Trying to build community in an urban or transient area can be tricky, particularly if you grew up in a small town where community is something that just sort of happens around you. The first seventeen years of my life were spent in the small town of Big Stone Gap, which is nestled in the Appalachian mountains and is exactly how it sounds. It’s not the kind of place …
recovery
“I cannot get one more pedicure!!” I pulled the blanket more tightly around me and glared at the circle of women in my weekly recovery group. At the time, I was forehead deep in a very challenging divorce. After sharing a harrowing story, once again someone asked how my “self-care” was going. Sigh. Thus entered Petulant Megan. Seriously, how many pedicures does it take? Self-care is super trendy right now, …
If someone had told me ten years ago that Bikram Yoga would be an integral part of my future recovery process I would have laughed. A lot. Because I have the flexibility of a Chip and Joanna Gaines farmhouse table – or perhaps an elegant rhinoceros. Then I would have secretly whispered the Lord’s Prayer *just in case* because I still have a lingering fear that yoga = demonic possession. …
Honestly I am struggling to sit down and write this post, because I want to continuously affirm all of you and shout from the rooftops that you are a precious snowflake designed perfectly in God’s image. Hear me when I say that I do in fact believe this. However, even snowflakes get dingy, gross, and slushy after spending too much time on this planet. The reality is, we’ve all been …
Recently I saw a meme floating around Facebook comparing two adult sons of an alcoholic. The gist of the meme was that one was an alcoholic while the other had chosen another more respectable lifestyle. “See? Alcoholism is a choice!” the meme declares with an air of smug judgment. I found myself feeling somewhat discouraged, because it is based on faulty thinking. Not only does it perpetuate the belief that …
Music has been hard for me for the past year or so. I know this seems strange coming from someone whose career is fully entrenched in worship, but at some point it simply stopped bringing me joy and singing started to feel like work. Music – the medium from which my very soul and essence were molded – no longer brought me alive. I drove to and from work in …
