Archive | Personal

This Too Shall Pass

My maternal grandmother, Eloise Ham, was raised alongside fourteen brothers and sisters in rural Timmonsville, South Carolina. She learned the value of hard work by caring for her younger siblings and performing her daily duties on the family farm. Tom Brokaw was right when he labeled her and her peers, The Greatest Generation. They taught us the value of an honest day’s work, the necessity for loving our neighbors and what it means to fear God. But the most valuable lessons my grandmother taught me […]

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Gratitude is a Matter of the Heart

When we witness greatness, particularly in athletics, it is difficult to deny. Each sport has its own champion. However, the greatest champion of all time wasn’t human. In 1973 the world saw greatness like never before in the form of a Thoroughbred race horse.  If you know anything of horse racing, you know Secretariat. Big Red, as he was called, was the greatest of all-time. In 1973, Secretariat won the Triple Crown of horse racing in grand fashion and still […]

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Greatfull: What I Learned by Misspelling

I have created a word that helps me see a clear picture of what it means to live richly: GREATFULL Greatfull is my vision of a life full of greatness, achieved through learning the power of gratitude. Read that again – using gratitude to accomplish greatness. Can we learn how to harness gratitude as the primary fuel to live the life we choose; to live a great life? I learned this lesson over a cup of coffee. Normally, before going […]

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Risk Taking – Tips on Making Decisions

Life is full of influential moments, they happen everyday. There are fewer moments that define who we are. Even making the decision to NOT let a moment define you can, in turn, be a defining moment. These moments are etched into our story as a necessary part of our experience. Can you define your moments? For me, making the decision to move to Florida after college was one of those moments. In hindsight, it changed everything. I want to share […]

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A Blind Man Taught me About Vision

I’m not a fan of the dentist, at all. Before you label me as an anti-dentite, just hear me out. It’s not the dentist himself or his hygienist, it’s the process. My impatience meets people messing in my mouth and I get freaked out. Last week, that dreaded visit came. As I pulled into my parking space and jumped out of my car, I was admittedly focused on the fact that I didn’t want to be there. I took no care to engage in […]

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My Kid Has Two Hearts? A Twin Story

Someone recently asked me: “Do you have any advice for someone expecting twins?” The transcendence happened immediately. Rather than being the one asking for advice, now, I was the one giving it. Not that I assume I’m in a position to give any advice at all, but this is my attempt. For the first time, I stand on the other side and look back on our craziness. The last three years of my life rushing by in reverse, memories pouring in like water […]

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Wake Up

I pulled the following excerpt from my journal. It was from my first few weeks of college. I was homesick and miserable. I had just moved away from my family and was searching for life on my own. “I feel so far from life…I’m so in between and it’s confusing…I’m too old to be a teenager, I miss those days, but I’m past that now. I’m too young to be an adult…I don’t know if it’s the fear of being […]

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