I think most people are ready for 2020 to be over, myself included.

We all know that nothing actually changes going into the New Year. COVID will still be here. Chaos in our government will be prevalent. Riots will likely continue.

But what a New Year does give us is… hope.

Hope that things will change. Hope that we can change. Hope that we can make things change.

Let’s be honest, this publication is wild. All over the place.

And it works.

It fits.

It’s as it says, synergistic, welcoming.

There’s a lot of energy here. A lot of support.

When I first started writing on Medium, I had poured my heart into some stories I had written and then I posted them into the vastness of Medium only to be swallowed up into obscurity. As I’ve met others on here, this seems to be the common way of getting started.

I didn’t really know how to use Medium yet. I didn’t know how to engage with other…

Rachel, a few days from turning 104, went to the doctor’s office for a cortisone shot. She asked where a couple of specific doctors were, and her daughter-in-law let her know that they had already died. Rachel responded, “What! All the doctors have died and I’m still here?!!”

That’s the Rachel I know, or for me, Grandma.

Rachel was born on Nov 29th, 1915, in Hope, Indiana.

She lived through the Great Depression, losing her life savings she had put away in the bank to attend college.

She was a female reporter in an era where few women worked. She…

Hello Medium!

What a fun year spending time with all of you. I’m a lot like most of you. I love to write. I dream of being published. And I didn’t quite know what my next steps were. A friend recommended I sign up for Medium and it’s been quite the year.

I kicked off my first month of writing with 5 cents! Any of you feel me?! (No matter how much you start with, you’re getting paid, which means, you’re a professional writer, congratulations!)

Have you ever spoken to the shadows as you walk?
Because what you wanted was someone who wouldn’t talk?

You wanted someone there, but you wanted to be alone
You wanted a hand to hold but preferably without bone

You wanted to tell your side, but a response was not needed
You wanted to pour out your heart without feeling beaten

You wanted to talk and talk and talk
As you continued to walk and walk and walk

So many thoughts for this pondering ear
But it’s a shadow who can’t even hear

And after my heart was poured …I…

It’s a common assumption that time is the most precious thing we have. Without time, what exactly do we have?

But it’s not time that makes a difference. It’s not time that makes the impact. We can spend our time doing many things or even nothing at all.

As Dr. Jim Loehr states, “The most precious resource we have is not time, but energy. We are vessels of energy, as long as we have energy, we can have impact.”

It’s the energy we put into life, the energy we put into another person or task, that matters.

Time is precious…

If living were simple, my heart would be full
Instead as I lie here, my heart has grown cold
If I were to be honest, I think I was sold
A bad bill of goods that nobody told
Me what to expect, when life comes full speed
And before you know it, you wreck and you bleed
You swerved to miss it but there was nowhere to go
And you’re all out of highs, you only have lows

They say pick up your bootstraps and make your own way But the only thing easy about that is it’s easy to…