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Meet Wendy
Hi! I’m Wendy, mother of four, writer, and founder of Be Better Media. I am passionate about deep health, sustainable high performance, and human connection. As a lifelong learner, I believe that our own self-awareness is the greatest gift we can give to the next generation. This is my inspiration not to be perfect but to Be Better for myself and for them, every day. I know that it takes courage to reflect and when we are ready, share our stories so that real human connection is possible. This is what I set out to create with my blog, ‘The Optimists Journal’; my podcast, ‘What I Meant to Say’, and the interviews, videos, and other content created and presented by Be Better Media. In my downtime, you’ll find me hanging out with my kids and cats, going to yoga, and playing volleyball on the beach.
I’ll never forget the first time my parents came to Hermosa. It was the 4th of July 2006, they hadn’t seen our new house and had never spent any time in our new summer adventureland. […]
I had a different blog with a topic close to my heart ready to go this week but it turns out that one has to wait for next week. If there is anything that the […]
Since I was so young, I always come back to the water…whether physically or metaphorically, when things start to get crazy. Yes, I’ve watched the new 30 for 30 on Bruce Lee, Be Water, and […]
When I was about thirty, I sat on a patio chatting with friends who were older than me. I had a hard time connecting with their ominous warning: “Just wait until you turn 40…then all […]
So many things on my mind these days, which is pretty normal. The reminder that we are standing on the edge of regular life happened for me this morning. I’d been up since 5:30, my […]
Don’t Blink…it’s one of my favorite songs that, right now, I can’t listen to without crying. I learned when Lauren graduated last year, it’s what graduations do to you. Suddenly the little faces that you […]
Last weekend I took a whole hour and listened to an audio recording that my cousin made with my grandma about her life. It was recorded 20 years ago, when she was 82. She was […]
I talk a lot about self awareness. I definitely think I was born with the introspective gene, because thoughts about how and why things work like they do and how I fit into the big […]
August 1994 - I still remember the feeling of circling in the city. There were no cell phones, I had stopped at a gas station on a busy corner to ask for directions, but the […]
As I wandered the aisles of Target a few days back looking for Matthew’s birthday present, a wave of nostalgia washed over me. I hardly go there anymore, but when they were little, it was […]
Our country is awash in opinions, reds and blues, conservative, liberal, and everything in between. It’s not a new phenomenon because of COVID-19, as Americans, we have always been a diverse bunch. Our perspectives are […]
Writers read. It creates deeper thought in our brains, sparks creativity, and adds connections to our ever philosophizing minds. One of my favorite things about quarantine life is having more time to finish books and […]
I’ll be honest with you, this weeks blog almost didn’t happen, not because I didn’t write, but because I was beating myself up over the struggle to maintain my optimists lens at many points throughout […]
As you read this, we are over two weeks into this thing…social distancing, slow the curve, COVID-19 and it’s all been unnerving and real on physical, mental, emotional, and economic levels. I was a homebody […]
Optimism is the foundation of resilience and the outlook that provides maximum energy for our days. On the most foundational level, our routines have been shaken. Our minds and bodies are looking for ways back […]
I still remember crying outside my high school gym, my thumb in a cast after surgery my senior year, while everyone else practiced. In the third and last preseason tournament of the year, I dove […]
Fallow: Farmland plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a period of time in order to restore its fertility as part of a crop rotation When I look at my roots and my path, it […]
“Clay holds tight to what is put into it, in its case water and nutrients, but sometimes too tight, not allowing it to drain and the root gets suffocated. Sand retains the least amount of […]
Ingredients Presence Enoughness Letting Go - of shame, guilt, expectation I’ve spent my life as an over thinker, which are just other words for anxiety prone. I have learned though, that while anxiety lies in […]
“A soil separate consisting of particles <0.002 mm in equivalent diameter. See also soil separates. (ii) A textural class. See also soil texture. (iii) (In reference to clay mineralogy) A naturally occurring material composed primarily […]
May 2017 Sand generally refers to the coarse-textured (less than 2-millimeter) mineral fraction of soil. ... The large pore space found in sandy soil is also poor at holding water. This makes for good drainage, […]
