Meaning is only experienced in motion.

Victims and villains do not create meaning for themselves or for the world. Heroes and guides do. We build lives of meaning by stating an ambition, by enduring challenges, and by sharing our lives with others.

The idea that fate writes our story is a lie. We do not suffer fate. We partner with fate to write a story generated from our own God-given creativity and agency. And that story can be more

When we shame ourselves for acting like a victim, we’re manifesting a conversation in which the villain inside us attacks the victim inside us. This kind of inner dialogue does not create a great story either.

Pain, then, is often the teacher that transforms the hero into the guide. That is, if their attitude toward pain is accepting and redemptive.

We distract ourselves with pleasure when we can’t find a sense of meaning.

What if the broken nature of life is a fact, but the idea we can also create something meaningful in the midst of that brokenness is an equal fact? None of this can be proven,

John Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel taught me the discipline and joy of writing. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway taught me how to pace a book. Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood taught me to make the writing visual. Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies taught

to accept challenges in order to transform into the person capable of getting what they want.