About Quill and Grace

I’m a fortysomething woman of faith, trying to live life as I see it — and my vision can be both quirky and unconventional, because (here’s the part you didn’t see coming) I’m also blind. I’ve been teaching college English and Literature since 2007, I’m a passionate reader, and if these things are the engine that drives my life, my faith is the fuel that gives me momentum.

So what is Quill and Grace? I was the solitary teenager who wrote poetry when everyone else was on dates, who bonded with Jane Eyre at age 12, and has been known to quote Jane Austen in normal conversation. The literature I love shaped the language I reach for — the polished prose, the carefully crafted sentences, and the desire to tell my own story and empower others to tell theirs.

Yet even when I thought books were my only friends and somehow managed to spin that into a career, I had another friend — a quiet, ever-present one who spent years knocking on the door of my heart until I let him in and just allowed him to sit with me. Hello, Jesus, and all the grace that comes with him.

When you hear the word “grace,” you probably associate it with beauty, with poise, with ease — all are true. None are me— exactly. I’ve lost count of how many times people have observed the way I live my life and said, “You make it look easy.” It might be the appearance of grace, but this grace is by no means natural. It’s earned. It’s practiced. It’s carrying a cross imperfectly while trying to stand up straight, sometimes stumbling, but always getting up again. This is the grace I struggle to achieve, not the grace I carry naturally, and anyone who thinks I make it look easy has clearly never heard me complain.

St. Paul tells us in his Second Letter to the Corinthians that we walk by faith and not by sight. He probably didn’t realize 2000 years ago that he was practically penning my brand statement. This is me in a nutshell, and Quill and Grace is just my notes on the journey, written with a prayerful pen.