My Writing

A few of my favorite or most popular posts:

Beautiful, Fragile Jars – an essay on suffering

The Problem with Smart Girls: Part One and Part Two

Rare Rock: Corrie ten Boom – a profile of one of my favorite people (originally for Radiant magazine)

a poem about being grateful

Why I love Aquamarine – proving my parents’ mad skills in child rearing

For the Love of a Rock Tumbler – a good description of the Rare Rocks analogy

A STORY Moment – from the STORY conference in Chicago 2010

Most of my writing on this blog is based on things I’m reading, teaching, or learning. Most often, those things concern my pursuit of a  spiritual life when the physical world is so loud and demanding. I try not to be too cute, too boring, too preachy, or too wordy. And I try not to take myself or my experiences too seriously. But I don’t always succeed.

One of my frequent topics is my oldest daughter, Claire. Her birth was a traumatic and heartbreaking experience that changed me in so many ways. You can read a summarized version here.

I’ve also completed several chapters of this story in a memoir. But, you know, no one is publishing those these days. I’ll just save it for the day Claire asks me, “What was it like when I was born?” My short answer will be, “It was beautiful and terrifying. I found out I was weaker and stronger than I thought, and it changed the way I looked at life.” My long answer will be these chapters.

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In my non-blog writing life I’m secretly working on a novel. Don’t tell anyone. It is about a girl  who wants to change the world. But the world is not easily changed, and she begins to feel smaller and smaller in her pursuit until a cute guy with a guitar, an old man with a ring, and a cause bigger than herself shine light on what one girl really does have to offer a broken world.