Fear is a terrible adviser. So I realized when the producers of Canada’s longest-running daily television show invited me to their studio to talk about my just-released memoir. I once loved traveling. But the more complicated life became and the more heartache I experienced, the more I feared venturing far from my home and family. And it wasn’t just the trip that scared me.
I have taken a vacation from writing this column for the past eight weeks, I have also been wrestling with an unexpected onslaught of fear and – dare I say it? – anxiety. It came out of nowhere one week before the May release of my memoir. Seemingly overnight, months of planning and mounting excitement to share our family’s adoption story turned into panic as the day of our community book release party neared.
Last summer, at a vibrant Christian writing retreat nestled on a New England hilltop, I met bestselling author and teacher Liz Curtis Higgs. Although I’d never read her books, I sat fascinated as she shared her personal story of brokenness and faith. Best of all, she was funny!
Higgs’ words came from a place of hard-won wisdom that helped restore my own broken places. So I was delighted several months later to win a copy of her book, 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart (Waterbrook, 2016). Each chapter focuses on a verse of scripture chosen by more than a thousand women as one of their favorites. I’ve been reading each chapter slowly, savoring one or two a month (and not always in order).
Among the things I most enjoy about having children is what they teach me about God.
My 6-year-old son still searches for me first thing when he wakes up each morning with a request for “a good morning hug and a kiss.” Although, since we got chickens, I’ve had to share that honor with his orange and black hen, Gold Midnight.
Statisticians often assert that Maine is the least religious state in the nation. Ours is the only state where less than 30 percent of the populations belongs to a center of worship, and a recent Pew study found that just 40 percent of Mainers pray daily. Does this mean that the majority of us aren’t interested in spiritual matters?
Wife, mom, writer, friend, sharing God in my everyday life through “Faith Notes.”