cultivating the beautiful ordinary by sharing our tales and our tables
I lay on the table in my surgeon’s office, the cape draped around my shoulders open, exposing the breast that is being biopsied today. As my doctor enters the room with her characteristic warm greeting, I feel a rush of gratitude for both the expertise and kindness I have experienced in her care over the…
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Seven years ago the four of us sat in our new living room talking. My husband and I had just had dinner with our longtime friends and counselors, Tracy and Mark Johnson. I’m not sure how it got brought up, but we were talking about how much I love writing and how much (since becoming…
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“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…
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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…
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Over a decade ago, my mother, Tracy, welcomed you to a tiny corner of the internet that was slowly unfolding as Red Tent Living. The website was always intended to be a place where women could come and connect in the middle of our messy and hard ordinary. Red Tent Living wasn’t about perfectly curated…
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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…
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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.
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I am on a hero’s journey. To where? I do not know. All I do is chooseto show up each day As a bright light As a brave heart As burning hope.
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Lying on a yoga mat, cued by the voice on the recording, I slowly inhale and exhale. I draw my attention to my body, reorienting my mind from a multitude of swirling thoughts to focused attention on my body, my breath, and this moment. Recently I’ve been taking a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course, created…
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A few years ago, my kids and I stumbled upon the insane mystery of Devil’s Hole in Death Valley National Park, Nevada. This ultra-deep pool of water fed by underground aquifers lies in one of the most arid regions on earth. It is also habitat to one of the rarest subspecies of fish on the…
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