Finding Acceptance in Surprising Places
What if the new life we look for (in publication, in success) might also be found elsewhere?
Writing
The Small, Accessible World of Publishing
Writers who long to communicate need readers, and readers have particular needs that writers can fill. The small ways we find to close this circle are beautiful works of art in their own right.
In Our Holographic World
The craft of writing can transform what might otherwise be naval gazing or isolationism into a contemplative practice, one that embraces both the full range of our diversity as well as our singular unity.
Repaint! Repent! Revise!
You’ve got to deconstruct the old to make room for the new, whether it’s a hallway or a soul. Or, in the case of writers, a rough draft. Or, in the case of climate change, old energy dependencies. Or, in the case of a broken democracy, old complacencies.
The Gifts of Being Curious
Isn’t curiosity marvelous? Something sparks your interest, and you’re off—questioning, learning, exploring, pondering. Say you meet someone new, share a bit about yourself, and they’re genuinely curious; suddenly you’re deep in conversation, sharing details about yourself or your work that you rarely otherwise disclose, and you begin to wonder whether this person might become a …
How does creation happen?
The story itself—the emergent life inside the inspiration—is a dynamic participant in the creative process.
God as Being, Being as God
A few years ago, I set off on a journey to the heart of Christian contemplation, both in practice and with studies. I began doing Centering Prayer, a form of meditation rooted in monasticism and the teachings of the mystics, and reading works from the mystical margins of Christian tradition—St. John of the Cross, Meister …
Developing the Inner Witness
Just as language can never fully represent me on the page, I, in all my thinking, breathing, creating glory, can never fully represent my ultimate Self. And so I let the little me go.
Boiled Down to a Drop
None of us, it turns out, are separate, siloed identities. We’re all mash-ups of each other.
The Journal: The Writer’s Compost
The journal is a writer’s compost bin. It’s tucked out back, behind the fence or along the alley where the smell won’t waft into the kitchen and the fruit flies won’t irritate the gardeners. You add to it daily, or at least whenever you’ve got a heaping bucket of scraps (read: baggage) to unload.