Today marks the 11 year anniversary of my first blog post and my journey into writing words for others to read.
On January 1, 2014, I kicked off a personal crusade to change the narrative around singleness in the church. I vowed to write weekly about the highs and lows and ins and outs around relationship status and how Christians approach it. I had plenty of stories – good and bad – that I believed could be helpful to others along the way.
What I found in the journey was that I really loved writing. And I discovered I was pretty decent at it. I had/have a knack for written communication. So I kept writing.
Nearly two years and a hundred essays later, I decided to go a new direction. I wanted to write about more than just being single. I wanted to write about being Kayla. I wanted to write about the movement of God in my life. I wanted to write about what it looked like to show up with eyes wide open to see what Spirit was up to.
Throughout the last 11 years my consistency has lacked, my spell check has failed, and I’ve forced it rather than letting it flow, but what has remained is that I really love writing. I love putting story out there and seeing what happens.
About 5 years ago I started an Evernote list of book chapters that reflected areas of life I show up to and that one day I would write a book all about showing up. I would tinker with the essays every now and then and decided that when it was finished I would print it out at Office Depot and give it to my friends in a three-ring-binder.
God surprises us sometimes.
In May 2024 I got a phone call from one of my favorite humans and a few minutes into the conversation he asked, “Have you ever thought about writing a book?”
“Well. Umm. Yes. I have.”
”Tell me about it.”
I told him about showing up. I told him about how presence matters and I think it’s so simple we often overlook it. I told him about my incomplete essays that have been compiled for the last 5 years. I told him that I love writing and yes, I’ve thought about writing a book.
“You have to write this. You have to.”
He sent an email to his publisher and copied me on it.
I submitted a proposal and sample chapter.
I was told I would hear back in about 8 weeks.
The day after my birthday I received an Offer of Publication.
God surprises us sometimes.
In less than 3 months a thing I had occasionally thought about became a dream I’d forgotten I was allowed to have.
From May until September I spent every amount of free time I had writing, editing, reading, crying, laughing, praying, and writing some more. And what came of this laborious work is this lovely little babe:
I showed up. And now I’m inviting you to show up too.
I really believe in this whole showing up thing. I believe that when we show up – however and wherever we are – the atmosphere shifts and we are changed. It might just be 1 degree of change, but we are changed.
I’ll have more to say about what’s actually inside this lovely cover in the days/weeks to come, but for now I just wanted to tell you, the internet world, on the 11th anniversary of my first time showing up to write, that I wrote a book.
Available here:
If you like it, feel free to leave a review wherever you bought it!
Kayla Smith 