Tag: gratitude

Return to Solo Dining

It’s been a minute since I went to dinner by myself (that wasn’t a hotel bar/restaurant) and I recently plunged back in to the solo dining experience in the coolest way.

On a road trip back to see my family and meet my new nephew, I decided I wanted to actually sit down somewhere and eat a real meal. Usually I grab some Jesus chicken through the drive thru and keep on rolling. However, this night I wanted real food and in a cool place if I could find it.

When this option was presented to me, I was all in. I was driving home for the 4th, and a restaurant from 1776 was available? Yes please!

This beautiful place is in downtown Wytheville, VA and was one of the most quaint, happily situated buildings I’ve seen in some time. The parking lot was full – even at 7:30, and some locals even walked in from nearby neighborhoods.

As I climbed to the porch and walked in the door (that you had to push a little hard to open), I was grinning in happiness. It was all old beams and stone and wooden floors that creaked….and a giant bear with Ben Franklin glasses was there to greet me! Night made – and I was barely inside.

They led me to a corner booth in a room that may have been the original living room. It was a mix of stone and wood and the coolest lighting. The booth was cozy and creaky and just fabulous. Not the roomiest, but it worked.

The menu, surprisingly enough, was not colonial and bland. It was southern gourmet and had some surprising options. I settled on their special – pork chop stuffed with apples and spices and stuffing with garlic green beans and a baked potato. Everything was so tasty and different and I throughly enjoyed it. The idea of a sit down meal? This checked all my boxes.

The solo dining experience was intimidating and yes, a little scary. There were a few other people in the room and most of them noticed me but went about their own business. You tend to think that everyone is staring at you when you dine alone and I finally realized it was all in my head. No one really stared awkwardly or pointed or said anything rude. The couple closest to me were actually on their phones the whole time. Me? I looked around and took it in and had one of the best meals in a place that was just magical to me. There were so many historical elements to it and just imagining who may have dined there 250 years ago (and all the years since) – it was such a fun experience.

And you know what? That first step made it easier to do again. I’m on a business trip this week and tonight, took myself to a Japanese restaurant that looked to have a fabulous menu. This time I brought a book with me to see how I liked that experience. The girl at the hostess station smiled at me when I said “Table for one” and told me there were a few other people who asked for that tonight. “Are you doing a solo date?” Yep. “Good for you. You’re going to love this place”.

She was right, I did. I had a fantastic meal and enjoyed every second of it.

There were two young couples at the table next to me and they didn’t stare but shared some looks when I left. But guess what? I’ll never see them again and my experience was for me and I loved it. Now I’ve been through that and survived, so the confidence to do this again just grew stronger.

So if you find yourself in a situation where you want to try a new place or even have an hour or so to yourself, just go. Alone. Even if you hesitate or take a pause, it’s ok. In that moment, ask yourself if your curiosity is greater than your fear, and just walk in. I have a feeling you’ll be glad you did.

For me, it was taking that first step in a small town in Virginia into an historical setting where I gained a new experience and regained my confidence to dine solo. Here’s to more hidden gem experiences in unexpected places!

Rock on.

You’re Not Who You Were Before

Life changes us. Constantly. We have highs and lows and then extreme highs and extreme lows. There are failures and successes, wins and losses, love and heartbreak. Beginnings and endings and ends and beginnings. Life is a crazy beautiful roller coaster of experiences and growth. Some of it is joyful and some of it is beyond painful. Some of it we never want to go through again – but yet it taught us some of life’s greatest lessons so we’re extremely grateful for (in an odd sort of way).

Then there’s an incredibly crazy thing that happens: we go through our valley experience and when we start climbing back out of it, we naturally start to go back to the way we were before. To our old thought processes and habits and just the way we used to do…all the things. But now, it feels off. Like something’s missing or not fitting correctly and we struggle because…we’re better now. We have it figured out, we clawed our way back to “where we were”, so why does it feel so weird?

You know why? Something so simple and so hard to grasp all at the same time. You’re not the same person. You’re just not. The experiences of what you went through and how you handled it and what you were taught through them, naturally changed you. Or it was a huge God lesson and then you experienced supernatural change.

Whatever it was or whatever it is, you have been changed inside – your heart, your manner of thinking, the emotional access you want to give sparingly instead of fully as you did previously…all of these things have an impact on who you are. And how you want to show up moving forward. Is it a bad thing? Absolutely not.

This is exactly what the parable about new wine in old wine skins is about. New wine expands as it ferments and the wine skins will need to be able to accommodate that expansion. If you put new wine in old wine skins, the old cannot accommodate the new growth, and trying to make it work will end up destroying them both.

I first experienced this when I moved to Tennessee. The new city and new job and not knowing anyone was daunting and a little scary, but hey, I had done all that in Colorado before and figured it all out. So, naturally I thought I just needed to do the same things in Tennessee. Nope. Nothing worked the same way or felt right and things fell apart quickly. It took me a bit, but I met a lady who shared with me that it sounded like I was trying to pour new wine in old wine skins. And it finally clicked.

The first half of 2026 was rough for me – heartbreak and endings and growth and new beginnings, both personally and professionally. The heaviness of work issues and family matters and my own personal growth- all of that has a way of changing a person. The past month or so has been one of seeing the results of that growth and healing and coming back into my own and making my way back to the things that I love and enjoy. All to realize…some of them don’t fit anymore. Or work the same. Or even look the same.

It took some processing to figure out just why I was feeling this way – new wine. Old skins. I don’t want to spill or ruin the new wine, so it needs to go into a new skin. Now, figuring out just what that new skin looks like and feels like is a process all on its own. One of exploration and adventure and development – and I’m learning the more open I am to what that looks like, the more fun the process becomes.

