The phrase “staying on the hurt line” is from a classmate's mom in a class I took at the beginning of summer: Art in a Time of Crisis. What does it mean to remain on the hurt line? Is it somewhere between joy and pain? Is it a bittersweet truth that life is both hard and beautiful? Yes, yes, and so much more.

Whether her form is good or not, an artist can do nothing less than dive in. Sitting on the side of the pool is not an option.

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.

As artist-leaders who follow the most High God, we have a unique skill set to react to this time and season in 5 ways.

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.

This poem reverberates of winters gone by, a mother’s memory of a fearless girl full of zest. Today she is an ever-changing beauty who teaches me about seizing life.

Here are 10 things that kept me from caving to creative burnout in 2021. Instead, I found sanity, and quite miraculously, ways to thrive, even in the midst of a pandemic and starting grad school.

What's saving your life? From the fog, disillusionment, pain, uncertainty. What’s bringing you life, salvation, and hope? Someone asked that question in a small group I was in recently. For some it was mystery novels. For me, it was the Psalms and some sonnets.

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

The kind that stills.

The kind that heals.