cultivating the beautiful ordinary by sharing our tales and our tables
I AM RADIANT, VIBRANT, AND MAGNETIC. These are the tender, yet bold, and, honestly, very necessary words a beloved friend strategically taped to my desk when I wasn’t looking. I’m in a season where the language I use to talk about who I am, my personality, and my strengths and weaknesses feels like it can…
Read More
“We do the best we can with what we know at the time,” said my friend. We have known one another for a long time and were talking about shared memories of when our daughters were young. I reflected on how my own formative experiences showed up in the ways I parented my daughters, who…
Read More
My words went live on Red Tent Living for the first time on my 40th birthday. Ten years and over 60 posts later, I now know that they were more than words. They’ve always been so much more than words. In the space so generously offered to me, I gave generously back. I let you…
Read More
Tracy Johnson asked me to support her new endeavor, Red Tent Living. I know how difficult it has been for me to ask for support for mission trips or the founding of a new graduate school. It is humbling, for me, to ask for anything. I did not want Tracy to have an awkward pause…
Read More
“Stand tall when you say goodbye, my girl. No matter how much the end hurts, we hold our heads up high and let the tears anoint your honor.” I lift her chin up, but her eyes refuse to meet mine. I hold my gaze steady until she reluctantly meets my own. “Momma, I just had…
Read More
When I began writing about losing Mom last August, I knew July was waiting on the other side. I knew that at the end of this journey I would be practicing gratitude, thankful for the gift of this year. There was an inner knowing, a need to sort out the words and feelings surrounding my…
Read More
“How was your son’s wedding?” someone asks, and Tim and I exchange glances, hoping the other can supply adequate words. We try to describe the beauty, the goodness, and the joy of the celebration, but our words fall short for all of what our hearts are holding.
Read More
When my friend Ted died from esophageal cancer, he was my seventh friend to die in seven years. I was bereft. Ted and I had been close friends for thirty years. By his generosity, he inspired me to be generous, and he also fostered my love of travel. Because of him, I have had some…
Read More
When I feel sick, I desperately want reprieve from the symptoms that ail me. Often my sickness manifests in the form of anxiety or depression.
Read More
“You are becoming an Enneagram 7 in your second half of life,” my husband says with a knowing smile after I share my plans to apply for tickets to be in the studio audience of Saturday Night Live. As an Enneagram 2, I have spent hours during my first half of life reading people’s microexpressions…
Read More