Why Advent Hope Is Way Better than Junior Prom Hope

November 30, 2015.Reading time 7 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I REALLY wanted him to ask me to prom. I waited. And waited. And. Waited. Until one day, when it seemed all hope was lost, a nervous young man twitched his way over to my locker and sweated out an invitation to our junior prom. Except it was the wrong young […]

“Ordinary” Jesus Loves Turkey and Sinners

November 28, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep As I looked around our family table at Thanksgiving, I imagined Jesus sitting there. Probably at the head of the table. . .and after dessert, in Dad’s chair, because my father would so give up the microfiber recliner for his savior. We would have offered Jesus one of the drumsticks (before […]

Don’t forget to breathe! Hooking into the Big Breath

November 17, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

by Amanda Cleary Eastep I was lying on my side on the floor and toning my outer thighs alongside 10 other women, including my best friend, who was totally supportive of hitting Dairy Queen after our aerobics class. Our instructor, a petite and perky woman with saddlebags like…well, saddlebags…convinced me that if no amount of […]

What it’s really like to quit your day job and freelance write

November 12, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I spent the first-month anniversary of my full-time freelance writing business on top of a mountain. OK, it’s not Mount Everest. But the symbolism in the act of driving down the winding Blue Ridge Parkway, seeing the seasons change before our eyes in the veins of a trillion leaves, and climbing a slippery slope to […]

The disquiet that calls you back to the fire

October 2, 2015.Reading time 1 minute.

by Amanda Cleary Eastep My grandmother told me she could see their fires at night, dotting the dark rise of the bluff as her family’s wagon passed along the dirt road after the summer church revival. She told me you could hear their music, too, the strings weaving their way down the wooded hill. Music like […]

Leaping in Faith: A willing suspension of disbelief

September 29, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I’ve always wanted to skydive. To feel my heart about to come out of my mouth, to stop myself from vomiting upward into my own face, to fall and be yanked back in the nick of time. But leaping didn’t happen that way. I decided it would be way more fun […]

What Your Purpose Is Not

September 5, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

Purpose. No topic is too big for the #wholemamas. Follow us over at Erika Shirk’s Overflow blog. By Amanda Cleary Eastep Every night I take it to bed with me, wake up with it, and feel it breathing down my neck when I’m not giving enough attention to it. (No, it isn’t an overly affectionate labrador.) It’s my […]

What He’ll Be When He Grows Up

August 26, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

[AUGUST 26, 2015: I’m updating this post from 2011 for this week’s #wholemama link up, which has moved over to Erika Shirk’s blog, Overflow. I love this post and feel it fits so well with this week’s theme, BE.] By Amanda Cleary Eastep At 7, my son is in earnest. Gripping the back of the seat as we drive […]

Celebration: A marriage of joining and loosing

August 12, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep On September 20th, CELEBRATION… …will be a banquet hall garden with neat rows of white chairs and flowers and a white runner separating the bride’s and groom’s families until we are joined like the teeth of a zipper as she marches up the aisle… …will be a bride who will be more beautiful than she ever […]

The Dance of the Elders

August 4, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep That summer night on the rain-shiny driveway, we danced like crazy people… …and we sang, all of us happy remnants of the Sunday afternoon party that celebrated the graduation of my three kids. Their whole lives lay ahead of them as we friends and family honored the big steps of […]