Chantel 5 Minute Read I did something new this spring. After a chaotic few years of unemployment and unpredictable days, I have been desperate to get back into a routine. I wanted some regularity. I wanted something to help pick up the scattered pieces of my days and make them more productive. The problem? Nothing was working for me….
Chantel 4 Minute Read I crave real simplicity. I’m not really a minimalist in the true sense of the word. I could never get rid of my shelves (and boxes) of books and I think it’s okay to have more than three or four completely mix-and-matchable outfits in my wardrobe. But I know how full and crazy life is….
Chantel 5 Minute Read Sometimes I forget. I sit on my couch, and read about the thousands and thousands of women and children who are enslaved. Once in a while, it strikes close to home. Human trafficking doesn’t just happen “over there”. It happens here. Right here in our backyards all the time. I feel so helpless. So desperate….
Chantel 2 Minute Read This little book — this book with the title Pain Redeemed — it sat by my bed for a few weeks before I opened it. I wanted to read it. There is nothing so thrilling as holding a real, live book written by a friend in your hands. Mine is even autographed, much to my joy! The night I…
Chantel 4 Minute Read I was probably nine when I had my first major face-off with one of my greatest troubles. I was sent up to teach the kindergartners their church school lesson one week. I’d practiced and practiced and written down every single little word that I was going to say. But when I got up there, I felt the…
Chantel 4 Minute Read I dreamed a little dream one day. Breathed it out into words and wrapped it up into the corner of my heart. It felt safe there, secured by the knowledge that no one but me knew that it had been dreamed. Years slipped by. The dream nestled in my heart stayed warm and hopeful. Sometimes…
Chantel 3 Minute Read I think I want to redefine my approach to gift shopping this year and in the years to come. I want to get farther away from the buying and giving just because everyone buys and gives. I want to buy less useless clutter — things that will never be used — and spend our money…
Chantel 3 Minute Read 1. Make a Thankful Tree Collect colorful fall leaves and press them in books during the first weeks of Autumn. Find a bare branch, or use a little potted tree and declare it your “Thankful Tree.” Every day during the month of November, write something small that you are thankful for on a leaf. Hang…
Chantel 3 Minute Read I love lists. For as long as I can really remember, my life has been filled with unexpected interruptions, big moves and funny little adventures. The order and rhythm of regularity has often been put on pause as a sort of unavoidable chaos takes the reins for a time. The one thing that has seemed…
Chantel 3 Minute Read I’d only seen her once or twice, and I never knew her name. She was simply the woman who lived next door. From a distance, I could read pain in her face etched there by a life that had been hard and that had given her too many scars. Sometimes, when we passed her on…
Chantel 5 Minute Read I’m a Washington-born, Alaska-grown transplant. In my lifetime I’ve moved ten times (five of those being in the last six years) and about nine thousand miles. I have lived in some of the most beautiful places in this country. Compared to some people, my moves of a few thousand miles here and a few thousand…
Chantel 7 Minute Read I’ve got a little stash of pretty dresses in my closet, and three pairs of pretty shoes. They are the mementos that I carry of the honor I was given in my three-time career in the art of being a bridesmaid. I’ve been involved in a lot of weddings. I’d done just about any behind-the-scenes…
The End.
The End.