Richly Rooted

Everyone ought to recognize that a woman in possession of a sound mind must be in want of a good story. Jane Austen must've thought so, for her novel Northanger Abbey is one of the best literary defenses for fiction, and she has the book's hero Henry Tilney declare that “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”"But I'm a reader!" you say. "I make reading lists!"I know.I know you do.I've seen them, or you've told me about them, and the truth is, they're painfully deficient in fiction.Fiction--novels--those are the kinds of books we're not reading enough of ... Continue Reading

Do you get them, too? The Sunday night blues?Even as a child, I always felt morose on Sunday evenings. It would hit me as Dad hollered to us kids that it was time to go home. (You have to literally "holler" when your children are running wild over the church property, flushed with Capture the Flag and bellies full of ice cream.) It was always the same: I stared out the window of the back seat as we drove home, happy but sad. The fun, glorious weekend was over, and it was back to school and business as usual come Monday morning.The feeling didn't go away in college. In fact, it was even worse. Probably because when you're in college ... Continue Reading

Have you ever had a friend confide to you that she looooves making lists? And you smile enthusiastically and say "Oh, me too!!"You talk about how you love your lists, how you need your lists, and you feel like the two of you share a secret. You've got a special personality quirk in common that makes you both tick!Now that I've been on one side or the other of this conversation over a dozen times, I've come to this realisation:We all love making lists.Or a lot of us do, at least.Finding a fellow list-lover is about as common as discovering that another woman likes dark chocolate.Yeah, pretty common!What's far less ... Continue Reading

Self care waters our dry roots and helps us to flourish no matter what life throws at us.We practice it every day, whether we realise it or not, but sometimes realising it and taking note makes a little self care go a longer way.If you want to learn about the heart health and longevity benefits of self care or how it produces endorphins, you'll have to look elsewhere. I'm not here to cite studies and convince you that a good thing is good. My aim is to inspire you. To get you musing about all the ways you can practice self care on a daily, ongoing basis. To point out to you, as you browse this list, that you're likely already taking ... Continue Reading

Do you want to pull out of the fast lane?To take a slower, more intentional approach in your day-to-day?In our technology-seeped, drive-through culture we've lost a few things that used to make us slow down, connect with each other on a more personal level, and put our own best self forward.It's high time we revive these old customs that made life better--and made us take our time.Writing letters Like many of you, I grew up in a flurry of stationary and stickers with half a dozen pen-pals and no such thing as an email until junior high. When a letter arrived for me I'd abscond with it to my bunk bed or a tree to pour over ... Continue Reading