All articles filed in gussiewrites

Not Just a Vacation… A Feeling I’ve Been Missing Sunshine, laughter, music, and the kind of moments that remind you you’re truly living There’s a difference between a vacation… and A vacation. And maybe these thoughts are hitting me a little deeper right now because of the time of year. The holidays are coming. Winter…

Music Is My Booze The high that never hurts—only heals. December rolls in and with it comes the sound of holiday music drifting through the air. Soft at first… then everywhere. And just like that—I’m not in the present anymore. I’m in memories. In moments. In places and people that music somehow keeps alive. That’s…

The Day I Didn’t Want to “People” When God Interrupts Your Quiet Shell for a Reason Did you ever wake up and just not want to “people” today? Not because you’re angry. Not because you’re upset with anyone. You just… don’t feel like being a people person. You want what I call a “turtle day.”…

The Lesson in a Parking Lot Sometimes the simplest moments quietly teach us the biggest truths about life. I was sitting in a parking lot the other day, listening to the end of a song …. checking messages on my iPhone, and watching the world go by. In the parking lot, there was a huge…

Afraid of Happiness When life teaches you that joy never seems to stay. Why does my world seem to fall apart the moment I allow myself to feel happy? It’s something I’ve asked myself more than once… and not just in passing. I mean really stopped and asked it, from the deepest place in my…

Refusing the Diagnosis When you decide a label does not get to define the rest of your life There comes a moment in life when a doctor sits across from you and says words you never expected to hear. A chronic condition. Hereditary. Something you’ll have for the rest of your life. And then comes…

Be Yourself… Even If the World Thinks You’re a Little Too Much Somewhere along the way, many of us stopped being ourselves. We stopped singing along to the radio at the top of our lungs. We stopped dancing in the kitchen while dinner was cooking. We stopped being a little silly, a little loud, a…

When the Music Plays… and Time Quietly Speaks A bittersweet reflection on youth, dreams, and the moments that make us pause and look at life differently. Have you ever been listening to a song… maybe an old tune… and you find yourself bopping around to it because it just makes you feel young and alive…

Faith Isn’t Perfect — It’s Real Questioning God, getting angry, praying anyway, and choosing to believe even when life doesn’t make sense. Faith is a deep topic. Everyone has their own opinions about it. But I often find myself asking: What is faith, really? How do you handle it? What do you do with it…

“Sometimes the Healthiest Thing You Can Do is Unfriend and Block” Some people — whether a family member, former coworker, someone you once considered a friend, or even someone you dated — simply do not belong in your “social media” world anymore. Maybe you friended them years ago to be polite? Maybe you thought staying…