A know-it-all eats humble pie

For a very long time, most of my acquaintance sang the “Barbara is a great writer” praises. “Of course”, I thought, “writing is something I like to do, and apparently I am good at it.”

The list of my writing achievements fill my resume: just out of college I was hired to edit continuing legal education program materials and creating program brochures, which lasted three years; I had to abandon this choice career because of a little thing called “marriage” and moving out of state.

…..followed a decade and three children later when I completed…

My Venn Diagram of Life

There is nothing better than to find that sweet spot where a healthy body and a healthy mind live and play in a person in mutual harmony.

It happened to me once, about seven years ago. At the time, I wasn’t in any obvious danger of losing my health: yes, I was overweight by the BMI charts, but I sort of hid the chubbiness by wearing clothes that didn’t outline my form very well. I also tended to hang around with people heavier than myself, which was a big mistake. …

I just can’t get it figured out

Our days and our nights come and go pretty quickly. In between the sunrises and sunsets, there are countless diversions and interruptions in our work or play — the noise surrounds us, and our brains are continually filtering and refiltering the static and activities in an effort to make sense of it all. This can be both mentally and physically exhausting.

The ability to pull away from time to time in the course of the day is a wonderful habit of health and many people will meditate, chant, take deep breaths, or other…

Great reminders. I majored in English with a minor in Journalism. Can't tell you the roller coaster rides I put my brain through trying to write critical essays for lit classes as well as articles for journalism classes.

Nearly lost my cookies when creative writing hit my schedule.

Thanks for the read.

All previous comments reflect my reaction to your article.

What is life but a series of choices? You are correct in that it is life that is the privilege. Those whose circumstances have been better than others can choose to squander that circumstance, in the same way that those who were born with challenges can choose to stay where they are and remain the victim or do the work to change it.

The other thing is that we all, I think, succumb to "comparative reality" and assume that because someone has something or can do something we can't has it much easier.

Nice read.

God is perfect. There is nothing that He cannot do. There are, however, things that He CHOOSES to do. He chooses to allow humankind to make their own choices. Those choices have consequences: some great; some total disasters.

The parent can choose to stop the drowning, or pull the child out of the pool in order to save the lives.....a situation the parent controls. If the parent decides to not intervene and the child dies, it is not God's fault: God put the parent there as the means to save the lives of the children.

I prefer to follow the…

At the Last Supper, Christ instituted two sacraments: The Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders. Given that, each of the Apostles received the grace to both receive the Blessed Sacrament as well as touch it. I still believe only consecrated fingers should touch the Real Presence. Indeed, at the Offertory, the priest's fingers are washed and he holds his thumbs and forefinger together during the Canon to keep them purified through the Consecration and Holy Communion.

Thanks for publishing this!

I have made some big leaps this year in productivity and staying positive by doing two things: I began using my day runner again and the good feelings I get when I see daily tasks ticked off at the end of the day are incredibly motivating.

The second thing I did was set up a new goal/activity each month to learn or do. As a result, I am beginning to write and publish more consistently; I am walking again everyday; and I am building obstacles (that I really need to do but don't want to do) into my daily routine to accomplish before doing something I really want to do. As an example, I have to do my prayer/meditation before I allow myself to indulge in something I really want to do...like spend 30 minutes checking out my social media sites.

Loved your ideas. Thanks!