FROM THE JOURNAL

By Default or By Design

Stories, paradoxes, and quiet discoveries about living with greater intention.

A new entry every Friday.

A lush green chia plant growing from a terracotta donkey sombrero planter on a bookshelf

Shawna Morrissey·September 11, 2026

Don't Dig Up the Seed

On parenting, patience, and the difference between cultivating a life and constructing one.

What if our job as parents is not to produce a particular kind of child? We can prepare the soil, provide what nourishes, protect what is tender, and pay attention to what is needed. But living things have their own timing. And their own ideas about what they will become. Perhaps good parenting is less about following a blueprint and more about learning when to cultivate, when to trust, and when to stop digging.

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A drywall square and hand saw resting on a dusty floor during a home repair

Shawna Morrissey·September 4, 2026

Mystery Behind the Walls

The hidden connections we don't question can keep our power from flowing.

Four dead outlets, four electricians, and one connection buried behind the ceiling. A story about the premises we build our lives around and what happens when we question them.

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Warmly lit house at night with suitcases at the front door

Shawna Morrissey·August 28, 2026

When Tools Become Weapons

When the things meant to help us become another way to judge ourselves

Good tools can help us understand ourselves, regulate our emotions, and make better choices. But somewhere between “I can change this” and “I should have changed this already,” a tool can turn on us.

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Shawna Morrissey performing a chin stand in a bright, minimalist yoga studio

Shawna Morrissey·August 21, 2026

The Things You Cannot Practice

Some of the things we most want to teach our children may not be teachable at all.

I spent nine months trying to learn a yoga pose I couldn’t even begin to practice. When my body eventually found it anyway, I started wondering about the qualities we work so hard to teach our children, and whether becoming works differently than we think.

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Antique porcelain dolls in lace dresses displayed behind glass cabinet doors

Shawna Morrissey·August 14, 2026

What Makes You Matter?

The surprising source of everything we call valuable.

A cabinet of porcelain dolls, years of coaching conversations, and one question that refuses to go away. If valuable things only become valuable because people care about them, what does that say about the people themselves?

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Child riding a horse in a ranch arena — a metaphor for trust over control in parenting

Shawna Morrissey·July 31, 2026

Can Tightening Your Grip Backfire?

How we sometimes undermine the things we most want to teach.

Reconsidering the phrase "Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child." A story about horses, discipline, and the surprising difference between control and influence.

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Looking down the Accademia hallway toward Michelangelo's David beneath the domed ceiling

Shawna Morrissey·July 24, 2026

More Isn't Better. Better Is Better.

The art of intentional living

Michelangelo believed David was hidden inside the marble. His job was simply to remove everything that wasn't David. Perhaps our lives are masterpieces waiting for the same kind of courage

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Sandra's Field Day community celebration — a sunny park filled with balloons, children, and joy

Shawna Morrissey·July 17, 2026

By Default or By Design

Decide what matters before life decides for you.

The quiet lesson my great Aunt Sandra taught me about how ordinary Tuesdays become extraordinary lives.

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Lawn sprinklers in action at golden hour — water arcing over green grass in warm evening light

Shawna Morrissey·July 10, 2026

The Simplest Answer

Why we look everywhere else first

When my lawn started dying, I tried everything except the one thing it actually needed. Years later, a coaching conversation made me wonder how often we make the same mistake with ourselves.

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A single candle glowing softly in quiet darkness — a symbol of enduring light after loss

Shawna Morrissey·July 3, 2026

A Perspective on Suicide

A different way of understanding suicide loss

After losing my Uncle Jay to suicide, one unexpected realization transformed the way I understood it. What if those who die by suicide are not driven by a desire to die, but by an overwhelming desire to survive?

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A navy front door with potted shrubs — the beginning of an unexpected assignment

Shawna Morrissey·May 29, 2026

The Assignment

The stories we tell don't just describe our lives. They create them.

A surprising story about a kitchen table full of uprooted bushes that becomes a lesson in parenting, perception, and the hidden power of the stories we tell about the people we love.

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Close-up of hands playing the keys of a cathedral pipe organ

Shawna Morrissey·May 22, 2026

The Music Between the Notes

Why our children need our humanity more than our perfection.

Children don't need perfect parents. A story about music, humanity, and why our imperfections may be the very thing our children need most.

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Rows of white lilies in white pots displayed outside a grocery store entrance

Shawna Morrissey·May 15, 2026

Consider the Lilies

The world is not waiting for us to stop worrying.

A personal reflection on fear, parenting, and the moments when the mind steps out of imagined futures and back into the present.

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New essays, every Friday.

Stories about the things we take for granted, and what we might be missing.

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