Writing & Books
Happy Birthday, Legacies!
When Losses Become Legacies turns two, and we're celebrating with reader reviews and a giveaway — because your words help others discover the book.
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Praying Hands
Ten years after losing my brother Jim, I share the essay I wrote about him — a story woven through Durer's Praying Hands, our mother's legacy, and the mysterious power of prayer in the face of unbearable loss.
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Win a Book, Read It, and Review It!
Book reviews are manna for authors and readers alike. This final giveaway invites you to win a copy of Legacies, read it, and share what you think.
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Man's Search for Logos
Viktor Frankl taught that meaning is the primary force driving human life. In a culture drowning in division and despair, the search for logos — for meaning rooted in something eternal — has never mattered more.
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Who's That Guy? Enter to Win a Book!
Can you name the man in the picture and his connection to When Losses Become Legacies? This week's anniversary giveaway puts your knowledge to the test.
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A Giveaway to Honor Mom
In one sentence, capture the woman who shaped you. This Mother's Day giveaway invites readers to honor their moms — whether here or on the other side of time.
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When Losses Become Legacies Turns One
To celebrate one year of When Losses Become Legacies, my co-author and I are hosting three weeks of book giveaways centered on honoring moms, art, and the power of reader reviews.
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Be the Hope
My brother Jim would be fifty-four today. We lost him to suicide seven years ago. It's up to those of us who've lost a beloved to be the hope.
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On World Mental Health Day: A Nod to PMADs; Suicide Prevention
On World Mental Health Day, I reflect on losing my brother to suicide and my own battle with postpartum depression — and share an excerpt from my book on the perinatal mood disorders too many families face in silence.
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Book Review: The Alice Network
Kate Quinn's raw, vivid novel about a WWI spy and a young American searching for her lost cousin sent me on a journey through wartime courage, female resilience, and the redemptive truth that we don't need to stay broken.
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All Things New: Katie's Story
Katie Stubblefield became the youngest person in U.S. history to receive a face transplant after a suicide attempt at eighteen — a brilliant reminder that God is still in the business of miracles.
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Suicide Isn't Selfish
Sipping tea from my Kate Spade wedding china the morning after her death, I'm reminded: we owe it to ourselves and the rising generations not to write off suicide as selfish.
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Suicide: Let's Talk About It
We still treat suicide as a stain on someone's character rather than the public-health crisis it is. Four years after losing my brother, I've learned that talking is our strongest weapon against stigma.
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Three Years Gone, and Yet You're With Us
A letter to my brother on the third anniversary of his death — because depression may have won by human standards, but not by God's.
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Staying Healthy After Losing Someone to Suicide
Sorrow isn't the enemy of joy — it's joy's fraternal twin. After my brother's suicide, I'm learning how to grieve well and live fully.
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Suicide and Its Unrelenting Stigma
Stigma chases those who've attempted suicide, those who grieve them, and even the professionals who treat them. Changing this starts with raising our voices.
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“You Are, I Am”
A vivid dream of a lion, a psalm about protection, and a song called 'You Are, I Am' — God was speaking, even when I thought he wasn't listening.
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Grieving at the Holidays
The holidays after a suicide are a bitter cocktail of grief and expectation. Acting as if nothing happened doesn't help — but showing up does.
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The Upside of Early Loss
Losing my mom as a teenager gave me coping skills I never expected to need again — until my brother took his life.
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My Brother's Keeper
My brother was my protector, my surrogate mom, my best friend. In his dying words, he entrusted me with the story of his broken heart.
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Finding God in the Depths
Losing my brother to suicide tested my faith in ways I never imagined, but God is drawing glory from the mire — even when I can't see how.
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What 40 Feels Like
Turning 40 was supposed to be a milestone I shared with my brother. Instead it's a bittersweet passage through deep sorrow and muted joy.
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Forgiveness After a Suicide: What Does it Mean?
Forgiveness after a suicide isn't forgetting — it's releasing the hurt to God, who can build something lovely from the ashes.
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Identity Theft
My brother lost himself in a marriage that defined him, and the lies of worthlessness overwhelmed a man who never stopped extending grace.
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Not Enough: When Guilt Follows a Suicide
The guilt that stalks after a loved one's suicide is relentless — but in the space between sadness and hope, I'm learning to let light return.
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Sorrow, Strangely Sweet
Postpartum depression, mother loss, my brother's suicide — life's most tragic stories aren't without beauty. Somehow, hardship makes joy sweeter, and redemption lurks in the mire.
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Why Suicide Isn't a Selfish Act
Calling suicide selfish is ignorant and hurtful. My brother was in extreme pain, and he believed his children would suffer less without him. That is not cowardice — it is a desperate, human response to unbearable agony.
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