From The Valley, Mission.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is … Continue reading From The Valley, Mission. →

May’s Extraordinary Woman: My Mom

I used to think my mother was weak. As a teenager, my mother would quietly choose second place. She would submit herself in faith and it drove me crazy. I have in the past equated strength to the ability to get what you want. I have had a bull in a china shop mentality. Know … Continue reading May’s Extraordinary Woman: My Mom →

Dana Carrozza: An Everyday Extraordinary Woman

“This baby will not survive, and you aren’t going to live through this one either,” the doctor informed Carrie Marrs. It was 1952 and she was pregnant with her third child. In her first pregnancy, she had developed toxemia which led to the death of her first born, a daughter. After a successful, uneventful birth … Continue reading Dana Carrozza: An Everyday Extraordinary Woman →

Proud of Your Life

I took my girls to see the opening of Justin Baldoni's Five Feet Apart. The terminal teen romance drama, likened to Fault in Our Stars, shares the story of hospitalized teens living with Cystic Fibrosis. Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) and Will (Cole Sprouse) are restricted in their romance by the disease that has taken so … Continue reading Proud of Your Life →

International Women’s Day—2019

It never dawned on me that being a woman was a limitation. I grew up a Southern, Conservative, Christian, Middle Class transplant in Orange, California. My parents said I could be anything I set my mind to, enforced strict educational expectations, and told me I would work, I would go to college and I would … Continue reading International Women’s Day—2019 →

Everyday Extraordinary Woman: Elma Black McKnight

Just months after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Elma Black graduated a member of the first legally-mandated integrated class of Central High School in Murfreesboro. In the decade to follow, she married, had a son and a daughter, and graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a … Continue reading Everyday Extraordinary Woman: Elma Black McKnight →