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Honored to see my work published in The Alchemist’s Cabin, Porch Light Poetry . This piece lived with me for a long time before it found its way onto the page, and I’m glad it found a home with editors who treated it with such care. Support their work! Jackson, MS. 2009 A Small Thesis on the Cost of Belonging I went to the coffee shop— (the one with the little dog on the door) and I ordered an extra-wet cappuccino Do you ever people watch? It’s strange, being pulled int

I cannot find you But that's not really new I never could find you for anything Your eyes on the kingdom Always calling on Jesus But I never could find you for anything Don't look back But I looked back And saw the clues I'd failed to track The sky was black Your soul was black You stomped the crack and broke my back I cannot find you But that's not really new I never could find you for anything Rise up early Say a prayer Straighten my skirt Cover my hair Open my home Evan

This year I sat, with grief and with pain, with stories that made me uncomfortable and whole and real And with my whole body I listened. And I started writing what was whispered though every sentence challenged who I thought I was to say anything at all. I said it anyway. I learned the difference […]

Ya’ll. I’m tired. Tired of thinking, tired of striving, tired of calling exhaustion devotion. I’m not only tired of figuring out God, I’m tired of chasing anything spiritual at all. I don’t want to decode mystery anymore; I just want to live a real, human life. I spent years inside the Lord’s Recovery, a Christian […]

Death is not the enemy of life but its measure. I learned to fear death long before I ever understood life. Growing up, we sang hymns rejoicing life triumphing over death, we spoke about the power of resurrection and we gloried in verses like, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy […]

This past weekend, I think I played Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, a hundred times over. I had preordered the vinyls, painted my nails a blazing orange, and even hosted a little listening party. I went into this album an unapologetic Swiftie (and really, why should anyone ever need to apologize […]

The End (But Not Really the End) I typed the final words of my manuscript this week. That’s the sentence most people expect to mean: the book is finished. Cue the champagne, right? And yet, here’s the quiet truth: typing “The End” is really just the beginning of a very long climb. A few Thanksgivings […]

On my back, hidden from my own eyes, are the words esse quam videri. To be, rather than to seem. I first learned this phrase not in a philosophy text or a Latin primer, but on a highway sign after I moved to North Carolina. It is the state motto here, set down centuries ago […]

and the sacred stories that followed I have a friend. His name is Ben. Ben has a podcast. Ben invited me to be a guest. I talked about my life in a cult. The episode dropped. This is a what happened next. What followed was an outpouring. My inbox filled with messages—some from people I […]

The Box where I spent most of my life didn’t treat me too badly, at least as long as I was ignorant to all that was beyond The Box. Anyone who has seen the milky way in all its undimmed majesty cannot but be humbled with the enormity of what is out there. All the […]