Whose Line Is It, Anyway?

Recently, an acquaintance at church shared a story about his little daughter. She came rushing up to him with a picture she’d colored, eager to show him her artwork. “Honey, it’s beautiful, but look here,” he said, pointing, “you colored outside the lines.” She looked at him, hurt and disappointed. “But, Daddy,” she said, “those aren’t my lines.”

We should all be so bold.

There’s a poster in the hall at the high school where I teach that reads, “Integrity is doing what is right even when no one is looking.” But what is right? And right for whom? My manuscript has confronted me with this question time and time again as characters wrestle with false confessions, wrongful accusations, misinterpreted witness testimony, and trauma. It’s so easy with the comfortable perspective of hindsight to assume we’d be on the right side of history. So easy to forget about or ignore the historical context of an event—the beliefs and blindspots of any given era. So easy to reduce complex situations into black-and-white binaries, or view them through the lens of today’s moral and political standards.

For eons, people’s governments, faith traditions, societal standards, educational institutions, and other social structures have been instructing them, to a greater or lesser degree, how to think, act, and live. We all function within the boundaries of the time period and society into which we’re born, but setting the rules of engagement for your individual life is up to you. You’re the only one who can decide what is right. That’s both freeing and terrifying. After all, setting your own boundaries and sticking to them is a huge responsibility. It’s so much easier to let someone or something else decide for you. Coloring inside someone else’s lines can be much easier than creating your own work of art.

There are three reasons, I think, we tend to color in the lines already drawn out for us: guilt, fear of judgement, and an obligation to conform.

In many situations, guilt is not telling us we’re bad people doing the wrong thing. In fact, more often guilt might be telling us we’re letting something outside ourselves decide for us what we should be doing, saying, feeling, or thinking. Maybe guilt means we’re coloring inside someone else’s lines, and it’s trying to help us draw our own.

Regarding the fear of judgement, Epictetus sums things up eloquently: “Whenever you do something you’ve decided ought to be done, never try to avoid being seen doing it, even if people in general may disapprove of it. If it’s right, why be afraid of people whose criticism is off the mark?” The key here is you’ve decided it’s right.

As for an obligation to conform, Henry David Thoreau writes in Civil Disobedience, “The only obligation I have to assume is to do at any time what I think right.” The key here is, once more, you think it is right.

Whatever faith you follow, whatever mentor you aspire to, in the end, you have only yourself to answer to. Yours is the only heart who will know if you did right by your soul, yourself, your passions, your world, your loved ones. Yours is the only heart who will know whose lines you colored within and whose boundaries and rules governed your decisions, and thus your life.

I’m making solid, albeit slow, progress on draft no. 3 of The Good Curse. I feel fairly confident that draft no. 4 might be The Final Draft. (At least until—God willing—an agent, editor, or publiher gets their hands on it.)

Did you know…?

Though Christian, the Puritans did not, for a time prior to the Witch Trials, celebrate Christmas. They did, however, observe it—“celebrate” and “observe” being very different verbs. Instead of a celebration, Christmas was viewed as a time for good Christians to attempt to atone for their sins. Instead of feasting and jubilation, Christmas was marked with “fasting and humiliation.” They viewed the holidays as largely pagan, with no scriptural basis.

On November 22, an African bullfrog, a tenree, a really large lizard, and The Littles joined me at Three Leg Run for the reading of Archie’s story in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Pets, Pets, Pets. The event was well-attended, a lot of fun, and raised $110 for A Pet’s Tale, a local rescue for exotic animals. If you weren’t able to make it to the event but want to support the rescue, stop by A Pet’s Tale. A limited number of signed books are available there, and $10 of each book purchased at the rescue will stay right there to help the animals. They make fabulous Christmas gifts!

The day following Archie’s event found me on a Zoom call with Dawn of Rising Dawn Yoga Studio to iron out the deatils of the series of meditative writing classes we have planned for 2026. Our first workshop will focus on the sense of taste and will be co-hosted by (drum roll, please) a Virginia opossum! It’s scheduled for January 24 at Possum-Bilities Gift Shop and Gallery in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia. A percentage of the $28 registration fee will benefit animals in the care of wildlife rehabilitators, and participants are also asked to bring an item to donate to the rescue. Space is limited, so if you’d like to join us, sign up today. I’d love to write with you!

I recently recieved the proof of my cover story on winter hiking, which will be my first published piece of 2026, to appear in the January/February issue of Cooperative Living Magazine.

Currently, I’m working on a piece about possum yoga (like puppy yoga, but with possums), which I’ve now done twice. There is sure to be a third time, and probaly a fourth, fifth, sixth…

Prose and Cons Social Club held our November meeting at The Park RVA. In December, we’ll take a break from submitting and critiquing each other’s writing, and instead gather for a make-your-own-pizza holiday celebration before resuming our writing goals in the new year.

I’m really excited to share I have the advanced reader copy (ARC) of fellow dog-lover and Richmond writer Joyce Miller’s latest historical fiction novel, Mrs. Gari Melchers, which will hit bookstores in early January. Fun fact: Mrs. Melchers had a parrot.

During a reading day with my nieces, I finished reading Vanessa Chakour’s Earthly Bodies: Embracing Animal Nature and started reading Brandon Sanderson’s Tress of the Emerald Sea, which I was inspired to pick up while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Drinks in the Library. During my last Fall Into a Good Book Monday with my students, I started reading Miller’s Mrs. Gari Melchers. So, yes, I’m currently reading two books…

“Welcome Home,” a story I wrote about Archie, appears in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Pets, Pets, Pets, released on October 28.

My most recent piece, “The Magic of Trees: A day at the State Arboretum of Virginia,” appears in the October issue of Cooperative Living Magazine. This piece was a collaboration with a dear friend who also happens to be a talented photograher.

The Littles sit in their stroller behind the book signing table at Three Leg Run during the event to benefit A Pet’s Tale.

Nacho eagerly awaits the chance to open his and Soda’s birthday presents on their 7th birthday in mid-November.

The Littles share the heated blanket.

The Lorax Soda lounges in my arms after the Thanksgiving meal.

Archie snuggles against my cheek while I fold laundry.

A friend pointed out these mushrooms as we enjoyed a walk along the river on a Sunday afternoon.

A misty November morning

Backyard fall foliage

• Wild Senses: A Mindful Creative Writing Workshop

  January 24, 2026 | 10am-12pm | Possumbilities, Fredericksburg, VA

  Join me and Dawn Deiman (Meditation & Mindfulness Teacher) for a guided workshop where, through creative writing, mindfulness, and meditation, you’ll engage one of your five senses. This first class will focus on the sense of taste, with future workshops featuring each of the remaining four senses. Awesome Possumz will be in attendance with one of their Possum Ambassadors to help you explore the sense of taste, something this animal is an expert in!

  $28 per person, plus a donated wishlist item (see list of requested items)

  Ages 18+

  Percentage of ticket sales donated to Awesome Possumz

• Register here