ABOUT KENNA
My name is Kenna. Thank you for visiting my Finding beauty blog! I have been writing about stories of struggle and inspiration for several years now. I feel blessed to share my explorations of circumstances where challenges become opportunities;
Where joy can follow grief, and love conquers fear, and peace overcomes despair. Please enjoy this growing list of stories that move me. I hope that they may provide prospective and meaning that deepens your outlook on you inner and outer worlds…
ABOUT my BLOG
Although my stories are similar in their theme of Finding Beauty in unlikely circumstances, they are organized into two categories:
“Discovering Gratitude in Challenging Circumstances”
Featured Stories…
Longevity
My husband and I returned from California last week after visiting my husband’s grandmother and celebrating her 95th birthday. She doesn’t like to tell anyone her age, so Nana I’m sorry for revealing that, but you should be proud of those 95 years! Her friend Edith, on the other hand, is proud to tell you she’s 99. Nana is the one on the left in the above picture…
Poetry
I have written poetry most of my adult life. It has been a way to express my deepest feelings, whether they are happy, sad, or loving. A poem is my way of wrapping my feelings up in a nice little rhyming package. I feel that once I have expressed my thoughts so poetically, then I have given them the proper honoring and I can move on to my next experience…
Flowers
E very spring I get excited about planting flowers in my outdoor clay pots. Winter is a long season of no flowers and I really miss them during that long cold season of dull colors. So, each spring I visit my local nurseries and hardware stores and drool over all the lovely brightly colored flowers that will go into my clay pots…
Attraction
I have just returned from eating at one of my favorite restaurants. I wanted to treat my husband to the best restaurant possible to celebrate his birthday, so naturally I chose this one. We drove five and a half hours to make this dining experience possible and it was worth every mile. I would drive ten hours if I had to to eat this remarkable food, but…
Stillness
I was in southern Utah on vacation with my husband’s family several years ago when I decided to go off by myself for a quiet afternoon. I took a lawn chair and headed for one of my favorite spots near Cedar Breaks. It was August and at 10,000 feet the wildflowers were in full bloom. They were everywhere and there were so many different colors that…
Hands
When I was a child I would bite my nails. One day when I was about ten years old, my dad looked down at my hands and said to me, “Your hands are too pretty to be doing that to them.” From that moment on I never bit my nails again. I didn’t want to disappoint my dad, but mostly I wanted to see what he saw, pretty hands…
Vulnerable
Last week I visited the daughter of a friend of mine who had just given birth to her second child; a little girl named Stella, …what a beautiful and strong name. The mother of Stella, Jessica, was having trouble regulating her blood pressure after giving birth. This was a major concern and she was trying to find the right medication to calm it down…
The Making of Milagro Man: A Story of Miracles and Love, Ch.1
What if someone told you that your life was about to change and everything you had been wanting was now about to appear; your dreams were going to come true and love was about to get even bigger. Life was going to expand in such grand proportions that…
Floating and Connected
The last few years of my life have been undefined. At least I feel that way. When people ask me what I’ve been up to lately, it’s hard to say exactly what I’ve been doing. I seem to stay busy doing things around my house, cleaning, cooking, shopping for groceries, paying the bills, keeping our puppy happy and fed…
Allowing
My husband is dealing with an illness right now that’s been lingering for a while as he navigates the avenues of it’s insistent message. It’s already been a year of multiple symptoms; exhausted days, better days, pain, no pain. Autoimmune illnesses act this way. It keeps him present and having to stay tuned in each day to what he needs for that day. And, while he is navigating the confines of it’s grip…
Ordinary
Ordinary days, days filled with menial tasks like washing dishes, going to work, making dinner, doing laundry; the kind of days that aren’t highlighted with adventure, excitement, and fun, or the days that we all dread; the days when we have to face something difficult and painful. The times in our lives when sorrow and grief fill our bones with sadness and the longing for those days…
Transition
The last stage of childbirth, and the hardest, most painful stage, is called the transition stage. During this stage, the pain becomes unbearable and most women begin to say they don’t want to go through this any more. They want out; out of the pain and…
Freedom and Independence
In three more days my husband and I will celebrate the first year anniversary of our little poodle, Libre’, coming to live with us. This time last year was a bittersweet time for us. Our other little poodle, Keva, had just passed away only two weeks before, after a long struggle with heart disease and…
Loneliness
A few weeks ago my husband’s great Aunt Frances turned 90. We were not able to be there with her to celebrate this milestone because we were in California celebrating my husband’s grandmother’s 96th birthday. I wish we could have been in two places at once so that we could celebrate both women, but it just wasn’t possible…
Haiti
My first opportunity to find beauty is with the events in Haiti. I don’t wish to simplify or ever diminish what is happening there. It is devastating. There are no words to describe the pain and suffering that they are experiencing right now. It is difficult for me to watch any of it on the news because it is so very painful…