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As I have listened to others' stories, I have heard people say they have been told all their lives that they couldn't do something. Their dreams and personal goals have been laughed at, made fun of, or otherwise just dismissed. Why do we feel it necessary, as a culture, to dismiss what someone else wants to accomplish as silly or impossible? How does this make how we experience our own lives any better? I don't believe it does. Hearing these stories makes me that much more grateful for my own upbringing. Sure, I had the occasional teacher or other influential adult tell me my dreams were silly or that the likelihood of my success at a particular goal was quite low. The adults that really counted, though: my parents, never told me such things. My parents have been (and continue to be) supportive of anything I set my mind to do. Nothing that I ever brought up as an interest or a dream was dismissed. Not even when I all I wanted to be when I grew up was a server at Cantl...

As anyone who knows me or reads my blog can attest to, I have a fairly positive spin on life. I can see the good in even the most horrible of situations or challenges (at least in hindsight). This blog title is a little misleading though because it actually refers to a class that I have been taking lately called "A Positive Spin on Life." Again, if you know me or read my blog, you also know that spin is my favorite gym class and I take many spin classes a week. So, I bet you are wondering what this class is all about? How it is different from the regular spin class? Well, my friend Kris is both the instructor and creator of this course and every single time I take it, I feel privileged to be able to do so. It is an incredibly challenging class, physically. I love to challenge myself physically on a regular basis. And, it is the most thought-provoking, awe-inspiring hour that I spend on Tuesdays and every-other-Saturday.  I also love to challenge myself mentally and ...

Welcome to my favorite holiday! People tend to look at me strangely when I say that. It is not that I don't love or appreciate the other holidays.... I do. New Years, though, are about opening doors, and... well, I love the magic in that symbolism. I love a fresh start. I love having a year ahead of me with nothing defined other than possibility. A new year feeds my need to make chaos certain. There is no greater chaos than a year ahead without definition. YAY! I get to work on making 365 new days certain. I am giddy with the joy of it. I understand that for some of you, closing the door on 2015 feels like relief. It isn't as much the start of something new that you are looking forward to, but rather the end of something old. We have all had years like that. 2013 was like that for me. I was SO READY to start 2014. I would have been remiss, however, if I had closed the door on 2013 without taking a few things with me: the lessons I learned and the important people I me...