• Essays,  General Thoughts

    Quitting: Is it failure?

    Quit can be such a negative word. I’ve heard messages my entire life of “don’t quit” or “don’t give up.” I use the word “quit” with my kids almost every single day in the form of “Quit fighting!” I laugh at that because they’re never going to stop fighting. When they really get into an argument that won’t let up, I make them do more chores. I figure if they’re going to fight, they might as well do something productive while they argue. We encourage our children to stick with sports or their music, dance or karate lessons that we may or may not have pressured them into taking in…

  • Essays,  General Thoughts

    Permission to Fail

    When failure rears its ugly head, it hurts, but it’s also an opportunity for growth and change. National Novel Writing Month #NaNoWriMo took place in November. The goal, although self-imposed, was to write at least 50,000 words of a novel during the month. I started off strong, reached my daily word count, and generally kicked ass. Then I got stuck in the middle, so I skipped the middle for a while and worked on the after-the-middle part and rocked it. Then the final proof for Caroline’s Lighthouse came, which meant I spent several evenings and a whole vacation day proofing it. It was the most important free-time task I had…