So what is this place?

I've mentioned a few times that this will be a space for things that I love.

What exactly does that mean? 

To simply start, I love writing. I love the art of putting down your thoughts into words. We all have things to say...things that can influence ourselves or our community around us. We all have thoughts that need to be put into words...thoughts that come from a place of vulnerability and realness. Sometimes these thoughts are verbalized offensively, or they can be encouraging and uplifting. They can be foolish or wise. 

I love writing and I love words. I love hearing your words and sharing mine. 

Secondly, I love community. We drift in and out of different communities throughout our lives. Some communities are shallow- my high school cheerleading squad, for example. Some are deeper...an accountability group of women or a new moms group. Some are, by nature, temporary (see cheerleading squad) and others are permanent until the end of time (I'll never remove the titles of daughter, wife, mother, sister). 

Community holds us together, and it's actually how God designed us to live. I think about stay-at-home moms 30 years ago and how lonely they must have been as they raised babies alone and wished for community. I think about my own loneliness sometimes. And let me be clear, we are a busy family. We have something to do every. single. day. 

And still, loneliness can creep in. It can grab hold of our thought lives and convince us that we are the only ones on the whole planet who are doing the thing that we are doing. We are the only ones at home scrubbing toilets. We are the only ones eating dinner alone with kids while dad works late. Everyone else in the whole world sets alarm clocks, takes showers before 10am and wears real clothes outside. 

Let me tell you...

That is a lie. 

A big, fat lie that you should never believe. When you live outside of community...those lies sound real convincing. 

I love community.

(And I don't care if it's face to face, blog to reader, or group texts.)

Third (and most importantly), I love Jesus. 

If there is anything that I'd like to be known as an advocate for...it's Jesus. He is the only reason that anything makes sense in this world. What hope do we have that the circumstances around us are going to get collectively better? How can we explain why bad things happen when they shouldn't? 

We are all so completely messed up and broken. But we don't have to fix ourselves. We don't have to make up the debt that we owe. Can you imagine if we did? God made a way for us to be reconciled to Him and we don't have to do anything but believe. He did it all. And it was always his plan from the very beginning to save us. 

Incredible. 

Oh there are simple things that I love too. Things like coffee and Spotify and seeing the world through my children's eyes. Sunday afternoon family

walks, road trips, good food, yoga, and figuring out if I believe in essential oils. And I want to talk about all of those things too. All of them. 

Right here.

Stay tuned.