What does it mean to create space for your soul to breathe and why does it matter?
I believe everyone has an art to offer the world.
I also believe the pace of our lives keeps us from offering it or even knowing what it is.
The soul is often forgotten beneath the demands of everyday life. It’s easy for me to get tangled up in a fast-paced world, distracted by hustle, driven to produce, hungry to ship.
But that’s a language the soul doesn’t speak.
Creating space for my soul to breathe is about respecting the daily pauses I need to be fully myself so that I can be present with God and faithful in my home, my work, and my community.
I write to help you create that space too so that you can finally walk in step with your calling and offer your art to the world.
Don’t believe you have an art to offer? Give me seven days to change your mind by downloading this free ebook.
By downloading this free resource, you’ll also receive my monthly letter filled with resources for spiritual formation and creative direction as well as first-word news and behind-the-scenes ridiculation. Readers tell me it’s their favorite email they get all month.
Through many conversations, emails, and letters from readers, I’ve discovered my writing most helps people to:
- let go of their try-hard life
- learn to breathe in a breathless world
- uncover the art you were born to make
- move into the world with the courage to be who you most deeply are
“We stop, whether by choice or through circumstance, so that we can be alert and attentive and receptive to what God is doing in and for us, in and for others, on the way. We wait for our souls to catch up with our bodies.”
-Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way
Emily’s Story
I graduated from Columbia International University where I learned how to study the Bible and from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where I received my degree in Educational Interpreting for the Deaf. I also received Advanced Discipleship Training through the Association of Exchanged Life Ministries and attended the School of Spiritual Direction with Dr. Larry Crabb’s New Way Ministries.
I am currently (2017) enrolled in Friends University where I’m working toward my Masters in Christian Spiritual Formation and Leadership.
John and I were married in 2001 and for the first 12 years of our marriage he worked as a youth pastor. In 2013, John transitioned out of youth ministry into a time of waiting and listening to find out what was next. Now he is the director of a local non-profit ministry called Grace Discipleship where he offers discipleship care for weary souls.
I served as a sign language interpreter for several years when we first got married until the twins were born and I couldn’t remember my name, much less how to interpret geometry into sign language. Then, after starting a blog in January 2006, I realized I had words of my own to share rather than always interpreting someone else’s.
Now I’ve been writing on the internet for over 11 years.
This is the place where all my books begin and so far, I’ve written four: Grace for the Good Girl (2011), Graceful (For Young Women) (2012), A Million Little Ways (2013), and my most recent release, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World (2015).
Favorites
My husband John :: We’ve been married 16 years now and he continues to be a fixed point for me in the midst of our fast-moving world.
Our three kids :: We have twin girls who look like him and a boy who looks like me. The girls are in their last year of middle school now. Hold me.
Books :: One of my favorite pastimes. I have a growing list of favorites I share here. These days I’m especially into Eugene Peterson, Madeleine L’Engle, Macrina Wiederkehr, and the Gospel of Mark.
Netflix :: How did we live without it?
Writing :: I just can’t quit it. Writing helps me know what I think about life, about God, and about the world. As I write, I become more fully myself. This is the most tangible way I’ve found to personally worship God. I’ve even co-founded a membership site for other writers who may feel the same way.
Teaching :: I feel most fully myself when I write and I feel most fully alive when I teach. My online course, Create + Complete, is designed specifically to help artists, creators, and makers finally finish projects that matter.
Artists :: I use a broad definition of artist – anyone who is brave enough to move toward what makes them come alive. Here are some of my favorites.
Where Else You Can Find Me
- The Next Right Thing Podcast
- Hope*Writers
- Amazon Author Page
- Email: info at emily p freeman dot com
- Real Mail: PO Box 4501 Greensboro, NC 27404