Acceptance – Page 3 – Melissa Schlies

On Mountaintop Tea Parties & Remembering What’s Most Important

Friends, I have one last travel story for this month. Hope you enjoyed this series, as much as I did. And, if you have any travel stories of your own you’d like to share—please do so in the comments section! One of my favorite travel memories, didn’t happen to me. In other words, what I am about to tell you is not an experience of my own. Rather, it is one I witnessed on the top of Cadillac Mountain, in Maine, just before sunrise. Now, I realize most people on their vacations rarely ever see the sunrise. But, as it [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-09-27T19:54:43+00:00September 28th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Balance, FOMO, Food, Relationships, Social Distancing, Staycation, Travel|Comments Off

The Real Secret to Creating A Sense of Balance In Your Life

Baking bread is one of my favorite creative endeavors. Kneading dough is therapeutic. And the smell of bread baking in the oven is heavenly. Only, when I first began learning how to make bread, it wasn’t great. In fact, I wouldn’t use the words “therapeutic” or “heavenly” to describe my experience. Honestly, using the words “melt down,” would be more accurate. At least, if we’re talking about the day I tried to make Challah bread to bring to a friend’s house for Easter. Yes, I had ignored the cardinal rule—never try a new recipe on anyone other than your family—but [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-19T10:09:16+00:00August 20th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Balance, Body Image, discipline, Failure, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, perseverance, Practice, Routines|Comments Off

What if the Change That Feels Like Loss, is Actually Good?

Hello friends, last year, Tony and I went to California for vacation (remember traveling?), and I learned something about change in the Redwood forest of all places. Then, of course I wrote about it. It felt like such an important lesson for me that I thought I'd re-share with you for a part of this month's series on Change. Enjoy! Other than the sound of gravel crunching beneath our hiking shoes, it was quiet. The kind of quiet that makes you hesitant to speak. And when you do, it makes you whisper. All around us giant redwood trees towered above [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-07-13T15:07:53+00:00July 13th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Change, Courage, Depression, Failure, Faith, Hope, Preparation|Comments Off

When Pandemic Grief Hits You All Over Again

A few weeks ago, my sister texted me reminding me that as a family, that day, we were supposed to all be together, on vacation. Only, a few weeks before that, I had to cancel our reservations because the shelter in place orders for where we were to stay would still be in effect for our trip. Sure, we could stay in our hotel, but there would be no pool, no restaurant, and many of the attractions we were planning to visit would still be closed. You can’t tell four kiddos under five that the pool is closed. You can’t [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-06-24T19:44:22+00:00June 22nd, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, grief, Hope, Self Care, Social Distancing, Staycation, Travel|Comments Off

To The Class of 2020, & The Lessons We’re All Learning

When the clock strikes Midnight on January 1, 2021, all of us are going to feel like the class of 2020. Collectively, we will feel like we survived the most widespread trial of our time—with all the politics and conspiracies that went with it. And, if we’re in a better place (Lord, we pray), we will feel like we’re graduating from one of the most challenging years of our lives. But right now, in May, academically speaking, the real Class of 2020 deserves their due. As many of you know by now, I was a youth pastor for over seven [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-05-13T23:50:41+00:00May 14th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Adulting, Change, Courage, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Success|Comments Off

Five Ways to Approach Your Pandemic Grief

In the corner of our living room right now, there is a big stack of boxes. It had begun to form over a month ago, when our plans looked very different. Now, they’re a daily reminder that our lives have been put on hold. Tony and I were supposed to move this season. No, we haven’t found a house (though we came very close to putting an offer on one). But before Covid-19, we’d been actively looking. And as the boxes in our living room can attest, we were already packing. We were READY to move. Only now, everything is [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-01T23:16:50+00:00April 2nd, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Change, comparison, Conflict, Depression, grief, Health, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health|Comments Off

A Social Distancing Survival Guide for Everyday (Free Download)

They say, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Right now, we’re all feeling the truth of this statement in a way we’ve never experienced before. It's amazing how much of our lives have changed in such a short period of time. Not only has the pandemic caused us to give up the majority of our social interaction for the foreseeable future, but it has also cost us many of the crucial components of our everyday lives. We’ve had to say a lot of goodbyes. Some forever, and some for an unknown amount of time. Some as [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-06T16:03:08+00:00March 30th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Anxiety, Change, Courage, Depression, Fear, grief, Habit Making, perseverance, Routines, Social Distancing Survival Guide, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Common Place Friends: Why Some of Our Friendships Don’t Last

A little over eight years ago, Tony and I left our church. It happens all the time. People leaving their church. A person, couple, or family decides they don’t fit, realizes they aren’t growing spiritually, or they get hurt by the leaders or other congregants, and they leave. Sometimes it’s messy, all the time it’s sad. For Tony and me, it was both. The fact that I’d worked at our church for over seven years, meant it came with its fair share of hurt and messiness. But then add in the fact that we each came to the church as [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-02-24T11:57:19+00:00February 24th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Adulting, Change, Friendship, grief, Habit Making, Relationships|2 Comments

What The World Needs Now

A couple of weeks ago, I sat on my couch with my closest friend. With mugs of tea and coffee in our hands, she asked me about my writing. As January was rather busy and hard, I shared I didn’t know what I’d write about on the blog this month. Then offhandedly, I said: “Probably something about relationships as it is February.” Then I added, “But that feels so cliche.” As this is the month of Valentine’s Day, it is kind of the “month of love.” Yet joining the chorus of other bloggers and online magazines sharing tips on how [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:41:26+00:00February 3rd, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Calling, Change, Conflict, Friendship, Hope, Relationships|2 Comments

Can We Be Thankful…For Ourselves?

If I was to ask you to share five things you are grateful for, would you be one of them? Would you remember how your eyes allow you to see sunsets and the faces of your loved ones? How your legs took you trampling through a pumpkin patch last month, embracing all that fall has to offer? Or how your strategic skills came up with a plan for Thanksgiving that all your family members could agree to? Is there at least one thing you can celebrate about yourself? As Thanksgiving is merely weeks away, people we know are taking the [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2019-11-08T21:08:31+00:00November 11th, 2019|Categories: #mybodyhas, Acceptance, Beauty, Body Image, Self Care, Uncategorized|Comments Off

The Real Secret to Creating A Sense of Balance In Your Life

What if the Change That Feels Like Loss, is Actually Good?

To The Class of 2020, & The Lessons We’re All Learning

Five Ways to Approach Your Pandemic Grief

Common Place Friends: Why Some of Our Friendships Don’t Last

What The World Needs Now

Can We Be Thankful…For Ourselves?

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