So many thanks to the amazing women who participated in my “Squeeze & Space” guest series. If you have not yet read their stories and their words, I so encourage you to take a moment this weekend and read through each of them: Kristin, Elaine, Jenny, Deanna, and Audi. Each feeling the squeeze of life in their own unique contexts and each finding the spacious place, too, turning toward God’s “yes-breath” in their lives, as Jenny put it. Love that.
And now . . . A shift is in the air, isn’t it. Summer is coming to a close and we are headed into the first days of school. The carefree of summer is traded for the focus of fall. And I’m feeling that here in my house too.
Last week, Luke and Lane started Kindergarten and Elle started preschool, events our household has been anticipating all summer. And, as I sit at our kitchen table, typing away, with a bit more space in my life and in my home—a sliver-more of margin—I know it is also time for me to invite you, more intentionally, to come with me on a journey.
In six short weeks my newest book, Breathing Room, will release. In the following days I want to bring you into the heart and soul of this book—why I wrote it, why I want you to read it, why I believe the story matters.
Breathing Room is the story of what happens when we get to the point in life when something has to give. We can decide to vacate and drift out to sea. Or we can show up, keep our eyes open, ask for help, be brutally honest, and listen listen listen. Ultimately, it’s the story of me drowning and reaching up in frailty and overwhelm and God reaching down in his grace and bringing me breath, spaciousness, one tiny miracle at a time.
If you feel as though something in your life might need to give—anything at all, really—and it’s causing you angst and overwhelm and, dare I say, anxiety . . . I’m inviting you to come with me as we talk more about what we need to hold onto and what we need to let go of so that we might fully live.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share excerpts and backstory and maybe even a little video, if I can get the nerve up. I’m going to talk about getting to know ourselves much more deeply—our desires, our longings, our pain, our stories—and, thereby, allowing ourselves to connect much more deeply and authentically with each other and with God.
I’m going to talk about letting go of the ways in which you might be bullying and silencing yourself and to listen listen listen to the hushed drum beats of your soul that are telling you how you might really want to live.
I’m going to share about feeling nuts and chaotic and frantic and the really weird and unexpected ways God put his arms around me when I was at my worst.
Hopefully, when Breathing Room releases, you will have a clear idea of what it’s about, who it’s for, and how it might intersect with your own story.
If you’d like to read a few excerpts, Amazon has the “look inside” feature ready to go and you can get a sneak peek of the Table of Contents and some of the chapters.
It is with great anticipation that I approach these upcoming weeks. I know so many of us are longing for freedom, centeredness, wholeness — the miracle of breathing room. And I am so very grateful to bring you the stories of how God has visited me with his love and grace, the everyday miracles he’s sent my direction.
Amen.
