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Achievement is not the measure of value.

We live in a world that honors high achievement.  I was raised in a family culture that expected excellence in school, in sports and in my career.  There is nothing wrong with working hard to achieve goals.  However, if this intense goal-oriented life is accompanied by self-doubt and feelings of not being good enough, then this achievement path can be damaging rather than uplifting.

Having children that struggled to reach typical developmental milestones caused me to take an honest look at my own expectations.  Not just my expectations for them, but also my expectations for myself.

I think that we cause ourselves undue stress and sometimes actual harm when we only honor achievement and don’t recognize and celebrate effort.  Sometimes we will not be able to gain a particular skill.

For me one of those unachieveable skills is baking homemade bread.  I know that might seem silly, but for awhile it bothered me.  Over the years I have had well meaning friends who thought I just didn’t have the right recipe or my ingredients weren’t fresh, or….

The fact is, as my neighbor explained to another friend last week, Eva just can’t make homemade bread.  I finally am ok with this.  I found a way to create an accommodation for this.  I bought an electric bread maker and that works.

Sometimes I still feel bad, especially when someone tries to tell me that it is easy, or they believe they can help me finally accomplish this.  I tell myself that there are many things I can do and I do know that achievement is not the measure of value.

I am enough.  I keep striving to learn and grow.  I do have goals.  Also every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to bed, I read this sign on the wall as a reminder.  Let everything you do today be enough.

Please share this blog if it resonates with you or you know someone who might benefit from it.  If you want to get a copy of the book as soon as it is available, click here to sign up.

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One Comment

  1. I really needed this right now. Thank you Erin! You’re a wonderful example to me. Love you!

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Announcing that I have finished a book with the working title of “The Fairy Fort.” I am currently pitching it to publishers. Keep checking back to watch the progress of my newest novel.

Here is a quick glimpse of the story.

Sarah Doherty is an 18-year-old living in rural Ireland at the tail end of the Great War. Plagued by severe epilepsy, she is protected by her parents and lives a sheltered, secluded, lonely life. The Fae, local Irish fairies, interfere with her life. She falls forward a century in time through the local fairy fort of standing stones. She had a seizure in 1918 and woke up in 2020. The 21st century world includes life-saving prescriptions, physical comforts and the independence and freedom she seeks. The locals are welcoming and Andy Mclaughlin, a handsome young historian, is intriguing. She doesn’t want to return home.

Then a letter arrives from Boston divulging the story of Sarah and Andy’s lives that are deeply entwined in the previous century. They are not yet in love but as they seek to verify the letter through online resources, they feel a growing obligation to their unborn family and to each other. What would happen to their posterity living in Boston if they don’t return to 1918? Even if they do make it back, her parents can never know what happened to her or that would change everything.

This Young Adult time-travel romance explores the question: Do we have the freedom to make choices or is free will an elaborate illusion?

This is my third book. I love reading time travel romances. I am an advocate for epilepsy awareness because my 43-year-old son has intractable epilepsy. As a genealogist specializing in Irish research, I live part of the year in the village where the story is based. I wrote the book to help young adults understand that difficult situations can change your life. Sometimes miraculously.