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Celebrate the Spirit: ’Twas the Monday Before Christmas Poem
’Twas the Monday before Christmas, and all through the house, Moms hurried with purpose, quick as a mouse.The stockings were hung weeks ago with great care,While inflation-driven prices gave shoppers a scare. The tree was already trimmed, lights glowing just right,Two-week breaks have begun, days blurring into night.Packages now rest in delivery hands,While dads eye…
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Slow Sunday Feature
Keeping It Real (and Really Vintage) with Kelly Szabo A conversation on calling, caregiving, and the sacred work of secondhand Editor’s Note There are creators you watch for tips, and then there are creators you return to because they make you feel grounded.Kelly Szabo is both. I’ve known Kelly online for years now, long before…
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Slow Down Saturday: The Sacred Work of Waiting
Right now, most packages are no longer in our hands.Except for express overnight, they are entrusted to delivery drivers, moving steadily toward their destinations. The rush is over. The labels are printed. The Q4 push has ended. For resellers, creators, and small business owners, this moment always feels strange. After weeks of urgency, strategy, and…
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Wisdom Wednesday: When You Can’t Be There and the Plan Still Changes
When you are preparing to welcome a child into the world, planning becomes a form of comfort. Appointments are scheduled, lists are checked, and a birth plan is carefully discussed with medical providers. You imagine who will be in the room, how the day will unfold, and the role you will play when the moment…
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Tuesday Tip: Getting Personal — Faith in a Broken World
I was in college when I first began to seriously wrestle with faith. Raised in an atheist household, I had become a Christian in high school, much to the dismay of my father, who warned me of the dangers of organized religion. He believed faith was a crutch for the weak. I believed something deeper…
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Wisdom Wednesday: The Heart, the Hype, and the Hope of Advent
What Pink got right, what culture gets wrong, and what Jesus came to redeem It is interesting how inspiration for a post can strike from seemingly anywhere. Sometimes it is a verse, sometimes it is a headline, and sometimes it is a pop song from Pink. In her song “Try,” Pink sings,“Where there is desire,…
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The Algorithm of Outrage: Not Every Headline Deserves Your Peace
We live in a time where outrage is currency. Social media feeds us headlines designed to spark emotion, arguments, and clicks. The more heated we get, the more the algorithm wins. But here’s the truth: not every headline deserves your peace. Parasocial Relationships and the Illusion of Intimacy With the rise of social media, we’ve…
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Tuesday Tip: When Identity Becomes Religion and the Revival That Follows
I’m 51 years old, a Gen Xer who grew up believing in liberal ideals. For most of my life, I thought I understood what it meant to be a Democrat: fighting for fairness, standing up for the underdog, and pushing for progress. But over time, I began to see a shift. For me, the change…
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A New Season, A Fresh Direction
As the leaves begin to change and the air turns crisp, I’ve been reflecting on the direction of this blog and what will serve both me and my community best in the coming months. After much thought (and more than a few cups of coffee), I’ve decided to keep my focus on writing—through this blog,…
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I Was 17 When I First Heard Gloria Steinem Speak–It Felt Like a Rallying Cry. Now It Feels Like a Warning.
I was 17 the first time I heard Gloria Steinem speak at a rally for young women. We were told we were powerful.That we could do anything.That we didn’t need men, and we certainly didn’t need to raise them. Back then, it sounded like a revolution.Today, it sounds like indoctrination. 💔 Nobody Asked the Children…
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The Weight of the World and the Rest We Were Promised
In April 1999, I was one month away from college graduation when Columbine happened. My younger brother was still in high school, and watching teenagers his age running for their lives, or not making it out at all, was terrifying. Two years later, I stood in front of the TV with the rest of the…
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The American Dream: Bigger Was Never Better
When the Wall Street Journal runs a headline about Americans being “trapped” in smaller homes and jobs they can’t leave, it strikes a nerve. For Gen Xers like me, the question isn’t whether the American Dream is collapsing—it’s whether we’ve misunderstood what the dream really was all along. The Roots of the Dream The real…
THE OUBAITORI EDIT 