My name is Erin and I love words.

Words are my love language and my learning style. They are my greatest strength and my Achilles' heel. I think words hold incredible power. Words can connect two people continents apart and they can destroy someone so personally, like a perfectly placed dagger.

I've kept a journal since I learned how to string letters together. There's something so freeing in wading through the swirling thoughts that tumble and twist in my mind and tethering them to paper with a beginning, middle, and end. My mind feels a little less full and a little more clear.

Writing has always been to me what painting is to an artist - hence why I refer to this as my word-sketchbook. Here you will not find the next Mona Lisa or Starry Night. No, this is more akin to the sketches and gesture drawings of the decades preceding a polished masterpiece - raw and unrefined, but beautiful in their own way.

In this place I've given myself permission to try and fail and to try again -- to practice, practice, and then practice some more. My face may be smudged with graphite and my clothes stained in ink. My hair might be disheveled and in serious need of a wash, but this is where I'm most myself, this place of becoming.

And I'm starting to think that's the beauty of art.

Not the final polished painting, but the journey along the way.

Day Job | Director of Extension Publishing
at a land-grant university

Degree | B.S. Psychology
emphasis in child & family development

Coffee Order | 16oz Iced Americano

yes, even in the winter

INFJ

3w4

red-blue

wife

mother

believer

TELL ME MORE

I'm a recovering people-pleaser that's learning how to live my best life. I've been married to my best friend and love of my life for 10 years and we have one daughter. She's a beautiful, spunky, tenacious, strong-willed, hilarious 5-year-old.

I come from a long line of abused, hurting people who used drugs and alcohol to try and numb the pain. I was on the path of living from my wounds when God reached into my pain and showed me that wholeness is possible -- he redeemed me and is redeeming my family tree.

I still suffer from the pain of being sexually abused, emotionally abused, and neglected as a child. I'm still walking my healing journey and have a feeling I will do so all the way to the other side of this life.

I love spending time in nature hiking, camping, running, walking and especially just sitting allowing the sounds to cloak me in peace.

I'm working on enjoying life's little pleasures instead of feeling constantly compelled to do more, to be more.

Some simple pleasures I enjoy include:

reading a good book before the rest of the house has risen
the smell of coffee on a Saturday morning
holding my daughter's hand while we walk home from work
hearing my husband and daughter giggle over a shared joke
freshly baked frosted sugar cookies
swaying to piano-accompanied hymns in church
the silence of softly falling snow amidst the pines