Get Real with Lisa

I have been dealing with something super fun that everyone wants to talk about...aging parents. What? Not fun? It is really hard to see your parent who was once your protector, the boss of you and the one who kept you in line, fail in one way or another. I took my dad to visit the facility he will be moving into later this month, and I was surprised at all the little and big lessons I came away wi...

Don't most of us just have TOO much STUFF? I know I do. Sometimes we hang onto it because it seems comforting. For example, my mom loved sets of china. I think it made her feel like she wasn't poor any longer. Some people hang onto stuff because it is an obligation, i.e. me hanging on to my mom's china. We all have storage units and bins of stuff that hasn't seen the light of day i...

Remember learning how to drive and that person teaching us said, " Don't back up more than you have to." That valuable lesson we learned while driving can also be a metaphor that teaches us about life. We can look back and learn and grow and change. But it can also keep us stuck and stagnant. It can keep us from moving forward, opening the next door and stepping through. So use those...

Sometimes unexpected life events can teach us lessons that we never saw coming. Today, I am finally able (with some tears mixed in) to talk about the loss of my corgi, Nelson. He was with me through a lot of hard times and good times and was my little faithful companion to the end. But what I learned from the experience of losing him was the greater the love, the harder the loss. Losing something...

Hey! I'm back and ready to chat with you about the illusion of control. Sometimes we may think we have it all under control, but then life happens, and we realize we don't. Today's episode covers lots of topics including having to learn different ways to record this podcast, aging and struggling parents, unexpected death and more. But it's really about one topic - life is just not...

Have you ever wished for a time that was quieter, slower, less...internet? I know I do. This episode isn't really about 1985 but it is about bringing back things from a simpler time. Like the handwritten note. I have lots of little notes and cards from over the years of my life and they are so precious to me. If we had all had a cell phone in 1985, there would be a LOT less of those to treasur...

As time goes on, I realize how important friendship really is. And I also see how so many of us give up on friendships or let them just fade away because life gets busy and we don't see at the time how big a deal friendship really is. There are all different kinds of friends. Some are meant to be forever friends, and some are meant to be in our lives for a season. But we all know those people...

Have you ever had that feeling that something isn't right? If you are like me, you've had that feeling and chosen to ignore it. Call it your gut, your intuition, the still small voice, or God, but it is there for all of us. I can look back on times in my life that it is so clear I didn't listen to that voice and lost my inner integrity. I knew something or someone was wrong for me, but...

I got such a huge response from last week's episode that I decided to keep the conversation going. I think part of the reason it seems weird when all the kids fly the coop is that we lose our reason to be part of something. When we are momming, we are part of something bigger than ourselves. Then, suddenly, it's over, just like that. But the reality is, we didn't want to be mommed (or...

We raise the kids and raise the kids and raise the kids and then bam! They're all grown up! It is a good thing to have adult kids who are valuable members of society, but now what? For me, it has made me change my aim and start looking forward to finding purpose in other things. It has made me thankful for them and the lives that they are living. I think it's normal to feel that weirdness....

A few months ago, I was ruminating about past events and regrets I have. It was getting annoying, as ruminating often does, because I felt like it was a useless waste of time. In my frustration, I went to bed asking, "What do I do with this? What is the point?" I woke up the next morning with an answer. The lesson I learned in doing this was that sometimes we just need to ask the questio...

How many times have you signed up for things and then complained about it the whole time? I know I have been there... lots of times. For some reason, we really like to feel sorry for ourselves, even if we are the ones who fully caused the situation we are in! Guess what? All those things we signed up for were choices. We could have said no but we didn't; sometimes because we really wanted to c...

This episode is about gifts and knowing (or remembering) what your gifts are. We all have gifts, and we have them for a reason. I have the gift of gab. Yes, I have been told that I talk too much. But if I didn't talk a lot, I wouldn't have started this podcast! You see, our gifts are for sharing. They aren't for sharing with those who don't appreciate them. Nor are they for keeping...

What kind of customer are you? Are you kind and empathetic or are you an a**hole? My friend and I have this running joke about her being a demanding customer. I once asked her if she has ever done a service job... had she ever been on the OTHER side of the counter/table/bar. She said, "no". I told her, "Well you should because you're an a**hole". Now it's a running joke...

I'm starting something new! For a lighter side of Get Real with Lisa, every week I will do a funny mini episode that relates to a previous episode (referenced by the episode number and 2.0). The funny minis will be mini... and hopefully funny! Enjoy!

Yesterday was my birthday, and I had such a great time! Then again, I always do. I love my birthday and you know why? Because birthdays are a celebration of us being born...and STILL being HERE! At any moment, life can end and there won't be any more birthdays to celebrate. On your next birthday, I want to encourage you to let yourself be celebrated. Give others who love you the gift of celebr...

A friend once told me you might regret not going to a funeral, but you will never go to one and wish you hadn't. I have thought about that many times and realized she was so right. Funerals, celebrations of life and memorial services are so meaningful (and hard) but maybe the most important thing about them is that they are lessons in perspective. They make us stop and think about life, the un...

We tend to think of new beginnings as exciting and fun and good. But sometimes, new beginnings are unavoidable and not fun and the opposite of exciting. The thing about life is that we can't have the good stuff without the hard stuff. I hope you have wonderful new beginnings on your horizon. Just know that if your new beginning is a hard and painful one, it might just mean you have experienced...

I recorded this episode a while back but wasn't a huge fan of it, so I didn't post it till now. The reason I decided to publish it is because I really feel that you can glean some good stuff from it, even if it isn't my favorite episode of all time. Leading up to my daughter's wedding, I was reflecting on how quickly time goes by when our kids are young. I was reminiscing about how...

I have always placed a lot of importance on how I look. Hey... I grew up in the 80s when we took two hours every morning doing hair and makeup! It gets engrained in us that how we look is more important than other things- like what's on the inside. This lesson came swiftly to me recently when I basically curb-stomped my own face. I was carrying groceries and fell right into cement steps. It could...

I heard someone say today that if you have rules with not reason, the result is rebellion. I think we can all agree that rebellion sometimes comes, regardless. But this got me thinking about the people in my life and in my kids' lives who have spent time building relationships instead of just having a list of seemingly meaningless rules. Those people who take time to listen, ask questions, lea...

I had a good conversation with my sons last night about not knowing things. They grew up in a small, rural town and didn't know a lot of stuff their friends did. They didn't grow up fixing cars and building stuff. They grew up playing sports and being athletes. So they were talking about being frustrated about not knowing some of the general "stuff" their farmer-kid friends knew....

Now that I am not growing kids, I have a new interest in growing house plants. I love to watch them climb, leaf out and outgrow their surroundings. This got me thinking. A plant will only grow as big as the space it is given. The same goes for a fish. If you leave a fish in a little bowl, it will stay small. But if you put it in a large trough of water, it will grow as big as is comfortable for it...