L.I.V.E. Life Inspired Views for Everyday

Send us Fan Mail People who used to talk about going to their 50th high school class reunions were "old" in my book. Well...I'm one of those "old" ones now because I just attended my 50th class reunion! Inwardly, I still feel a lot like that 18 year old girl who graduated from Menomonie High School on May 25, 1973, but oh....the story of life that has transpired between th...

Send us Fan Mail When was the last time you saw someone get really excited about something they were sharing? Think about it a bit. When was the last time you were excited sharing something with others? Those inspiring times wash our spirit with a tingling newness and inner excitement.  It's so wonderful when we have those moments. Today's podcast explores what they can be, how they feel...

Send us Fan Mail  I love one of the definitions of "pause" that I found in the Merriam Webster Dictionary. It states that "pause" can be, as a verb, "to linger for a time." Isn't that lovely? To linger for a time gives one the feeling of a peaceful control of the moment.  It's odd that I should use the word, "control" in the expansion of the meanin...

Send us Fan Mail How many advertisements or article titles have you seen promising something; a cleaner house, a happier life, or better relationships, all in 5 easy steps or 3 easy steps, etc.? We are drawn to the concrete and simple in hopes that lasting change can be made fast and easily. But there is a positive to that advertisment ploy. Research has shown that humans can most easily remember...

Send us Fan Mail I've been a storyteller for around 40 years. Throughout those years I have learned and told hundreds of stories and retold a lot of those stories hundreds of times. My life has been so enriched because of what I have learned through stories. It's no accident that stories have been passed down since the beginning of time. They are life sustaining. As holders of those stor...

Send us Fan Mail My dad was a man of metaphor and I think I picked up the love of metaphor from him. I'm always trying to see a situation through the lens of a story or another similar situation to help clarify or better understand it. My dad was also a very wise man. I wonder if that was a result of the pleasure he found in roaming his mind for metaphors that he could apply to so many situat...

Send us Fan Mail I often share how much I love my age. Fortunately, I'm quite healthy, which helps a lot. But there are some wonderful things about growing older. One of those things is that the older we get, the larger our treasure chest of memories becomes. We have lived through a lot of times and experiences. With age, it's possible to take a ride through those memories in awe that we...

Send us Fan Mail Throughout these podcasts you have heard me talk about the different characteristics of resilient people. One of those characteristics is being aware of one’s purpose, not meaning a job or career, but the spirit of knowing you are supposed to be on this earth. It is an important part of our living fulfilled.  If you're wondering about your purpose, tuck this quote inside your...

Send us Fan Mail Recently at a conference, I sat in a couple of sessions on the Enneagram, which is a sort of personality inventory that helps people describe and understand their core behaviors and motivations. It talks about the healthy parts and the stressed or unhealthy parts in our personalities. The important thing is self-awareness, such an essential part of living fulfilled.  When we are n...

Send us Fan Mail So many of us have Facebook accounts. And on that platform, we have “friends.” Many of them are truly good friends, but some of them are just acquaintances. We read the posts and sometimes respond. But today, I'm talking about the kind you make when you're face-to-face and share the things that are important to you.  In this world that's filled with so much that com...

Send us Fan Mail I am writing this intro note on my keyboard using only one hand. you will learn the reason when you listen to this podcast. In some ways, today's podcast snatches a bit of the amazement theme from my previous podcast because it takes only a little time without the use or access to a part of our body or a tool to realize the wonder of it! But what a gift that loss can be! With...

Send us Fan Mail There are so many tools at our fingertips to keep us resilient in challenging times. They take a bit of effort sometimes to get started, but once started, big changes can come from little tweaks to our habits and attitude.  This week, I want to encourage you to try one of my favorite ones. When we look past the curtain of gloom and fear in the world, there are so many absolutely a...

