Front doors exist as logical ways to enter a space. Yet, quite often, there’s more than one way to achieve entry: Side doors. Back doors. Through the porch. Through the garage. Through the fence to the little entryway most easily accessible.

 

The majority of my life, I’ve arrived where I am through the usually less-conventional way, not the front door! The unexpected ways offered joy alongside frustration. I imagined a simple path. I received an invitation to a less clear one. What about you? Has your life, your ways of creativity, been full of more logical paths or mostly filled with unexpected ones?

 

Looking Back

I entered the world of words through many doors. Childhood memories include reading in the hammock in the backyard, turning page after page under the covers well past “lights out” time, and savoring stories from the window seat of our den, overlooking Atlanta’s vast canopy of green.

 

Summer reading delighted me. You’d find me with a book at the beach or the in the back of the car on the way to camp or summer vacation. Captivated by words, sandy pages and bumpy roads only added to my delight.

 

The world of words writes itself large in my story.

 

My fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Valentine wore her hair in coiled braids, like cinnamon buns that spiral round and round. She read mesmerizing poetry, then led us to the habit of memorization. Daffodils and clouds, even to this day, prompt recall of these lines by Wadsworth:

“I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

 

Wandering in the blink of light and shadow in thick lush woods, I found companionship from Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees” line:

“I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.”

 

Once Mrs. Valentine introduced the craft of writing poetry, I practiced poetry and prose far more diligently than the scales assigned by my piano teacher. Those childhood scribbles of poems held no particular merit save the delight of playing with words.

 

Later, Mrs. Lockhart, our high school English teacher, valued our written words, calling us writers. I believed her. I’m a writer because I write. I write because I love words. Yet, like most crafts, words also require refinement: revision and editing act as vital components.

 

As an elementary school teacher, I encouraged children while they grew to be readers and writers. Inventive spelling coupled with vast imaginations opened worlds to these young ones in my classroom. When my own children enlarged my world, we shared hammock time and road trip time filled with delight in children’s literature. References to favorite characters and slimy villiians still dot our conversations to this day. Tucked in happy memories, I recall their creative stories scribbled from happy hearts. Even when I engaged in my never-completed-due-to-another-family-move-doctorate in education, my emphasis centered on emergent reading and writing. The delight of words blossoming forth from childhood enchanted me in my family life and professional world.

 

For fun, for my profession, for the love of God, and the love of words, my writing life took on many forms. I created curriculum and poetry, wrote stories, crafted prayer newsletters, and fervently stated pleas for educational grants. Across venues, I served as the local volunteer editor and refiner of words. With an acquaintance who too loved both words and spiritual formation, I even authored a book with a colleague [add link to my book] that InterVarsity Press published. Looking back over your life, when and where and how have words played a significant part of the building blocks of your world?

 

Over decades, words written, words read, and words edited remain a constant. Trained as a life coach, a writing coach, and spiritual director, I continually accompany writers on their own heart journey into the world of words. Wanting to grow my writing, coaching, and editing skills, I attended writing conferences, savored books on craft, and delved into articles, webinars, and courses all focused on the craft of writing or editing.

 

I cobbled knowledge together as I experienced learning on the job. I offered encouragement to writers.

 

Looking Around

Yet I wasn’t satisfied. There’s a point where do-it-yourself life needs to meet wise mentors as vital guides. However, I couldn’t find the front door or even a side door that led to ways I wanted to grow in wisdom and knowledge as I wanted to be able to help writers.

 

Not wanting to go for a Masters of Creative Writing, not seeking to join a publishing house’s editorial team, nonetheless, I wanted more depth than what my do-it-yourself learning had involved.

 

Investigating university certifications and professional association certificate programs, I stumbled across an unexpected door full of adventure when I found Jennie Nash’s Author Accelerator, a haven and a hub for book coaches. A rigorous and vigorous course of study, including videos, books on the art and craft of coaching, editing, and story formation, and requirements that included multiple practicums with real writers, this pragmatic coursework shifted me into a new way to accompany writers. Now I better grasp what it takes to come alongside a writer who has a spark of an idea. Now I know better how to help grow a manuscript until it sparkles. The ends and outs of the publishing world, a continually changing universe, feel better understood.

 

Three certification courses later, I’ve solidified the foundation for being a book coach in the world of nonfiction, fiction, and memoir. I’ve found camaraderie with other book coaches and editors. Like the children who explored Narnia in C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I’ve entered an unexpected door that has led to new worlds.

 

Looking Forward

Now, by no means does this mean I am leaving the world of spiritual direction or ceasing to offer the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. My passion to see folks care for their own soul and deepen intimacy with God continues both in the realm of spiritual direction and in the writing world.

 

I still focus on soul care and deep life with God, applying that delight into the arena of the writing world. Stories are worth telling. Ideas are worth sharing. Words need editing to sandpaper their snags then create a smooth clear book for readers to savor. As a book coach, I’m here to guide and encourage, cheering writers on. I also offer my servicess as a writing coaching, developmental editor, manuscript evaluator, copy editor, and line editor.

 

Bringing all my delights together going forward feels like I’m fully alive, fully me. I get to offer my unique gifts from God as a joyful stewardship.

 

I am at a new place that carries familiar elements of my story. I’m half ‘n half: half book coach, half spiritual director.

 

I’m as delighted to delve into the hefty volume of The Chicago Manual of Style,18^th Edition as I am to examine spiritual disciplines or dive headlong into The NIV Exhaustive Concordance. I love tracing God’s heart as He speaks to my delightful spiritual directees and retreatants AND to those delightful authors, writers, and other folk in need of my coaching and editorial services. Give me a copy of The Elements of Style and let me read it alongside Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline.

 

My newsletters, blogs, and social media posts will expand.  They will feature ideas surrounding my work and my offerings in spiritual direction, book coaching, writing coaching, and editorial services. In them all, I’ll ponder ways to connect with and contemplate Jesus.

 

What do you wish you knew about writing? about editing? about walking and talking with Jesus? Where do you long for companionship?

 

I keep spaciousness in my spiritual direction practice, and my life as book coach, writing coach, and editor services. By not overloading my calendar, my offerings stay vibrant without causing me to become frantic. This is a place to allow space for your words, written or spoken. At times, I may need to create a waiting list for either area. I want each directee, retreatant, and writer to gets the time and space they deserve. By holding wise boundaries through prayerfulness and discernment, I aim to avoid a sense of rush. I’m here to accompany you in the care of your soul or the care of your words, and at all the intersections of both of these places.

 

I wonder: What door is God opening for you these days? Is it a front door, a side door, and unexpected door? Is it a door to enter while you are amid great joy or sagging from deep sorrow? Is it a door to find your way to tell your story to the world, to share your insights with others who will benefit from your bank of knowledge? Doors come in all shapes and sizes, don’t they?

 

Looking for the door to walking through to be companioned with a book coach who is a spiritual director or a spiritual director who is a book coach? Here it is! Come on in. Let’s see what adventures God has in store for you!