So if you’re going through a new season in life and things are not quite feeling the same or people are not jiving the same or you just don’t have the same feeling of satisfaction- it just may be that you are pouring new wine into an old skin. Once you come out of a season of heaviness or intense growth or extreme happiness, that new skin becomes something to explore and discover. My greatest hope is that you find out who you are becoming and who and what are going to come along with you on your journey. You may be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

Jingle Mingles

Holidays can be strange. The way you feel about them can be strange. And sometimes the feelings you have about them hit you in different ways at different times. The loneliness of being single on a holiday isn’t a big issue, but sometimes it hits you in ways you didn’t see coming. And when it does – it’s can be heart wrenching. When you attend parties and you have all sorts of fun and then you realize you’re the only one going home alone. When they’re so excited to get back to their families and you go home to an empty apartment. I love leaving my Christmas tree on so I have some kind of Christmas cheer to come home to.

And then – you go out on the town with your friends who are in the same spot you are and you realize how lucky you really are. That you are in the world enjoying life and are more than okay. Drinking holiday beverages at a pop up bar in a cheerily decorated (and most definitely, cheesy) back room with other people feeling festive. Eating oysters. Taking an Uber Black downtown. Going home and hanging out with family, friends and old coworkers and realizing that they’re still around for you. Celebrating New Year’s Eve at a club downtown and having a blast with your friends – old and new.

Being single during the holidays has its ups and downs, but it sure can be fun!

Where Gratitude Outshines Vulnerability

I’m pretty sure I never put gratitude and vulnerability in the same sentence before, but it’s been popping up over the last few weeks so I’m thinking they just may be related. Or I need to learn something about it. Maybe. Probably.

A month or so ago, I had a blog draft I was working on called Vulnerability. I didn’t get very far on it because I wasn’t sure where I was going with it. It was also coming across…..well, vulnerable. And as expressive as I am at times, putting full blown vulnerability out there was not something I was willing to do. So, I scrapped that idea and threw it in the trash. There. No more vulnerability.

Except….yep. It came up again. A few times. So I guessed there was something going on. And then on Sunday, it all kinda clicked. In church, the pastor gave the obligatory message about gratitude right before Thanksgiving. But he promised it was going to be a bit different. And it was. At least for me.

He spoke a lot about gratitude and how it changes our lives when we express it. And how our relationships with others change based on the amount of gratitude we give. Or receive. And honestly, I didn’t really think about that part before because I usually try and make a point to thank people for what they do. Especially at work. But here’s the thing I didn’t realize before – I do get irritated at people when they don’t say thank you to me. Really. I often say “you’re welcome” just to make a point. I think it’s the Philly in me, so I guess I’m making the hometown proud. But while I’m trying to “raise awareness”, I’m essentially being just as rude as they are.

So while I’m working on how I really feel about that smack in the face, let me tell you about the other thing I learned over the weekend. The pastor was talking about how we sometimes have obstacles in the way of expressing gratitude. Especially in relation to God. But think about it – sometimes we do this to people around us as well. It can be pride, or a guilt complex or a comparison situation where we don’t want to look like we’re putting ourselves out there in order to admit that someone did something nice for us. This usually happens when we’re mad at that person, not very close to them or maybe, we just simply don’t like them. (Gasp! Yeah right. Like that’s never happened to you! Haha) I’ve begrudgingly expressed thanks to people I didn’t particularly care for, even worse – people who repaid my bad attitude with kindness. Nothing like self-reflection and embarrassment all rolled into one to make you learn a lesson real quick!

The one other obstacle that got me was vulnerability. It actually stemmed from the fear of joy. How does that work? Well, think about it. If we express gratitude for something that happened and we feel joy, we ultimately have this idea in the back of our minds that it’s not going to last. Joy can be fleeting. It can come out of that one thing we’ve been waiting for or working towards, only to have something ruin it at the end. At least that’s what we think. We’re afraid to feel that joy and express that gratitude because we’re so scared it’s going to be taken away from us or that it won’t last long. What we end up doing is building defenses and not letting ourselves feel that joy. Because what’s the point of feeling it only to have it go away?

That’s the point of living people! We live for the moments of joy and gratitude in our lives. (Honestly, sometimes it makes you feel more alive). I hate feeling vulnerable because it makes me feel unprotected. Unsafe. I never thought about being afraid of joy, but there was something that resonated with me on that one. Maybe I am and I’ll have to figure that one out. Not that I’m looking forward to that. Those types of lessons should really come with a warning label.

So how does this factor into gratitude and Thanksgiving? My main point to this one is that I thought I had this gratitude thing down and I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. Whether it’s with family, friends or God, practicing gratitude is something I need to do even when it makes me feel vulnerable. Or uncomfortable. Even when I would just rather not.

Our challenge is to take a look and see how much we give thanks or express gratitude to those around us. Even when it hurts. Even when we’re fighting battles. Even when it’s the first – or yet another – holiday without a beloved one. It’s not always easy and it may make you feel guilt or vulnerability or even pride, but I’m willing to bet you won’t be sorry that you did. Not only will you feel better, but your family member, friend or coworker will be glad that you did as well. I’m not pretending that your life is rosy and you’re not the best of friends with your significant other or kids or friends or your Great Aunt Sally. Not everyone’s life is easy or plainly defined. Or even happy. I get that. It can get dark sometimes. And the last thing we think of when we’re in that dark place is to be thankful.

Call me optimistic, but I believe every little thanks brings another ray of light into that place. We just have to lift our heads up and open ourselves up to the vulnerability of thanking others for something they took the time out to do for us. If theory proves correctly, it will further connect us with those we’re thanking. Especially if they’re the ones who remind us to bring stretchy pants to Thanksgiving dinner.

Enjoy everyone – Happy Thanksgiving!