Radical Lives and White Picket Fences
I penned this blog post six years ago. Recently, a friend wrote to say she had long kept a printed copy of it but wondered if it still lived somewhere permanently online? I discovered that it did not. So, I've rectified that. For my friend. And for you, dear reader. Here is a new (old) blog post. A reminder for me and you of all the ways our...
Introducing: Paper&String
For years my words have mostly been poured into my books. Blog posts became more and more occasional. We used to talk to one another in the comment section of this blog, and other blogs, but now we talk on social media. Yet I sometimes feel we have less to talk about when we are only responding to an Instagram caption or a Facebook...
A Letter to My Younger Self
* I recently had the privilege of joining Susie Davis on her Dear Daughters podcast. In preparation for our conversation, Susie asked if I would pen a letter to my younger self. You can listen to our full interview right here. The letter I shared with Susie and her listeners is printed for you below. * Dear Twelve-year-old Christie reading her...
An Inconvenient Hope
Christmas is many things, but convenient isn’t one of them. Especially if you are the one who bakes the traditional cookies, the it-wouldn’t-be-Christmas-without-them-mom! cookies, while running the bedding for the guest room through the laundry, while keeping an eye on a child’s letter writing to Santa, while affixing a gift tag to the...
Autumn Parables
I first wrote these words a few Octobers ago. Since then, I've written a memoir embroidered with stories of trees. That book will come out in March--just in time for green spring--but it seems I've been paying attention to the trees for a long while. Autumn is announced by the seedling trees. The baby trees. They are the first to...
All the Colors We Will See: Guest Post and Giveaway
(the following post contains affiliate links) I met Patrice Gopo during a week-long writer's residency at the wonderful Collegeville Institute. I was just beginning the book that would become Placemaker. She was nearing the end of the book that has become All the Colors We Will See. It was always a treat to take a break from writing and run...