At The Well

Most days I get together with the ladies (the #yayas) and we walk.  We talk, solve world problems and yeah, walk.  Anywhere between 2.5 and 3 miles at a clip.  My friend Keri and I walked 4.5 miles last Monday simply because the beautiful day with it's sunshine and cool breeze beckoned.  Funny - for most of us, darkness and night don't seem to have the same appeal. If you're a science geek like me you know that darkness isn't a condition in and of itself - it is the absence of light.  We all know that there are seasons where the days are "shorter" and it is dark when we get up and dark at dinner.  I cannot imagine living somewhere in the world that suffers darkness for days on end.  I would lose my mind, I know it.  Because for me, beloved, with the dawn (and the sunrise) comes hope.  As a woman who has a congenital, incurable eye disease [https://www.fightingblindness.org/diseases/retinitis-pigmentosa?gclid=CjwKCAiAhreNBhAYEiwAFGGKPHlHN6XxeG...

  Webster's Dictionary defines retreat as either a verb or a noun - something you do or a directive - to retreat/withdraw or to signal a "retreat."  For years women have been actively engaged in a yearly activity called A Retreat. A Women's Retreat.  If you've ever been part of one you know that there is food, a copious quantity of chocolate and caffeine and an equal quantity of tears and tenderness.  These two to three day adventures are centered around a theme and there is teaching.  Because, we'll we're women and we enjoy all that stuff.  But, the operative word here, Beloved is RETREAT.  A withdrawing.  Retreat is not a negative and oftentimes it is NECESSARY.   This summer after an extended season of exquisitely painful struggle, we found ourselves in need of retreat.  While we can look back and admit that we should have pulled back a little earlier than we did, mostly to spare our hearts and minimize the impact the season had ...

There's a song by Christian Artist, Danny Gokey that says "there's hope in front of me, there's a light, I still see it, Your hand is holding me, even when I don't believe it."   So many of us, as entrepreneurs, understand that "hoping" for something isn't good business strategy.   We can have and embrace the confidence that if we do small things with great commitment and consistency that we will be able to accomplish big things over time.  The same can be said for an athletic pursuit.  No one (well, maybe a few have) wakes up and says "today, I am going to deadlift five times my body weight.  Yeah - won't happen. Not on anyone's best day and "hope" in that circumstance is simply insufficient.  But what about when we SAY "I am 'hoping?' Or, "I am hopeful."  I HOPE this can/will happen. Is that a strategy?  Or, is it simply hope? And if it is hope, what then are we hoping for?   Many have walked a road...

Happy Sunday, Beloved! It's Independence Day in these United States.  The Fourth of July.  It is a day set aside for barbecue, cold watermelon, yummy summer desserts,  the refreshing of cold water lakes, rivers and swimming pools.  But, really - what is this day all about? According to "Today in History" on this day, in 1776, "the Second Continental Congress UNANIMOUSLY adopted the Declaration of Independence   announcing the colonies’ separation from Great Britain. [While] The  Constitution  provides the legal and governmental framework for the United States . . . the  Declaration , with its eloquent assertion “all Men are created equal,” is equally beloved by the American people.  Honestly - I my deep dives into the Constitution have provided me with knowledge.  But reading and reading again the Declaration of Independence always gives me HOPE!  Two things happened on this day in 1776.  First - a group of people - the "P...