Winters’ Day In
Conversations on life, faith, stories, and creativity from author Talena Winters.
Pour a cuppa and stay awhile.
Riding the Rails: How to Avoid an Emotional Train Wreck
Are you trapped in the tarry black hole of dwelling on loss? Are you jumping trains trying to hide from it? Or are you figuring out how to keep moving forward with loss as your travelling companion? How to avoid a train wreck on your road to healing and your dreams.
How Love Lets Go
There is no "one-time thing" when it comes to grief. It happens in pieces.
Just Start
Obstacles will always be there, right in front of everything you want to achieve or do, from painting a room to building a multi-national company. At the beginning, when there are the most obstacles between you and your goal, it is tempting to focus on those and decide that the end result just isn't worth the effort.
Pants are optional—but they’re a start
When everything extraneous has been stripped from your life by a loss, and you are left naked and broken, sometimes just getting your pants on in the morning is a big deal. But you look for those moments that you see progress, too. Moving forward, whether in small steps, or giant leaps--in the end, that's the only thing I can really ask of myself.
What I Wish I Could Tell You
Dear Munchkin...
I can't tell you how many things this year I wish you could have done with us, or the things I wanted to show you. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to hold you close or hear your laugh. I can't tell you how broken I feel without you here.
I learned so much from being your mama. And by God's grace, I am learning still,
Endings and Beginnings
As a reader, I always thought that the ending was the goal. And it is. But it never occurred to me that it was the well-written middle that actually got me there as inevitably as a cart on a roller coaster track.
If only life had someone writing me out of my "swampy middles."
Muddled: Notes While Grieving
As predicted in my last post, the last couple of weeks have been pretty hard in the grieving department. There have been pretty bad days. And some okay days. Today is a not-great day.
Comedy Night Fundraiser Recap & More
It's been quiet on stage here at Winters' Day In.
But so, so far from quiet backstage.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Are we in control of our destiny? Or is God? And who is to blame when things go wrong?
Choosing Belief
Even though I don't understand the reason, I still believe. Like Job, I choose to believe despite the uncertainty. And because I choose to believe, my grief is changing me for the good.
Blundering Forward
Moving forward is hard. Yes, the inexorable march of time moves us whether we want to move or not. But how do you "move forward" inside without feeling like you are leaving something—or someone—precious behind?
Want a Friday Night Date with a sweet new book?
One cold winter's night in 2013, I was sewing myself a summer dress (because that is completely logical, right?), and for the first time ever, I used the couture technique of setting my zipper in by hand.
And as I sat and hand-stitched my zipper, I wondered what might inspire someone to self-teach themselves to be a top-level designer.
How long would that take? And why would they do it?
Thus, the spark of an idea for The Friday Night Date Dress was born.
Moving On and Holding On
I'm terrified of the things about my lost son that I am forgetting. Every day that passes feels like it is taking me one day farther away from my boy.