With Gratitude to You

... and a boost from the Texas Observer

Here at the end of 2024, I reflect back on the people who were part of my life this year, and my heart swells with gratitude.

My book, Baptistland, was birthed into the world in May. This was something important to me, but a whole lot of other people played a part as well.

A book requires the work, skill, efforts, and artistry of so many others besides just the author. For starters, there were multiple editors, a publisher, cover designer, and audio narrator, just to name a few.

Then there were so many of you who, in ways big and small, acted as ambassadors for the book. Thank you.

Thank you to everyone who gave words of encouragement and support.

Thank you to everyone who wrote reviews and endorsements, and who posted comments on social media.

Thank you to all the podcast hosts who engaged with me about Baptistland. We had some great conversations! (And for those of you who are interested, here’s where you can find links to a lot of those podcasts.)

Thank you to everyone who read the book and interacted with it. Indeed, you, the readers, are the people who make the work of it all worthwhile.

One reader told me that the book did “the gutting work of facing and listening to your life, while also finding a way to embody spaces of peace in the midst of standing in its mess-strewn reality.”

Wow. I’m still pondering those words.

“Mess-strewn” my life has surely been, and yes, there has been some “gutting work” in facing it.

But here at the end of 2024, what I really hope is simply that we all may find ways to honor the truth of our own lived experience and simultaneously “to embody spaces of peace in the midst.”

I hope that for myself, and I hope that for you as well.

For me, I’m ending the year on a high note. It was a huge treat today to see that the Texas Observer included Baptistland on its end-of-year “What to Read” list. The Texas Observer is a flat-out legendary publication that “hews hard to the truth.” It’s where people like Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower and other extraordinary journalists did some of their best work. It’s a publication I’ve long admired, so I’m just incredibly proud and honored.

As we go into 2025, I feel a lot of trepidation, and I expect a lot of you do as well. We’re all going to need to cultivate our resilience.

May you lean into what you love. Whether it’s the silly giggling of a grandchild or the serenity of a snowy landscape, the companionship of a faithful dog or the majesty of a mountaintop, the steady rhythm of your own precious breath or the fragrant ripeness of a tomato from your garden. Whatever helps you tap into your own well of joy and hold to a place of light and hope within, may you find it.

May the year to come hold mystery, awe, and wonder for us all. And may we embrace it.