My Book Now Available!

UPDATE MARCH 29, 2023: At the time I wrote this post, there was no physical copy of this book (only a read-aloud of an earlier version via podcast). But now the book, complete with text and illustrations, exists! You can find it here: ORIGINAL POST: *At this time, there is no hard copy of this…

Birth, Motherhood, and Wholehearted Surrender (Podcast #32)

I have written a lot about birth on this blog. God has used it like nothing else in my life as a metaphor for wholehearted surrender. In today’s podcast, I share a bit about birth, about surrendering hopes, surrendering regrets, surrendering fears, and ultimately surrendering our whole hearts to God. I hope this is an…

The Sleeping Face of My Beautiful Boy

After the lullaby, I see the sleeping face of my beautiful boy, two years old. And at once, all the world is still. Time moves forth from this moment in reluctant ripples. Slow-moving reflections of memories, past and future that will become a whole life. Separate from my own, but always flowing in and out…

Hope on the Inhale

hope on the inhaleafter the gut-punchthe diagnosis, bleak prognosislook into the mirrorbut your eyes can’t focuson any beauty but what’s lost hopeon the inhalein the breaking of headlinesthat beat on the shoreline, the rising of feartidesthat pull you back into despair hopeon the inhaleafter the deep sighafter the long cryafter the fists-raised-why hopeon the inhaleafter…

When Every Choice Is Too Hard (Podcast #16)

“I am just trying to figure out my life, one day at a time.  I am just trying to discern which direction to walk.  I desperately want a clear path to follow.  Someone to hand me a map and say, “Here.  This is your life.  You will maximize it if you take this road, turn…

Beauty in the Midst of Darkness

There is so much darkness in this world. It presses in against us. In the middle of the night, it enters into our minds in the quiet spaces and works to leave a shadow that lingers even when the morning comes. We wake to light, but its brilliance is dimmed by the memory of those…

Singing Out a Baby, the Birth Story of Rune O’Carolan Chester

“I am walking into this labor differently than I ever have before.  I am walking into it with a spirit of fight.  Not just trying to keep my peace, not just trying to stay calm, not just surviving and getting to the other side.  I am walking into this labor with the desire to put…