Just Play
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Just Play

My daughter sits across from me, working a new crochet hook and giant, fluffy aqua yarn into what she hopes will be a blanket. She has just learned this art, and she knows only a trio of stitches. Nevertheless she experiments, creating new stitches and figuring out different ways to get that yarn across the…

a Black woman with natural hair smiles as she looks into the distance
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Three Key Habits of Heart Happy Women

Are you happy? I would have cringed if you had asked me that five years ago. Not. Even. Close. I was utterly overwhelmed after my husband and I adopted seven children—some who’d faced past trauma. The kids’ attitudes were messy, the house was messy, and my heart was messy. As time passed, trauma therapy helped…

a time-lapse of a full solar eclipse
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When You Can’t See What God Is Doing

I am typically an “in-the-moment” kind of gal. I’m all about spontaneous adventures, being present, and looking for magic in the little things. But when a solar eclipse was on a path to be witnessed by a huge swath of the United States in 2017, I found myself completely underwhelmed. Definitely not like me. For…

A happy woman walking in a field
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How to Be Happy

In her poem “The Suitor,” Jane Kenyon wrote a line that stops me short every time. It’s nestled there between stanzas, a short sentence crafted to stand alone between visual breaths. “Suddenly, I understand that I am happy.” Kenyon struggled with anxiety and depression throughout her short life, before succumbing to cancer in her mid-40s….

Joy in the Midst of Trials
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Finding Joy in the Midst of Trials

“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” someone in my hiking crew declared, as we took in the cliffs, pastures, and sheep. Just a bit further up the trail, we rounded a corner and enjoyed another beautiful vista. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!” someone else exclaimed. The refrain became…