Margins.

They don’t seem like much. It’s just the blank space in a book.

But try to live without them.

Have you ever picked up one of those economically printed books? The font is between size 9-10 and the margins are squeezed almost to the end of the page. I used to relish books like that. It meant that there was no wasted paper and each page would be packed with story!

Fast forward to now.

I pick up the same book. It has almost no margin, and the 9-10 sized font and I immediately put it down and shudder. It doesn’t matter if it is a book title I’ve wanted to collect or a story I want to read, I know I won’t. Why? Because there is no margin, no space for my mind on that crowded page.

Life, needs margins.

When I first published Annabeth’s War…

Well, I just hope there are very few copies of that book in the world. It needed help because I wasn’t a “professional author” but a passionate one who was still learning, and will always be learning. I see many new authors making the same mistakes I did and smile. It’s okay, it is not the most professional thing in the world, but we all start somewhere.

Looking over the last few years of my life. I realize that I’ve left very little room for margin, and I’ve paid a price. My creativity is bubbling over but also stumped because it hasn’t had a space to grow and just be. It’s been crammed into my life in size 9 font, with no spacing, and runs on like a Greek sentence. (They did not have punctuation btw.) My relationship with the Lord has been incredibly sweet but also cramped into the space carved out for it everyday, yes, it overflowed into other areas of my life but, it needed room for more roots and greater space for growth, instead it was stuck in a small pot and limited access to the sun. It should be the center of my heart’s universe, but it was stuck in a place where it got cramped up. In areas I have thrived–but other parts of me have paid the price.

Picking up a book I read a few years ago I had to laugh at myself I LOVED this book and wanted to adopt everything about it. I failed, because I didn’t stop to make time for margin in my life. But, I want to turn over a new leaf. A new space. I want to put margin in my life.

Room to breath.

Room to grow.

Room to put down roots.

Room to doodle in the margins.