Holidays

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” ~William Arthur Ward I live in the windiest city in the world—Wellington, New Zealand. Perched between the North and South Island, this colorful little city gets hammered by wind. The winds from the south bring cold, and the winds […]

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” ~C.S. Lewis I was talking to a mentor of mine several months ago, and they cut me off midsentence and said, “Zach, it sounds like you’re trying to be extraordinary. How about you just work at being ordinary?” I paused then promptly broke into tears. Yep.

“Letting go doesn’t mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be.” ~Unknown You two are family. Maybe you grew up with them and were by their side for a huge chunk of their life. There was a lot of laughing, crying, and sharing. Some fighting too. You know how their

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” ~Frederick Douglass In an eighteen-month window, I had a landslide of firsts that I would not wish on my worst enemy. I ended my first long-term relationship with someone I deeply cared for but did not love. She had borderline personality disorder, and I was not

“I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ~Nelson Mandela A few years ago, I attended what most people with social anxiety would call a nightmare event—a wedding. Although I was

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” ~Steve Jobs I was a sensitive child growing up, and I felt everything deeply. Unfortunately, my childhood home was dominated by chronic tension, fear, and anger—not an ideal environment for anyone, let alone a perceptive and