A Grey Metal Box & the Longing of a Little Heart

It must have weighed as much as I did.  This hazy grey, metal box that guarded my deepest treasures.  I’d convinced some poor unsuspecting family member to lug this beast from the cobwebby corners of my Nanny’s basement to it’s new hidden home in the back of my closet.  Complete with lock and key, my strong inanimate friend would become an accomplice in guarding some of my most sacred dreams.

I wrote my first book when I was in third grade.  I remember it vividly and yet can’t remember anything about the story.  I remember carefully stacking my collection of wide-ruled notebook pages covered with my simple but deliberate cursive scrawlings neatly in that grey metal file cabinet.

The file cabinet was my life-saver.  My book was my sacred creation. 

When I could escape for a few moments of quiet, I would gingerly pull out my pages and draft a few sentences and get lost in another element of my story.  I was confident it would be a best-seller rivaling my favorites – Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie.

I have no idea where my first book is today.  It was probably left tucked in a box in an attic many years ago.

Although the content may be lost, I haven’t lost the magic that you feel when you sit down to craft an idea brewing in your heart.

Somehow over the years, I forgot about this childhood dream of writing.  I guess responsibilities, “real” jobs and the rat race of life took over.  That is until a couple of years ago when my friends at Leadership Network suggested that my dear friend Sherry Surratt and I needed to write a book – a book for women leaders.

We agreed the subject matter needed some attention, but I wasn’t so confident I was the girl for the job.

Then I remembered the grey box and the wide-ruled pages and the longings of a little heart a long, long time ago.  A dream had come full circle and I needed to seize it!

Just Lead!: A No Whining, No Complaining, No Nonsense Practical Guide for Women Leaders in the Church

is now available.  And I couldn’t be more excited!

If you’re a women in leadership or you have a women leader in your life, I hope you’ll check it out.  This book is an extension of mine and Sherry’s hearts.  If we could sit down over a cup of tea or coffee, these are the words that we would share with you.  We’d talk about the loneliness of leadership, the insecurity, fear and indecision we’ve repeatedly faced, the challenges we’ve confronted in leading ourselves, leading men and leading other women.

We hope that as you read, you hear the voices of two friends who understand and relate and are cheering you on to Just Lead!