You Help Me Get Over Myself: The ThinkPiece Interview
Siblings, 2013. A touch blurry, but I do believe that Willie's smile makes up for that. Dear readers, Happy Monday! I have some fun news to share, so let's dive right in. First up is an interview I did with ThinkPiece Publishing's founder, Adam Wahlberg. As you may recall, ThinkPiece ("singular voices on social issues") published my Kindle Single, I Was a Stranger to Beauty, and I could not have asked for a better publishing experience. As such, it's my pleasure to share The ThinkPiece interview with you. It's a distillation of an hour-plus conversation, with snippets on...
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Contentment is NOT a Foreign Land. (Plus, the Trailer!!!)
One morning, I sat down to write feeling crazy and desperate. I was deep in the midst of a waiting season, and -- much as I'd like to think otherwise -- I'm not the most patient person. (Maybe you can relate?) I wrote: “It's all hopeless. So many times I've put my heart out on the line – in a post, a proposal – and received no response. Hearing nothing is worse than hearing no. Ask any writer, any artist. You can move on from a 'no.' But a 'nothing' can eat you alive. I hate the uncertainty of it...
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Tempted to Throw in the Towel? Read This.
I love hearing about the times they almost gave up. Field of Dream(ers), 2013 And by 'they,' I mean our heroes. You have your own examples: how Albert Einstein was considered a slow learner in grade school, how Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. As a writer, I take heart every time I hear about a literary great who almost threw in the towel. I love reading about how the Bronte sisters almost didn't submit their novels for publication (or claim authorship after they were published under male pseudonyms), or how Madeleine L'Engle tried...
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Fellow Perfectionists, Come See Me
Recently, I received a message from the moderator of a Facebook group of which I am a member. It read: “Caroline McGraw, please inbox me...I need to ask you something.” There was a plummeting, zooming feeling in my stomach. I clicked away, thinking: This isn't the first time I've felt that the ax is about to fall. *** All at once, I was back in first grade. My teacher, Mrs. Sanosi, had just returned our assignments. I was a good student, accustomed to seeing “Excellent!” atop my worksheets. But this particular paper had See Me written in red ink. Dear...
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On Faith, Fears, and Finding Treasure (Break Out the Shovels)
Dear friends, We're back! I missed you so much last week (when my husband and I traveled to visit family and celebrated our fourth anniversary) that I just had to make it up to you this week. As such, I have not one, but two guest posts to share with you today. The first guest post is at Elizabeth Esther's blog. Esther writes courageously about recovery from fundamentalist religion. I can't wait to read her forthcoming book, Girl at the End of the World. I'm thrilled (and terrified) to share, "Faith is like Walking into the Deluge...". The next guest post...
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Coming Home: The Liberation I Found at L’Arche
Happy Memorial Day, U.S. readers! This article was originally published in America, February 11, 2013, and is reprinted with the permission of America Press, Inc., americamagazine.org. I remember exactly where I was standing. It was in a small hallway at a L’Arche home in Washington, D.C., when I met my friend and housemate Pedro. At the time, I was visiting L’Arche for a series of interviews. I had not yet received an official job offer, but even so, I knew that I would be coming to live and work there. I could feel it in my bones; this was where...
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For You, If You Don’t Want to Get Out of Bed in the Morning
It's a bright, beautiful day, but I'm not really seeing it. The world looks bleak. A bombing at the Boston Marathon, a city-wide manhunt, ongoing violence and terrorism the world over ... the hate seems very heavy, and the love feather-light. Part of me wishes I could be a small child again, blessedly unaware of all this. And what is the deepest wish of a child but to be safe, held, home? *** Photo Credit: Brian A. Taylor Photography And that calls a story to mind. To begin, I should tell you that I co-led the opening of...
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In the Silence That Follows: A Love Story
My dear friend Brooke recently wrote, “I want to listen to what I really want to be working on, what I really want to be writing, where I really want to be spending my energy … and then do that.” This resonated with me, because I've been having trouble listening lately. And when I am having difficulty listening, I am most in need of guidance. Authentic listening is a lot more demanding than it sounds. It asks that you stop and be still. And in the terrifying silence that follows, it asks that you open your heart to what you...
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