Reading · The Heart's Calling

Hey, friend. I’m so glad you’re here. Welcome to Welcoming Slow Growth, a space for writers and creatives who are learning, slowly and sometimes reluctantly, to trust God with the thing that’s been stirring in them.

And if you’ve been here since Season 1 — thank you. Thank you for showing up, for sharing episodes, for sending those messages that reminded me why this podcast has been a worthwhile endeavor. It means a lot.

I’m Emily Grabatin — author of Dare to Decide, and a book and author coach. I’ve spent over twenty years in church ministry and over a decade coaching leaders who are learning to steward the God-dream in them. There’s no shortage of places to learn the practical side of writing and publishing a book — and I love those conversations too.

But this podcast exists because of something I kept witnessing that nobody was really talking about: the slow, sometimes agonizing, deeply holy formation that happens in a person when they say yes to a creative calling. That’s what this is about. Not just the book. What God does in you while you write it.

So. Season 2.

I want to start with a question — and I want you to linger with this for a second before I keep talking.

Maybe it’s writing a book.

Or maybe it’s a collection of essays you’re finally getting the courage to share.

Maybe it’s a creative project that’s been living in a drawer, or in the back of your mind, or somewhere in the space between your morning coffee and the rest of the day when everything else takes over.

I’m guessing it’s not totally new. You’ve been here before – or a different variation of has. And then life happened and you stepped back. And now it’s drawing you in again—and you’re not the same person.

It’s sounds simple when I say it, but you know it’s not. It comes with a weight, a quiver of terror, a bit of giddy excitement. Because it comes from something significant you’ve through that is now something important, even urgent, because you know who needs the hope and healing you can share.

This season, I sit down with writers and creatives who know that feeling. People who made something — a book, a body of art, a creative practice — not because everything lined up perfectly, but because it kept calling to them, and they couldn’t NOT come back to it. To the work. To God. To themselves.

And each of them brought a word. One word, or a phrase, that became a kind of compass for them — something that shaped the way they trusted God through the creating.

Jodi Grubbs, author of Live Slowly, shares about what it actually looks like to exhale in the hustle of life and find your soul sanctuary. And she shares what often matters more for your creativity than time.
McKenna Kyllo, advocate, author and podcaster for life-changing fiction, talks about how she had to find joy in the midst of her darkest season – and how it shaped her creative practice.
Joanna Mumford, fantasy fiction author and student of peace and justice, shares how a spiritual awakening and a series of words transformed her character as she followed God’s lead to a new path in her calling.
And artist Jeremy Wells tells his story about how seeing Jesus in a whole new way not only shaped his spiritual life but his style and approach to the art he creates.

These conversations about slow growth through a focus word have continued to inspire me and I’m so excited to share them with you and the conversations I want to invite you into along the way.

Now, before we dive in — I want to mention something I made for you. It’s called My Creative Slow Start, and it’s a free five-day journalling experience for writers and creatives who feel that pull toward writing your memoir or non-fiction book (or whatever you creative calling is) but are struggling to get your creative rhythm going.

Because here’s what I know about you: you’re not just writing a book. That book, or creative project, is so much more than that. It’s just one part of how you want to bring hope and healing to our hurting world. Sometime that grandness and pressure is daunting.

So… what if what you need right now isn’t a strategic plan?

At least not yet.

What you need is a simple rhythm. A gentle, sustainable way of showing up to the page. And you don’t have to have a master plan to do so.

That’s what My Creative Slow Start is. Five days. Five writing prompts. A little bit of space carved out just for you and what God is growing in you.

Head to emilygrabatin.ca/creativeslowstart — it’ll there waiting for you.

Okay. I think we’re ready.

Season 2 of Welcoming Slow Growth is here, dropping every other week on Thursdays, and I pray it meets you right where you are — in the returning, in the exploring, in the slow and sacred work of becoming who God shaping you to be in the process.

Let’s go. : )

S2: Welcoming Slow Growth for Writers and Creatives

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