Tag: writing

A Grief Observed

freedom, grief, Life Lessons, memoir, Spiritual Growth

“Losing a beloved is an amputation.” – C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed I once listened to a podcast in which a psychiatrist was talking about why it feels like we lose a part of ourselves when we lose a loved one. He said that, unwittingly, we store information, memories and experiences in the brains of other people we are close to; like an external hard drive. Our own minds have limited capacity to keep all the data we need, so we share mental and emotional data resources with others. We see this phenomenon to be particularly true when someone loses a spouse and has no idea what the bank password is, or what…

Continue reading →

The Call

grief, memoir, momming

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021 It was just after 9pm when the call came. I was in the rocking chair in the nursery, breastfeeding my son. My husband, who had been fielding all of the phone calls for the last week – from investigators, and search parties, and the news reporters – was presently on a flight to Arizona, to join the search for my missing brother. “Mrs. Neuberger?” “Yes, this is her,” I answered in a low voice, not wanting to involve my newborn in what was likely to be a life-altering conversation. She chose her next words carefully and delivered them with a clinical degree of care, “We located John below the…

Continue reading →

Nov 4th, 2016

Life Lessons, memoir, Success & Motivation

Three years ago on this day, I sat on my living room couch in my snack-stained bathrobe and messy bedhead bun – on what should have been one of the happiest days of my life – only feeling confused and disappointed. I remember thinking, this is not at all what I imagined this would be like. I thought I would feel…..different. I thought I would feel something at least. Anything but the way I did. It was launch day for my first book, Now What? A Story of Broken Dreams and the God Who Restores Them. This was the culmination of a six-year journey. The achievement of a dream I had held in…

Continue reading →

Are You There God? It’s Me Rachel

faith, Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

“Tell them to go home and flourish in their planting, in the place where I have planted them, and if they do, they’ll change the world.” – Bobbie Houston  It was a sweltering Friday in July, but I was inside. I was sitting just outside of a hotel meeting room door anxiously waiting for my name to be called. It was my first writer’s conference and I had scored one of the few, coveted appointment slots with a publisher; during which I would pitch my book in hopes they would offer me a contract. I sat quietly, legs crossed at the ankles, my hands in my lap resting on top of the three…

Continue reading →

4 Things You Need to Know Before You Start Blogging

faith, Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

Have you ever thought about starting a blog? I toyed with the idea once or twice myself before I finally did. As much as I love to write, I hate blogs.  Everything about them.  My thoughts are, who has time to read blogs? …much less keep up with writing one?  AmIRight? Plus, there are just so many out there already!  As of 2013, there were 152 million blogs on the internet. [1]  As of 2:46pm on Feb 17th, 2017 there had already been 2.9 million blog posts posted THAT DAY alone.[2] I figured if I did ever start one, I would make it about two months and never remember to post again.  Fizzle…

Continue reading →

What makes you come alive?

Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

I’m never so alive as when I’m writing something that has the potential to change someone else’s life. DOing what I was CREATED and gifted to do. I am not perfect. I will continue to get better, hone my craft, improve my skills…. But there’s nothing like living out your God-given purpose in real life. What’s your purpose? What makes you come alive? When is the last time you thought about it? Or acted on it? I know how easy it is to get buried in the routine of every day until weeks have gone by and you haven’t done anything meaningful. Friends, you were not created to work a job, to make…

Continue reading →

Deserts

faith, Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

Lately I’ve been feeling….dry. And by “lately” I mean for like the last 6 months. And by “dry” I mean a little dead on the inside. Spiritually. I have heard about spiritual desert seasons people go through. When they feel distant from God. And I’ve seen the cheesy church signs that say things like: “Feeling distant from God? Who moved – you or Him?” Thanks for that extra guilt and shame, church sign.  In a time when I already feel lost and confused. The fact of the matter is, I have been marching steadily toward the purpose and the mission to which God has called me. Not away from it or Him. So…

Continue reading →

You Make Me Brave

faith, Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

Jonathan Robert Willis *Photographer snapped this shot at the ‪#‎Unpolished2015‬ conference the moment he was asking me about my book, and i was telling him and his team about how i’m in the editing process now and how editing is WAY harder and more work than writing the book ever was! and then we laughed about it. what i love is that this expression captures so much of what 2015 was for me – that’s an overwhelmed laugh. it’s laughter lined with a layer of uncertainty because i actually had no idea what i was doing. being an author, publishing, speaking publicly…. i know it’s what I’m being called to, but it’s all…

Continue reading →

Weighted Words

Life Lessons

The first time someone tells you they took notes on your talk, is a humbling and sobering moment.  You realize you’re not just talking anymore. I’ve always been a story-teller, but now my stories carry a weight and a purpose, and can change people’s lives. They always have on a smaller scale. Words are seeds. Seeds we plant in our own mind and our own lives, as well as in the lives of those we encounter.  A few weeks ago my church played a music video for “Shake It Out” by Florence + The Machine that they remade.  You should go watch it, but for those of you with limited time I’ll attempt…

Continue reading →