We’ve just celebrated our national 4th of July holiday, one of my favorites. It’s the day we dedicate to remembering what it means and costs to be free. I work hard at never taking for granted that I live in a nation that allows me to pursue my dreams, live where I want, worship as I chose, and always have …
Hard Teachers
For almost 25 years, my husband Tom was a second-generation, 5th-grade schoolteacher in a challenging, low socio-economic area where, for the majority of students, English is a second language. At the beginning of the year, most children came to him reading at or below a 3rd-grade level and came from parents without an education themselves. Adding to the challenge was …
Music Monday: The Happiness You Deserve
As Tom and I happily celebrated our wedding anniversary, I loved re-reading this Stretch from 6 years ago (man, times flies, doesn’t it?) and thought you might too. The lessons are as powerful for me now as they were then. As you celebrate Memorial Day and kick off your summer, I hope you remember that you deserve the best life, and it’s …
Perfect Imperfection
Wouldn’t it be great if we lived in a perfect world? We’d have everything we ever wanted. We’d never get mad or sad or frustrated or lost. We’d never struggle. It would be great, right? Or would it? I wonder. In the moments of knowing what I don’t want… I see clearly what I do. In the not having something… the wanting of it fuels …
Running with a Faster Pride
On this Monday morning gathered around for your team huddle, you are a team of completely unique individuals preparing to work this day together toward a common goal. You will attempt to serve your patients at a high level of care while simultaneously creating a full and rich life for you and your families. When a pride of lions hunts, one …
Looking Through a Clearer Lens
Dr. Glenn, my optometrist asks, “Katherine, please read the letters on line 3 of the eye chart for me.” Looking through the apparatus he has swung before my eyes, I strain to read the letters and attempt to recite the information correctly back to him. The letters are small and blurry… difficult to decipher. Looking through this particular lens, I feel natural and …
“The No Complaining Rule”
A friend once sent me a purple rubber bracelet imprinted with the words “NO Complaining” and invited me to join her in a 30-day, no-complaining contest. I must admit that as a motivational speaker and human potential trainer, I truly thought this was a ridiculously simple request in which I would clearly have the advantage! I mean wasn’t it true that I …
Hope
It happened in May at March Air Force Base, located just a few miles up the road from me near Riverside, California, in the year my mother was born, 1941. Bob Hope arrived on the base to do a radio show for airmen stationed there. And the rest, as they say, is history. He received such an amazing and heartwarming response on that …
An Instrument of Peace
I’m not Catholic, but I love many of the beautiful traditions of the Catholic faith. My favorite is the lovely story and mythology surrounding the 13th century Italian Saint Francis of Assisi, the church’s patron saint of animals. My mother always had some stone version of St. Francis in her flower gardens, usually surrounded by bird feeders and birdbaths. Often the …
Letting Go to Leap Forward
In recent Monday Morning Stretches, I’ve written about the steps that Glennon Doyle outlines in her book, Untamed, to create a life that you design on purpose. The fourth and final step is “Build and Burn.” For me, this step is sometimes the hardest: Letting many of your past and current beliefs, relationships, ideas of home, and even the dreams …