Send us Fan Mail I love learning!! The cell phone has become knowledge at our fingertips. But it comes at a cost, sometimes lives and relationships even. We know what happens when distracted drivers are texting or talking on cell phones. We know what happens when we pay more attention to our cell phones than those around us. Always the good and the bad, like the ying and the yang. But as Chip and...

Send us Fan Mail Isn't it funny when you become aware of something, you cannot stop noticing it, especially when it is not there? For example, when I became a professor and graded student papers, all of the sudden punctuation and misspelling, especially in newspapers or other publications, started irritating me. The same thing happened as we began emailing more and more. I had a colleague Sue...

Send us Fan Mail In schools today there is a lot of focus on preparing for a career all the way from elementary through high school. I wonder if kids feel more encouragement to become the thing they dream about or not? All I know is that in the "olden days," we didn't always have the kind of encouragement that would have helped us thrust ourselves into our dream career...or maybe so...

Send us Fan Mail I believe that one way to live in hope is to concentrate on what is good. It takes effort, but with enough time can be habit forming. Concentrating on the good makes living today so much more endurable! However, if you want to add an extra punch, concentrate on noticing what good others are doing and/or have done for you as well as making it a practice to do good for others.  It&a...

Send us Fan Mail It's easy to be cynical about people or situations unless the cynicism is pointed at us or our choices. It is not appreciated or wanted when those words or attitudes point a finger at us. It's hard to break a habit...but the results can affect more than we know. Step into the shoes on both sides of cynical attitudes and conversations. I hope you do not find comfort in ei...

Send us Fan Mail My journals always reflect what is important to me...my values, my observations, my connections to meaning, my drawing. Today I let the journal pick the topic. As is reflected most places in my journals...it spoke to living with meaning, choices, purpose, possibility, and peace. Seems to be a continuing theme throughout these 19 journals.  What do yours or would yours reflect abou...

Send us Fan Mail Isn't it funny how often when we are overwhelmed with busy-ness we decry, "I should.... or I shouldn't....?" On the other hand, when we are in a time of calm and a slow schedule, we often do the same thing..."I should...or I shouldn't." We have so many things we want to change or make better about ourselves or our habits. Well, we can...but some...

Send us Fan Mail April and May have always seemed so full and piled high with commitments, responsibilities, tasks to accomplish, etc. In fact, this year has seemed like a continual "April and May!" As we survey what keeps us awake at night or overwhelmed during the day, as we said in an earlier podcast, it's good to ask ourselves if we would rather be busy or bored! But for some of...

Send us Fan Mail Don't you wish there was magic dust that could be sprinkled on our world to fix the attitudes and behaviors we see today? If only we could all just be kind. It is a simple fix, but so hard to do. Perhaps it is because over the years we have become desensitized to treating people kindly, through exposure from all the sitcoms and movies we watched that showed snarky attitudes a...

Send us Fan Mail I love you!! Even though some of us have not even met, there is something about you that draws feelings of love because I know, just by listening to a podcast like this, that you are someone I would love. I believe we were given the capacity to love at our birth. We needn't judge what level, who we love, or why we decide to think we love someone. Love is everything and it is...

Send us Fan Mail Someone once told another friend that Kris Meyer must never have suffered because she is always so happy. I mentioned this in a podcast before. That assumption allowed me the opportunity to reflect on my life as I looked through the lens of, "have I suffered?" We are all humans and some of us have suffered more than others of us, however, we have all suffered. It is the...

Send us Fan Mail In a time when the trend toward manners and politeness is on the downturn, it is good to be reminded of the power they truly hold in our self-worth and the self-worth of others. I believe at our core we have an instinct to know what is the right thing to do.   Last week I talked about the fact that not everything in what we do and how we interact has to be a transaction. Just foll...

Send us Fan Mail We were checking into a hotel the other night and the hotel clerk was talking about what manners were like when we were kids, he was of our "vintage." :) We talked about the way we had to call adults Mrs. or Mr., even our parents' friends. Things have changed in those practices, but manners, politeness, and kindness should never go out of style.  We promote and prev...