“I’m fine,” I say. I’m regaining consciousness. I feel the heat rising from the blacktop and the sun beating down. My head feels full of sloshing liquid. A panic starts to rise in my chest, a shuddering heartbeat and a trembling in my limbs, but I shut it out. I imagine a door slamming shut […]
2016 caught me off guard – an unexplained illness early in the year kept me in bed for weeks as winter faded to spring. Somewhere along the way, that illness developed into a numbness, then a shadow, then a shaking. Depression and anxiety found me after a long absence. So 2016 was also the year […]
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness… Sometimes paths of steadfast love and faithfulness lead through dark valleys and places of pain. Sometimes we must give up, relinquish control, simply let go at the worst possible time. Sometimes there is little light at the end of the tunnel, save for what […]
Chateau Chenonceau. Photo Credit: Jonathan Perrinet via Compfight cc I only had Him. And He met me there, sweetly and unexpectedly. (Note: This is the second part to the story I started last week about finding surprising grace in Paris. Click here to read part one.) Early April had left me lonely and longing for connection. Parts […]
Dear friends, I want to tell you a story that’s sweet to my soul. Eight years ago, I was in Paris, having my heart and soul rearranged under the gracious hand of my Father. I had no idea what those ten weeks would do to me then, but now I know the lessons learned and […]
I’m sitting in a quiet house at Steve and Lindsey’s kitchen table. They’ve gone to work and the kids are at school; this is my last morning here. It’s been beautiful. We are accidental friends. Steve mistakenly found his way somewhere he shouldn’t be online, a private group I was in. When he shared his […]
I almost didn’t let you see this. It was just a simple exercise that appeared in my inbox from Ally Fallon. It was remarkably healing, but I thought it might be just for me. Then I shared it with a room of young women who have walked similar roads. I was so humbled to see it open a space for them […]
This is the part no one talks about. The hours, days and weeks both the director and the writer skip over. There is a reason that stories and movies jump from one scene to the next. No one wants to see the boring parts of the story, even if they are important. If the camera […]
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. – Romans 15:13 ESV Discouragement snuck in when I wasn’t looking. It settled in my soul some time before I noticed its evidence on the edges of […]
Recently, a couple of girls I’ve worked with asked about the books that changed my life (not counting the Bible). It got me thinking: we’re all collectors, carrying bits of people and experiences and stories inside. And stories are important – we make sense of the world and shape ourselves through the books we read. I started […]
