Exactly ten years ago this month, I started a blog. I told exactly no one. Not even my husband. My first baby was six months old. I was working part-time, overwhelmed and tired. I craved connection and community. I wanted breadth of thought and depth of prayer. I couldn't find anything like what I wanted to read. So I decided to write it. I started writing quietly, typing one-handed in the dark, plodding out post after post that no one read. I didn't care; I loved it. My brain started spinning again. After a few weeks I did tell my beloved. After a few months I got brave and shared the blog with a handful of friends and family. I never expected it to amount to anything. Just a place for me to practice writing, to ponder spirituality and parenting, part of my transition from theological studies to new motherhood. Then a funny thing happened along the way. Writing turned into a calling that changed my life. . . . Readers will ask me now how to get started. … [Read more...] about ten years
blogging
THANK YOU! (and a few FAQs…)
Floored. We are so floored by the response to our news about the twins. Friends, family, strangers from across the globe - we're amazed and humbled to think that you're praying for us and our babies. (I still feel incredulous every time I make that word plural.) I can't thank you enough for your kind word and encouraging thoughts. I know we will need them even more in the months to come, and I'm holding each one of your emails, comments, stories, and promises of prayer close to my heart. Deep and humble thanks to every one of you. I'm not sure how to follow up a post that goes like HERE WERE ALL THE PLANS WE HAD FOR OUR LIVES AND NOW THEY ARE TURNED UPSIDE DOWN DEAR GOD WHAT WERE YOU THINKING so I figured I'd start with the questions everyone's been asking. (Got another you're dying to ask? Pose a question in comments and I'll do my best to answer. With the caveat that I'm no medical expert; just a bewildered mom who talked to doctors. Believe me, I'm as curious about this whole … [Read more...] about THANK YOU! (and a few FAQs…)
5 truths you taught me about prayer & pregnancy
I'm writing a book of prayers for pregnancy. (Slowly. Painfully slowly. Almost like pregnancy itself...) I wanted to write this book partly because of my desire for a good (i.e., theologically sound, personally engaging, poetically written, honest and hopeful) guide to the spiritual side of pregnancy. But the main reason I felt called to write this book? Because strangers write to me every single day asking for prayers for pregnancy. They want prayers for trying to conceive. Or prayers for pregnancy after miscarriage. They've been struggling with infertility. Or they're dealing with unplanned pregnancies. They're women and men. Single, married, and divorced. Across the globe and across religions. And their prayers have become mine. I remember them every night before I go to sleep, the seekers who share with me the holy gift of praying with them through joy and sorrow, hope and fear. I remember their names and hold their stories close to my heart. It feels like a … [Read more...] about 5 truths you taught me about prayer & pregnancy
on being and breaking
Two big announcements today. (No, I am not pregnant!) But another kind of gestation. A pair of twins. For my work with the Collegeville Institute Seminars, I'm at work on a book of prayers, blessings, poems, and hymns on vocation - a collection for congregations to celebrate the callings of all their members. I'm so excited about the prospect of helping pastors and ministers to bless the work and relationships that make up the vocations in their communities, from childhood through older adulthood, across professions and ways of life. And whenever I get the chance - in early mornings or late nights or Saturdays stolen away to Starbucks - I'm finally, slowly writing a book on prayers for pregnancy. The book that I've been dreaming of writing for years. The book I outlined two (!) pregnancies ago. The book that calls to me with each day's emails from readers who ask for words of hope and peace in their pregnancies. With these two books, I am called in two directions. Of … [Read more...] about on being and breaking
