Is Your Past Getting in the Way of Your Future?

We think we need to be perfect, or at least somewhere close. We have so little grace for ourselves, for what we’ve been through, where we’ve come from. A beautiful woman is looking out from behind a chain link fence, symbolic of her own beliefs that are keeping her from having the relationship she wants.

I received an email the other day that really got to me. It was from a reader who felt that her past behavior with men had precluded her from having a future with a good man. My heart went out to her. It brought back to me all those times I, too, questioned my own [...]

I Can't Make You Love Me

Of course you thought you could make someone love you. Haven't we all been there? You, too, believed, in spite of what everyone told you, that you could actually change his heart. A beautiful woman looks out at the snow knowing it's finally over.

You know exactly what I'm talking about here. Because you've been down this path far too many times before. Of course you thought you could make someone love you. Haven't we all been there? You, too, believed, in spite of what everyone told you, that you could actually change his heart. And no matter how [...]

Don't Fall in Love With His Potential

Don't fall in love with his potential. A beautiful woman sits in the grass and looks out across the valley at a beautiful sunset.

"I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than [...]

This Really Is The Best Kind Of Love

The Best Kind of Love - fun and romantic love notes on the mirror.

You probably could have guessed this about me, but I absolutely love love stories.  I just found this one recently, and it’s definitely going in the inspiration box. I'm not sure exactly why, but this one really had the tears welling up.  It may be since I’ll be celebrating 10 years of marriage this year, [...]

To Love is to Risk

To Love is to Risk (Risk Ahead Sign on road)

Some correspondence I had with a reader last week got me to thinking about how life is really all about taking risks.  And how anything worth having usually requires risking something of ourselves.  Like love.  Especially when we’re talking about love in the truest sense of the word. Because when we put ourselves out there [...]

Something from The Inspiration Box

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Here’s one of my favorite poems that I've found inspiration in many times over the years.  This one I had on a print hanging on my wall when I was in my twenties; it’s now very tattered and worn from taking it down off the wall and hanging it back up each time I moved.  [...]

Part III: If I knew then what I know now...

...I wouldn’t be so scared that I had to be doing something to meet him right now or else someone else was going to find him first. I would know that scarcity is a lie that we’re brought up with, but it’s not true.  There’s always enough of everything if we believe it – even [...]

Believe

Loving couple sitting and hugging in the park.

I know what you’re thinking.  It sounds like a cliché.  Just believe!  It’ll happen.  Just believe it and it’ll come true.  And while there are a lot of people out there who claim the power of believing in something, that it really works, I’m going to go a step further here and talk about the [...]

Hope

If we have hope, it’s everything. It’s the difference between staying in a relationship that’s bad for us, thinking that’s all we deserve and all we can get, and having the strength to let go and move on. A lonely tree stands at the edge of a beautiful field.

We’re glued to the screen.  Wanting to know it worked, that it’s real.  They’re getting married.  Going on a fabulous honeymoon. Going to start a family and live happily ever after. The whole package, the real deal.  Think Trista and Ryan of the Bachelorette fame.  Think of our obsession with Kate and Prince William.  With [...]