Living Sustainably: Everything You Do Counts

The older I get, the more conscious I get about living sustainably. I’m not perfect at it, but I’ll die trying. Too often I hear people say things like “I don’t have time to think about that” or “What does this one thing I do really matter?” Well, it does matter. Everything we do matters, and to those who have …

Changes to Make in Your 40s

When I hit my 40s, I felt like a whole new world opened up to me. There was a lot of license to do things differently, although I can’t exactly explain why. Some of it is just age and comfort in who you are as a person, and some is realizing you could be halfway through your life. So then …

The Fear of Being Kind: How and Why to Overcome It

The idea of kindness seems to be popular. However, I wonder when the fear of being kind became the norm. Has it always been like this? Is it post-pandemic? I think it’s a combination of things, frankly. If you’re unsure what I’m talking about, I’ll explain. Have you ever had something upsetting or tragic happen to you and feel completely …

5 Ways to Grow a New Art Business

Who else gets totally overwhelmed with all the chirping about ways to grow a new art business? While you could spread yourself thin, don’t. A few strategic ways to grow is going to save your sanity and keep you consistent. That way you see what actually works and what doesn’t, giving you a more narrow scope as to where your …

10 Things I Do to Reduce My Risk of Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s is a disease that I have no desire to discover. There is no cure, and the decline in brutal. While there are still many questions on how it’s caused, I’ve been reading materials from various credible organizations and listening to experts of what could cause it and how to reduce the risk of it. Some of these are simply …

My Relationship with Alcohol: 5 Ways I Learned to Lean on It

At the end of December, I decided I wanted to cut out alcohol for a month. It’s been a tug-of-war internally for a while, so I decided to jump on the Dry January bandwagon. For me, it wasn’t about punishing myself from the stuff. I wanted it to be a discovery of my relationship to alcohol more than anything, although …

Finding a Unique Valentine’s Day Gift

Toss the chocolate idea, unless your honey loves it that much. And certainly don’t take her out to dinner on the actual day – too much pressure and way too much of a cluster. Come home with lingerie and it’ll be used as fire kindling. If you’re anything like me, you want your partner to think outside of the box …

I Am a Work in Progress, Not a Failure

We love tossing the word failure around. It’s so easy to say we are a failure at our job, at a relationship, at parenting. Is it being a failure? Or are we all works in progress? My preference is the latter, because if I truly believed I was a failure because of all the things I “failed” at, my mental …

Making Friends as an Adult: The Realities

The evolution of my friendships has been fascinating when I look back on my life with friends. It’s directly correlated to how I have evolved. Because of my personality and how I continue to grow, it’s a challenge to keep friendships with many people from my past. Alas, those versions of me are long gone, although a few pieces have …

Choosing Your Hard

Life is hard. We all know that. While it’s not hard day in and day out for most of us, there are times when it’s hard. Even brutal, unrelenting, absurd, miserable. You get my point with the adjectives. I’m a firm believer in choosing your hard, though. What do I mean by that? Every minute of everyday we are choosing …