Natalie Ogbourne

Gifts & Graces | Summer 2022

Gifts & Graces | Summer 2022

For more years than I care to admit, July 1 has settled in with a heavy sense of loss. Summer, I believed, was almost over. This is as unhelpful as it is untrue. How can a season that was born just days before be nearly at its end? Maturity is teaching me to take on...
Gifts and Graces | Spring 2022

Gifts and Graces | Spring 2022

One practice I use to keep me oriented to the features of the landscape of my life is to list the season’s gifts and graces. It’s a simple way to fix my eyes on the good so I can do my part to foster a hopeful perspective and healthy mindset. The list is...
One Way We Find Our Way

One Way We Find Our Way

“This way, Babe.” Late the night before, my husband, J, and I had checked into a hotel in Nebraska. Now it was morning, time to resume our road trip. I stepped out of our room and turned to the right, which, apparently, was wrong. “Really?” I asked. I was sure this...
How We Build Strength for Tough Times

How We Build Strength for Tough Times

“It’s easier if you walk along the edge,” my husband said. We were taking on unfamiliar terrain. I knew how to hike the packed dirt trails in the midwest and the mountains. But in Utah’s high desert where my KEENS tossed up a spray of sand with every step? Not so...
Winter Gifts and Graces

Winter Gifts and Graces

Of the practices I use to foster a hopeful perspective and healthy mindset, keeping a list of the season’s gifts and graces is the simplest. Somewhere along the line, I started rearranging it into a bell shape and now I can’t really stop. This...