Meandering the halls at Bath Elementary was always a reminder to me that I was so very different from others and yet so very much the same. I wore saddle shoes and barrettes in my hair. I ran around on the playground and ate peanut butter sandwiches. I loved to swing...

I. Can. Not. the path gives way to love. Forty years ago my mom took me to a counselor. We drove to the west side of Houston and she sat in the car while I had my appointment. I was 17. I can only imagine how many people told my mom I needed therapy. I remember...

I WAS WRONG. Three little words. I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately. I was wrong. Not so much about politics or marketing or how to repair a relationship. Definitely been wrong about those. I’ve also been wrong about me. When something hurts me … when...

Sitting across from my first client in San Antonio, I remember thinking, I am getting paid to do this?? I am so very lucky that this is my job. There is no where I’d rather be: sitting in a safe space, hearing sacred stories, sharing sorrow and longings …. what a...

It was Spring in Big Bend. The sun was just coming up over the base of the rockies. The weather was crisp and cool. The sky was blue and pink. My heart was full. I wore hiking boots and my last clean t-shirt. Primitive camping for the first time. Had no clue what I...

We were Christmas and Easter church-goers. No matter what. Or so we thought. But not that Easter. We girded our loins, got dressed up and went to church. The cross was laden with flowers, the choir started singing and my dad just said, “Nope”, stood up and we left....

My belly was huge. My tears were frequent. My heart was splayed open by a novel called “Redeeming Love”. At the time, I chalked up the emotional flood to pregnancy. But lately, that story, a modern retelling of Hosea, has come back to me. And I’m realizing something....

I was standing in a restroom stall in a honky tonk bar in Houston. Staring up at the ceiling, I asked “Why?”. “It’s the hat”, said a voice. “What?”, I asked the invisible voice. I heard it again. “It’s the hat”. I walked back into the bar and found Merrill. We had...

I don’t know about you, but I’m up for a new year. Not because last year was so bad - though it certainly had its moments. I lost some very special family members. It was a very sad year. And also, winds of change seem to be blowing into my world. And I am glad. Guilt...

Finding Hope Finding hope in a season when there is more darkness than light, when family expectations intensify and the end of the year asks us to look back at all we have walked through… hope can feel a little out of reach.. It’s cold. It’s dark a lot . It can be...

I’m obsessed with cults. It’s a running joke in my family - anything that faintly smells a little bit culty is something I will seek out, devour, consume. I think my fascination with cults mirrors some of my own disorienting experiences of having lost myself and...

I am water soft enough to offer life tough enough to drown it away -Rupi Kaur, Milk & Hone My Grandma and I tried to watch Slingblade many years ago. By the second scene, I was dizzy, nauseaus and tearful. I told her I couldn’t watch it. She told me I had a tender...