Love Starts Here
Love Starts Here Love starts here - gently placing your own hand on your heart, feeling this breath as it arises – full or shallow – and loving what is, however it is, within you. And then, slowly, from such radical acceptance love begins to flow again within you and...
The Invitation to be Held
It was an ordinary Monday. But the stories I heard - in one day - were anything but ordinary. A husband has stage 4 cancer. A wife lost her job. A woman is saying "enough" to abuse. A teenager is cutting. Parents lost their baby. A divorce might turn nasty. I turn on...
The Year of Nourishing MOM: The start of a revolution
It’s time we start caring for ourselves with the same deep devotion we care for our children. My baby started kindergarten on Monday. I am starting a “nourish mom” revolution. Drop the mom guilt and join me in “nourishing mom.”
Dads and Devotion
My husband, Brian, is a man of presence rather than words. His presence is kind, service-filled, and quiet. I know he’d prefer to talk less and read more. I know he’d love to wake up late and go to bed late. I know he’d definitely appreciate moving slower in the...
A Summer Pause: connecting fully, listening deeply and playing wildly
“Mommy,” my five year old daughter quietly calls to me, “Here. I have a heart for you.” She holds a tiny heart-shaped leaf between her little fingers, sweetly twirling the stem back and forth. I wonder, “Where did this come from?” We have a tree that has bigger,...
The Holy Mess
The Holy Mess Lisa A. McCrohan Standing in the mess at my feet of Legos, shoes, and markers on the floor; staring at the mess on the kitchen island of water bottles, pistaccio shells, and half-eaten bread crusts; holding the mess of emotions within me, the unspoken...
Come Closer
Come Closer By Lisa McCrohan What if one day you let the sadness, the grief stuck under your ribs, the regret lodged in your throat, the shame still folding down the corners of those precious lips to come closer to not push them away or angrily shake your finger...
It’s Time to Come Inside
It’s Time to Come Inside God won't let me go looking for love outside myself. “It's time to come inside,” she said. “It's time to put your hand to your own cheek and stroke your face with the gentleness of a mother nursing her child. No, I won't let you go looking...
Sensing the Mystery
Today, the kiddos are heading back to school. Maybe you are thrilled, maybe you feel sad, maybe you are breathing in the spaciousness, maybe you are feeling the familiar "rush to get out the door." Maybe you don't know what you feel but you've been reactive all this...
Dying, birthing, and the extraordinary in the ordinary
In the Space of Dying Lisa A. McCrohan You are an ordinary shrub losing its leaves for the winter in a suburban yard that I’ve walked by hundreds – perhaps now thousands – of times. And yet today, I pause in front of you noticing I’m in the space of dying. Leaves...
The Ache of Belonging
Belonging My Darling, how is it that you search for belonging like a poor beggar on hands and knees frantically scrounging the dirt floor for food? My Dear Heart, if you wish, I can continue to beg and scrounge alongside you, and we can keep bruising our hands and...
The Ache of Monday Morning
The Ache of Monday Morning by Lisa McCrohan I watch my husband and children hop into the car and drive off to school. I stand there on the front steps, barefoot in my pajamas feeling the cold cement underneath my feet, my empty hand still warm from the toast I ran out...