Once again, I'm honored to feature your beautiful writing on my blog. I no longer believe the rumors that blogging is dying. If your words are any indication, blogs are still an exquisite medium for sharing our stories and connecting with kindred spirits. I received 100+ submissions this month. I chose my top ten favorites. If I didn't choose your post, please don't be discouraged. Keep writing. Keep blogging. I will continue to host this #TreasuryOfSmallBlogs so there's always next month! Please follow the writers featured today by clicking on their Twitter and blog links. Much love to all & Merry Christmas. xo. EE.

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I am a white girl with a non-white family; oh, how many STRUGGLES I must have faced, right? It’s just unease. It’s like four fingers on a glove. It’s like a pebble in your shoe. Something is askew and I don’t know how to put it right. It is not my blood’s fault, or my skin’s. I am bereft of something I never had. —Katherine Diehl @ “A noiseless noise in the orchard”

 

I was too wrecked to hide the truth. I gave her some bullet points of the past year, and described the harrowing drive that had broken it all open again, and the sleepless night that had now left me one tiny hiccup away from complete crazy.She asked, "What do you hear God saying to you in all this?" And I said, "Just take the next step. Just take the next step." —Kay Bruner.com, Twitter: @kay_bruner

 

Should I be doing more? Should I be trying harder? Setting more goals? Pushing myself? But all I see is the fatigue. My greatest regrets are the times I tried too hard, pushed myself too much, worked too hard, and didn’t give myself room for me and my own needs. I look back at 27 years of health struggles, anxiety, and adrenal fatigue. While, granted, some of that simply is genetics and the way my body is – part of me has been wondering how much of it was caused by pushing myself academically, musically, and spiritually to give God my very best? —Aprille Donaldson, "Beautiful in His Time", Twitter: @beautyinhistime

 

I have now become that parent with the kid in his underwear at a birthday party because he flatly refuses to wear pants. This would never have been an option for the other kids. Maybe I’m going soft, maybe I’m worn out, or maybe I’m learning to choose my battles. I’m certainly learning something about grace, about letting go of measuring myself by someone else’s yardstick. —Aleah Marsden, "Depth of the Riches" Twitter: @Marsdenmom

 

“Why didn’t she write about the wars going on?” cried my professor. “Why didn’t she espouse more principles of feminism?"...It seems to me, in my limited literary studies, that these types of questions are restricted to female writers. Would you ever ask why Shakespeare wasted his time writing about star-crossed lovers when he could have been writing treatises on the common rights of men? Why is the onus on women—particularly women who we don’t actually have any control over because they’re long dead—to write about “important” things? —Bridget @ "Dog-Eared & Dog-Tagged" Twitter: @thebookishmilso

 

An ENFJ offends the Conservatives because he spoke kindly of LGBTs. Naturally, the Liberals were pleased, but the Conservatives are mad because that’s not what the GOP wants. Most of the Millennials are already alienated since their Love Language isn’t given enough merit in our weekly practices... Eventually, a Focus Group will be put together to dissect why all the perfectly separated sub-groups can’t get along even though they’re rarely encouraged interact. —Mitch Rouse, "Church: Labels Required, Bibles Optional", Twitter: @MitchRoush

 

So why do young adults who grew up in the church leave? Because the welcome at the local coffee shop is warmer than that in my local church. Because the women’s bible study is during the work day, the mentorship program focuses on homemaking, and the small groups are full. If you ask me the answer is not in more ministries and programs but more people simply reaching out to other people: making lunch plans, building a relationship, being available to answer those hard questions. Simply being available to talk about life. —Sian Taylor, "To the People in the Church Pews" , Twitter: @SKTaylor2

 

Just because guys from decades ago didn't have stylists and manscaping and Annie Leibovitz doesn't mean they were mediocre in the looks department. Check out a young Theodore Roosevelt. Umm, YES, Mr. President. Our moms and grandmas had it good, y'all. —Kendra Adachi, "The Sugar Box" Twitter: @hiitskendra

 

I’ve been present when such devastating news has been delivered. When the hot coal of truth was passed to a child, searing the tender soul and leaving an indelible scar. I remember wanting to stretch those last moments of blissful naivety into years, where innocence could romp and play through the fields of childhood. Yet the hard realities of the world had intervened. I had no control...“But we have to go on, Mom,” she said to me. “We can’t just quit, or we’ll never know what happens. It has to get better. We just have to get through the hard part.” —Julie Silander, "Greener Trees", Twitter: @juliesilander

 

I am a welfare mom. If there is over-priced, highly processed, completely unhealthy food in our cart, then you complain about the state financially supporting unhealthy lifestyles. But you have no idea why that food is in our cart. None at all. If there is organic food, tons of produce, and healthy meats in our cart, then you complain that people on welfare eat better than those who buy their own groceries. So what kind of food would you approve of us buying? I'd like to know. You don't approve of government programs at all. That's fine. Would you like my family to eat the grass in our front yard? Are you offering my husband a job that would support our family? What solution do you have for the fact that I don't have enough money to buy food for my family? —anonymous on "The Land of Curly Hair"