If you've been around me for any significant time, you'll likely know that my mother is a hero of mine. not in a cute "I love my mom, you guys" kind of way but more like "I hope I can be the kind of resilient and faithful and strong as that person" kind of way. 

From her very difficult childhood, marked by various in-house abuses and financial destitution to her adventures west to CA from Albuquerque, NM to the ways she held our family together while my father was falling apart and, more recently the relentless ways she cares for me and my kids, I marvel at her parenthood. 

Which leads me to this: 

The significance of parenthood seems to often allude faithful and respectful conversation. Either idolized in a kind of glass box and set aside untouched by critique or minimized in a smaller cardboard box and cast aside so that it doesn’t touch other vital things.

Parenthood often gets treated as the alter on which all other aspects of life must be sacrificed or the pit of despair that must be avoided so that other aspects of life can be enjoyed and pursued. 

Either way, the battle lines are drawn:
Career vs parenthood 

Adventure vs parenthood 

Romance vs parenthood 

Ministry vs parenthood 

Art-making vs parenthood 

And on and on. 
There seems very little middle ground 

And then there’s Kayla Craig, whose practice of integrating her parenthood and her career and adventure and romance and ministry and art is something like a marvel and (more important) something like a beacon and a call forward. 

She is, like I am, a parent. She is also working on a book of prayers for parents while co-hosting the Upside Down Podcast (on which I’ve been a guest) and producing another the Sacred Ordinary Days 

And what I love about her posture in doing all of that is that she doesn’t think it makes her special. It makes her normal. Well, I like her kind of normal. I think you will, too. 

This is my conversation with Kayla Craig. 

Check it out. 

Links for Kayla Craig

KaylaCraig.com 

Upside Down Podcast

Sacred Ordinary Days Podcast

Liturgies For Parents 

Links for Justin :

JustinMcRoberts.com

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