Unfiltered beauty and love letters have more in common than one might think. Both require a degree of courage—to show up as we are, without edits or pretenses. In both, we tell the world, or someone we love, “This is me. This is how I feel.” We risk rejection in our authenticity, but we also create space for genuine connection and acceptance.
Read MoreWe've all been there - stuck in a conversation that's on life support, desperately trying to keep it alive with awkward small talk or forced nods. It's like watching a bad rom-com, but instead of a happy ending, you're praying for a graceful exit. But…reviving a dying conversation isn't as impossible as it seems. Here are my (somewhat) tried & true (for the most part) tricks to help revive a conversation into what it could be.
Read MoreConfrontation, when appropriate and respectful, isn’t bad! Learning this has been one of the key parts of my life - because most of the time, people DO have different perspectives and it’s all about communication. If we all thought the same way, we wouldn’t have half of the beauty and creativity that takes place in the world.
Read MoreWell, that’s just grief exactly, isn’t it? Not the lack of gratitude by any means, but the acknowledgement of what has once been. The what could have beens, particularly in my (read: our) own timing. It doesn’t quite fit the bill of sanctification or nostalgia nor something so terribly simple as “loss,” but is still characterized by all of those feelings. I feel a lot of it these days: the deep complexities of life I wish I could put an exact finger on. Maybe one day, I will. I felt it when mum and Alexandrea were here: the ache of lost days gone by even as they were standing next to me overlooking Palm Beach, even as they sat in the morning drinking our coffee like any other day - a gratitude existing alongside grief in almost near-harmony.
Here’s my thought: maybe it’s because gratitude and grief must co-exist.
Read MoreThere’s a bit of wild that exists and takes place in all of us, between the letting go and the holding with tightly grasped fingers to all we know and hold dear. I’m in that space right now, figuring it out day by day, marking it with art, cities, people, jobs, and new eyeglasses called perception (or perspective change #wemeetagain)...transformation through my soul seasons. Feeling change; people change; but if we made it through our entire lives to be in this moment, then there is faithfulness from God to meet us here, & in the next moment too.
Read MoreDear 2022: you were beautiful. And rough + tumble; & a year of finding belonging & unraveling what that means all over again. You were “on the brink.” One of accomplishment and gratitude, and also one that reminded me (as an adult) how much I need community and a healthy dose of therapy to actually get through it all & still be wildly and freely ‘me’ and in childlike wonder, to still be madly in love with life.
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