From the Belly of a Whale (the Arduous Run From Writing)
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live, to justify taking lives, even our own, by violence or by numbness and the failure to live; tell ourselves stories that save us and stories that are quicksand in which we thrash and the well in which we drown, stories of justification, of accursedness, of luck and star-crossed love, or version clad in the cynicism that is at times a very elegant garment.” The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit There is quicksand in writing when one gets to the thick of it. When we begin the story...
read moreThe Risk of Being Undone
The sun sets and night creeps in like shadows laying down to sleep. In darkness came the anxiety, slamming into me like a freight train. Frozen in my closest near my pajama’s, I sucked in a large, gulping breath. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does happen, it is a doozy. Our art, our writing, our stories, our friendships, and being our authentic selves, will undo us. There are days, perhaps many, when we wish Jesus would take us. Just slay our earthly mess and give us our Heavenly, incorruptible body, now. This was...
read moreWhy Fear is Afraid of You & Why We Need You
Fear has kept you. It has been days, weeks, a year, even years that your courage has been beat down as if you were good-for-nothing. Failure has scared you, but success, even more so. You have been transfixed and immobile by the magnitude of either direction, the possibilities and pressures of traveling on either path. But. This year will be different. Not that fear will cease all together, for it will still try to choke the life out of you. But prayer changes things. Speaking Truth reverses lies. No, it demolishes...
read moreParenting & Braving the White Knuckles
We have been helplessly watching green blades race for the sky. And sitting on the patio above the lawn, is like having an audience of mystery. What is really lurking to the roots of this mess? There is much not seen, hidden away, like dark grassy knolls in my heart. But then, we also have babies. There are chicks and ducks, chirping with their feathers coming in. Then there are kittens so small, they think we are Momma. And they yowl and screech at the back door, knowing someone will come to hold or feed them. But...
read moreWhat Care-giving Teaches You About Fear
Life changes are happening here, ones of uncertainty and large commitments of time. I came to Texas more than six years ago to take care of my Granny. When she passed, I collapsed from exhaustion. I was thankful our family was able to be with her in her last days. We were able to pray over her, watch the 6 o’clock news, and guess the letters Vanna White hadn’t turned on Wheel of Fortune in the scary dark hours when Granny dreaded sleep and death. But make no mistake, it was hard. And it was good. An ever-powerful grace come over...
read moreFaith Like A Fist (Poetic Courage)
Winter is shrugging its cold shoulders Each day a trial in change The flowery weeds are creeping up Announcing spring And you marvel yet again How a weed can have such beauty You have thought yourself much like one too Persistent, resilient, and wildly growing Where fertile grasses can not Go The wildflowers are soon to come The ones you pass by on interstate highways Coloring your route with blues and reds And people pulling over with cameras in hand Because of course Who can resist vibrant displays making Brief appearances And for a...
read moreCourage Is A Heart Voyage (or an Eastern Bluebird)
“The place to which God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Frederick Buechner The fireplace is crackling on yet another snow-y day in Texas. The Eastern Bluebirds have been flocking to our feeders with bright coats contrasting against the white and dull of winter. They like to sit on the rim of our trampoline and dive-bomb delicacies among our dormant Bermuda grasses. I spotted 3 or 4 during one of my morning watches as one perched on a sleeping Crape Myrtle...
read moreJoin Me In the Art of Courage & Break Up with Fear
Subscribe and receive my free resource, “Breaking Up with Fear,” plus a bonus toolkit of Facebook tips. I have dreamed of words and of art. I even dabbled in painting, long ago. I wrote poetry and hid behind metaphors. However, I imagined these as hobbies irrelevant for adulthood, at least for mine. Art of any kind was not considered a career, a talent maybe, but not something to pour your whole life into. But I’ve since rejected that idea, entirely. Art isn’t just the kind you hang on...
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