Welcome!
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” Ecclesiastes 3:1
Welcome to the third stage of life, Vanaprastha, the stage between the summer of building career and family, and the eventual winter of decline. The harvest time, and for us, a forest retreat in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains!
In 2010, I left my career with much foot-dragging—and an identity crisis. Who was I, now that I was no longer parenting or teaching? I soon found a new mission as a writer, but finding my true self took longer. My book Wisdom Builds Her House tells the story of how I looked back to the past for the first time in my life, applied the lessons of successes and failures, dismantled the person I thought could not be replaced, and discovered healing in the person I’d grown to be. Wisdom Builds Her House will be available for pre-order soon.
I urge those in this stage of life or on the cusp to embrace the challenge. For encouragement, join me on social media or subscribe to receive my posts and newsletters.
Recently posted on the blog
Benediction, the utterance or bestowing of a blessing, a prayer
The Benediction will come, I assured myself as I read another excerpt of a recent essay at the SWAG Open Mic last Thursday evening. Benediction, the point of my essay, “Memento Mori,” about my father and the physical remembrances of him that I keep. Memento...
A deep longing, an intense desire for something, especially home
The word for the day on Saturday was the Welsh word hiraeth, meaning a deep longing for something, especially one's home. How deep our longings can be for comfort, peace, and hope. Perhaps because it’s winter, those longings seem...
Six more weeks of the cold of winter out of the north
“Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cold out there today,” says one of the two radio DJ’s every morning in the movie Groundhog Day. And yes, it’s cold outside again today but sunny. So, Punxsutawney Phil saw his...



