encouraged to have an attitude of gratitude, to demonstrate, express, or practice gratitude, and to be grateful. So… is gratitude a feeling, or an action, or a character trait? Or possibly all three? Type the question “what is gratitude?" into the Google search bar and it will generate more than 500 billion results. That’s a LOT of answers. Let’s look at some of them… What is gr

A week ago, I was walking on the beach on beautiful Cape San Blas, Florida, enjoying our final days of rest and relaxation. Today, I sit...

In this season of Thanksgiving, we are encouraged to have an “attitude of gratitude.” Really? Even in 2021, nearly two years into a pandemic, one might ask? Yes. Gratitude is needed now, more than ever. How does one achieve such an attitude when there is so much fear, anxiety, division, and uncertainty in our lives? Is it even possible? At times like these, gratitude does not come easily or naturally to most of us, as it tends to be a response to positive circumstances, not

My Number 1 son has a favorite saying he uses when others want to back out of an adventure due to rain, snow, fog, or freezing cold:...

“Be careful what you wish for!” How often in years past have you found yourself wishing for a slower pace and less “hustle and bustle” at...

A year ago I wrote a blog post titled “2020 Vision,” which opened as follows… "As we enter this century’s decade of the “Roaring 20’s,”...

In this season of Thanksgiving we are encouraged to have an “attitude of gratitude.” Really? Even in 2020, during a pandemic, one might ask? Yes. Gratitude is needed now, more than ever. How does one achieve such an attitude when there is so much fear, anxiety, division, and uncertainty in our lives? Is it even possible? At times like these, gratitude does not come easily or naturally to most of us, as it tends to be a response to positive circumstances not a perspective we

We are all experiencing a huge, major change in plans. What can we do? We can improvise and as a result we can build resilience.

What characteristics describe a mother? In celebration of Mother's Day, we honor and recognize what it means to be a mother.

What can we learn from a month at the beach? Vacations are a time for rejuvenation and reflection on what matters most.

What makes us unique makes us valuable and turns our weaknesses into strengths. Take time to be introspective. You are special.

Dear Aunt Betty, Thank you for the socks. Love, Billy. Did you write thank you notes for gifts when you were growing up? Back in the...