by Martha Brettschneider | Oct 5, 2025 | Mental Fitness, Mindfulness
I’m writing from Sisters, Oregon today, where our family has gathered to celebrate my nephew’s retirement from the Marine Corps. The air is charged with laughter, memories, and the quiet hum of belonging. After years of service and adventure, he’s entering a new...
by Martha Brettschneider | Aug 30, 2025 | Mental Fitness
I woke up feeling a sense of dread. “Ugh,” I thought. “It’s baseball game day.” I forced myself to remember the excited expression on our 12-year-old Afghan girl’s face when she said, “Miss Martha! We all finished the library reading program and we got tickets to a...
by Martha Brettschneider | Aug 19, 2025 | Mental Fitness, Mindful Parenting
This morning was Day 9 of my 30-Day Mindfulness Meditation Challenge. I love Day 9, since it’s the day that I bring in Portia Nelson’s poem “There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk” as the analogy for how our daily mindfulness and mental fitness practices transform our life...
by Martha Brettschneider | Aug 3, 2025 | Mental Fitness
“Went back to Urgent Care. Pneumonia.” I looked at the text from my friend and my heart sank for her. I knew she was supposed to drive several hours the next day to a two-day college soccer ID camp that her son had been invited to attend. Her husband was...
by Martha Brettschneider | Jul 23, 2025 | Life Lessons
The stooped, elderly man in front of us dragged his luggage behind him, the weight too much for him to lift. He struggled to keep his head up to navigate the airport line, while also trying to keep the bags from flipping. We were in Quito on our way home from...