When I first tried my hand at growing anything, my friend Laurie warned me: “if you grow mint, be sure you do it in a container. Otherwise, it will take over your whole yard. Cold snaps, drought — NOTHING kills mint. It just keeps coming back.”

“Mint,” she finished, lowering her voice for emphasis, “is a punk.”

I nodded slowly with understanding, feeling a bit intimidated by, well, mint. But over the years, I’ve come to have some admiration for mint. There’s something about the tenacity of mint, I think.

I’ve been toying with an idea for another book — one that speaks to this crazy milestone year that has begun for our family — and last night, thanks to your gracious support of The Lightmaker’s Manifesto (again, have I thanked you guys for this yet? Because thank you), I signed another book deal with my publisher, Broadleaf Books. To say that I’m excited about this is an understatement. To say that I’m nervous about this is also an understatement. Starting a book from scratch is always scary, but this one is particularly personal, as well.

And so, I’ve begun a new writing practice — early in the mornings, every weekday — and it seems to be working. I’m finding that stumbling into my office right after waking up seems to put me a creative state of mind and more resistant to writer’s block. We’ll see if it holds. There’s a saying that writers write, and I’m hoping that this practice of showing up every day no matter what will help encourage progress. I’ll just keep coming back to my desk every morning, and writing something.

I guess I’m trying to be a bit more of a punk, is what I’m saying.

I’ll share more about this new work in the coming weeks, but for now, any good writing juju you can send my way will be greatly appreciated.

Soundtrack: Shine by Madison McFerrin. I’ve had this song on repeat lately. Don’t ignore your shine. You know you’ll be fine. Don’t ignore your shine.

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