Monday, January 22, 2018

A Note about Raising Girls


We celebrate three birthdays within eight days in the second half of January. I love raising girls. I consider it one of the greatest joys and one of the greatest callings of my life. There are days I’m convinced I’m blowing it entirely, then there are other days when I get glimpses of my girls growing into thoughtful and bright young women. Hope yet.

There are days of endless laundry and talking them down and building them up. There are days of exhaustion and feeling like nothing I do is making one lick of difference. One of my daughters is set on becoming President. I tell her to hurry up because this country needs her. I cried hard after the election and I’m still not at peace about who our country’s current leader is. Hope yet. The #MeToo movement is strong. Women are marching and my daughters are getting older.

I pray my messages are getting through to my girls—lessons like be brave, stand up for what you believe, kindness matters, think before you speak, your worth is and never will be in what others think of you, your life matters…

More than that, I pray I’m modeling all of the above for them. Because that’s the best way to transfer a message.

So I push through the dark days. I fight through the monotony. I refuse to give up if something matters to me. I forgive. I love. I support other women. 

Hope yet.

{The birthdays wiped me out...I will be back here blogging on Feb. 5th.}

Monday, January 15, 2018

Cheers to the Dreamers



Cheers to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for inspiring others to dream. It’s my hope that we all will continue to follow fast and hard after our dreams and advocate for genuine leadership as we press on.


“Power isn’t control at all — power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own.”
― Beth Revis, Across the Universe

“As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself... Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.”
Nelson Mandela 

Monday, January 8, 2018

Collecting My Thoughts


It already feels as though 2018 has begun with quite a bang. #MeToo made a statement at the Golden Globes. The Winter Olympics is on the horizon. And local fans are going nuts about more than one hyped-up football game. This and after a long two week break my kids have no school because some sort of precipitation is expected to fall from the sky today.

Recently a friend coined the perfect word for what the better part of this first year after our move from New England to the Atlanta area has felt like for me. Wobbly. I picture a baby giraffe finding its footing. Helping my girls to acclimate has become a full-time job. I’m just now devoting more time to breathe and well, to collect my thoughts.

These thoughts include…

In the strength of the Time’s Up movement it’s my hope women will continue to be mindful about how we treat one another, that we’d choose to uplift and encourage before we judge or spew jealousy. Also, I loved how one woman at the Golden Globes recognized the men she worked with who exuded dignity and respect. I hope our culture continues to see the value in acknowledging the respectful as we bravely call out the degrading.

A new story is taking over. As I begin to hunt for a fitting home for a novel I’ve worked on for years, I’m plotting, letting a new cast of characters take up space in my brain. Writers feel me on this one. I know a novel is a keeper when the characters and the plot don’t let up. Before bed. During TV shows. In the middle of conversations. They insist on being heard. There’s a verse somewhere in the Bible about how if people were silent about God even the rocks and trees (I may be butchering this) would cry out. I sometimes feel this same sentiment toward my future books and characters. If I didn’t write them, they’d find a way to be written.

My brain is synapse-snapping with a lot of other thoughts, but the ones I mentioned tend to make the most loops, with the exclusion of family matters.

I hope you’ve begun 2018 thinking about what you want for the world. I hope you’re still feeding your dreams.


Taking Time

college applications                 homecoming                            flag football                basketball             SATs   ...