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

Send us Fan Mail  This podcast hails from the depth of my heart. Everything that has life on this earth is here for relationship. I believe plants, animals, and humans all need relationship. It's part of life. But we so often fall short of nurturing relationships because of the walls we build up to elevate ourselves or to protect us from fear. This podcast gives each of us a challenge. Be the...

Send us Fan Mail The second mountain title is taken from a book I recently read by David Brooks. It talks about the 2nd half of life. We are always living the 2nd half of something...a school year, a moment, a decision, a trip... My friend, Bill Hamm, just learned that his 2nd half is nearing the finish line. When we are faced to walk that journey with someone, it makes us mindful in two major way...

Send us Fan Mail I may have mentioned this before, but one of my favorite compliments given to me was from a former pastor who said, "Kris, you don't remind me of anyone." I love it because I grew up trying to fit it, to be cool, to be liked. It took me a long time to learn the art of transparent living, but the joy it has brought to my life is worth the risk everyday. Now I don&apo...

Send us Fan Mail This week presents one of the hardest lessons we can work on but that can change lives the most and ultimately our world. The freedom we afford ourselves by being willing to push beyond our anger, resentment, or total dislike to forgiveness, acceptance, and love can make our lives and those of others so much worth living. We truly do not know freedom until we are able to step acro...

Send us Fan Mail The feeling of losing something you have really liked, treasured, or needed can be kind of devastating. We often remind ourselves or have heard people respond by saying, "well, it's not the end of the world." It is true, but that doesn't always take away the disappointment. However, I believe it is a good discipline to practice the art of "letting it go.&q...

Send us Fan Mail This is the last review of "Bathroom Mirror Quotes" from the past year to celebrate the podcast's 1st anniversary. It was fun and meaningful for me to see the sequence of thoughts and themes I wanted to share with you since the start of this podcast. As I look at the nudges I get each week that leads me to deciding what I will talk about on the podcast, it reminds m...

Send us Fan Mail It's the first anniversary of this podcast. If we could be together, we would celebrate with popcorn, cookie dough, and a spot of wine. But, instead, we are connected by the invisible cyber world and our hearts. You've taken residence in my heart this year. Thank you for listening, encouraging me, pondering new and old thoughts, and hopefully enhancing your world with mo...

Send us Fan Mail Next week will be  the One-Year Anniversary of this podcast! Can you believe it? Thank you for being such faithful listeners and encouragers for this newfound passion of mine! Writing these has stretched me in wonderful ways and brought me so much joy! One of my goals in retirement was to write more. As in counseling, when the words step out of your mind onto paper or into listeni...

Send us Fan Mail Whenever looking forward to something, I always find myself humming Carly Simon's 1970's tune, Anticipation, in my mind. Ah, the things we look forward to in great anticipation! Like the Spanish writer, Cervantes said, "The journey is greater than the inn." Sometimes the anticipation of something is actually sweeter than its reality. Well the experience I will...

Send us Fan Mail Last week we anticipated the arrival of our only grandson and his parents, our son and his partner, from Seattle to spend Christmas in Iowa. Along with our Iowan daughter, we started the beginning of the week full of joy, laughter, and full hearts that comes with the fulfillment of being together as a family. However, the week took a turn quite quickly with half of us entertaining...

Send us Fan Mail How often have you heard, "You can't take it with you?" That is such an inward line. All about us, our wants. A focus on what we have. The truth in it really says, it's not ours to keep anyway.  Who do you think of when you think of the most generous people you know? There are several who immediately come to my mind. Those kinds of people are a gift in themselv...

Send us Fan Mail Each week I wait for a nudge that will give me a direction to write about for this podcast. As we are in the Christmas season, the nudge this week oddly came from a Norwegian Christmas "cookie" called kringle in contrast to a favorite poem I learned from our son, Andrew. I hope you're curious! Thanks for listening!

