Dear Reader

This year I felt like I wanted to write you a letter, sharing my heart with you for my writing for this year. Feel free to write back in the comments below or by email and let me know what you think.

The girls are at school and the holidays are over. For our family it was an intentional retreat after a very full year. I guess that is what happens when you chose abundance as your word for the year. Last year abounded in many great things, the launch of my book Beauty in the Ashes: Learning to Lament, a wonderful writers conference in Sydney and a trip to Cambodia with my eldest to name a few. But at the end of the year we needed to retreat, regroup, and just be together as a family. We had a beautiful rhythm of swimming, reading, creating and relaxing.

But now with school commencing we are beginning to find a new rhythm, one with more industry and focus. We are figuring out new school systems, new teachers and new schedules. And for me too, this marks the beginning of my work year. As always I have chosen words for this year and they come from a beautiful note that the poet Emma Jane Catchpole sent me with her book. She wrote: No one quite like her, none can compare, for passion and wisdom surround her.

So as I head into 2020 my words for this year are wisdom and passion. I want to seek after wisdom, I want to pursue it and I want to surround myself with wise people. I want to be a woman of wisdom, but I also want to be a woman who is passionate. I want to be a woman who is passionate about her work and her family, who is passionate about encouraging others, and who is passionate about being who she is called to be.

So how does this year look for me?

Well as a writer, of course, I will be writing! As well as my regular blog here, and writing for Kin Women, I will also be writing for Australasian Christian Writers. For those of you that are interested I also send a monthly encouragement to my newsletter subscribers. In terms of bigger projects, I am working on my new book of prayers and blessings and I have another project I am working on, but I am waiting to get a few pieces in place before I tell you about that.

In setting my intentions for this year I felt a call to say no to things. Wisdom to pull back, even from good things, so that I can focus passionately on the things I am called to do.

There is a real call to step back from distractions, to prioritise my creativity, to prioritise my family, and to prioritise my faith.

So my commitment to you, my reader, is that you will get more writing here on this blog this year. Writing that seeks not to instruct you or to inform you, but that takes your hand and journeys with you. Writing that sees you in your every day ordinary and encourages you in the midst of the mundane. Writing that seeks to touch on the real and raw moments of life, whether they be moments of joy or despair.

So I hope you will join me for 2020, a year of being wise about what I passionately invest my time in. And I hope that I can encourage you in your journey.

Peace be with you,

Jodie