I was eleven years old – bookish, imaginative, shy, average – when I met Bethany. I had outgrown any possible cuteness, but not yet grown into any possible maturity.Bethany was sixteen. She was beautiful, creative, ridiculously intelligent, and with an effortless poise that was never ... read more
For the love of breakfast.
I’m a night owl who also somehow likes the morning vibe. As long as it’s not too early, I relish the relative quietness of the day’s beginning. I like the pottering around feeling of getting ready for work. I enjoy the morning light filtering through half-open blinds. I like the routine of getting ... read more
the best books for writers
The only way to be a writer is to write. Pulling those words from the heart and mind and getting them onto the page is at once the simplest and the most difficult thing in the world. But reading can help us learn what good words in good order look like. It teaches us how to recognise the ... read more
flawed fellowship
My parents became Christians when I was four years old, so I can’t remember a time when church was not a part of my life vocabulary. The first church was a tiny Assemblies of God congregation which originally met at the showground of our small coal mining town. Optional Sunday extras included a ... read more
a life in fiction
Some things get to be so much a part of one’s identity that it is impossible to trace the thread of memory back to the beginning, back to the initial taste of an entirely new experience. I wish I could remember when books first entered my world, but I cannot. Like the seemingly infinite existence of ... read more
the heart of education
The end of January and the start of February are, in Australia, crazy times. After Australia Day on the 26th of January, a new school year begins for everyone from kindergarten to year twelve. A month later (give or take a couple of weeks), tertiary students head to university to begin or round out ... read more
Christmas in the Great Southland
As I sit down to write about Christmas in Australia, it feels more like the wintry Christmas seasons of the movies we grew up watching. It’s grey, breezy, and unseasonably cold. And by unseasonably cold, I mean 19 degrees Celsius (66 F). Which I guess, if I’m being honest about it, is not cold at ... read more
Strength, Dignity, and Personality
Recently my sister Lauren and I sat down to nut out our thoughts on personality types in relationships. We come at things from different angles. From the outside, Lauren resembles a typical introvert. She’s quiet, content to stay in the background, and has a gentle demeanour. Yet her chilled ... read more
liberated devotion: dropping out of the race and meeting grace.
‘Reading the Scriptures is not an activity discrete from living the gospel but one integral to it. It means letting Another have a say in everything we are saying and doing. It is as easy as that. And as hard.’ (Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, p. xii) I was a nerd when I was a kid, well before ... read more
Sweet Sadness and St. Valentine
For any single woman who looks forward to someday loving and being loved, Valentine’s Day can probably never sneak by truly unnoticed. Even here in Australia, where the holiday is seriously downgraded in comparison to the high level of cupid activity in North America, it’s hard not to see the red ... read more
