I had the pleasure and privilege yesterday of working with a young woman to help her prepare for an upcoming speech contest. Her story is an inspiring one of some of the issues and obstacles she had to deal with while growing up, and of how she overcame them – as well as the insecurity and self-consciousness she felt because of them. She expressed gratitude for the people and organizations that helped her along the way, and described how they inspired and motivated her. She [...]
“This is your kind of rain,” my husband said. “I’m surprised you’re not standing by the door watching it.” He was right – it was my kind of rain, even though I hadn’t realized I had a “kind of rain” of my own, or that he would recognize it as such. It was a strong but gentle rain – the steady, consistent kind that comes without any wind or lightning and thunder. The kind that comes straight down and bounces off the pavement after hitting [...]
“A year and a half? You’ve only been here a year and a half? It seems like much longer.” I’ve heard that from several people just in the past few weeks, and I’m taking it as a compliment – even though I suppose it could be interpreted as, “It seems like we’ve been putting up with you a lot longer than that.” It’s actually been one year and seven months – if you want to be precise – since we moved to Georgia after 18 [...]
For those of us living in the southeastern U.S., it’s hard to focus on anything but Hurricane Florence right now. Although I live far enough away that we aren’t in any danger, we’re close enough that we’ll feel some of the effects of the storm – including a fair amount of wind and rain this weekend. Nothing like the brute force pummeling the coast, however, and nothing like the pounding we took last year when Irma came through. But even that didn’t hit us nearly [...]
Australia… Bahrain… Canada… China… Denmark… France… If you’re anything like me and you’ve ever seen the opening ceremony of the Olympics, you get a lump in your throat as you watch the Parade of Nations. I love seeing the athletes parade into the stadium, dressed in their team colors, and proudly displaying the flag of their country as they wave enthusiastically to those who are watching – from the stadium and from around the world. Germany… Guyana… Haiti… Hungary… India… Indonesia… As far as I’m [...]
By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be at this year’s Toastmasters International Convention. I’ve attended several International Conventions in the past, and was amazed at how many people I met, how much I learned from them, and how much I enjoyed the experience. But then life got in the way, and it’s been a long time since I’ve attended one. As you might expect, I’m really excited to be going this year! One of the things I remember most from my first International Convention [...]
“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” It’s a line from a song in the musical, Porgy and Bess, and it was also the theme of both our Toastmasters meeting this week, and the Table Topics portion of the meeting. During Table Topics, one person will ask a question or make a comment, and then call on another member to respond. That person has to talk on the subject for 1-2 minutes. Table Topics gives us all a chance to practice thinking on our feet, and [...]
We’re finishing up laundry and leftovers after a lovely visit from my sister and nephew last weekend. Now I’m packing and preparing for a weekend at the coast with three fantastic friends whom I haven’t seen in person in almost ten years. So I’m not going to write much this week, other than to say how wonderful it is to spend time relaxing and having fun with family and friends who mean the world to us. And that I hope you are able to enjoy [...]