A year ago, after a great disappointment of the soul, I wrote these words: Sometimes small hopes die. And there is a grief that comes to us that cannot be measured by reason. A future that has lived in the illuminated imagination of the mind is set backward in time and exists only in shadowy…
Tag: journal
Translating the Heart: A Personal Journaling Retreat
Most of the time, I do not even know what I think or feel until I write it out. I have often thought that journaling is a way of taking thoughts captive, and once you see thoughts on paper, you can see them for what they are—truth or lies, something to hold onto, or something…
Open Journal: Heidi’s Birth Journal
Because I have eight children, people often assume that I just breeze my way through pregnancy and birth and that it is no big deal to me by now. If you have been with me any amount of time, you probably already know how life-changing every one of these births have been for me. How…
Secrets in Every Story
There are secrets in every story. What we show the world is a carefully curated set of words and images to represent an entire life. Most often, the details we leave out are of greater importance than the ones that we can speak out in a coherent sentence. We are so much more than our…
My Daughter Plays the Piano
My daughter plays the piano and I am carried through time. I hear the first chorded cry, after the lifesong of her body broke open my womb and burst forth like a melody. Our voices, separate, but blended as one. The movement of her youth is passed. A lively staccato that made us dance and…
Walk Through My Journal
I started this journal last May, the day Haven was born. My first entry is a prayer of gratitude, written in the hospital hours after that sweet baby was placed in my arms. Journaling is the way I pray, the way I process my life, the way I move from fear or discontentment into a…
Journaling: Where Do I Begin? (Podcast #23)
Have you always wanted to keep a journal but haven’t known where to start? Maybe you have a stack of journals that you started and never finished. Maybe you are a journaler who is currently uninspired. If so I hope you will find this podcast a jumpstart to a transformative journaling practice. Journaling is the…
Choosing a Life of Celebration (Podcast #20)
The choice is always before us: A life of desperation or a life of celebration. In today’s podcast, I invite you to celebrate your life and to celebrate with me as I look back over this incredible last year. I am truly overflowing with gratitude as I remember the love and faithfulness of God in…
This Morning I Was Born
This morning I was born. My mother struggled with birth until dawn. I went home in her arms. I cried. I slept. My eyes focused on her beautiful, ephemeral face, familiar somehow though I had never seen it before. While she was getting pancakes on the table, I bounced on my sister’s knee. I listened…
I Stand in This Breath of My Life
I am alive. I’m trying to let that sink in. I inherited the unfinished sketchbook of a beloved art professor who passed away last spring. Flipping through the pages this morning, I see how alike we are in our interactions with the blank pages–line drawings, quotation marks surrounding deep theological ideas and questions, to-do lists,…
Enter Your Year With Vision: An Online Journaling Retreat
Friends, we are about to start a new year, and I want to enter into it with purpose and a clear vision of how I can step into the role that God has designed for my life. I feel a deep need to quiet the noise, take a holy breath, and pray, journal, and reflect…
Journaling and the Bridge to Peace (Podcast Episode #6)
You can also listen and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. Today we are talking about one of my favorite subjects–the transformative practice of keeping a journal. Journaling is the intersection of my creative and spiritual life, it is where all my good ideas start, it is where I come to make peace…