Blog
Living in Mystery Amid Mundane
How to live in Mystery amid the mundane stirs my curiosity when I read the works of Catherine of Genoa. Her words strike chords so deep. Have you experienced shimmering beauty or known profound pain that leaves you completely speechless? That’s the way I feel in response to her ponderings....
Step into Your Calling as a Writer
What a Book Coach & Editor and Spiritual Director learned about Resistance and how that might help your calling as a Writer “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” - St. Catherine of Siena The Gift of Words and the Call to Listen I delight in words. As...
Beholding Spiritual Freedom: A Mid-Year Examen
As we enjoy the month when the 4th of July greets us, freedom is a primary theme. Just look around. Flags flutter in the summer breeze, displays of patriotic red, white, and blue. Symbolic colors of freedom pop up everywhere. Signs proclaim: “Let freedom ring. Home of the free and the land of...
Grounding Grief in Memory and Prayer
How do we hold grief and loss amid a tragedy? The rage of a river, flash floods in Texas over the Fourth of July, unleashes a rage of questions, groans, and grief, doesn’t it? I remember a discussion once about reading the Bible and the culture & its news as a basic approach to our...
Behold Playfulness: Find Joy in Your Creative Writer’s Heart
Play involves risk. Creativity embraces gambles. When we engage in the work of writing, we sometimes forget the fun of it, the way it can be a bit of recreation. The Surprising Joy of Constraint After my husband's recent birthday supper celebration, our local grandchildren amused...
Play: Reclaiming Childlike Joy with God
What’s your quintessential image of summer? How does it involve play? Bare feet, jumping waves at the beach, wading in cool mountain streams, swimming from one end of the pool to the other end, and picnics in the backyard round out my summertime vision. It’s being outdoors. It’s being carefree....
The Editor’s Joy: Caring for Writers and Their Words
I spent three days in May attending an online Editors Conference. Workshops and keynote speakers fascinated and educated freelance editors. I pondered editorial possibilities for the writers I serve. As an editor, I care about words and the writers who write them. I pay attention to the teeny...
Eastering On: Your Invitation to Celebrate and Behold Joy
Easter morning shouts, “Celebrate!” We greet one another with jubilant phrases: “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” “The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!” After forty days of Lent, full of fasting and the ups and downs of Holy Week, we are more than ready to celebrate. This is, after all, the...
Behold Hope: A Writer’s Journey to Joy
“This is just what I was hoping for!” It’s my favorite refrain from writers who I enjoy working with as a book coach, writing coach, and editor. This deep desire to see their words come into being may date back decades or may be a fresh endeavor. Either way, joy dances when words exude wonder....
Snapshots of Holy Week: Behold Grief. Behold Hope.
In decades past, upon arriving home from my travels, I rushed to the photo-finishing shop, in a hurry to drop off undeveloped film, eager to see the snapshots of memories made. A few days later, I pushed the glass door open again as the cling-clang of the bell announced my arrival. I joined the...
The Writing Life: Writing about Grief
Grief visits us all. Perhaps the grief of the day feels small, one drop upon a large pond. Perhaps the grief of the day descends like a sudden storm on a calm lake, upending all in its path. Grief accompanies loss. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ book On Death and Dying details responses to grief:...
Behold Your Grief
On Ash Wednesday, I enter the dim sanctuary to hear my beginning and ending declared: “from dust you are, to dust you shall return.” (Gen. 3:19) The rector marks my forehead with ashes. In the starkness, I mourn. I ache. I long. I grieve. So begins Lent. Reminded of our...
