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 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 Moreperseverance
While my daughter has always been athletic and a bit on the speedy side, this cross country thing was a new beast for her. We watched her struggle for weeks as she fought hard for both physical and emotional endurance, only to lose it to illness near the end and have to rebuild it all over again. Endurance, she’s learned, is hard-won. She knew that already. But she didn’t know she knew. For as much as she’d learned at the gym about the mental part of the game, you’d think this would have been easy for her. But twelve year olds don’t know that those mental skills transfer. And so,...
Read Moremotivational monday: confirmation
Over the last two weeks it has become abundantly clear we are headed in the right direction. How do I know? Because when you’re heading in the right direction, you often encounter the following types of confirmation: 1. Affirmation. I have been blown away by the number of like-minded people who have responded to this message. Here is but a sample of their you’re-on-the-right-track comments: Your words spoke to me. This is exactly what God is speaking to me. OMG…I really needed these words today…He REALLY knew I need affirmation. THANK YOU for listening!!! I...
Read Morelive like you’re loved
I came home from the writer’s conference in July knowing I needed to get focused. I’ve spent the last two and a half months praying and thinking and scribbling notes and praying and thinking and scribbling some more, all to this end: determining just what it is, exactly, that I do. Pages and pages of notes came out of this exercise. What is my passion? What do I desire to see happen in the lives of women? Why? How? And how do I say it in a way that really means something, and isn’t just trite Christianese? I wrestled with hard, fundamental questions, the answers to which I...
Read Moreunder construction
Hello, long-lost friends. In the getting-ready-for-school and back-to-school hubbub, blogging (and writing, and reading, and planing, and…) has fallen to the wayside. I am now attempting to get my butt back in gear. One of my goals post-conference was to completely re-work my media strategy. You will see that play out here over the next week or two as I put my blog under construction, as well as my fb page, newsletter, and twitter account. I have a lot to get done, but here are the highlights: I have come up with a new theme and graphic that represent the mission of my writing and...
Read Moremotivational monday: wide angle lenses
Sometimes the elements of our lives get viewed through a macro lens. We zero in on a particular point in the foreground, setting our sights on its center to the exclusion of all else around it. All other details become obscured, and we only see clearly that upon which we have focused. This narrowed focus can be enlightening. Compelling. Motivating. We use it when our creativity is firing and we are caught up in the energy. When a particular item or person in our lives needs singular attention. When urgency or excitement demands exclusivity of our time and energy. When a...
Read Moremotivational monday: are you PREPARED?
Sometimes, God speaks softly—his voice like a soft breeze gently tussling your hair on a temperate green-grass, blue-sky afternoon, as you lay there watching the one, lone cloud in the sky shape-shift overhead while it meanders from horizon to horizon. Sometimes, God wallops you upside the head with a big honkin’ stick when you’re least expecting it. And while your hair blows in your face just the same, it somehow has a different feeling to it. Like I felt when I left Beth Moore this weekend, perhaps. Don’t misunderstand me—I always arrive expectant when I go to hear Beth Moore...
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