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Purpose

These posts discuss the purpose of life.

Dare to Dream

We were walking down the street when we spotted this sign:

“Write down your goals and dreams for 2021”

The first two didn’t take me long: forward progress for my kids and health for my husband.

I was going to end it there, but something felt incomplete. I had forgotten myself. It had asked for my goals and dreams, not just theirs.

This is quintessential motherhood: you’re always last in line.

This generation of mothers has gotten the memo that in order to be “good moms” we have to be selfless. And while selflessness is a wonderfully endearing quality, it’s also a slippery slope to be “less of your self.”

And when I narrow my focus, that’s not what I want my children to see and then one day feel compelled to emulate. I don’t want them to view motherhood as martyrdom, I want to model what a full and complete life looks like for a …

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A New Kind of Resolution

Last year I made a resolution that for the first time ever I actually kept: I quit resolutions.

Yep, that’s right. No New Year rule I was bound to break weeks later and wrestle with guilt about. Nada. Done. Finito.

But here’s what I did do instead: I picked a word. One word that would encompass the next three-hundred-and-sixty-five days of my life. I simply closed my eyes, and let whatever word wanted to be with me come into my consciousness. And you know what landed?

Connection.

How funny (and yet not, if you know the way the world works).

Connection.

There’s arguably been a large amount of disconnect this year. Flights have been canceled; friends have gone unseen. I once spent my career speaking on stages and now I’m banished behind a screen. I desperately miss hugging people and high-fiving. I miss looking at someone’s full face as they pass by in the store and …

by Stephanie Hanrahan Girl's Night Out Guest Blogs HeartBeats Inspiration Inspirational Words Love Love In Action Loving Others Loving Yourself Purpose Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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If the Fates Allow

There’s been one Christmas song, or rather one line from a Christmas song, that’s really resonated with me this year:

“Through the years we all will be together. If the fates allow.”

If the fates allow.

The fates haven’t been favorable to many of us this year. Christmas, once filled with hustle and bustle and family time, may feel incredibly flat. Your merry and bright might be a little dulled.

But even though we can’t control our circumstances, we can take ownership of our perspective. So that’s the gift I’m giving myself this year. If what we focus on we feel, I’m going to grant my attention toward optimism. I’m going to remember that every year unlocks its own tragedies and triumphs, but that’s just part of the unsigned contract of humanity: sometimes we get to skim through life, and sometimes we suffer.

It’s a little too ambitious for me to say, “From now on …

by Stephanie Hanrahan Guest Blogs HeartBeats Inspiration Inspirational Words Love Love In Action Love in Family Loving Others Priorities Purpose Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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Children Need Presence, Not Presents

Just get on the floor with them.

That’s my answer when people ask me what my children want for Christmas. Just get on the floor with them. Come, quite literally, down to their level.

My best friend hadn’t seen my daughter for almost a year, but on her recent visit, she did just that. She sat in the company of my child and found a way to connect.

Knowing that Campbell loves arts and crafts (and her mother can’t Pinterest a project to save her life), they went to the store and gathered supplies to paint the most majestic of pumpkins. When her visit was over, she gave Campbell a stuffed unicorn that she’s slept with every night since. She rubs it to her nose and asks it to help her dream about her Aunt Jenn.

She met my daughter where she was and what resulted was magic.

It’s hard to do this as a …

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You Have What You Need

When I was in nursing school, I was introduced to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Basically, the gist is this: everything we “need” for human survival can fit into a pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid, the largest part, are your most basic needs: food, clothing, water, shelter. And as you move up, there are smaller needs (ie. friendship, companionship, acceptance). Still equally as important as the bottom tiers, but less vital for survival, hence smaller. After all, if you’re starving to death a spa day may seem a little secondary, right?

It donned on me this week, as I was sick and solely concentrating on my body‘s survival, that we live in a society that has the privilege of not worrying a lot about the bottom rung. Thankfully, most of us know where our next meal is coming from.

But the downfall to accessibility and ease is that we get a lot …

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The Silver Lining of Slowing Down

two kids and their dad in an inflatable pool in their backyard

Where I grew up, we didn’t have neighborhood pools or county festivals. We had gravel and dirt roads. In fact, it was such a small town we didn’t even have a chain restaurant until my senior year of high school. I’ll never forget the line that wrapped around the building on the eve of their opening, everyone just waiting for a taste of the elusive Appleby’s.

But there are some benefits to a slower space and pace, and one is that it breeds imagination. I’m probably as creative as I am because I spent a lot of time alone, telling my own stories from a wood deck or a fig tree.

I started my life in a small town and somehow ended up in Frisco, the “fastest growing city in America.” Things here are easier, more accessible. We have shopping and dining and events galore. Yesterday, I saw a robot on my …

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