Once this year, while Josh and I shared our everlasting house struggles, a friend mentioned that she thought it was a helpful thing for me to run a blog about home renovation in the midst of real life: Josh works full time and goes to grad school; I work more than full time, generally with […]
I’m now a contributing writer at Crosswalk.com! I’m thankful to all who’ve encouraged my craft and built me up and urged me to work up the bravery to share my stuff. I’d say I owe you, but you taught me that I don’t, so this first one’s for you: 3 Ways Perfectionism is Holding You Back (Here’s […]
I started a real piece on quarter life crises, but then the angst of being 25 and broke took down the desire to write about being 25 and broke. Bummer, too. Maybe if I weren’t spending so much time working, I could respond to all these articles about how lazy I am. Alas. I’m so bewildered […]
Zechariah was stricken mute once, according to the book of Luke. It went like this. An angel told him he’d have a son and name him John, and Z couldn’t believe his ears. Obviously the angel had only one option: condemning him to nine months of muteness. (Sunday school lesson: Don’t mess with angels.) This sounds horrific. Yet sometimes I wish […]
When someone you love dies, you live for a while by a different code. Days are about survival, and the proximity of tissue boxes. You become that guy – the person crying in the produce section, running red lights, and swearing at the banker. When I got the call I was sitting in a coffee shop, praying don’t judge me. […]
In the book Follow Me to Freedom, Shane Claiborne and John M. Perkins tack a little note onto Proverbs 29:18 and it goes like this: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” “Or at least run around in circles.” (Disclaimer: I’ve lost this book somewhere in the boxes of my vagabond life, so that may […]
There’s a conversation that I keep circling back to. I don’t know why. It always goes badly. But I also found recently that I’m an INFP (thank you, Drs. Myers and Briggs), which means that even though I hate conflict, I’m so deeply motivated by the things I believe in that I’ll always keep coming […]
I was scolded once by a professor for ending a presentation with the four honest words, “That’s all I have.” And I think this speaks something to my silence here over the past (eep) month or so. I’m imagining myself trailing you down the hallway repeating, “Well, what was I supposed to say?” It’s not […]
From the first realtor’s tour two Decembers ago to this month’s freezer upheaval, the basement has been our arch nemesis. I’m sure there’s some kind of motivational talk / Bible study material here — you may be cute and quaint with lots of potential, but if your soul (basement) is flooded and rusted and rotten, you’re still as much of […]
Something beautiful happened today. I almost can’t believe it. THERE IS HEAT IN MY HOUSE (Josh took a space heater to the house to keep our pipes in the basement from freezing and found that it was already warm in there.) The heating system’s not done, but it’s working. I’ll take it. All we need now is […]
