Everyday Mystic
Every moment has meaning–you’ll see that sentence a lot in my writing. I was raised to believe the meaning in my life was something I could learn in eternity (if I was even blessed with it then) but that I could not understand here and now. Meaning now was for people part of God’s great plan of salvation, like Moses or the Virgin Mary. Except, of course, my morality. My ability to stay on the straight and narrow was the one way I thought God’s presence could manifest in my life.
I had a few deeply spiritual experiences in nature and learned to write to find my own meaning. I left evangelical christianity (and organized religion in general) to find my own way, following my heart to the connections to myself, others, and the world around me that give me meaning.
Word Apothecary
- Creativity: I believe we are all capable of finding deep meaning through creativity and connection. I write to uncover my own meaning and to find meaningful connection in a post-religious world.
- Words: I believe our culture has corrupted language that could hold spiritual meaning, and I work to recover it through my writing.
- Stories: I publish a Substack Newsletter called Off the Map that is dedicated to telling stories of people who have found their own way.
Biographic Tidbits
I live in the incredibly beautiful state of Alaska with my boyfriend, Sean, and my dog, Orion. Nature is where my soul ignites, when I’m with the rest of my family–the trees, the ferns, the lichen, the creeping dogwood, the cranberries. A day when I don’t spend some time on the trail and in the trees is a sad day for me.
By birth, teaching, and pedigree, I am built for the pious magic of American conservative evangelicalism. My German ancestors founded a separatist commune in Ohio just over 200 years ago. I was raised in all kinds of different. protestant churches, from Mennonite to Nazarene. I attended Hillsdale College (if you’ve heard of it, you know. If not… I guarantee I went deeper into conservative American evangelicalism than you did. It’s a long story…) I pursued my passion for the written word briefly at the University of Chicago, where I obtained an AM in comparative literature. I left to marry my college sweetheart at the belief-appropriate age of 23. I dove deeper into piety, adding theology to my moral arsenal. It wasn’t until my marriage began to crumble after 13 years that I began to question… everything. There’s enough to that unfolding to fill a book, so that’s what I’m doing. Thanks for sharing part of this journey with me!
