The Momastery Guest Post (Seriously, Bring Champagne)
This is a big day. My guest post, What We Have Left: A Letter, is live at Momastery. It's a break out the kazoos, call a babysitter, and uncork the champagne!!! kind of day. (Or it would be if I had kazoos, or children, or champagne on hand ... ) Momastery, created by Glennon Melton, "is where we practice living bigger, bolder, and truer on this earth. Where we remember what we already know: We can do hard things, love wins, and we belong to each other." How do Momastery readers ("Monkees") do this? Through sharing stories, telling truths, and...
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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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The Work That’s Never Done
There's one item in our house that always catches people's eyes. The item in question? A photo collage that my husband Jonathan received when we moved away from the L'Arche community where we met. Farewell collages are a tradition at L'Arche DC; they feature the faces of every person that was a part of L'Arche during the years one lived there. In Jonathan's case, that means five years of faces, five years of relationships. When we first moved, I hesitated to display the collage. The goodbye was still raw; there were (are) so many people we love and miss. And...
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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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That Whole Gorgeous and Terrible Pageant
Watching people's professionally-produced videos can be ... challenging. Back & forth, back & forth ... Even though I know better, I usually think, Dang, that person really has their life together! They glide through their days with a soft glow surrounding them ... no zits, pit stains, or problems! That is so not my life ... As you've probably guessed, A Wish Come Clear has a new video in the works, thanks to the talented team at Armosa Studios. But excited as I am about sharing the video with you, the behind-the-scenes story comes first. Why? Because I...
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Baby, Have I Got News for You … Good News.
I'm having a hard time is a tough place to start. Walking a peaceful path. Photo Credit: Summer McCreless But alas, it was true for me a while back. I'd been trying to walk a path of love and trust, but my (metaphorical) feet kept slipping. Do you know the feeling? That feeling you get when you want to snap out of a critical mindset, but it's just really, really hard? The way you know better than to judge yourself and others, but you keep doing it anyway? It was like walking along an icy street in winter....
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Beware the Laundry: A Guide to Writing & Relationships
"I sure need encouragement to write. Help." This photo always makes me smile, because, dude, where's the typing paper?! Credit: Kevin J. Fischer A dear friend recently wrote this to me, adding, "I hope you can shed some light on how I can get started." So I thought I'd, you know, write an answer. And I thought I'd publish it here because writing is about relationship. Writing is an interplay between what's in your mind and what's on the page, between the stories you tell and the stories you live. And so it's no surprise that the most...
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Take It & Run: On Soul Trains & the One Necessary Thing
My husband and I moved from DC to Alabama over a year ago. It's been a year of renovation and renewal, and it has gone by so terrifyingly FAST. There have been some lonely times, when I wondered why we decided to pull up roots and say goodbye to beloved friends. There have been some frustrating times, when I wondered how I'd ever learn to drive a stick-shift pickup. And there have been times – like this past weekend – when it all just came together and made sense. My husband and I hosted two guests from DC, my lifelong...
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How to Betray Your True Self (And Then Make Amends)
This is a tale of treachery, but it doesn't start out that way. 'Betrayed' faces, 2011. Instead, it starts with a group of direct-care assistants hanging out in the kitchen of the L'Arche home where we lived and worked in 2008. I'd just finished a strenuous workweek, and I was exhausted. Why? I'd recently said yes to becoming a Home Life Coordinator. In addition to doing caregiving routines, I wrote schedules, mentored assistants, and oversaw home life. We had a number of crises that summer, so I served in the new position while training for it and simultaneously...
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