Tag: perfectionism

Tracking Time, Day 1: Lessons in Life, Mortality, Stress, and Faith

· Nicole M. Roccas 6 Leave a Comment on %s
Yesterday, I started doing something I’ve been putting off for a while: I started tracking my time. As in, recording how I spend my time for virtually every waking minute. (Scroll to the end of this post for a more practical explanation of how I did this.) You’re probably wondering why I would voluntarily torture myself like this.…

Looking Back on Lent: A Lesson at the Gym

· Nicole M. Roccas 1 Leave a Comment on %s
The last few days of Lent are winding down, and it’s usually at this time I find myself looking back on the last 40-odd days and wondering where it all went. Often, regret tinges my memory of Great Lent–I never feel like I quite “Lented” enough. This year, though, I find myself with a different–I daresay even uplifting–perspective.…

What Writing and Working are Teaching Me This Lent

· Nicole M. Roccas 1 Leave a Comment on %s
O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will. In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and…

Waiting for Christmas Bread: Orthodox-ifying an Old German Custom

· Nicole M. Roccas 4 Leave a Comment on %s
Yesterday, we were talking about perfectionism and Christmas. At the end of the post, I mentioned something I was doing to help curb the all-or-nothing attitude of perfectionism during the holidays. Something to help prepare my heart for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ. That thing is making Kletzenbrot (dried pear bread), a German fruit bread that contains many…

A blessed Advent! From my perfectionism to yours…

· Nicole M. Roccas
The Advent and Christmas seasons are a perfectionist’s nightmare. At no time of year do the “shoulds,” “oughts,” and “pinterests” blare more loudly in our minds than December.  As soon as you get the old holiday ornaments out of storage, the shiny new ones gleam and scream from the store shelves: Buy me! You need me to have…