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2024: A Year of Extravagant Love

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Over the last week I’ve pondered what my “word” or “theme” for 2024 should be. In that time, I’ve struggled to come to a word that sticks and feels…right. It’s not that I can’t think of a word. It’s that I can’t think of just one that would benefit me to focus on. Joy. Peace. Direction. Rest, Inclusivity. Growth. Patience. But, on a run yesterday, it came to me. EXTRAVAGANT LOVE. My 2024 theme is extravagant love. I want to love abundantly. I want my love to “lack restraint,” “exceed what is reasonable or appropriate.” I don't just mean love as in my marriage. I mean to everyone. Husband. Friends. Acquaintances. Strangers. People who may not like me. People I've argued with in the past. People I've yet to know.   I chose extravagant vs extraordinary because of how the two words are defined. Extravagant is said to be “exceeding the limits of reason,” where as extraordinary’s definition is “exceptional or remarkable.” I don’t need my love to be exceptional or remarkable. It

Seventy Times Seven

Hurt people, hurt people.

Run with me in 2020

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Running makes sense. It never leaves. It always listens. It's always ready. I may leave running for short sections of time, but it remains constant. Do you ever feel something tugging at you? Do you ever feel the pull of a want to be better, to do more? I do. All the time. It's not always related to running, but I think that is where I recognize it the most. So I run. And I run some more. But this story isn't just about my running...it's about YOUR running story, too. Running is scary and big and daunting to many people. I hear it all the time from those who haven't discovered this wonderful journey, yet. But it's so simple. Don't make it harder than it needs to be. Just put on some tennis shoes and put one foot in front of the other. It doesn't have to be fast. It doesn't have to be far. Just go.  When I'm running in races, I've been told to run the mile I'm in. That means, stop thinking about what you're going to do at

Don't Worry, Be Happy

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Life is good, but life isn’t always good . I know you’re thinking….Huh? Jenny, have you lost your mind? In one sentence you said two things that completely contradicted each other. Let me explain. Life is good. Life is good because we make the choice to believe that life is good. As Annie F Downs puts it in her book, Looking for Lovely , we look for the lovely things in our lives. To her that meant the God things. When she looked for lovely in her daily life, God showed it to her…often. Now, the second part of my statement…life isn’t always good. Bad things happen. Will happen. Have happened. There will be pain. There will be heartache. There will be betrayal. There will be rain. The Bible talks about pain. But one characteristic I see over and over is that it’s followed by JOY . Isaiah 66:9 says, “I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born. Says the Lord”. Or Psalm 30:5, “There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Romans 8:18, “Th

Find your thing

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I have always loved running. In terms of hobbies, it’s right up there next to singing and my work as a speech-language pathologist. As a child, I was faster than all the boys. And as a competitive tomboy, this made me smile. As we grew older, I might not have been as fast as them, but I could still hold my own. Running always seemed to give me what I gave it. If I worked hard, running would reward me. Maybe not always in PRs, wins, or medals, but in ways that built life lessons and lifelong friendships. I have come to crave the way running makes me feel. It’s amazing how the “hurt” a person can feel during a hard speed workout can be the best you feel all day. I push myself out of bed each morning when that 4:45 a.m. alarm clock goes off to make myself better. To push that little girl that still lives inside of me past the places she never thought she could go. I am often presented with the question of why I run. I run for exercise, sure. I run to be more fit.

You are good enough

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I recently completed continuing education for my speech-language pathology license on caring for the tracheostomy and ventilator dependent patient. I loved it. I love learning and expanding my knowledge base to be able to better serve the people I treat in therapy. However, tracheostomy care intimidates me. It’s very technical and is a more specialized topic in the healthcare field. I don’t like feeling inadequate, intimidated or unprepared. So, I kept my eyes open for training opportunities, and when one came along, I jumped on it.  At the beginning of the seminar, I was overwhelmed and felt stupid. Unfortunately, I had allowed myself to feel this way.  Why am I sharing this with you?  I think many of us often feel that way. Overwhelmed. Intimidated. Unqualified. Not smart enough. Not good enough. Well, stop it.  You are good enough, smart enough, qualified.   Always be confident in yourself and your abilities. Don’t ever allow yourself to think you’r

What is a Speech-Language Pathologist?

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Dr. Valerie Boyer (SIUC), myself, and Katherine Martin (SIUC) at the Illinois Speech-Hearing-Language Convention “Speech therapy? But I talk just fine.”   If I had a quarter for every time I have heard this, I would be rich. Most people think of a speech therapist as someone who works in a school with children with speech sound disturbances. And, that is correct. However, our field is much more than that! A professor at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale told me, “If you get bored as a speech therapist, you’re doing something wrong.”  So what exactly does a speech-language pathologist (SLP) actually do? The short answer…A lot. SLPs work with adults, geriatrics, and pediatrics. They work in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, homes, private practices, and schools.  An SLP works with deficits in the areas of articulation (aka speech sound difficulties) dysphagia (difficulty with swallowing food and liquids) language development cognition voice accent mod