My name is Michael. I work from home. I stay at home with my small children. And I have done this for many years.

Life at home can be monotonous, lonely or morose. But it doesn’t have to be. Over the years I have recognized the invitations that exist at home. Invitations that are available to everyone. I’d like to share those with you.

When COVID-19 changed everyone’s daily life around the globe I felt these stories were especially timely. I hope these words are an encouragement to you, wherever or whenever they find you. May you see your quarantine or shelter-in-place as an opportunity to experience the present moment in a new way. May you befriend stillness, silence and, perhaps, solitude in ways you never have. And may you feel the company of others doing the same and not feel so lonely in your aloneness.

~April 2020~

My name is still Michael, that has not changed. I still work from home, that has changed a little. And I still stay at home with my children, which has noticeably changed as they are not as small and spend a good deal of time at school. But within the past couple of years many other things have changed in and around me.

I am now out in the world quite often. My work in no longer just accounting, but includes writing and poetry and spiritual direction. The static nature of my life six years ago has emerged into something dynamic. I keep the past, as it was the path and method to arriving here. But I’ve accepted and embraced that the future will look different and ask new things of me. My current writings will reflect that. May you see your past not as something to leave behind or outgrow, but as something to intentionally integrate. May you see your future not as something determined or certain, but as a discoverable mystery. And may you, like me, see that at the heart of the past and the future it is all really just today.

~April 2026~