By Samantha McKenzie “There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.” William Barclay  Life is full of itself. It’s full of work and meetings and schedules and things to do. It’s also full of things you have to do for other people…

By Dawn Onley Never get comfortable being broke. I’m not just talking about finances. I’m talking about broken relationships, broken health, broken life choices and broken spirits. Being financially broke may be just a natural end result of all of the other brokenness. Most of us will eventually experience seasons of brokenness, when we are unemployed and can’t…

By Dawn Onley I slept for 6 hours and 27 minutes last night. I know this because my FitBit recorded it. I also know that I was restless six times and during one of those restless bits, I lay awake for 17 minutes. Technology is smart. It’s nothing short of amazing that it can capture…

By Samantha McKenzie “By the time! Surely man is in loss, except those who believe and do good, and exhort one another to truth, and exhort one another to patience.” Holy Qu’ran, Chapter 103 I don’t like mediocre, ordinary, uninspiring, middle-of-the-road, lackluster, amateurish, unstudied, indifferent anything. I don’t like the spiritless, almost done, unrehearsed, passionless,…

By Samantha McKenzie Being beautiful is a thing. It’s like a billion-dollar industry kind of thing. The idea of it is so powerful, that many build their entire existence upon it. Like the entertainment industry. And the beauty industry (no pun intended). It’s so subjective that it creeps into every aspect of our lives.  But,…

By Dawn Onley At the risk of sounding hokey, I don’t believe in coincidence or luck. I don’t believe in fluke. I believe in divinely orchestrated occurrences. I believe in things that are beyond my level of comprehension conspiring to my benefit. I believe in ‘God winks’, which author SQuire Rushnell decribes as “messages of…

By Samantha McKenzie “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”  (Holy Bible, Mark 2:22) Have you ever shared a new idea with someone who responded in a negative way?…

  “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill By Dawn Onley This has been a tough year for me. Property damages from several storms have been significant. Time estimates have run over. I’ve had to take a troublesome tenant to court. Transitions have not always run smooth. I’ve lacked focus and even motivation….

By Samantha McKenzie I’m exhausted. I’m not tired from work nor the usual things in life that often weigh me down. I’m not even tired from relationships — the ones with family members, loved ones, or associates. I’m exhausted from sexism, from chauvinism, from the pervasive machismo that exists in our world. I’m exhausted from…

By Dawn Onley Hope is one of those words that is used so much, its meaning has become watered down. Case in point: I was at the grocery store the other day. Overheard at the Customer Service line, a shopper tells the store clerk that he hopes he wins the Powerball, like hope is some…