February holds a lot of emotion for me. My birthday falls this month, and it is also the month my dad passed away 15 years ago. Now, February holds another milestone, the arrival of my book into the world.
In January, Untucked: Reflections for the Soul’s Unfolding was published. But I felt the need to keep it close for a while. I listened to the pull to be present and to bond with the book before releasing it. I allowed myself to be still and let the words I had been so intimate with for so long speak back to me.
Now, I am letting her out into the world, which feels both vulnerable and liberating.
Untucked is entering the world quietly. That is how she is meant to be received, and it takes courage not to rush but simply to be.
Joshua 1:9 ~ A Hidden Gem
While listening to a podcast this week, I was reminded of Joshua 1:9
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
I knew immediately I wanted to write a reflection around this verse, and when I opened my Bible to study it further, I noticed I had already highlighted those words years ago.
Why was I not surprised?
These small nudges have been everywhere this month. I think they are always there, but we miss them when we aren’t still enough to notice. Because January became a deeper practice of stillness for me, I became more aware.
What I experienced that morning is something woven throughout my life and my writing: a remembering of what I already knew.
A decade ago, an earlier version of me needed those exact words. I marked them because they mattered. Because courage was required then, too. And now, here I am, not circling back out of fear, but arriving with courage.
Joshua 1:9 didn’t change.
I did.
Back then, the verse may have been about survival courage; getting through, staying steady, enduring.
Now, it reads as arrival courage; the bravery to stand where I am without armor, without apology, and without rushing ahead.
There was something deeply reassuring about that highlighted verse waiting for me. Almost like a whisper, you’re not off course. You’ve been walking this way all along.
As I read from the beginning of the chapter, I felt a deeper meaning of the words. Joshua is spoken to at the edge of crossing into something unknown yet promised. That feels very real for where I am right now, and for where I have found myself many times in recent years: standing on the edge of not knowing and knowing at the same time.
The difference now is I am no longer being asked to endure or to conquer. I am being asked to have the courage to trust.
The words were already there.
I just had to grow into them.
Today, I sit with and honor the version of myself who underlined those words all those years ago, and I give her permission to rest. She has done her part.
I didn’t just highlight those words; they were planted in me. And now, I am standing in the season where they are fully lived.
Today, Untucked enters the world rooted in stillness, courage, and belonging. And I am grateful.
Prompt:
Where in your life are you being asked to trust rather than endure?

“Be still and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10
Many years ago, I created a meditation for my yoga class based on this verse. It was simple and spacious.
Be still and know.
Ten years later, this has become my January rhythm.
This year, January arrived not as a launch but as a pause. I allowed the new year to come without requiring it to be anything other than a time to be still.
As I shared with my Untucked community on the first Sunday of the month, my intention was not only to enter the year in peace but also to let my book arrive quietly into the world as well. I wanted it simply to be with me. Held close. Honored. Before releasing it.
The first section of Untucked is titled Stillness Speaks. It feels fitting to live those words rather than rush past them.
As we move through the final week of January, I find myself returning to the verse again, this time letting it soften and open:
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Stillness, I’ve learned, is about remembering.
To be still is not to freeze or disappear, but to stop running from ourselves long enough to notice what is already true. Stillness is where the untucked parts of us finally exhale.
In the quiet, I don’t have to perform or edit my heart. I can bring all of me into the stillness and know…
January is the perfect time to practice this stillness. It invites surrender and trust. It gives the body time to catch up with the soul and space for what has been awakening within us to settle.
When I am still, I know I am not behind.
I am becoming.
Perhaps this is what the verse has been whispering all along:
Stop striving long enough to remember who you belong to.
Stop tucking yourself away long enough to feel what is sacred within you.
As January comes to a close, I am not rushing ahead. I am letting the quiet do its work. I am choosing to be still and to trust what is being prepared, even if I cannot yet imagine it.
Peace be with you in stillness.
J~
 

Welcome and Happy New Year!
Thank you for subscribing to Untucked: Monthly Reflections. I’m honored to share this space with you. You are here from the very beginning, and I hold that close to my heart.
When a new year begins, inspiration is never in short supply. Everywhere we turn, we’re invited to begin with intention and purpose. A clean slate and a plan.
And while there is something meaningful about the turning of the calendar, when I let my soul truly settle into the new year, what meets me is not urgency, but peace.
Last year, one of my favorite authors, Emily P. Freeman, asked a simple question:
What if January were the week between Christmas and New Year’s?
That in-between week carries a different energy. Our culture asks us to use it to decide everything: goals, visions, timelines.
Where do you want to be this time next year?
What will it take to get you there?
But who decided all of that had to happen at once?
What if the entire month of January were an invitation to pause, to reflect gently, to let the year begin slowly?
Not with fireworks, but with a deep breath.
That question stayed with me. And for the first time I can remember, I didn’t create a blueprint for my year. I simply allowed it to unfold. For a recovering overachiever, this felt unfamiliar.
What surprised me was how much peace that slow beginning carried into the months that followed. This year, I’m continuing that practice and taking it one step further by living intentionally, without intentions.
Let me explain.
Living this way, I’m experiencing something I’ve written about for years finally coming fully alive. I’m noticing what it feels like when my soul exhales.
Living without a list or plan keeps me connected to the gifts God has given me.
This season is asking me to release the need to learn more, fix more, or consume more. I’m no longer healing toward wholeness, I’m living from it.
And that feels like a holy experience.
So I invite you to begin 2026 with this prayer:
May we begin this year slowly.
May we resist the rush to define ourselves.
May we trust that God is not waiting for our plans, but for our presence.
May our souls exhale.
And may we live untucked, held and at home in love.
Reflection Prompt
If January were not a beginning to manage, but a pause to inhabit,
what might gently fall away and what might naturally remain?
Allow your soul to rest with this.
​Peace be with you,
J~

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These words were inspired by a recent chat with a friend.

Wild Horses Run Free
Reins tighten with every pull
She holds steady
Compassion for the animals
And a heaviness in her chest

They want to move
But she is too sad to let them go
She loosens her grip just enough
They move forward
But not too far

She can’t handle full speed
Tired and tense
How much longer can she hold tight

She stiffens and readjusts
Her body lengthens
Feet braced
Arms locked

Not too fast
She speaks softly, carefully
But the horses are wild
And want to run

How much longer can she stay in control
Does she really want to

What if~

She is preventing these beautiful animals from their destiny
Pulling them away
From what God created them for

Her mind wanders
Her breath loosens
Her arms bend just enough
Her feet relax
The animals surge forward
Panic
Then release

The grip is gone
And slowly
Their run becomes steady
Grace
Beauty

Her body soft
Hands open
Reins falling

The horses guide her
Protect her
Love her
​
She is free
Wild
And free
 

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” Isaiah 30:21
I feel this verse in so many ways. It brings me back to the Camino, The Way. Markers guided my steps, but just as important was the clarity of mind that came from walking. There was a deep sense of trust in that clarity.
Now, with the first two weeks of the year behind me, I can see where I am being guided to listen rather than decide. That, in itself, has been a conscious choice.
As I listen, my inner world has grown quiet, even as the outside world continues to scream.
I’ve allowed myself to hear the voice that says, This is the way. Walk in it. Do not be afraid.
In these first fifteen days, stillness has spoken. What keeps showing up are aligned nudges. Small synchronicities I might have missed if I weren’t allowing myself to listen.
A sermon led me to a verse.
A lecture led me to a book.
A book led me to my friend.
And so it goes.
Whether I turn to the right or to the left,
this is the way.
Reflection Prompt:
Where in your life are you being asked to listen rather than decide?