Category: Heart & Healing
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Being Needed Is Not the Same as Being Wanted
I’ve had a few conversations lately that have made me think about the difference between being needed and being wanted. Last week, I wrote about a business owner who told me how much he trusted me, especially because he doesn’t feel like he has many people around him he can trust. In a different conversation,…
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Sometimes Healing Looks Like 79-Cent 3D Glasses
For the last few years, I was the Fourth of July party host. My house overlooked the biggest fireworks show in town, so everyone came to us. If there’s one thing my mom knows how to do, it’s host a party. She always had everything organized, the food ready, and people gathered together. It became…
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The World Doesn’t Stop for Grief
Last Sunday, I lost my dog. Even typing that sentence feels strange. Partly because I still don’t want it to be true. Partly because life has a funny way of demanding your attention even when your heart is somewhere else. I’ve gone back and forth on whether I wanted to write about this. Not because…
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Not Quite a Vacation
When I said I was going on vacation, what I really meant was: I was taking my aunt to San Diego for Parkinson’s treatment and research. Not exactly margaritas and sightseeing. There were moments of sunshine, yes. Palm trees. Warmer weather. A hotel pool. But underneath all of it was the weight of something much…
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2026: Choosing Balance (and Doing Less on Purpose)
or what some would call the I’m Back post. I’ve never been a go big or go home kind of goal-setter. Sure, I love a good fresh start. I love a clean notebook, a new year, a blank calendar begging for color-coded plans. But I’ve learned the hard way that sprinting into January usually means…
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Today will NOT be Forgotten
There are still pieces of that day living in people’s homes, hearts, and minds. For some, it’s a tattooed memorial: 343 inked into skin to honor the firefighters who ran toward the flames. For others, it’s the memories they carry from being there. Years ago, I shared my life with a firefighter who was called…
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A Heavy Heart for Our Country
I am devastated at the state of our country. Freedom of speech has been a right since day one — a cornerstone of what it means to live here. Charlie Kirk was a bold advocate of that right. He built a platform not by silencing people, but by inviting them in. He opened the floor…
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The Day That Split My Year in Two
August 21st is a date etched in my bones. By then, 2024 had already taken its swings—my nephew’s death in March, the doctor’s words in July that felt like my own death sentence. I was standing, but barely. And then the phone rang. It was my sister. My brother-in-law, my brother, really, because family is…
The A La Carte 