Oct 21, 2020 | Becoming, Do The Hard Thing, Grow |
I planted silk flowers
in my garden
in my quest for beauty.
They don’t fool
anyone
for long.
They look
garish and cheap
even when the
sun shines.
When I make a show
and water
their plastic roots with
my polkadot watering can
they are still dead.
It’s not real beauty.
Counterfeit beauty
is an illusion
with nothing to offer.
Real beauty doesn’t
have a shortcut.
Real beauty
has depth and grit.
Real beauty
plants seeds,
spawns life,
shares sustenance,
spreads joy.
I will do the work.
I will bloom
for real.
#PermissionGranted
How will you cultivate real beauty within?

Oct 6, 2020 | Do The Hard Thing, Grow, Lead, Permission Granted |
Have you noticed
that our world
requires us to
set permissions?
In order for something
to work for us,
we have to
to give it the go ahead
to work with the other
things in our lives
so that it can do for us
what it is supposed to do.
If we don’t set permissions –
the app, the program,
the new high-tech watch
will never work as they
are intended to work.
We, as humans, also
have permissions
that we need to set.
Set your permissions for
what influences you,
who has access to you,
what you will give your energy to, and
how much disrespect is too much.
Set your permissions so
that what is in your life is
working with you,
not against you.
#PermissionGranted

Sep 14, 2020 | Becoming, Grow |
Dappled light highlights
the shapes made by the
peeling bark on the
crepe myrtle trees.
I go for a closer look.
I am enamored
by the light,
by the tree.
Its cracking,
its peeling.
I’m in awe of
the metamorphosis
of such a large specimen.
This is how it grows.
Crepe myrtles
shed last year’s bark
every summer.
I inspect myself.
Am I peeling off
the constraints
of where I was?
Is my heart
busting out of
last year
and making room
for new growth?
I can see how the
crepe myrtle has
transformed.
Is there evidence
that I’ve transformed?
Are there
cracks
that indicate I
am a growing girl?
#PermissionGranted

May 13, 2020 | Faith, Grow, Trust |
It belongs –
but it doesn’t.
Wrong temperatures,
wrong soil,
incorrect amount of precipitation
and yet…
the pineapple
seems to be quite
happy here
in Georgia soil.
It’s wrong, but it is right.
It’s unexpected,
shocking,
and sweet at the
same time.
Sometimes,
well, perhaps,
more than I would like,
I find myself in the
midst of unexpected.
It feels wrong all
the way around.
I can’t make
any sense out of it.
It makes as much sense
as a pineapple
growing in
Georgia clay.
I have to let go of
the desire for
all to make sense to me.
There are things
I do not know and
I can’t see what’s ahead.
When I let go of
what I expect,
when I embrace
what is,
somehow,
a
tinge
of
sweet
meets me there.
I’ll give myself
permission to
look for it.
#PermissionGranted

Apr 16, 2020 | Becoming, Do The Hard Thing, Grow, Trust |
Somehow,
someway,
something grew.
I don’t remember
planting, watering
or fertilizing the
fruit I am holding.
At some point
something
found good soil,
put down roots,
grew green shoots,
blossomed and now
I have fruit.
I am astounded
to be holding fruit.
When did this germinate?
I trace back the
origin of the gift
of sweet harvest
and discover it was
planted during
one of the hardest,
driest, most challenging
seasons I’ve ever experienced.
I am baffled and I weep
due to the friction of the
joy scraping against
grief and pain.
I was unaware
there would be
a harvest.
There’s no way to know
what will be sown
in the unknown.
#PermissionGranted

Friends, there will be growth, even in the middle of a pandemic, stay present and try to have an open heart and mind. Be prepared to be surprised by a harvest.
Apr 8, 2020 | Encouragement, Faith, Grow |
Fog.
Thick, real.
Joy and hope
play a game
of hide and seek
I did not ask
to participate in.
The future holds
question marks –
so many unknowns…
The fog
clouds vision,
tangles emotion,
and I just want to
hibernate.
The swath
of clouds hangs
over every area of life
and I wonder
if this veil will
lift and what life
will look like
when it does.
Where is the sun?
Has the fog
smothered hope?
I look down
to see there’s
a rope in my hand.
I am tethered.
I am not lost
to the fog.
I will cling
to what is
holding me.
#PermissionGranted
