Books for Adults
Joan Didion famously said, "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking...what I want and what I fear." My first books, about raising kids, were certainly part of my attempt to figure out what I really thought about adoption, parenting, and family.
Parenting & Family
After working as a newspaper columnist for about a dozen years, I was asked to write a book about my experience adopting my daughter. That book, my first, is Love You More. My second book was also about parenting and family, called MOMumental: Adventures in the Messy Art of Raising a Family. I deeply explored my desires and fears in them, but stopped writing about my kids when they got a bit older. I don't think they would have trusted me nor told me nearly so much about their lives had I been writing about them in their tween and teen years.
Here, you can find an audio interview with Oasis Audio about MOMumental
As I continued to write for adults, I shifted toward writing about spirituality and aging. Wholehearted Living has a foot in both worlds as a collection of bite-sized practices and reflections focused towards the spiritual lives of mothers.
Disquiet Time (reviewed by San Francisco Book Review here) is also a collected work. Alongside Cathleen Falsani, I edited together this seriously fun compilation addressing the most confusing and infuriating of passages in the Christian Bible.
In Dimming the Day, I offer an alternative rhythm to the addictive night-time electronic scrolling familiar to so many. Focusing on gratitude and presence, its gradual slowing down replaces nervous energy with a stillness of mind and body that leads to deeper, more restful sleep. You can find a conversation about this book with author Traci Smith here, and this is an interview about the book that I was able to do with Writing for your Life.
Spirituality
Aging
When Did Everybody Else Get So Old? (reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly here) is my experiential work exploring the complexities of middle-age. I hope it creates space for solidarity, humor, and hope.
