Fill up to Spill out

  I think I write about this every single year, but January and February tend to be my least favorite months, despite January being my birth month.  These months are dark and gray and cold, and as someone that thrives on longer days filled with sunshine, flowers, and time spent outdoors, these 60 days are not my favorite.  I will really get in a funk if I'm am not super intentional about filling my days with purpose and joy.   This year, I chose "committed" as my word for the year and set specific goals related to staying committed to nourishing my body with foods that fuel it, drinking more water and physically getting stronger, writing my next book, being more present and fun, having more game nights with my girls, and also being committed to finding and creating joy again in my job as a nurse practitioner.   I'm sure I don't need to tell most people this, but the last 2 years have been challenging, and working in healthcare and education has been brutal. ...

One of my very favorite movies that I have watched at least a hundred times is Sweet Home Alabama .  As Melanie (played by Reese Witherspoon) goes back home to Alabama to confront her past, so she can marry her new and dreamy boyfriend from New York City (played by Patrick Dempsey), she discovers that you can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl.  Her first love Jake reminds her one evening that she can have roots AND wings... she can have BOTH.   As we start a new year, we see so many posts about New Year, New You!  New Year, New Goals and Dreams!  As a long-time dreamer and goal-setter and as someone who is always looking to learn and grow and become a better version of myself, I am also reminded by this movie that we can have BOTH.  We can be this AND that.  We can have deep, deep roots AND also wings that fly.   For example... I can be deeply rooted in my country upbringing AND choose to live in a larger...