Star Word 2026: Dream(er)

To kick off 2026, I signed a book contract with Tehom Center Publishing! I have been working on my memoir, The Well is Deep, since summer 2024 when I had the joy of participating in the first Ministry from the Margin’s Writer’s Cohort with Tehom.

And as is my tradition on Epiphany, I chose a Star Word for the year: Dream, which I amended to Dreamer.

Writing and publishing books has always been a dream of mine; I have many drafts of novels to prove it. Never in a million years would I have imagined writing a memoir, especially so early in life. But the pandemic was full of never-in-a-million year moments.

The Well is Deep covers four years of my life: January 2020 through January 2024. I start off with a glimpse into my pilgrimage to the Holy Land in January 2020, just before the United States and many other places shuttered during the pandemic. Then I take the reader through reflections on my work as a hospital chaplain throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The book is about capturing my story and the story of healthcare workers, patients, and families impacted by COVID, but it is also a story about trauma and healing: mine, and maybe yours too.

The first sermon I preached in 2026 was about dreamers. Joseph, Jesus’s father, was a dreamer. He had dreams that helped him keep his new family safe. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about the dream of equal rights under the law. Dreams contain what we long for most, and they often seem forever out of reach. In times of great danger and uncertainty, like the times we are in now, we too must be dreamers.

Stay tuned for more!

MH+