But......What if I Can?

What if you look in the mirror and instead of telling yourself that you aren't good enough to achieve something you tell yourself that you can? What.........If.........I...........Can.............???!?!?!?!?

Not so long ago I found an instructor on the Peloton bike that spoke to me. And I don't mean motivated me to get me to just push harder during my workout.  While that is important, she has a way of speaking to your soul and meeting you right where you are. On one of her rides I was all in my head and thinking of all the reasons I couldn't do the things she was asking. I was recovering from surgery, I wasn't a trained cyclist, I barely knew how to clip my shoes in and out of the bike.......and the list went on. At one point she stopped peddling, looked in the camera, and said WHAT IF YOU CAN? NOW GO (meaning turn up the resistance and peddle your heart out)!!! Those words have stuck with me. What if I can?

We spend so much time as women telling ourselves all the reasons we aren't good enough. I am here to remind you, just as that Peloton instructor did for me,  that you are enough. Just as you are. Not when you finish your degree, or get the next best job, or your kids get to the next stage of life, or lose 10, 20, 50, 100 pounds, but right now you are enough. You are capable of way more than you think you are.

Will your journey include skinned knees? Yep. Will it include times when you want to quit? Absolutely. But I want you to remember that it is not about the pain, it is about your power. It is about finding your inner voice and telling her you can. So when the doubt creeps in, and it will, ask yourself this simple question.......But, what if I can?

Youth Suicide

WOW!! It's been a long time since I have used this format. I wasn't even sure I remembered by login information. But, here I am. I wish it was for a different reason, youth suicide is a heavy topic. A topic that most people hear about, feel bad that they know someone who took their own life, vow to make a change, and a week later it is business as usual. That needs to stop.

Yesterday we learned of two, yes TWO, students that committed suicide in our district. And today I learned that the teenage suicide rate in the state of Colorado is DOUBLE the national average. How did that happen? What is different about this state than others? While I can't answer those questions, I can tell our story. I will not stop telling our story until something changes. Many of you know bits and pieces of our story, but not the entire story. Our entire story is way to long for this post, so I will give you a brief view.

Being a military family means lots of moves to new locations, schools, and making new friends. My kids know all to well what it is like to be the new kid. It's not fun. Especially as they got older. We got spoiled in NC. We were there for 9 years. That's a long time for a military family to be in one spot. The Army said it was time to go and we moved to Colorado about 2 years ago. As in previous moves I searched and searched and searched and searched where we should live, where will the boys go to school. We had high schoolers when we moved to Colorado. That is a beast we had not had to tackle before with the military moves. We had to deal with different episodes of bullying through the years, but nothing like we have seen here.