Grateful and Intentional: Home for the Holidays
By: Kristen Neighbarger Published on: 27/12/2023It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that this is my last blog post of 2023. Russ and I have spent all of December talking about how quickly this year flew by–I feel like we said that at the beginning of each new month, a collective: where did this month go? We’re gearing up for 2024, and it’s going to be a BIG year around here. I’m working on my manuscript and hope to have it to my publisher in the next month. Then, I have to brace myself for the joy commonly referred to as editing and revising before the excitement of launching my book baby into the world. It’s going to be a wild ride for sure. I’ve never had a “word of the year” before this year, and in true Kristen fashion, I couldn’t land on just one word, so I had two: balance and focus. Those were good for me. When I found myself feeling a little off-kilter or overcommitting, those words would find their way back into my brain, and I would feel myself calming and settling.
Choosing Gratitude
By: Kristen Neighbarger Published on: 22/11/2023I have had the unfortunate privilege of being close–in proximity and relationship–to several individuals who lack gratitude. You might say they were a bit pessimistic. Being around these people was exhausting. It didn’t matter how much was going right, they could find the one negative in any and every situation. For example: We could be at dinner at a beautiful restaurant, and they would identify the one piece of steak that had a sliver of fat on it. We could be in the middle of a beautiful worship service, and they would call out the one item of clothing that had a slight wrinkle in it. We could be enjoying the sunshine, and they would complain about the heat. We could find a great sale, and they would find the one item not on sale and complain about the price. Have you been there?
