dropping the rope
There are days when words just don’t come. I’ve had a string of about twenty-one of them. That nagging feeling of “I should write” playing tug-o-war with the futility of “I have nothing to say”—a constant pulling back and forth that most recently seems to end with me back in bed, covers askew and cats aplenty as I burrow deeper under both. I do not like the constant pulling and tugging—the relentless tension in the line, the way each side digs in their feet and sets their weight in opposition to the other, the rope burns on my hands. I despise the taunting and...
Read Moreof truth and tattoos
It’s no secret flying is not one of my favorite things. The turbulence (aka: falling straight out of the sky a little bit at a time), the ear-popping (as if my head didn’t ALREADY HURT), the joy of feeling the plane sway from side to side as the pilot is attempting to land (did you know more than 80% of crashes occur during the first three minutes of takeoff, or the last eight minutes before landing?), and don’t even get me STARTED on the germ factor (did you ALSO know I am 100% likely to get the flu or a sinus infection within 24-48 hours of having ridden on a plane? True...
Read Moreit’s about time
Timing is everything. I sat down this past Monday with one of my best friends to finally listen to a Beth Moore series I intended to listen to, oh, about *cough* six months ago, and was reminded, yet again, of this small but irrefutable fact. Timing. Is. Everything. I have alluded to the beginning of this year having been rough—physically, logistically, financially, parentally, maritally, professionally, creatively, emotionally, spiritually. Rough. What I’ve not shared—for a number of reasons—is how a rough winter went into a difficult spring then lapsed into a challenging...
Read Moregrasping for words
Some days, it’s not so much about WHAT to write, but WHERE to begin. I sit here, staring at my laptop—the breeze blowing through the tiny little hideaway from which I have been hiding—and my thoughts won’t slow down long enough for me to catch one and throw it up on the screen. Grasping for words usually isn’t an issue for me. Unless, of course, there are more words than I know what to do with. The last three months of hit-or-miss writing have not been born out of a lack of words as much as an overabundance of them. Heavy words like pain, depression, fatigue, or illness....
Read Morecan we be real? (how i lost my voice, and how i found it again)
Alright, folks—can we be real, here? Somewhere, along the line, things have gotten off track. I’ve been feeling it for a few months now, but haven’t been able to put my finger on it. At least not until I attended the Killer Tribes inaugural conference in Nashville a few weekends ago. And that was when I realized why this blog had started to feel like work, and why readership was becoming a bit flat. I had lost my voice. You would think, for someone who has built her whole writing career up until this point on finding my voice, I would have known better. And, to my credit, I was...
Read Moresurrender as the key to finding joy
Finally, if we are to enjoy life in all of the fullness of the Joy of the Lord, we must learn to practice surrender to God’s purpose in and for our current season of life. I don’t know about you, but this is the hardest for me right now, friends. I naively thought that once my children were in school they would need me less and I would have more time to pursue my own interests and calling. To say I was wrong would be a grave understatement. If anything, I think, in many ways, they need me even more. And it is a challenge, some days, to not balk under this precious yet weighty...
Read Moreperparing versus repairing
The trees are up and in place, having been jammed back up the basement steps in a Grinch-like fashion in order to get them around the bend in the middle. My husband makes his annual comment about the trees being much easier to put away than to get out and we once again ignore said comment, getting to work instead on the stringing of little white lights and the dragging up of the rest of the Christmas paraphernalia. I pick and choose through the red and green tubs nestled in a damp, back corner of our basement, determining how much I can bear to have to put away in another month. I run through...
Read Moremy soundtrack
One and a half years ago, I took a week off of work unpaid to drive to Cincinnati, lock myself in a former convent for five days, and write the first draft of my manuscript. I pulled out of Columbus on a a wet, gray Sunday afternoon, hit the freeway, and promptly began asking myself what the heck I thought I was doing. I was lost for miles in this train of thought, until these lyrics intersected– Reaching for something in the distance So close you can almost taste it Release your inhibitions Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No...
Read Moreequal and opposite
Well, Friends, the laws of physics state that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I know this to be all too true. The examples in my life are endless: go on a diet to lose the last ten pounds you regained, and your body will react with an equally strong and completely insatiable urge to ingest LOTS of carbohydrates. Begin a new level of working out, and get derailed with an injury. Attempt to claim back your calendar, and six new events will magically pop up. Take a stand against fear and prepare to step out in confidence, and get knocked completely on your...
Read Morea sure sign
I liked the sign a lot better when it was broken. A bit of an institution in our neighborhood, the sign stands along High Street near where we live and go to school, advertising a local mom-and-pop variety dry cleaners. Given that we take High Street nearly everywhere, my children and I regularly watch for their weekly wit and wisdom, spelled out in mis-matched plastic block letters changed with a big long pole and their grandson’s sturdy arms. “Ouch,” the sign read when it was hit a few months back, one of its most profound moments. And then the sign was silent. But the...
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