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de(tales): potluck suppers
Liv is one of my truest friends, and also my pastor. My time talking and praying with her has been among the strongest tools that the Holy Spirit has used to heal some of the wounds of churches past....
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On Bikinis and Looking At Water
A couple of weeks ago, as I was catching up on Sarah Bessey’s blog, I read two posts both set around water. Maybe you read them, too? One was about going near it and just giving yourself time to be,...
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Hope For Beginners
Now, when I offer a friend a drink and she refuses, I begin to wonder if she is pregnant. It is an intimate thing, and so I hang back from asking, at first. These are the women who have worried, not...
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de(tales): pencil
Kelli Woodford and I met at the Festival of Faith and Writing this April. There are those people I feel I’ve known for a long time when I meet them, people who carry an ease of conversation and comfort...
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Dance Steps of Faith
Virginia and I at her 100th birthday celebration Early this year I wrote a bit about my friend Virginia. She and I talked for a while about her experiences as a single woman over the course of her one...
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Slow Leak
As a culture, we tell stories about single people, women in particular. Who among us has not heard cracks about crazy cat ladies, who, when living in New York, may die alone, undiscovered until the...
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de(tales): the list
Jason and I met at the Festival of Faith and Writing in April. He very graciously invited me to come and speak about writing to his students in Colorado this past weekend, and in a stroke of crazy...
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Disquiet Time {a review}
Growing up in church, I heard the term “quiet time” a lot. The words described the time I spent reading my Bible and praying, and was often positioned in youth sermons (and a few “Big Church” sermons)...
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de(tales): our daily bread machine
Christie and I started talking about food almost immediately when we met. I love her gentle spirit (more and more apparent as I get to know her), and I love the way she isn’t afraid to say true things....
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What I’m Into {a snapshot of October 2014}
October has been full. It’s been full like a teacup, overflowing because the pot keeps pouring into it, and it’s been full the way I am after a really big dinner. I’m learning more about choosing to...
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Too Much To Carry {a few words on my body}
I used to wonder why boys didn’t stare at me when I walked into a room. I knew I wasn’t beautiful like the girls who wore eye liner, but I was slim, and I had a nice smile. I hoped that these things...
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de(tales): bible
Heather Caliri’s words, on SheLoves, and her own blog, consistently hit home for me. We have some similar stories and battle scars from perfectionism and try-hard lives. When she sent me this beautiful...
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The Long Weekend {at Accidental Devotional}
I wasn’t very good at talking about singleness with grace, when I first started. I had a lot of opinions and hurt feelings, and I wasn’t communicating very well. But I’ve been practicing. Abby Norman,...
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The Price of Avocados {at You Are Here}
I am thrilled to be the first ever guest writer on You Are Here (a new collaborative blog of essays exploring the idea of place). The first theme, which continues all throughout November, is Food and...
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de(tales): doughnut
Carly and I met in the wide open spaces of Twitter before getting to talk and laugh face to face at Faith in Culture, in Portland, OR, this March. I appreciate Carly’s bravery in writing, as well as...
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Fierce Convictions {a review and giveaway}
You may remember Karen Swallow Prior as the author of a beautiful book on the way that classic literature has shaped her life and faith, Booked, which consumed my imagination. As a biographer of...
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Enough For The Unknown
When I was thirteen, I really wanted to be a babysitter. I checked out books from the library on “safe-sitting,” I took classes at my church (which always ended in a call to join the childcare team)...
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de(tales): tattoo
There are few people that I have clicked with as easily and as well as I have with Erin Lane. We bonded (after meeting in person at the Festival of Faith and Writing) over an piece she wrote in Talking...
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Oil For My Lamp
A couple of weeks ago, depression caught me again. This was not completely unexpected (though I always hope that the last time will be the final time). Somehow, I managed to get out of bed and into...
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What We Ate
It was just after Christmas in Chicago. I was preparing myself to fly to London to spend a month studying authors who had made homes in the United Kingdom. On New Years Eve, we went shopping. We were...
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