The humidity greets me with a sticky embrace as I step outside onto my back porch in Austin. I question whether to turn and walk back into my office. No, I need to breathe something other than air-conditioned air this morning.
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All articles filed in Transitions
Rooted
Upon finishing graduate school, my new husband and I were wide open to all the places we could move. We were young, and the world was our oyster. The big dream was to move to Boston so he could attend a trade school, but the job hunt for me was hitting dead-ends and we were…
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To the One Whose Life Looks the Same
As I sit here writing this morning, my son at preschool for a few hours, a pine-scented candle burning, and the mess of holiday break all around me, I notice the quiet and the stillness that surround me too. Our lovable and attached Goldendoodle gazes up from beneath the creamy coils around her eyes, taking…
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Looking for Home
Last month, my husband and I moved from the home we’ve lived in for 24 years—the house we built after moving back to Michigan, where we raised our family. There were several moments throughout the stressful process when I felt like I’d foolishly launched into the deep end of the pool and wasn’t going to…
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Dreams Don’t Die with Motherhood
A little notebook sits on the back, left corner of a small, brown table in the tiny kitchen of my cottage on the Dutch Caribbean Island of Saba. No matter how many times I spray and wipe down the wooden surface, a thin film of “too many chaotic dinners” remains. I reach for this journal,…
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How Could He Just Leave Us Like That?
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Isaiah 43:2 (NIV) Let’s imagine a few scenarios: Chrissy’s husband left her, with…
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Transitions are…
With one hand I hold tightly to my husband, in desperate need of his support, and with the other I push him away. It’s confusing and frustrating, but this is how the young and scared part of me struggles for control and acts out in fear. My mature and wise adult self knows better. I have…
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Empty Spaces
I whispered, “I am not my burnout,” a phrase I held underneath my breath just silent enough so no one else could hear. These words erupted as Jen Hatmaker was giving a stellar keynote at the recent Brave On conference. While I do not recall Jen’s exact words, I sharply remember her speech triggered a new…
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While I Wait
A few weeks ago I felt the Spirit’s prompting to make a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. The invitation did not feel uncanny; I love nudges to create. Instead, I was curious about the message I would receive in the process. Baking chocolate chip cookies is a ritual I practice during seasons of the…
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Choosing to Return
Salmon sculptures inlay the floors in swirling eddies of bronze and granite at Sea-Tac Airport. I’ve rushed over these fish many times as I’ve navigated a season of growth and vocational transition in Seattle. This time flying out of Seattle was different. This trip was the last trip. Like most transitions, my move to Seattle…
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