On the surface I’m a mother to two amazing girls. Hope is fourteen and Naomi is ten.

But who am I underneath all of that? I’m a writer, I’m a grace-giver and I’m a connector. This is who I am when I’m alive.

It took me so very long to actually look myself in the mirror and say I AM a writer. Me, who longed to write all through high school and college. Me, who very tentatively tapped out a few poems and submitted them to my university publication. And me, who for the first ten years of post-college life, didn’t write a single word. I am a writer and I’ve been writing now for almost 10 years and I know the only way to actually be something is to do it. Even if I’ve been born with the need and love to write.

I’m also a giver of grace. It’s even hard to say that because it feels like I’m saying something grandiose about myself. But for as long as I’ve seen the redeemed side of life and grace, I can’t deny that it is something that has been interwoven into my soul. I’ve learned that the Grace of God is the biggest sea that one can dive into.

And I’m a connector. As an introvert it’s been a long road to see myself as that and it has been an equally long journey to begin to connect good people together. When I do that, I’ve realized, I begin to feel alive.

I do believe that the world needs those of us who are trying desperately to wake up and realize what makes us each alive. I believe that we are better people, parents, helpers and workers when we understand how we were made, who we were individually made to be and then do those things.

And I’m learning how to be alive. Each day is a step in that direction.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Howard Thurman