I thought I knew what community was. I’ve talked about it a lot on my podcast. About building the soda fountain, rallying people in a sleepy Wyoming town, and showing up in a place where there aren’t a lot of people exactly like me. But as it turns out? I didn’t understand it at all. When it came to grasping the essence of real community, I was still in kindergarten. The last three weeks have made that painfully ...Continue Reading
A Hard and Honest Update
I have some personal news to share, and for weeks, I’ve been trying to summon the courage to write these words. Christian and I are separating. I use that word because “divorce” still gets stuck in my throat when I speak it. It feels foreign to my fingers when they attempt to type the letters. But there’s no easy way to say it. No way to wrap it in a tidy bow and make it feel less jarring than it is. This is not a category I ...Continue Reading
Embarrassment is the Cost of Entry
“Jill, you’re up first.” The second I hear the words, my stomach flops. My hands quiver as I pull my rope from the saddle and fumble through the coils, trying desperately to look competent while feeling the exact opposite. You see, the movies have it all wrong. They make you think when you finally do the thing you’ve wanted your whole life, it will feel heroic. Cue the epic soundtrack. Slow-motion victories. The ...Continue Reading
My Anti-Meal Planning Manifesto
I don't cook like I used to. Actually, let me rephrase that. I cook a ton. I own a restaurant, and I just finished the manuscript for my second cookbook (it’s coming in October—eek). I cook every single day for many people. But my personal cooking rhythms have drastically changed over the years. I don’t know why that’s surprised me. I guess I naively assumed I’d be in the same little kitchen pattern forever. But life changes, ...Continue Reading
Easy isn’t Always Better, but Hard isn’t Always Holier
Man, do I love efficiency. I always have. If I can make something more streamlined, less clunky, and even faster, that’s my love language. And I suppose it’s the love language of our modern world, too. It can be a beautiful, useful impulse. Until it isn’t. After I published my last essay about celebrating humanity in the things we create, someone emailed me about a Bible camp they’d attended, where the curriculum they ...Continue Reading
