A collection of love letters to my readers, The Journal captures all the hard and beautiful moments that intersect yours. Let’s navigate life together—Janene Kraft

Search The Journal by subject or title and then read the entries below

Janene Kraft Janene Kraft

THE RITUALS OF LIFE

If there were trips to Paris or road trips through the winding roads that lead to Provence, these will not be what I remember in my last days. Only that he held my hand and guided me in cadence to some seemingly far-away music, surrounded by an invisible crowd.

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WHAT COMES OUT

This is the image my heart draws when my doubting mind asks what is it that I have done with my life.

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PRESSING IN

I am a designer who has fallen more in love with transforming the interiors within us, than with those that surround.

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LUXURY VINYL

Luxury is not something created for our convenience. It is a pasture of green grass where the cattle graze.

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HUCKLEBERRY

This week I am filled with musings of life and death, of our comings and goings and all the juicy living in between.

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THAT WENT WELL

Before she leaves, I notice a primitive tattoo in a kindred bluish hue across the artery made popular by those who attempt to take all of it, even breath away—“Just Survive.”

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MAY I?

This is the month my second grandbaby will leave the safety of a solitary liquid realm of heartbeat rhythms and mama’s sweet coos and kisses to join me and my own mama as the third generation in a row of May babies.

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NECESSARY THINGS

More than once I’ve checked my luggage, boarded the aircraft and nestled into my seat only to bolt through the open cockpit door and onto the jetway before realizing all the implications of what I had done.

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Janene Kraft Janene Kraft

BREAKTHROUGH

When we pray into another’s situation, the forcefield of stagnancy is pierced. And through the hole created, a life-renewing energy moves in. This energy begins to devour the unhealthiness; first there is this subtle, curious difference, then an otherworldly lightheartedness is felt.

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THE PROCESS OF YES

I think I stopped wanting something. At least something big. Maybe even something as necessary as breath.

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SILENT CONVERSATIONS

Getting to know ourselves better is an extraordinary mission. The knowledge we seek is so often already within us. So, why do we hide it from ourselves?

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HOLD FAST

The secret to life is to undertake something bold enough to make you pause, and necessary enough to do it anyway.

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THE KEEPERS

What is precious, it seems, is not the moment just before us, but the longings of a life we once had, remembered as better than the life we live.

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BOTH WAYS

We were certain. Not that He wanted the house for us. But that we wanted it for ourselves.

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THE ROPE

I imagine hanging by a rope off the edge of a cliff and deciding to release my tightened grip. There’s the possibility of a freefall, but what if instead I am dangling only 10 feet from the sturdy ground that lies directly below?

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Janene Kraft Janene Kraft

THE STRETCH

I imagine hanging by a rope off the edge of a cliff and deciding to release my tightened grip. There’s the possibility of a freefall, but what if instead I am dangling only 10 feet from the sturdy ground that lies directly below?

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Janene Kraft Janene Kraft

SILENT SEASONS

To say that I am stuck might be a little too dramatic. But I find myself relating to these noisy geese in their urgency to be heard.

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DEAD OF FEBRUARY

Life is most beautiful when studied in contrasts. Like roses in the snow.

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AFTERBURN

It is said that the benefits of a workout impact the body for up to 72 hours. How much more, then, can 17,262,720 sacred minutes transform the cells within me.

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