Everything is Important

Maybe the secret to surviving any form of loss and pain is to lean harder into love. To open our heavy hearts, to make more room in them, to pull out a chair and invite someone to sit…

Perhaps the most agonizing part of our worst moments of pain is not the event itself, but the feeling that we are alone in it. 

On the day that I went into the backyard and found our…

One of the greatest temptations when going through a loss or difficult time is this human tendency towards “comparative suffering.” It's when we compare our pain or experience to another person’s, and then often determine ours as less…

She told me today from the backseat that one day she is going to be taller and won't need her car seat anymore. 

“Yes, ” I agreed. “You will outgrow it and won't need it anymore.” 

…

I stopped by the coffee shop today after Patrick sent a text to tell me my former attorney was at the shop. 

It has been years since I last saw him. He represented me 13 years ago…

Firm. Fair. Consistent. Love. 

I spent the first 3 years of my incarceration training dogs and it saved my life in a thousand ways. It helped absorb my grief when I felt like I would die from…

This photo was taken 2 years ago today and here’s a little reminder that it will come to pass, whatever your “it” is. 

King David was given the anointing for his future position as King when he…

There are no throwaways. 

I received a call recently about someone in my life who had relapsed, again. 

I didn't feel disappointed or frustrated. Instead, I felt heartbroken. 

I know some of her details. I…

I watched a family of geese with a small gosling in tow as they tried to cross a four-lane road today. It was a forty-five-mile-per-hour zone with cars zipping by in both directions, and I held my breath…

About a year ago, I felt this phrase in my spirit: 

“No one is coming to save you. You have to save yourself.” 

Initially, it felt like some self-help, motivational cliche, or a phrase that would…

I remember the time I sat on my top bunk in Marysville and wrote a letter to Caleb’s kindergarten teacher. I had been gone from home for about six months and I could hardly bear the thought of…

I sat with someone recently whose heart is broken like a million pieces of pottery smashed onto the ground. 

Breakups are brutal and just because you’re 15 years into a marriage, don’t act like you don’t remember…