There are two types of run­ning: run­ning TO and run­ning FROM.

Running to is awe­some. It’s some­thing I highly rec­om­mend. When we are run­ning to some­thing, it means we are in love. We see some­thing in the dis­tance  that we are absolutely cer­tain, in the deep­est part of our soul, we are meant to have. We may feel ner­vous (because love often seems risky) but if we push past the fear, and move toward that thing we want, very good things hap­pen. (Yes, even if it turns out we don’t get exactly what we thought we wanted.) Read more

I had orig­i­nally planned to do a happy sum­mer­time dance for you today, but that’s just not the vibe I’m feel­ing right now and I refuse to fake it. I do feel happy, but in a calm, sub­dued sort of way. Yesterday was my last day with stu­dents and last night was their  big recog­ni­tion cer­e­mony and dance. I need a lit­tle time to process all of this before I can glee­fully shake my tail feath­ers for you, so, instead of a dance, I will share with you the short speech I gave at last night’s 8^th grade cel­e­bra­tion event. Read more

I decided I wanted to be a teacher in third grade. Maybe this was because there is a tra­di­tion of teach­ing in my fam­ily. Or maybe it was because I really liked school. I’m not totally sure, but when I started col­lege, I imme­di­ately declared my major, and never wavered for a moment. Teaching just made sense to me. It wasn’t that I never day­dreamed about doing some­thing else. I often fan­ta­sized about being a chore­o­g­ra­pher, for exam­ple, but this idea wasn’t “prac­ti­cal.” Teaching, if noth­ing else, was prac­ti­cal. I knew I could get a teach­ing job, and I knew I would be good at it. Read more

Throughout our lives, we all face change. Some change is inflicted on us with­out our con­sent, and other changes are cho­sen. Either way, change is a vital part of liv­ing our best lives. Each time we change, we grow. We dis­cover more about who we are and what we are meant to do. We expe­ri­ence the full­ness of our own strength. We find out that we can be bro­ken down with­out being destroyed, and that the only lim­its to our suc­cess are the ones in our minds. Read more

(You may want to read part 1 of this series.)

Real change hap­pens from the inside out. I think most peo­ple believe this, but very few of us actu­ally live our lives from that truth. If we want to make a change, we almost imme­di­ately jump to exter­nal solu­tions. Want to lose weight? We join a gym. Want to quit smok­ing? We put on a patch. Want to clear clut­ter? We buy a bunch of brightly col­ored bins. Read more

In the past twelve months, I’ve been on a roller-coaster ride of self-reinvention.

People are start­ing to ask ques­tions. Read more

This past Saturday, I woke up with a strangely famil­iar feel­ing. A calm feel­ing. A feel­ing of float­ing. A feel­ing of cer­tainty and of begin­nings and of hope. A sense that one beau­ti­ful phase of life was pass­ing away so an even more beau­ti­ful phase could spring forth in its place. Read more

Today I am post­ing an arti­cle writ­ten by Christine Kane. If you aren’t famil­iar with her, you should def­i­nitely check out her blog and sign up to get her free “Create Your Life Kickstart.” She is a major role model for me — this gal’s got it goin’ on! Enjoy her thoughts on start­ing your day right! Read more

What did you do first thing this morn­ing?  And right after that?  And then? How well are those rou­tines serv­ing you?  I believe that our first few activ­i­ties upon wak­ing set the tone for the rest of the day.

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Ah, there is some­thing so lovely, so deli­cious about start­ing some­thing totally new.  I am very excited that I’ve cre­ated this oppor­tu­nity to share my thoughts on joy — it’s an idea that’s been sim­mer­ing for quite a while.  I plan to use this space to reflect on a vari­ety of things, all related to cre­at­ing joy in your own life, expand­ing the joy you already have, and shar­ing that joy with others.

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