Life Lessons

Never Enough

grief, Life Lessons, memoir, Spiritual Growth

Play to Win In the Summer of 2020, my brother was on an internet reality show called Play to Win. The show, produced by a husband-and-wife entrepreneur team, is a spinoff-of-sorts of NBC’s primetime hit The Apprentice. A group of contestants compete for a “life-changing job” or a “six-figure coaching opportunity”. [1]. During one interview with the hosts, the wife called my brother out for being fake, wearing a mask. She said, “I feel like there’s something you’re hiding. …Maybe it’s because you always have a smile on your face. …You hide your true self behind the smiles and the positivity all the time.” With teary eyes and trembling voice my brother described…

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A Grief Observed

freedom, grief, Life Lessons, memoir, Spiritual Growth

“Losing a beloved is an amputation.” – C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed I once listened to a podcast in which a psychiatrist was talking about why it feels like we lose a part of ourselves when we lose a loved one. He said that, unwittingly, we store information, memories and experiences in the brains of other people we are close to; like an external hard drive. Our own minds have limited capacity to keep all the data we need, so we share mental and emotional data resources with others. We see this phenomenon to be particularly true when someone loses a spouse and has no idea what the bank password is, or what…

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Sabbatical

faith, grace, Life Lessons, momming, Spiritual Growth, Success & Motivation

About 18 months ago, I was in a meeting with a client in Miami when the woman I was meeting with pulled a second person in the room. She announced she was leaving the company in two weeks, and this was her replacement. This was not entirely uncommon, but what happened next was. I asked her what she was going to do, “Are you staying in the industry?” “No,” she said, “I’m going back home (some country in South America) to take a sabbatical. I’m going to spend time with family and take time to figure out what I want to do.” I started crying. Right there, in the middle of her office….

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I Never Wanted to Be A Mommy Blogger

Life Lessons, momming

This time last year, I went to bed about 9pm on a Wednesday just like any other night. Save for the fact I was VERY pregnant – 38 ½ weeks. Around 1am, I woke up to the sound of a pop and the sensation of a gush – my water broke. Twenty hours later, I went from wife-and-woman-only to: mama.When it was over, I cried, but only because it was the most grueling two hours [of active labor] of my life and we both survived. I never wanted to go through labor and delivery. In my naivete, I always told people if I ever had a baby, I would schedule a c-section to…

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Nov 4th, 2016

Life Lessons, memoir, Success & Motivation

Three years ago on this day, I sat on my living room couch in my snack-stained bathrobe and messy bedhead bun – on what should have been one of the happiest days of my life – only feeling confused and disappointed. I remember thinking, this is not at all what I imagined this would be like. I thought I would feel…..different. I thought I would feel something at least. Anything but the way I did. It was launch day for my first book, Now What? A Story of Broken Dreams and the God Who Restores Them. This was the culmination of a six-year journey. The achievement of a dream I had held in…

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Dear 21 Year Old Self…

grace, Life Lessons, marriage, relationships, second marriage, Spiritual Growth

Twelve years ago – on this very day (as Shutterfly so aptly reminded me) – I was saying “I do” for the first time in my life. I was young, naïve, blissfully ignorant…. And so, so, so misinformed. I meant the words I said with all of my 21-year-old heart, but I was ill-equipped to fulfill them. I was short-tempered, self-righteous, and lacked any understanding of the word Grace whatsoever. The bigger problem was my mountain of unrealistic expectations.  I was expecting marriage to fulfill me. My husband to complete me. And thought we would live happily-ever-after day-after-day. I read recently that, “Expectations are disappointments waiting to happen.” I did not hide my…

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There’s No Such Thing As Annuals

Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

My mom used to own and operate her own greenhouse. If having a green thumb is a thing, my mom is green head-to-toe – that woman can make anything grow anywhere! Recently, while sitting on my deck looking at the shriveling petunias left over from our 4th of July party, I was saddened by the fact they were almost completely dead. Brown, dry, crisp. With only a hint of their former green life remaining. Not that I hadn’t been caring for them, but Petunias are annuals, which means they only bloom for one season, one year, and then they die. They will not regrow or bloom again next year, their little roots cannot…

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Apple Seeds and Deep Prejudices

Life Lessons, Metaphors, Spiritual Growth, Success & Motivation

In the Spring of 2016, I realized I am prejudice. prejudice noun prej·u·dice \ˈpre-jə-dəs\ :  an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics : an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc. : a feeling of like or dislike for someone or something especially when it is not reasonable or logical All of these definitions fit my condition perfectly. But my prejudices have nothing to do with skin color. Home Sweet Home While preparing a message to give at a ladies luncheon at small church in Southern Kentucky, I got stuck. When I booked the event,…

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Two Weeks Ago, I Googled Myself

faith, freedom, Life Lessons

When the devil whispers a lie to you, it’s not random. It’s intentional. Deliberate. It’s the exact opposite of the Truth. The specific Truth he is trying to discredit in your life. It gives you a little insight into his playbook. Two weeks ago, I googled myself. It wasn’t out of arrogance, I promise, rather shear curiosity. Barry (my husband) and I were driving around town when he told me about a DJ friend of his from college, “He moved to L.A. and is like a real life, big time DJ. You can google him!” So naturally I thought, I wonder what happens when you google “Author Rachel Dawn”? So I did. To…

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Would All the Real Martha’s Please Stand Up?

faith, Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

My friend Katie Reid just finished her book, “Made Like Martha: Good News for the Woman Who Gets Things Done” and invited me to be on the launch team. I eagerly jumped at the chance  – not just to help create buzz for my friend and her release in July, but a little selfishly, because the book sounds like it was written just for me. There’s a story in the Bible, in the book of Luke, about two women, sisters – one’s named Mary and one is Martha – who have an encounter with Jesus.  Martha invites him to their house for dinner, but spends the whole time doing things for her guest,…

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