My thoughts
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Part B: The Redemption of Jekyll & Hyde
This time of year everything is magnified. All of the year seems to come to a head. The good done. The bad that still exists. The ugliness of consumerism. The beautiful idea of gifts given with no strings attached. (Is that possible? Can a gift really be a gift? Can we, who thrive within a… Continue reading
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10 Impossible Things Before Breakfast
There are mornings I wake up and immediately believe two lies: 1. That today is just another day. 2. That I am jut an ordinary human being. I forget: 1. I am breathing. Life itself is a miracle. 2. I am a hero on a journey. 3. Everything is mine, because it was given to… Continue reading
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The Beauty of Creative Collaboration
It’s my last night in North Carolina. I am sitting in the black office chair for the last time. I have practically lived in this chair for the past three months. I written over 90,000 words in this chair. But I didn’t do it by myself. Never in a hundred lifetimes would I have dreamed… Continue reading
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Help “All Things Become New” For My Niece Sierra
This darling girl is my *almost* two-year-old niece, Sierra. She is one of twin girls, born to my brother and sister-in-law Davis and Mindy. Sierra is special, and though I’ve only had the privilege of meeting her once, she holds and special place in my heart. Sierra, like my younger brother Robert, was born with… Continue reading
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Thanksgiving Dinner With Perfect Strangers
Today I had thanksgiving with a family I don’t even know. I was unsure about it before hand. I text my friend Mere and said it was going to be awkward. She said “Awkward makes for the best stories!” She is wise. So I decided to write about it. It’s not like I didn’t know… Continue reading
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A Handful of Crumbs- Thoughts on Grace & Identity
I picked up this memoir by Kim Sunee, “Trail of Crumbs” partially because the cover was pretty, partially because it was on clearance for $5, but mostly because of the subtitle, “Hunger, Love and the Search for Home.” That subtitle could just as well describe the book I am currently working on, “The Wizard of… Continue reading
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Narcissistic Notes From My Seventeen-Year-Old Self
Most of the time I remember my teenage self as being super insecure, wanting to be anyone other than me. Then I come across little gems like this: I know that I have what it takes to be an author. I know I have what it takes to put my name on New York Times… Continue reading
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Smudgy Pictures of the Future, AKA "I have no idea what I am doing."
Here I am again. This is too familiar, but each time I go through the same old worry, same old freak-out, same old resolution and finally, a sense of peace. The future feels blurry, and in my humanness, blurry feels scary. I have vague impressions, colors and smudgy lines. Words and songs, faces, images. But… Continue reading
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The Grand Finale
Every year we gather under a sweaty darkening sky. The July heat surrounds us, pressing down on us, reminding us why air conditioning was invented. We round up little ones, hold hands with lovers, hold our breaths and wait for the show to begin. Boom! Crash! Sounds like thunder, bright as lightening, but the sky… Continue reading
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Top Three Do or DIE
Sometimes it is good to sit back and reevaluate my life. Not in a way that analyzes it to pieces, more in a way that nourishes dreams which have been previously starved to death by my own cynicism or just plain laziness. I need to remind myself of what makes me come alive, and then… Continue reading
Brooke Gale LouvieR 