How do you define the word “consequence?”
Do you consider it a positive or a negative?
The Readers Write topic for the February 2021 issue of the The Sun was “Consequences.”
And I’m proud to say that I achieved my first Readers Write byline with my response.
You can click here to read it and all the other Readers Write responses.
I am happy and proud to share that my story, “ An Unexpected Gift,” has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories About Self-Care and Balance.
I’m the first to admit that I’m not the best at self-care or putting myself and my needs on the top of my to-do list.
I hope reading these stories will help you (and me) learn to regularly carve out “me time.”
The plan was for me to retire from my teaching career after twenty years, at least. Probably closer to thirty.
To retire because I chose to. Because the time was right.
The reality was different. I retired due to a disability after a twelve-year teaching career.
Everything changed. Not just my daily routines. But my identity.
I had to reinvent myself, in a sense.
Recently, I finished my second read of Claire Cook’s Never Too Late: Your Roadmap to Reinvention (Without Getting Lost Along the Way). The first time I read it was a year after I left teaching.
Now I re-read it, simply for a refresher. A little burst of encouragement to help me get out of my comfort zone and try some new things.
This week, I’d like to share just a few of the book’s gems with you.
“Life can be ridiculously tough. And when it is, we have two choices: give up or be tougher.”
“ ‘Of course you’re afraid,’ a character in my novel Time Flies says. ‘We’re all afraid. There are only two choices: afraid and boring.’ “
“If Plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters. (204 if you’re in Japan!)”
“I consider my almost-thirteen year old son to be an “Obama Baby.”
It’s all about the math. Ryan was born the year President Obama was elected as our nation’s first African-American President.”
Those words begin a personal essay that was just published on Motherwell Magazine’s Facebook page. Click here to read “Raising Obama Babies and Kamala Kids,” and please help spread the word.
“ ‘My leg kinda hurts, but it’s okay.’
That’s my standard answer when I’m asked how I’m feeling. I hesitate to say more. I don’t want to tell them (my husband, my son, my parents) how bad my pain is, simply because there’s nothing any of them can do to ease my pain.”
You just read the beginning of my recently published essay “What I Really Mean When I Say ‘My Leg Kinda Hurts’.”
The reality is more complicated than that.
Click here to be re-directed to The Mighty to read my essay in its entirety.
WendyKennar.com 