I'm just trying to walk myself home.
MLK50: Gospel Reflections from the Mountaintop On April 3-4th, I had the great privilege of going with a group from my church to MLK50, a conference in Memphis that happened in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s tragic death. The purpose of the conference was to create an “opportunity for Christians …
Potsdam, Germany is a fun and easy day trip from Berlin. Potsdam is a thirty minute drive from where we were staying in Berlin and boasts a garden that seems like a smaller and much less crowded version of Versailles. (Also it is free to visit!) So we decided to spend a day there. We …
I’m not sure exactly when I heard about EJI’s (Equal Justice Initiative) Community Remembrance Project, but I know that when I heard about it, I wanted to figure out a way to participate. I want to be a part of creating a greater awareness about our nation’s dark history, not just slavery, but the way …
Snapshots of Berlin, Germany From the moment we moved to Germany, Ben told us he wanted to go to Berlin. Every time we took a short trip, he would ask when we were going to Berlin. So as our year in Germany was winding down, we decided we needed to make it happen. We rented …
I think that a Yoga Retreat might just be the most perfect way to travel. It’s no secret that I love traveling. In the last few years, I have really been digging the kind of travel where you get to soak up time, culture and life in one single setting, like The Cinque Terre or …
I’m quickly sharing a few of my favorites of 2017 before I’m so far into 2018 that I forget about them. These are some of the books, movies, songs and places that widened my heart in 2017. My Five Favorite Books I read in 2017 The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom White Awake by Daniel …
Dear Mr. Tisby, After the election, I was reading the news, lamenting on Twitter, and trying to listen to the voices that I felt were most marginalized by the comments our newly elected president had made on his campaign trail. Listen and lament. Listen and lament. But after about a week, I was drowning in a …
Since we have moved back to Arkansas, we don’t seem to have as much time for breakfast. The boys are running off to school during the week and to activities on the weekends. There is just so much happening! But Taido still tries to fix a fun breakfast on Sunday mornings while he is home …
Last spring we went camping for a weekend in Bavaria, Germany. From the moment we told folks we were moving to Germany, people told us we had to go and visit Neuschwanstein Castle (German: Schloss Neuschwanstein). It was raining when we stopped there on our way to our camping spot, but that was ok, because …
Walking through Autumn in Southern Germany (Baden-Württemberg) Y’all, the autumn was so beautiful in the little town we lived in last year. In the morning, you would walk to town and the hills would have a Scotland-like mist over them, but the afternoons were usually gorgeous blue skies and incredible color. I walked in the …
It’s been a little over six weeks since we boarded a plane in Switzerland to come back to the US. Back home. Taido is teaching for the fall at Lyon College, a small liberal arts school that is about ninety minutes up the road from where I spent most of my childhood. It’s a …
ROME ITALY The face I’m making in this picture could be summed up like this: OH MY GOSH I’M IN ROME AND THERE ARE A MILLION PEOPLE EVERYWHERE AND I WANT TO GO BACK TO TUSCANY BUT ACTUALLY IT’S REALLY BEAUTIFUL HERE BUT I’M EXPERIENCING SENSORY OVERLOAD SO…GELATO IS THE ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING! I am …
On our first day in Tuscany, my sister drove and I navigated. Between giving her the next directions (3 more kilometers on this road and then turn left) and catching up on stories about our kids, we were gasping at the scenery. Anna, look! Vineyards and towers on hills and cypress trees and red poppies …
The scent of ylang ylang filled the air, knocking me over with its sweetness. I looked up from the map I was following to stop and smell the flowers, then to see the columns, and to smile at the bright blue sky. A few blocks later, I found my hotel, dropped my backpack and crossed …
A Letter To My Children About Making Time For Creativity Dear Sweet Ones, I want to tell you something about creativity. To create is to reflect the image of God, the Creator. To create anything is to participate in the divine purpose for which we were made. I hope you will let those words sink …
Hello friends, We’ve had a mixture of blue skies and rainy days over the last couple of weeks here in Tübingen. We had friends come to visit and they definitely experienced a bit of every kind of weather. We even had a bit of snow. We headed back to Castle Lichtenstein where we had a …
It seems ages ago now I walked the smokey gray cobbled streets of Antigua with my boys. We spent a couple of nights here after our week at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. The city noises were jarring after a week of hearing mostly just the wind or the occasional boat motor. Antigua is loud and lively. …
The boys went back to school this morning after two weeks of being at home. It was the first long stretch of school holidays in several years where we opted not to travel. Mary Polly came through on her way to Dresden. We went on lots of day hikes. We had new friends around most …
The last few weeks in Tübingen, Germany have been so gorgeous that I am not going to complain about the fact that for some strange reason, it has been snowing here for the last two days. I just hope the snow doesn’t freeze or destroy all the sweet blossoms that are popping out everywhere. …
Lake Atitlan Guatemala Over a month ago (or maybe it was a lifetime ago), we flew to Guatemala to join Taido’s family for a week on Lake Atitlán and a few days in Antigua. My mother-in-law has been raving about the beauty of this lake for years, so we were excited to leave winter in …