Send us Fan Mail A bit of a different title this week. I know that Christmas does not always feel magical to those who have struggled with experiences that sometimes can be made worse by all the attention on the magic of the season. But my hope is that in spite of what may have happened we can each find something that fills the need to love and to believe in.  Thanks for listening!

Send us Fan Mail We know that to live we need food, water, and sleep. But to truly survive, we need love. When it comes to us easily, we often take it for granted, but when it is not there, we as humans yearn for it. Love cannot be seen or measured, but it is essential. A movie served as a good reminder of how necessary love is in order To Live a Wonderful Life . Thanks for listening!

Send us Fan Mail Do you ever wish you could erase a mistake you have made in a social or life situation as easily as you can erase your words on a computer screen? When those life mistakes happen, it can hurt and we often bear that painful memory in embarrassment or regret. However, the test of character comes when we determine what we are going to do with that wrong. If we learn something from it...

Send us Fan Mail Last week I, along with more than 500 other professional school counselors in Iowa, attended our annual state conference. It was pure joy to be with so many who I have worked with, taught, or known for so many years. These people are dedicated to helping students and staff in our schools learn, grow, and heal. That's what they do. They help people get to the "other side&...

Send us Fan Mail I will always remember when someone asked my former pastor, Lee Laaveg how I remembered all the stories I told. He said, "Because she says them over and over!" We all laughed, but that is so true. (I've probably already told you that!)  That adage is befitting of what I share with you in this week's podcast. What is also befitting, is one of my favorite quotes...

Send us Fan Mail I'm preparing to teach a seminar on the art of storytelling. Folklore is filled with the understanding of society and human nature. For hundreds of years, stories such as Cinderella , Beauty and the Beast, The Billy Goats Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Lion King have been used to bring the message to young and old that we must always strive to be of good character, ki...

Send us Fan Mail If you remember the days of vinyl records, then you may remember what happened to them when they got a scratch. Often they would get stuck and repeat a section over and over. That is where the clique, "like a broken record" comes from. It means to repeat something over and over, often in an annoying fashion.  In 5th grade, one of my classmates called me "fat."...

Send us Fan Mail What are three letters in the alphabet that we cannot live without? A, N, and D...which spells "and." Think about how many ways we use it and how many times in a conversation it pops up. Just try connecting with people or teaching something to someone without that little word. Little things can be so big sometimes, can't they?  The more I think about that word, the...

Send us Fan Mail Many years ago, my husband Donnie and I sang songs together recorded by Steve and Annie Chapman. One of the songs they recorded was entitled, Two Children. It was a true story about two children abused by their father. They are described in the lyrics as "one who lives in peace, out in Ohio, the other one was bitter till the day she died." I was so struck by the differen...

Send us Fan Mail I have a diastema. That means I have a space between my front teeth. I did not like that so well as a kid, however, my dad always told me it was part of my personality. I wonder today if he meant I was "spacy!!" I would put rubber bands around them at night hoping they would grow together, but alas, the space remains. I grew to accept that "flaw," but it took a...

Send us Fan Mail My husband and I flunked retirement. We both took part time jobs after retirement, agreed to being on several boards, and now since my husband is Rotary District Governor, we are traveling all across Northern Iowa visiting 49 Rotary Clubs by December. Sprinkle in there several speaking engagements and a trip to Seattle to take care of our grandson and you have...busy!!  We expecte...

Send us Fan Mail There's a song from my childhood that goes, "Little drops of rain, little grains of sand, make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land." It's to remind us that we should never discount the littlest of things in our lives or world because they can make a big effect.  How often have we heard phrases about "changing the world." But change always starts wi...

Send us Fan Mail When I hear the word "elder," I think of the American Indian or Asian stories I heard in my childhood. The memories of those stories bring a warm and strong feeling of tenderness and sage wisdom.  We need elders today in this world dominated by a sense of chaos or uncertainty. I believe they are still among us. It is up to us as individuals and as a society to look for t...