Recently, I joined with many other voices to mourn, honor, and celebrate Rachel Held Evans. Since her death, I’ve returned to my old journal over and over to read my notes from the last time I heard her speak in person at the Writing For Your Life Conference...
My Ash Wednesday story was posted on The Twelve blog this week, and I’ve been praying my favorite Frederick Buechner quote from his memoir, Telling Secrets: “My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it anything like right,...
I’m excited to share that my essay, “The Orchard” is published in the Winter issue of Longridge Review. You can read it here. I began the first draft of this essay in my college dorm room about 20 years ago and picked it back up last year as I began...
This past fall, on a beautiful, sunny Saturday, I attended a writing workshop with my college poetry professor, Jack Ridl. We were cozied into a small church hall and given permission to dig into our memories and free write and start pieces that maybe we’d...
In November, many people post pictures to express the things for which they’re most thankful. Because I love talking about books, because I think words matter that much, because I think stories have the power to transform and challenge us, I’m going to post a book a...
My grandma’s health is failing. She’s 89 and determined to live on her own, to have her family over for Sunday dinner, for coffee during the week. But she fell a few weekends ago, landed in the hospital, and now an assisted living center. This summer, it felt a bit...