Our collective imagination is haunted by a certain image of the artist: a solitary bard, brooding alone, awaiting a burst of inspiration from a mysterious and magical muse. We see the person with the creative spirit as one who stands above and apart from the common lot, a secular priest who mediates between regular folks […]
Art
Embrace Your Creative Vocation
Who inspires you? When was the last time you let your imagination run wild? What gets your creative juices flowing? Over the past few years, I’ve been so removed from these questions. My life has been an endless cycle of tasks and meetings and planning for the future. Ironically, I’ve been planning for something […]
We Need Whitespace to Create
The responsibilities keep piling on. The calendar gets filled up with more events. We’re moving from one thing to another with barely a moment to breathe. I run the family around from home to church, on errands, on playdates, to Target and back. Everything is always rushed. My temper is short, and my patience is […]
All Season Breeze: A Creation Poem
Who knew that You were the breeze hiding behind the trees playing hide n’ seek only to capture me? Who knew that You taught the eagle how to fly so I could learn how to soar? And who knew that You gave the sparrow its song so I could listen for dialogue between Heaven and […]
The Everyday Words
I’m not sure why it came as such a surprise to me. A few months into a period of not-writing-much-at-all, I discovered that I was suffering from what some might call writer’s block. I had gone from blogging a few times a week to a few times a month, if that. Pitches and proposals had […]
How I Found Creativity After Being the DIY Queen
Creativity is a privilege. I wouldn’t have made such a statement five, ten years ago. I probably would have said that creativity is something we’re born with, that not being able to pass by your local Hobby Lobby without going inside may be a good indication that the Creativity Fairy has taken up residence in […]
Let the Little Children Lead
I didn’t even know that artist injuries were a thing, and suddenly, I was hit with one. Not me exactly, but the artist I was counting on. Apparently, carpal tunnel is an issue for someone who primarily draws. I am the art director at my church. Every Sunday we have a worship band, and a […]
Waiting for Twilight
The summer before I got married Dave went away to teach at a program for brilliant young writers and I stayed in Pittsburgh, trying to finish my master’s thesis, which I hadn’t started. One night, there was a terrible thunderstorm, and my friend Rachael came over to keep me company. We drank mint juleps and […]
How alive do you want to be?
“Searching for an objectively ‘better’ home is a poor reason to live abroad.” Ta-Nehisi Coates on Twitter They say that when you live abroad that it goes in cycles: the first year is the honeymoon year. You swoon at the language, the accent, the magic of it all. It’s like Liz Gilbert in […]
Writing for Ducks
Today, we watched Frozen twice. Once because they were tired and once because I was tired. Usually we do puzzles and read and bake and play in the little pink kitchen that’s always askew in the corner. But today we snuggled, we danced, we sang. We also ate Kit-Kats and had chocolate smeared on our […]
When your Creative Well has Run Dry, What Then?
This is a post for all those creatives out there that can find their eyes roaming playing comparison games. This post is for writers that worry their wells of creativity have run dry. This post is for the parents and the colleagues who show up day-by-day to work hard and love well. Remember friends, that […]
A Poem in Two Parts
Part 1: Metaphor to My Simile I sat on the floor pen and paper in hand contemplating what I would try to get you all to understand, yet I’m not sure any man or woman could stand in my place and say it with elegance and grace what need to be articulated to my […]
Setting an Extra Place
Last spring, I went back to work full-time, setting off something of a tumult of significant life changes. Our littlest started kindergarten. We left summer camp ministry (and our home of more than a decade), trading the life bucolic for a busy corner rental in town. Jim started two businesses, and he and I largely […]
Beyonce and the Imago Dei
“Why are they all black? “Why are they all women?” She asks me this several times, because she keeps forgetting. And I tell her again, “Because this song is about black women being powerful and beautiful.” We’re talking about “Formation,” of course. And I wonder if I should tell my 8 year old daughter—all of […]
Coming Alive to Your Calling
I used to feel like I was called. I was sure that the pulpit was my destination. I was called to the ministry. I had been told that since I was a child. I was to be a pastor, a preacher, a minister. I felt this calling in my bones, in my spirit, deep in […]
Writing for Rescue
It’s interesting to me that The Mudroom’s first anniversary would fall on a month where the theme is Vocation, Career, Mission. When I was younger I adored Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, and the legendary Harriet the Spy. I took out books from the library on the history of the FBI. I pretended I was […]
One Hundred and One Dots
I pull the book a tad bit closer, at first. Then, instinctually, I extend my arm out to its full length and tilt the book towards the light. I repeat this process with as much subtlety as possible but the truth is evident. My eyes are struggling. I am no longer able to read, hour […]
Carving Words Into Bones
I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about mortality—specifically, my own. Perhaps it’s because my husband is in his mid-forties now and his mind is grappling with aging and ageism in his career field. Maybe it’s his sudden concern for our future, for what legacy he’s leaving behind for our sons. Perhaps it’s because I […]
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