Making Room
Welcome! Welcome to this new, clean space. I can breathe here. Come in for a minute.
It’s a new day. The wind is shaking everything outside, but it’s not a mad shake. It’s just excited. The sky is gathering back with fistfuls of rain, today’s confetti. I have written the word PURGE on my calendar. I am making room, imitating the air.
A shift has come in my home and in my spirit, the one from the utter solitude of writing a book to the openness and intimacy of asking people to read it and to help me get it out to the world. At first it felt a mechanical switch, like making a facebook group of friends to come along side me was something I was supposed to do, but they are mostly people I know and all people I love. I feel it now, needy in what seems a healthy way. Don’t we need each other? Aren’t we to work together, spur each other on?
Sharing your story or asking for help at first can be that way, especially if you have intimacy issues like I do. I can tell you my story all brave-like (which is what I did in my book), but it’s not easy for me to need others. Sharing within a real community can be mechanical and vulnerable at once, but then it switches into healing if love is at the forefront.
It’s a real-life, every day practice to be real and open with your people, and I’m not sure you can live without it if you’ve made it your heart to serve your neighbor. How about “the least of these”? When the homeless man is crouched on the ground beneath the beating sun, how can he be your neighbor if you hardly let your real people in? How are we loving each other if we aren’t available?
It hurts a little how healing does, but as I begin to tell you about my book, I think it’s going to get real.
The first thing I’d like to share with you and ask you to do is begin thinking about what it means to experience the wild in the hollow.
Wild in the Hollow is when you sense the presence of that wind-wild God, that sometimes unexpected feeling of home, of hearing and of being heard at once. Every metaphor points to Christ. Let’s open our eyes and our ears to Him in the world around us. Think about the millions of metaphors for God, all the ways we can see His presence. Think birth; wind; seed; father; artist; beauty; mother hen; blood; eagle; still streams; mighty waters.
To keep you on the lookout, if you find yourself in a moment like this, share it with us using #WildintheHollow on Instagram. The grid of these photos gives me chills.
[easy-instagram tag=’wildinthehollow’ limit=18 thumb_click =’original’ template=’horizontal’ thumb_size=200]
I’m excited to see what you see!
Give yourself a tour around here before you head out. Ted Barnett of Contemplate Design did such a beautiful job. I can’t believe this is our space.
Check out the Wild in the Hollow book page! This is where you can keep up with our beautiful grid.
Sign up for my monthly story letter or for posts in your inbox, and I’ll randomly select 5 of you by Monday for a signed copy of Wild in the Hollow!
- July 2, 2015
- 20 Comments
- 2
- community, giveaway
Crystal
July 2, 2015Your new site has me all swoony - it's wonderful! It's just so...YOU! Inviting and charming and warm. xoxo
amberhaines
July 2, 2015Thank you, girl!
Robin
July 2, 2015Oh....my. THIS is perfect, this thinkin' spot on the world-wind-wild-web. Thinkin' back over all the time I've known you, HOW I came to know you, the ways we've grown...well...this is a lovely strand of your evolution. I know slivers of your story but can't wait to hold it in my hands.
i love you. and i miss you. <3
amberhaines
July 2, 2015I love you and miss you, too!
robin
July 2, 2015and i forgot to say...
POMEGRANATES!! <3 <3 <3
amberhaines
July 2, 2015I know it may seem random, but it's so not random to me. I'm glad you like!
Tawni
July 2, 2015Congratulations Amber! I can't wait to read your book! You are amazing & gifted & I attribute your writing, among others, to my healing.
amberhaines
July 2, 2015Tawni, thank you for this.
Shelly Geyer
July 2, 2015Just lovely!! Anticipating the arrival of your very beautiful story....
amberhaines
July 3, 2015Thank you, Shelly. :)
Lynn D. Morrissey
July 2, 2015Hi Amber,
You're a breathtaking (dare I say young) author whose words breathe poetry, passion, and truth. I recall meeting you in an elevator :-) at Allume when you were about to speak with either an agent or publisher, I believe. Your dream--God's dream birthed in you--has come true. I'm so happy for you and am eager to read your vulnerable story. Being transparent is the only way of being to be! I know what it feels like to be brave in a book, but you will never be sorry.
All my love,
Lynn
PS Would love to hear the pomegranate story. this is a lovely site.
amberhaines
July 3, 2015Please call me young!!! Thank you for encouraging me. You're right! I did run into you as I was in that crazy early process. That's awesome.
I'll write about those pomegranates soon!
Jody Lee Collins
July 2, 2015Your gracious husband told me the secret about your book at our Conference in April....already ordered!
Your new site is beautiful....I'll be sure to post my God sightings on Instagram. Thank you for the invitation. :-)
amberhaines
July 3, 2015I love that you and Seth got to meet, Jody! I'm so excited to see your #wildinthehollow moments.
Amy Tilson
July 2, 2015See, I was going to say POMEGRANATES!!! and Robin beat me to it. Amber!! This space is a breath of fresh air. Ted did an amazing job, as usual! I am so thrilled for you with the book. I need to know if "hollow" ends in a long O like the empty, or in a "er" like the country girl in me sees and thinks of the wild "hollers" I grew up around. Either fits! Can't wait to read this. CONGRATULATIONS on everything!!!
Annie Barnett
July 2, 2015I know I'm biased, but I love this new space and I love the words I come here to find. So grateful for your unique, soulful voice, Amber, and so excited for this unfolding chapter. (Book metaphor... pretty clever there, huh?)
amberhaines
July 3, 2015You're always clever, Annie. :) I love your art here, girl. I mean it. You and your fella are very special to me and to this community.
Kariane
July 3, 2015I love the look of your new site. Congratulations!
amberhaines
July 3, 2015Thank you, Kariane!