So often the author interviews the heroine of their upcoming novel. Not this time. Just because I’m imaginary doesn’t mean I can’t hijack this blog! Kendall, it’s my blog. True, but Catch a Falling Star opens on my less-than-happy birthday. Have you ever wanted to skip a birthday? Everybody wants to skip a birthday at some point in their lives. …
In Others’ Words: Bite Your Tongue
I wanted to let someone have it last night. And I know that person wanted to say a few … um … special words to me too. But I didn’t. I could feel the words banging on the back of my clenched teeth. I could almost see them forming in a cloud above my head. But I knew once I …
In Others’ Words: Breathing
I took breathing for granted until I developed asthma. I had years of inhaling and exhaling without giving it a second thought — I mean, isn’t respiration supposed to be automatic? And then, within months of my family’s move to Colorado, suddenly my chest got tight when I worked out at the gym. No big deal, right? I didn’t have …
In Others’ Words: Echoes
“Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.” (Proverbs 12:25 NIV) “Kind words are like honey–sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.” (Proverbs 16:24 NLT) What echoes have I left in others’ lives? Have I left a sticky mark of kind words — a bit of verbal honey that encourages someone who wants to …
In Others’ Words: Along the Path
Disclaimer: I stole today’s quote. Sort of. Let me explain. Sometimes I pick my quote for the day from my backlog of quotes. Sometimes none of those quotes “reverb” with me, and so I go skimming through the Internet topically or maybe I do a search of a particular person . . . You get the idea. Last night I …
In Others’ Words: Letting Go
Growing up, I never quite conquered the monkey bars. Seriously, I’m pretty certain I never once made it all the way across from one end to the other. Sometimes I’d get to the middle and just hang there until I let go and dropped. But there’s the lesson hidden in monkey bars: Life is all about letting go. I’ve grieved …
In Others’ Words: When You Can’t
There are days I wake up thinking about all the things I have to do — and how I probably won’t get them done. Of course, those are the days where I fell asleep the night before thinking about all the things I had to do when I woke up in the morning … and all the things I left …
In Others’ Words: Hope
“This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 NASB) For months now, my husband and I have been starting our mornings by speaking aloud Psalm 118:24. Doing so gives me hope. In Your Words: What renews your hope? On Sunday I’m selecting — with the help of …
In Others’ Words: Creativity
I’ve followed a few hunches in my life … sometimes I’ve walked through an open door and sometimes I’ve walked right into a brick wall. But at least I was moving forward, right? I love the idea of intertwining a hunch with creativity — splashing that “Maybe this will work” feeling with a bit of red and blue and purple …
In Others’ Words: You Are Here
Anybody else ever want a do-over? Anybody else wish there was a rewind button on life, just so you could go back five, maybe ten, seconds and make a different choice? (They worked that do-over concept into the movie Galaxy Quest, but the rewind button had a fancy name: Omega 13.) But I digress. Reality is, we rarely, if ever, …