Tag: joy
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Finding the Beauty Through the Weeds
I’ve written before about my affinity towards weeds – their persistence, their unconventional beauty, their unsung purpose. But there can also be a dark side to weeds, a literal choking out of light. Weeds, seemingly innocuous at first, can grow so thick and fast that it makes thriving, or even surviving, impossible for other important…
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The Great Unfurling of Growing Up
Eight years. Eight years since I crossed the holy threshold of birth to become a mother. Dreams brought to life with the great ache of joy; quivering, squeezing, stretching until I emerged as something wholly new, holding someone holy and new. And now, through the creeping crawl of the days and the great strides of…
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What it Means to Live a Creative Life
For the longest time, I didn’t consider myself a creative person. Though I loved to explore the world and my mind with curiosity, follow inspiration, and make new and different things, it never felt like enough. Unless I had published a book or released a song or had art displayed in a gallery or poetry…
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Five Favorites: Valle Crucis, North Carolina
As a child, there was one place more than all the rest that I felt my true self. One place where my wild and free spirit could wander free, roaming through wildflower fields picking berries, stepping barefoot in cool mountain creeks, and climbing moss-covered mountainsides. One place that felt like coming home. That place was…
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Taking Note from Nature
‘Tis the season for hustle and bustle, for stress and excess. Meanwhile, the natural world quiets, slows down, and turns inward. Meanwhile, bears and bugs hibernate, leaves fall from trees in a not-so-subtle suggestion to let go of that which no longer serves. Meanwhile, our busy bodies fight against their own natural urges. There are…
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My Darlings, I Delight in You
My Darlings, I hope you know, deep in your heart, how much I delight in you. I hope you see it. I hope you see past my tired eyes and my distracted mind. I hope you see the love and pride and joy that resides within those weary eyes. I hope you see how they…
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A Love Like That
What is it that makes marriage work? What makes love last? There are probably a million different answers to these questions. Depending on the marriage, depending on the love. But the only marriage I know is mine, the only love my husband’s. So in the weeks leading up to this day, our sixth anniversary, the…
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To My First Baby on Your Fourth Birthday
Dear Sweet Girl, Has it really been four years since you first entered our world? Four years since I held the heavy wetness of your small body against my own? Was it really so long ago that you transformed my entire world and made me a Momma? I can’t believe it. And yet, I can.…
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Happy First Birthday Sweet P!
Oh my Sweet P, my little baby, where has this year gone? I remember anxiously awaiting your arrival as you took your sweet time to greet us. I remember wondering how you would fit in to our family and how my heart could expand to love another child. I remember questioning my ability to be…
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The Delicate Dance of Joy and Sorrow
The dance floor is open, empty, inviting. The music swells; a beautiful uplifting crescendo that feels lighter than air. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for, longingly anticipating. Suddenly, in waltzes Joy, a beauty to behold as she spins and sails around the room with elegance and grace. Joy dances into our lives in…
The Small Wanders 