Living a Blessed Life

You know the feelings that flood in when you enter a space that smells like a memory from your past? When I was young I learned that the sense of smell offers the strongest memory recall. We cannot always put words to the scent, but our brains have this uncanny method of recall, and the reels of our past begin playing. I have recently had this same flood of memories, more strongly associated with songs than scents. Once in a while we will hear a song and it will take us back to a period of time, but sometimes it will transport us to a specific event. I can hear “Bye, Bye, Bye,” and instantly head back to high school (or the answering machine greeting that my college roommates and I used our freshman year-Haha). Sometimes a song comes on that my dad used to play on his guitar, and I see our family sitting in the living room singing along. “Let it be, let it be, let it be, Oh, let it be… Whispering words of wisdom, let it be.” I’m certain you can also relate to this, but it might not ...

April 8, 2024, marked a significant event in our lives. As a family, we traveled to Arkansas to experience a total solar eclipse! This event was special for many reasons, of which I will share a few. According to eclipse2024.org , “(There are) none in North America until August 23, 2044 . This one is a nice “Prairie” eclipse, coming down from Arctic Canada into North Dakota. But then, the one so many people will have been waiting for: A beautiful summertime eclipse that goes over quite a few big cities, as well as a certain theme park in Central ...

What if I had done this differently? What if I hadn’t ignored the signs? What if I had passed on that decision and waited a little longer? What if I would have arrived a few minutes earlier / later? What if I took that leap instead of staying where I am? What if I left? What if I trusted my intuition instead of doing what the rest of the world said was right for me? What if, what if, what if? There are more what-ifs in our lives than I care to bore you with. This question plagues us and tries desperately to rob us of our joy, especially when the decision we are making feels significant. We are so good at playing out scenarios in our minds with different outcomes based on different decisions, and then if we think the outcome would have been better we beat ourselves up internally for making what appears to be the wrong decision. (Or am I the only one who does this)? We all know that hindsight is 20/20, and that is great because it helps shape our future decisions. But… I encourage you...

Whether you enjoy college basketball or not, I think there are many areas in our lives where the term, “March Madness” applies. Personally, I love college basketball. Some people believe the Monday after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday so we can all sleep in after the late night watching football. I, on the other hand, prefer that we have this same benefit during March Madness. Full disclosure - I did turn our TVs at work to the different network stations broadcasting games yesterday. We had a slow day at the clinic so I was able to take in quite a few games, flipping the channel as games got close. My bracket is not perfect but is pretty well intact at this point. I love a good upset, so I do have a few underdogs in my team selection. For those who follow this fun basketball tournament, what happened to Kentucky???? That was one I did not expect! Toby made his first ever basket during a game - and it was a 3!!! (Proud Mom moment) March has hi...