Michelle DeRusha's Blog, page 5

Ring in 2019 with a Truer YOU

Right around the start of the New Year I always like to read a book that I hope will help me grow in the coming year.

Sometimes my first book of the year is one that’s focused on my work; sometimes it’s one focused on inner growth. One year I might read Deep Work by Cal Newport or Essentialism by Greg McKeown (two of my favorites); the next year something by a contemplative like Henri Nouwen or Ruth Haley Barton.

I love this New Year’s tradition, which is one reason I am so thrilled that my n...

Why It’s Time to Declutter Your Heart, Mind and Soul

On January 12, 2007, a young man dressed in a gray, long-sleeve tee shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap emerged from the metro at the L’Enfant Plaza station in Washington D.C., tucked a violin under his chin, and began to play.

The violinist performed six classical pieces in 43 minutes, during which time 1,097 commuters passed him.

Seven of those people stopped what they were doing to stand and listen for at least one minute.

One young boy craned his neck to catch a glimpse of the musician as h...

When Hustle Hurts Your Soul

“Hustle!!!” I hear my father’s voice over the clash of shin pads and the scuffle of cleats. “Hustle, Shelly, hustle!!” And I do, I hustle, springing after the soccer ball, challenging defensive opponents twice my size, refusing to flinch when the ball is kicked square at my face.

Truth be told, I hustled on the soccer field and off all through my childhood and young adulthood, and not just to please my father. I don’t know if it’s a product of nature or nurture or a combination of both, but...

This is the Time to Release

I wrote a book about letting go. And now, here I am, on the cusp of that book’s release, and I feel it: the subtle but sure tightening of my grip.

Turns out, releasing a book about letting go smack in the middle of the busiest time of the year and amid the deafening drumbeat of the holiday season is truly a lesson in letting go — a lesson I am living out minute-by-minute in real time.

A lesson, if I’m honest, I am not living out well.

The outcome of this book is largely out of my control. I...

Receive and Be Healed

A couple months ago as I sat in my church’s parking lot waiting for Rowan to emerge from confirmation class, a long-lost prayer from my Catholic days rose up in my soul.

“Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.” 

I remember dutifully reciting those words during Mass when I was young. Back then I didn’t think about them; I didn’t ponder what they meant or why we prayed those words before receiving Communion. But that evening, sitting in my car as the...

Why It’s Critical to Separate Who You Are from What You Do

There’s a tree in my neighborhood I pass nearly every day on my afternoon dog walk. It grows a few feet from the curb, and it’s beautiful – tall and stately, lush and vibrant with dark green leaves, even at this time of year, and a smattering of tiny orange berries dotting the greenery.

I’ve passed this tree hundreds of times in the last several years, but it wasn’t until recently that I saw something I’d never noticed before. The leaves and berries I’d long admired weren’t actually part of...

On Letting Go

Have you ever noticed that oak trees are always the last to lose their leaves? It’s true. Come mid-November, when all the other trees in the neighborhood stand naked and exposed, their bare branches stripped of every last leaf, the oak trees remain fully dressed in russet, their leaves scraping together in the wind like sandpaper. The oaks, it seems, have trouble letting go.

Turns out, I’m a lot like the oak tree that clings so fiercely to its leaves. In fact, I suspect a lot of us are.

We,...

How to Live in This Season

Thanksgiving arrives next week, and along with roasted turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie will come a cacophony of Black Friday and Cyber Monday ads, crowded malls, snarled traffic and a to-do list the length of the Magna Carta.

Truth be told, most years my home is stripped of autumnal décor and festooned in evergreen garland and sparkly white lights before the Thanksgiving dinner dishes are dry. Every year I aim to “get a jump on Christmas,” and if my holiday shopping isn’t finished by...

You’re Invited to Join the True You Launch Team!

Hey friends! I would love for you to help me launch my newest book, True You: Letting Go of Your False Self to Uncover the Person God Created. True You releases on January 1, 2019, and I can’t think of a better way to kick off the New Year than to uncork some virtual champagne (or sparkling grape juice if you prefer!) with you as we send this book out into the world!

Are you in? I hope so!

Here’s the nitty gritty: 

First things first: fill out the simple launch team application: 

Click Here...

Simple Service Isn’t Always Measureable {but that doesn’t mean it’s not important}

Recently my boss told those of us on his communications team about a meeting he’d had with a potential donor – someone who has the means to give significant funding to support our organization’s human services work in the community. After glancing at the brochure she’d been handed, the donor slid it back across the table to my boss. “I don’t really need to hear about how you serve,” she said. “I need to hear about how you solve.”

I get it. We like to see “measurable outcomes.” We like statis...