“Authenticity is a collection of decisions that we have to make every day. It's about the choice to show yourself and be real. The choice, to be honest. The choice to let our true selves see. "~ Brene Brown "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "It's so nice to meet you. What are you doing?" These…
"To be heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable." ~ David W. Augsburger The five love languages - a framework for how we give and receive affection, created by psychologist Gary Chapman in 1992 – include quality of time, gifts, acts of service, affirmative words, and physical touch. As much…
"The scars that you can't see are the hardest to heal." ~ Astrid Alauda One lazy Sunday morning while I was in bed I picked up my cell phone, flipped through my Facebook news feed, and decided to google my parents' names. I am estranged from my parents and have not had a great relationship with them for over fifteen…
Last year my uncle died shortly after someone I love went through a rather traumatic breakup. I love my whole family, but I wasn't really close to my uncle and didn't know him very well, so I mourned my mother and aunt more than myself. As I witnessed the deep pain around me, I began to think about the expectations…
" I don't always make the best decisions, but today I choose compassion over intolerance, sympathy over hate, and love over fear." ~ LJ Vanier It's crazy for me now to look back and realize how damn tough I have been on myself for decades. If I had ever spoken to someone else the way I spoke to myself, it…
"Rock Bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life." ~ J.K. Rowling I'm no stranger to feeling hopeless and defeated. After many failed relationships, physical, sexual and emotional abuse in my entire life, two bankruptcies, and the most recent loss of my online business (October 2020), it could be said that I have been through enough to…
"Hope for love, prayer for love, desire for love, dream for love … but don't keep your life on hold and wait for love." ~ Mandy Hale Going to weddings alone without having to take a plus with you. Watch the couples dance and think, "Will there ever be a time when I'm on the dance floor?" Going on vacation…
“A meaningful life is not rich, popular or perfect. It's about being real, being humble, sharing ourselves, and touching the lives of others. "~ Unknown Hi, I'm Kortney and I am a recovering perfectionist. Like so many of us, I have spent most of my life believing that something is not good at all when it is not perfect. There…
In this crazy, virus-driven alternate universe we live in, most of us know someone who is in trouble right now – someone who feels overwhelmed, stressed, or stuck and may be powerless to help themselves or their situation to change. Maybe this is how they would feel even if we weren't caught in a pandemic for a year. Maybe they…
"Our fear does not arise when we think about the future, but because we want to control it." ~ Kahlil Gibran Fear has followed me for years like a lost dog looking for a bone. I feel it most acutely when I am worried about my health or the health of my daughter. I notice a strange rash or have…