Guest post by Nancy Bartelt. When I was a kid, I loved taking the two-hour road trip south across the Wisconsin-Illinois border to visit my grandparents. As soon as we arrived at their house, I’d always be greeted with a warm hug, huge smiles, and curious questions about my life. And—almost every time—the best-mashed potatoes in the world.

Guest post by Kimberly Knowle-Zeller. An hour north of Minneapolis, where the skyscrapers have been replaced by wildflowers and glistening lakes, and the prairie grass sways in the wind, a community of prayer lives.

Guest post by Andrea Delwiche. What is a more excellent way? Maybe it's partially found in a commitment to embracing a quiet and obscure life.

I always feel a major shift at this time of year: an invitation to notice, to wake up, to gather the good into a bouquet and give it away. Let's get back to small.

Practicing spiritual disciplines like prayer, solitude, and unplugging can easily feel like needing to reach a super-high level of holiness or faith, to get it right, or to find that one perfect practice.

At various times over the past few years, I’ve been invited to pen a Beloved Charter. This is a letter from God to me, choosing and naming me as His own. It’s a simple way to practice compassion toward myself and others.

In the tension of racial injustice and pandemic, it’s important to curate places of peace.

The kind that stills.

The kind that heals.

I asked one of my podcast interviews what he was learning about himself yesterday and he turned the tables on me, “What about you?”

Oh, me? I think I said something about living life more slowly. Yet the question sticks with me.

Let’s go deeper. What am I learning about myself? About how I operate in the world? About how I relate to others?

The podcast is live! I made this show to help creative people like you come fully alive to the pursuit of joy. Here are a few episodes all ready for your listening pleasure.

Pain. Hope. To marry the two can seem almost profane. To reconcile these realities, Isaiah 40 offers help.