I don’t really do resolutions, but the start of a new year always fills me with this feeling like my heart will burst because it’s so full of the desire to do something. To be better, to learn new things, to find my way to a different, deeper kind of happiness and contentment. The possibilities...

  I wish everyone could travel and realize America is not the center of the universe. Not even close. Everyone should have the chance to feel ignorant. Slow. Dim-witted. Embarrassed. Not very smart. (After all, they’re multilingual and I’ve merely completed 300 days of Duolingo.) My feeble attempts to ask for a table in Italian...

As many of you know, my dad was a professional watercolorist. He painted full-time for 45 years, and once he started painting, he never had another job. One of his favorite sayings, when people asked how long a painting took him, was “three hours and thirty years,” or eventually 40 and almost 50. In other...

  For my birthday in July, a friend bought me a really fun gift—a pocket watercolor set and a 3×5-ish watercolor sketch book. It’s adorable… but I was like, what on earth am I going to do with this?  When I attended the recent Midwest Writers Workshop, Kelcey Ervick, the author of a graphic memoir, taught on graphic novels (putting...

Just some quick updates for you about my new book—because some exciting things are happening as this little book makes its way into people’s hands. 1. Interview with Suzie Eller My friend (and author/speaker/podcaster) Suzie Eller invited me to record an interview about my book. She is gentle and wise, inspiring and encouraging, generous and...

“The one thing I ask of the LORD—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD’s perfections 
and meditating in his Temple. For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary.He will place me...

Several people have asked me to write about the process for creating the prayer prompt calendars. Creating them is one of my favorite things to do. It’s difficult to capture the stream-of-consciousness thoughts that lead to one, but I kept notes and took screen shots as I put together the calendar for August, so I...

In light of all the recent, horrific tragedies, I thought I’d share something I wrote years ago. Because truth never changes, and light always overcomes darkness. I’m feeling particularly proud tonight, because when I Googled the word “Chiaroscuro” to see how it was spelled, I discovered I already had it right. And to make it...