Posts Categorized: New York City

Typed on an Olivetti Lettera 32

This is an Olivetti Lettera 32 typewriter (1963). It is one of the first portable typewriters. And how fitting because it is an extremely well-traveled typewriter. A globe-trotter. It’s lived in: London, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Oxford and now New York City. (Like me.) It was my mother’s and she gave it to me… 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 »

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 »

the lesser-known superpower of children (thoughts for your Easter weekend)

Every story whispers his name

Have you noticed the super powers small children wield? One morning, I was riding the NYC subway when the doors opened and into the car walked a little child. She was maybe 2. Instantly, all of us—these defended New Yorkers, all avoiding eye contact, all guarding our space—were transformed. We smiled at her. At her… Read more »

Splash!

At the end of book release day for The Story of God’s Love For You, three happy things to report: 1. We were #1 release for Amazon in the teen category 2. We’ve got lots of pre-orders 3. I even spotted a real life one IN THE WILD today (At the afore-mentioned bookstore, I might… Read more »

happy coronation day

I recently had an audience with the Queen. Well. With Helen Mirren (if we’re being picky) who played the Queen in the spectacular production call The Audience. The most moving part of the whole play for me was at the end of Act 1. The soaring music, the frailty of the woman, the greatness of… Read more »

Visiting Ann Voskamp

(Welcome to readers hopping over from Ann Voskamp’s A Holy Experience blog!) Ann and I knew each other via the Twitterverse and Planet Instagram and were each other’s big fans. (Ann has generously shared my books with children in Guatemala, in Africa, in other underserved areas of the world, working alongside Compassion International and returning… Read more »

From a child’s mouth

I trust the idea that I get from a child. And never more than in this book because, one day on the corner of Amsterdam and 76th Street in New York City, I heard a little girl, riding her father’s shoulders, say: “A girl is Daughter And a boy is a Son.” And I knew… Read more »

Hope beyond the walls of the world

We’ve had The Polor Vortex and Juno, The Storm Of The Century Of The Entire History Of NYC EVER! (not). It’s been frigid and freezing in New York City–and it was just such a winter a couple of year’s ago that inspired my brand new book. (And I can hardly wait. It’s coming out tomorrow!)… Read more »