QUESTIONS OF CALLING

unearthing beauty, mining meaning, and seeking truth

This is a place for anyone who wants more, who is not content to be comfortable, who seeks a life of truth and meaning, not just happiness.

Here, we ask hard questions, tell true stories, and turn life inside out to unearth the ragged beauty within.

I’m honored to have you to join me.

Mara Eller 12/30/22 Mara Eller 12/30/22

Habitual Fear: A Personal Narrative

This is a very special guest post by an alumna of my Unearthing Beauty Personal Narrative Class. I absolutely love its understated drama as she explores an internal conflict with lots of sensory detail and stream-of-consciousness internal dialog.

I awake from deep sleep to my husband's phone ringing. I lie in bed trying to figure out the details, only hearing his end of the call. . .

Mara Eller 9/17/21 Mara Eller 9/17/21

Success Is Nonlinear. So Is Progress.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever worked diligently at a project only to see little to no results—or worse, to see it crash and burn into a pile of smoking ash.

Oh, you too?

I’ve been feeling this way a little recently. I’ve started to make a real effort to create regularly, to carve out precious time from my packed schedule of teaching, counseling, momming, wifing, and just surviving for creative pursuits—for posting and blogging and journaling and promoting. And I have very little to show for it.

Mara Eller 8/31/21 Mara Eller 8/31/21

Learning to Doubt Without Fear

When I started teaching teens at a Christian school a decade ago, I was baffled by how classroom discussion of controversial topics seemed to provoke panic among many parents.

What surprised me was not simply that parents objected to my choice of material but rather the terror that seemed to underlie their objections. It wasn’t rational. It wasn’t even theological. It was emotional: a nameless, faceless, gaping fear.

I’m still not sure what those parents were so afraid of, but I know it had something to do with their children learning to question their faith, to honestly consider other options and opinions . . .

Mara Eller 2/27/21 Mara Eller 2/27/21

Cassie Hubert: Kindness, Grace, and Personal Space with a Family of Five + Baby under Lockdown

How do you connect to your own soul, when there is nowhere quiet and peaceful to go?

This is the question that Cassie is faced with when she finds herself stuck in a small apartment under lockdown with a new baby and three other children, two of them high-needs. The postpartum stage is hard enough under normal circumstances, but the Covid-19 pandemic has added another layer to the isolation and challenge of having a new baby. In this piece, Cassie reflects on what she learned about finding space for herself and keeping her sanity in those trying times.