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…
Tag: the sacred everyday
Nothing is Wasted: Motherhood and the Surrendered Life (Podcast #30)
When I look back over what I dreamed my life would be 19 years into my marriage, I could not have imagined the impact motherhood would have on me. So many of the goals and aspirations of my life have shifted and refocused themselves into the everyday rhythms and rituals of raising a family and…
Rhythms for Motherhood and the Creative Life
This is the story of my life as a creative soul–going all the way back to my childhood, my teenage years, the early years of college and marriage, and then into the wonderful and difficult and all-consuming seasons of motherhood (15 years and 8 children into it..). I share the things I truly needed as…
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…
my heart trembles and sings
my own dear child eyes of bluest bright, alight body in holy motionbrimming over with lifesongand the beating, beating, beating heart beautiful breath that flows inside you like a melody for the gift of your love and living presence my heart trembles and sings (This is the image I saw outside my office window as…
I Go Back to the Ocean of My Childhood
When you were a childdid you lose yourself at the seashoreand forget life aches? Did you run to the waters laughing? I go backto the ocean of my childhoodwhere I was a girlphotographed by my mother,my father looking out to sea I want the waves to whisper somethingbut they are stillsuspended in memorythey do not…
Motherhood Begins With Surrender
Motherhood begins with surrender.For the sake of love, yes,but surrender all the samethe body the mind the soul the spiritbends to the body that breaks openthe womb, the silent seedthat buries itself into the earthof the secret place within If birth isn’t surrenderForget everything I’ve ever saidOr don’t you remember when all you could do…
The Great Value of a Hidden Life (Podcast #26)
Sometimes motherhood can make me feel very small. I have such ideas and plans and ambitions and so little time to devote to anything but what seems like the most basic of needs. God has been impressing on my heart the beauty and great value of the hidden life, here in this house, raising my…
New Video Series: One-Minute Read-Alouds
Dear Friends, I have begun a new video series called One-Minute Read-Alouds on my Instagram page. Sending out words of hope and inspiration for 30 days through this project, and I hope they are encouragement to you! Even if you don’t have an Instagram account, you can click on the picture above to see them….
Sometimes Small Hopes Die
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 remembrance. Upon the sunrising, we are met with a difficult choice: To live in…
Family Rhythms: Homeschool (Podcast #25)
When Randy and I first started homeschooling, it was because we wanted the flexibility of having our children with us. We imagined traveling, playing music, and bringing our children along… Life shifted as we had more children and we began to restructure our life within the comfort of home. As our children and family size…
The Climax of a Real Story
The climax of a real story is always movinggrowing upgraduationtruelovemarriagebecoming a mothergetting the kids to bed so you can finally sit down for the eveninghitting send to the publisher after a decade of writinggetting the kitchen clean after breakfast In stories, there is one climax. And then there is the hope of sustained joy.There isn’t…