Posts Tagged: inspiration

The One Indispensable Tool to Rely On Each Day

I love going behind the scenes and seeing the studio of an illustrator, or the desk of a writer, don’t you? I recently posted a behind the scenes of my own desk. These tiny pencils. One child calls his tiny pencils, “Legendary Pencils.” So that’s what they are from now on: my Legendary Pencils. What… Read more »

Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing: ARROW PRAYERS

Do you think that maybe your prayers aren’t long enough? Or don’t use enough special words? In the Bible there are lots of little prayers– so little they couldn’t be any littler. “Help, Lord!”, “Lord, save me!” They’re arrow prayers, quickly shot up to God. Once, in the middle of the night, during a huge… Read more »

Thoughts for Today: TRUE COLORS

Did you know that leaves aren’t really green? They only seem that way. Each leaf contains chlorophyll–the green color that captures light and turns it into food for the tree. It’s this green that hides the leaf’s true color. In the autumn, trees produce less chlorophyll, the green fades, and so the leaves show their… Read more »

Thoughts for today: Still shining

CLOUDS AND MOUNTAINS AND STARS Have you noticed that when it’s cloudy you can’t see the stars? And that sometimes clouds can hide even mountains from you? (Or even skyscrapers?!) For a moment it seems as if there are no stars shining, no mountains standing. Have the mountains moved? Have the stars stopped shining? No…. Read more »

The secret to peace no storm can destroy…

Sheep Hill 2017 was a year of so much hard news—attacks, shootings, political strife—so many days when it was impossible to know what to say. Near the end of the year a tiny island off the coast of Northern Ireland had something to say to me. So—why is this little island with its steep almost… Read more »

Storm clouds and suffering: SLJ travel journal

Going on adventures, taking pictures, thinking about things, writing them down on bits of paper, sharing them with you I was just in Colorado and then in New Mexico—and hiked in the Badlands (don’t you adore that name?). (Read on for a Foot Selfie to prove I was really there.) A land of such stunning… Read more »

is it spring yet?

For when winter is feeling long… or a winter in your life is. For when hope is hidden… and spring is nowhere to be seen. A message for you! Below the snow Hidden in every root, Inside every bud, In every seed, A secret is stirring… The lost flowers are only hidden, not gone! And… Read more »

workspaces to inspire you

Where do you make art? write? compose? create? When I started out I thought it would be in a library. So I found the perfect one. It was very beautiful. And very silent. And very serious. And all I could think was, “GET ME OUT OF HERE!” I kept looking around at everyone writing great… Read more »