katalyst communications

Author: Kat Stroppel

  • Worries weighing you down? Adjust your load – and your mindset.

    Worries weighing you down? Adjust your load – and your mindset.

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in

    We all have things that weigh on our hearts. We can’t lay them all down; we need to adjust how we carry them.

  • Our story of epilepsy

    Our story of epilepsy

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in

    One family’s story of epilepsy diagnosis and surgery and lessons learned.

  • Finding beauty in the broken: From the other side of diagnosis

    Finding beauty in the broken: From the other side of diagnosis

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in

    Changed, not broken. Finding our way through diagnosis.

  • Jerry Payne

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in ,

    Gerald “Jerry” Payne, family man and U.S. veteran, dies at 69 Jerry Payne, whose greatest joy was his larger-than-life family, died of cancer on August 6, 2017. He was 69. Jerry was raised in a two-bedroom house in the tiny town of Lingo, so small it can’t boast of even one stoplight. The middle child…

  • Mom

    Mom

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in ,

    Mom asked me to write her obituary. Yes, she’s still living, and yes, it seems like a strange request. But as a writer, this isn’t new. In addition to the many obits I wrote as a journalism student, I’ve written two for loved ones. This ensures three things: 1) My loved one will not be…

  • Flying

    Flying

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in

    No one ever told you you couldn’t. What wings that must give you! To know you can never fail. To trust that if you do if you fall from the sky someone – or something – will catch you. Maybe, I wonder, do you ever think, “I can’t?” You do for you. What makes you…

  • Lucky

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in

    To drive for the joy of driving. Of riding. Of feeling tires on asphalt. Rolling. Rolling.   A sea of trees rising and falling. Sunlight appearing. Disappearing. Light and color dance in and out of shadow.   The hum of the road. The joy of the moment. The satisfaction of miles behind. The anticipation of…

  • Stories

    Stories

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in

    Do more. Be more. Be better. But we’re never enough. And too much. We’re worthy of love and of respect. If only we could see it in ourselves. If only we believed it.   Instead, we hang onto old versions of ourselves. We change our name, our hair, our address. But we feel our old…

  • Drowning

    Drowning

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in

    I nearly blew it up. I was down, deep in the depths, where the water is black and dank. Heavy with regret. And I couldn’t find my way up. Kicking and fighting — sinking lower and lower. And then I came up. Not in one forceful push to the surface, filling my lungs with air and spitting…

  • Above

    Above

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    by

    Kat Stroppel
    in

    Perspective at 35,000 feet. Of life lived, living and unlived, opportunities and ideas that play hide and seek like mountains dancing between the clouds of friendships and love. Of lives played out in hours, days and years, related and consumed in gulps. And the hours, days and years go on until they stop. And the…