Has your life ever not gone according to your plans? Some of you are thinking, “Really, Beth? You’re asking me that?” Life rarely goes according to our plans. We all experienced the upheaval of the COVID pandemic in 2020, and we’re still affected by it just over a year later. The life we plan for ourselves gets derailed by all …
Choosing to Conquer Our Challenges One Small Step at a Time
@bethvogt The subject of resilience came up last weekend during a text conversation with my friend Bernadette. We were discussing how a year has passed since COVID upended our lives. One whole year. Also, like so many others, Bernadette and I are walking through grief because family members died during the pandemic. “I don’t know about you, but I feel …
Choosing to Believe I’m not an Imposter
@bethvogt This was my friend Jenny’s text to me yesterday morning at 6:12 a.m.: In life, and perhaps you overcame this, who did you believe you had to be accepted and/or approved by? By the way, good morning. My reply: Oh my word! Do you want an alphabetical list? Jenny and I have conversations like this. All the time. Sometimes …
Choosing not to Fix Someone Who is Struggling
@bethvogt It’s so difficult to see someone we love struggle. When a family member or friend is hurting, so often we want to rush in and fix the situation for them. Figure out some way to make everything better. If we can figure out the magic equation to make everything better … Poof! The difficult circumstances and devastating emotions overwhelming …
Choosing to Embrace Plan B
@bethvogt Sometimes our well-thought-out plans don’t work. Frustrating, isn’t it? Last year wasn’t a great writing year for me. Too many disruptions meant very little creative writing. I spent some time evaluating what I needed to ensure I had a more productive year in 2021. Solid blocks of time. Dedicated space. No interruptions. Then I made my plan. It wasn’t …
Choosing to Offer Ourselves Grace
@bethvogt Some days are going to be harder than others. Just typing that simple sentence made me feel a whole lot better. I’ve been slogging uphill against my expectations and emotions this past week. Looking back, I see reasons why the past seven days have been challenging – everything from anxiety before, during, and after some dental work, …
Choosing to Do the Work to Reap the Benefits of Marriage
I blew it with my husband, Rob, the other day. To be more specific — I blew up at Rob over the most trivial thing. Rather than dealing with the unexpected interruption to my day – I did say it was minor, right? – I called Rob and made sure he knew I was upset. That I didn’t appreciate what …
7 Quotes to Challenge Your Perspective on Life, Love, and Relationships (and a Giveaway)
@bethvogt As I considered possible topics for today’s blog post, I decided to indulge my love of quotes and create graphics for you to enjoy. You’ll find quotes from some of my favorite authors, including two of my writing mentors — waving at you, Rachel Hauck and Susan May Warren. What are some of your favorite quotes about life, …
Choosing to Wait for Hope When Grief Wrecks Our Hearts
For all our hopes this new year would be better than the previous 12 months, the first 27 days of 2021 are disappointing. Such an understatement, right? I texted with a good friend several days ago. Normal “how’s it going” stuff. And then a little while later these words appeared on my phone screen: got some really bad news. A …
Sometimes We Need to Take a Bye Week
I decided to take a bye week instead of posting a blog today. For those of you who aren’t sports fans, a bye week is a term used where each team — for example, a national football team — is scheduled to have one week near the middle of the season where they do not play a game. Today is …