The Christmas Letter
It was the first Christmas that my dad would not be with us. He wouldn’t be there to make us laugh with goofy stories and facial expressions. He wouldn’t be there to blink in irritation as travel plans went awry. He wouldn’t be there to help me design my annual gingerbread house. And he wouldn’t…
A Resilient Rose
This weekend I fell in love with a single magenta rose. It was as if it called to me from a few yards away – beckoning me to come closer and smell its sweet, healing nectar. As I breathed deeply I could feel my whole body relax, allowing it to hold me in a warm,…
Be Kind to Yourself
Be kind to yourself. Be kind when you rewind. Be kind when you think no one is watching. Be kind even when people are. Sometimes it can be even harder to be kind to ourselves when we feel others are watching or judging us. That we’re somehow not worthy of this kindness, and honoring, or…
Your Words Matter
I have a note from my dad taped up on my bedroom wall. It is a note he tucked into a package he mailed to me while I was in college. It contained very precious cargo — a dress I wanted to wear to an upcoming school salsa dance. I kept the note because it…
I Hope You Dance
I love to dance. And for a year and a half now, I have not been able to. So Lee Ann Womack’s song that goes, “And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance,” even as just a metaphor for life, somewhat breaks my heart. That’s because physically, I’ve been doing…
You Are Worthy
I’ve decided that Dolphin Tale is now one of my favorite movies, ever. I watched it for the first time a couple years ago, and felt inspired to re-watch it last week. It makes me cry in all the best ways, and dolphins in general just bring me so much joy! I love re-watching movies…
Caitlin Sanders
Celebrating the extraordinary treasures found in life's ordinary moments.
@caitlinmsanders
Where it began…
In 2012 I took a summer writing course for educators that changed my life.
Our final project was to share a narrative we’d written on a topic of our choice. I felt a pull to write mine about my dad, who I’d lost to cancer a few years before. (You can read the piece here.)
The creative process provided me refuge. Emotions erupting like lava from a volcano combined with the action of writing turned out to have serious healing power.
On the last day of class, as I read my narrative aloud, I saw the way my words stirred emotion in each of my classmates, several of them with tears filling and falling from their eyes.
I felt empowered to have created something that could authentically express a sliver of my experience. And in the end, I realized that it didn’t matter if anyone ever read what I’d written not, that going through the writing process had been just for me.
A couple years later I left my job as a classroom teacher to recover from a perfect storm of illness and injury. It was during that time away that I discovered what my cousin called my “gift” — writing.
I started a blog and wrote whenever inspiration struck. I followed the flow of everyday miracles as well as the inspiration provided by nature and my cute little dog, Dino. Many of the posts you’ll find here are from those years I spent dealing with debilitating illness. That time was the source of some of my deepest challenges and greatest treasure.
Now I’m a fifth grade teacher, teaching online, and loving every minute of it. But the wind still whispers songs of reassurance in my ears, and the brightly lit clouds sing of the hope of a new tomorrow.
So while my journey of writing, and life, have had many twists and turns and ups and downs, I’d love to continue to share some of the bits of inspiration that find their way to me and the everyday wisdom that seems to appear when I least expect it.
Taking the time to slow down, nourish ourselves, notice the joy and beauty around us, is one of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves and others. It is through this presence that we can share the love that we are, and find the grace that lives within every heartbeat and every cell of our bodies.
So I hope you’ll join me on this adventure, and we’ll see where life & love lead!
Caitlin Sanders
Create. Heal. Inspire.