Do you know your character strengths? It took me a long way into my life to appreciate mine. But once I had my own kids and they started to walk and talk, my mind seemed […]
Although I’ve come a long way in the just over ten years when I pulled Matthew from the bottom of our backyard swimming pool, it will forever be the day that my perspective on this […]
I’ve felt it in sports, I’ve felt it writing, but for the past few years I have been stirring with the thought of whether it exists in parenting? I’m convinced that it does. Flow state […]
I have a theory that keeps running through my head. It is based both in self compassion and growth and goes like this: When we are younger, we learn big things… how to talk, play, […]
There is a picture on my bookshelf of a quote that I like. It reads: “She needed a hero, so she became one.” For most of my life I would have said that sounds like […]
My oldest friend in the world checked in on me for my birthday. We were neighbors when we were born in the tiny farm town of Mendota, CA and she’s four months younger than me. […]
The Optimists Journal was born out of a particularly difficult time in my life, as my marriage was unraveling and I wanted to deeply understand the reasons for the patterns that I had created in […]
I’m really trying to nail down my own story these days, because it is so intimately related to the message that I want to deliver. But when I see the picture like the one above, […]
Matthew asked me for ear plugs the other day before heading into school. The strange thing is I actually had a whole package of them in my car, my sensitive ears like to be prepared, […]
Life slowed down a bit for me this week, like when my kids were little and someone woule get a fever and you had to stay home. I remember secretly enjoying the excuse to stay […]
Sh#t happens. It was an explanation given to my youngest son (not by me) when he asked an adult in his life about divorce one time. The words hurt me pretty bad at the time […]
Why do we look for comfort in sameness? I’ve been asking myself this question a lot this week. I hear myself say, "she’s one of my people”, or “she’s like me” and the moment it […]
I had a freeze frame moment as I drove to pick up Lauren and her friend when they came home from college for Fall Break a few weeks ago. The chills rose on my arms […]
“Loam Soils - Loam can be found in valleys and flat areas, such as flood plains surrounding rivers and streams. The term loam refers to soil with a favorable mix of sand and clay. It […]
I guess I’m a little preoccupied with time these days, how I spend it, where it goes, how to get the most out of every minute. As I stood watching Lauren’s beach practice this morning, […]
Most memories these days feel like they happened a lifetime ago and then in the next moment, like it was last week. That’s what living on campus in married housing (what?) at Stanford University feels […]
There’s a song by Five for Fighting called 100 Years. I’m sure you’ve heard it. He doesn’t have my favorite voice out there, but his lyrics and piano are so good, he’s one of my […]
There’s an assignment that all of my kids have done in school now. As I see it, what I’m about to show you is hanging on the wall in Matthew’s classroom…so I’m not blowing any […]
My new house is a little father away from the beach than I used to live. For a kid from Fresno though, I still pinch myself that I get to see the water every time […]
I don’t know if it’s the start of a new school year or just more of the growth and healing process taking place but the concept of lost and found runs heavy through my storyline […]
I recently moved into a new house, a space of my own, and even as a self proclaimed home body, I had no idea how happy it was going to make me. Within days of […]
There’s an article about me from 1988 in the Fresno Bee in my file. The headline reads: “Shy, demure Jones can’t help but draw attention.” I remember being embarrassed as I read it. It’s always […]
It’s hard to believe I’m done filling out permission slips for you. When I stare down the fact that we are leaving Tuesday…two tickets out, one ticket home, I can’t get rid of my chills. […]
Just a few years back someone asked me: “If you could live anywhere, where would it be?” Even by this point in my life, I had traveled the world, but I quickly answered, “Fresno. I […]
As far as my look goes, I have always been a naturalist. I’ve never been particularly good with makeup or hairstyles, ask my kids…my boys had shaved heads from the time they were three and […]
I sat on my striped towel, behind the scene, I even snapped a photo of the picture being taken. The kids all lined up for their annual summer shoot, the 15th summer in a row…mine […]
Find calm in the chaos…these words go through my head multiple times per day. Text messages, emails, calls, voicemails, to do lists, goals, kids, social media, ideas, writing, so often it feels like it is […]
The sounds and feels of summer…waves, crowds, traffic, and warmer water to jump in after volleyball. The ocean serves as the cheapest and most efficient ice bath for the aches and pains that have to […]
