As a natural performer from age 3, I’ve always loved the spotlight. It was never a problem to sing, dance, or act – spouting lines and lyrics from the artists who created them. But public speaking? That was a big bag of NOPES. As I got older and had to do more speaking for school,…
Tag: Fear
A Perfectly Imperfect Christmas
Upon logging in and dusting off the blog this morning, I discovered that somewhere between Days 55 and 100 of The 100-Day Project, I quit. One of the big lessons of 2022 for me was (and continues to be) unraveling perfectionism. I remember having conversations around job interviews as a newly graduated young professional; I…
Keep the Receipts
It was one year ago today that everything changed. We were putting in a full day of work and training a new employee. We attended an event that evening… and an hour after we left, the building and surrounding neighborhoods were hit with tornadoes. Mere weeks later, the country quarantined from COVID. Everything was different….
His Cup of Tea
March 19, 1989. I had to look up the actual date, but the time itself is easy to remember. I first made a profession of faith on Palm Sunday when I was eight years old. I was baptized the following week on Easter Sunday. Thirty-one years later, I realize I made this decision before I…
Loving Better
What. A. Week. For the Nashvillians who were here during the flood of 2010, our community response to this natural disaster is no surprise. There’s a good reason they call Tennessee the Volunteer State. After an F3 tornado ripped through Germantown, North Nashville, East Nashville, Donelson, Hermitage, and Mt. Juliet, the devastation surrounding our neighborhoods…
Timelapse
The New Year came and went without any year-in-review social updates on my end. I thought about it as I scrolled through the feed of my friends’ memories, but opted to sit in the silence. When I opened my journal this morning and wrote 2020 for the first time, I noticed a sizable gap from…
Anchored
“How’s the temp?” I yelled outside as my husband lit the grill to prep for dinner. “Chilly, but great.” That was all the encouragement I needed to bundle in my housecoat, pour a glass of red, and head outside. 63 degrees and sitting under swaying trees looks a lot different now than it did five…
Starting with a Song
I stopped scrolling when I saw this post. My friend re-posted this and suggested we think about where we started 10 years ago. Sure, the decade realization is enough to make my head spin, but I love how she used the word started. A decade ago, 28-year old Amanda was living in a very different…
Beginning of the End
Someone recently said that fall is the start to a 3-month exit. My birthday falls around Thanksgiving so I tend to not think of it as an end, but as a beginning for a new season, a new year, new lessons, new opportunities. But it is an end, isn’t it? Even the colors I marvel at — the yellows and browns on the crunchy, fallen leaves — that’s death in nature; an exhale to green life well-lived.
Spin the Wheel
I don’t know how therapists do it. Anytime I hear someone spew their problems, I want to shake them and simultaneously point to a list of step-by-step instructions saying, “here’s exactly what you need to do.” I don’t even know if that gut reaction could be swayed with money (probably not. #sorrynotsorry). All that to…
A Liviting Life 