A Communion of Chocolate and Generations

December 29, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I break the chocolate wafer into pieces while it’s still in its holiday foil wrapper. Caramel oozes from the cracks as I carefully unwrap it and offer it up to my great aunt. “It’s like communion,” I tell her. She chuckles and says it’s sticky. We are visiting her in the […]

Just like a 1970s sleepover gone horribly wrong

November 16, 2016.Reading time 7 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I stuffed my overnight bag into my narrow grammar school locker, already counting the red-handed seconds until I left my 4th grade troubles behind and walked two blocks to my best friend’s house for a sleepover. My presence always caused a bit of angst for my friend’s mother since–although I was […]

Of Warp and Weft…and being Deeply Rooted

November 10, 2016.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep A few days ago, I joined about 100 other women at Wilson Abbey in Chicago for Deeply Rooted: A Gathering. My 20-year-old daughter was with me, and aside from a few friends, I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t know their credentials, their triumphs, or their sins. I didn’t know if they were longtime […]

Hitting the reset button on your life

September 14, 2016.Reading time 7 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep My breakfast was so pretty I took a picture. And posted it on social media, of course. I felt proud, like it was my kid, and this was her first day of Kindergarten. Ok, sure, it was just two fried eggs sprinkled with roasted and crushed kale, diced fresh tomato, apple […]

When Your Kid Starts College: Saying goodbye with open hands

August 31, 2016.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Before my eight-year-old daughter would leave for her dad’s house every other weekend, I would kiss the palm of her small hand, curl her fingers into a fist, and tell her to put the kiss on her cheek when she missed me. What I didn’t realize was that she tried keeping […]

The Terror of Our Blank Pages and Days

July 13, 2016.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Nothing is more exciting, or more terrifying, than facing a blank page. That’s true for more than writers. Today, my lifelong friend faces a blank page each day. It seems to her that little is left of the story she spent so many years painstakingly writing in blood tears prayers struggles. […]

Going Dark–or at least Going Dim–to find your way

June 21, 2016.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I love going to the movies. I love sharing an overpriced pop, gorging on Good and Plenty smuggled inside my “movie purse” because it makes up for the pricey Pepsi, and watching people wander into the theater and spend that awkward 15 seconds making their personal seating preference known to an audience of […]

An Encouragement Roundup: Writing, Reality, and Wartime Heroes

June 2, 2016.Reading time 4 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep I read. A lot. About writing, art, marketing, business, religion, and homesteading. That’s in between the novels. I do this primarily to learn. But I also do it to encourage myself, which is something I’ve needed more lately. Writing as an intentional practice has been arduous. As an emotional and spiritual […]

That “Thing” You Never Finished? It may take more than magic

May 12, 2016.Reading time 10 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Do you know which creature in the animal kingdom has the longest gestation period? Elephant? Nope. Frill shark? Ha! What’s so big about a 3.5 year pregnancy? The answer is a woman with an unfinished novel she started in college that insists on being born butt first. Technically, I finished […]

Mother’s Day with all the vowels

May 8, 2016.Reading time 3 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Sometimes on a day you could and should sleep in, you wake up at 4 a.m. instead, because, well, that cup of peach tea at 8:30 p.m. …and that thing or 10 on your mind that you need to pray about. So you wake up God, too, who like a patient […]