Come journey with poet and TWBTO founder Kimberly Phinney and painter and artist Erin Stinson, as they collaborate on this mediative piece about “becoming” and finding the “home” inside ourselves. We promise you’ll breathe more deeply and feel inspired as you contemplate your own journey toward self-discovery and spiritual homecomings.

Months after my divorce was finalized, I resettled away from my old life as I looked for a new church home. One of those first Sundays, a friendly couple turned to me inquiring if I was new and where I lived. I stumbled over my words, trying to answer—trying to remember simple things like my name, where I was from, what brought me there. My brain froze as shame washed over me...

The Way Back to Ourselves is excited to present our feature series, The Artist’s Interview. Each month, we talk with amazing creatives about life, faith, art, and everything in between. Check out this interview with Kate Lab, poet, artist, and the founder of the popular Kate Goes Creating. Kate is a faithful creative who marries her poetic and illustrative talents to create stunning books, graphics, and keepsakes—all with the hopes of exalting God and beautifying the world. So, click, read, share, and enjoy! You belong here.

Plummeting over 411 feet, Whitewater Falls is the kind of majestic force that demands an audience. Located in Sapphire, North Carolina, and considered the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi River, the falls are both awe-inspiring and deadly. When you first arrive, it’s obvious that this natural wonder brings on-lookers of every kind: the young, the old, families, lovers, and friends. It’s often you see them picnicking, strolling, and snapping photographs, but as you venture further along the trails, the masses peel back, leaving the young and old behind. Soon you cease to hear their voices or feel their company, as the rustling leaves and distant roar of the falls replace them. With each step, you know you are getting closer.

I breathe deep. The words on my screen fill me up with inspiration and hope as I scroll through the newest publication of an insightful and culturally paradoxical journal I have grown to love. It is so beautifully written and represented by the photos chosen to accompany the words on the page. I get lost in it. Just reading it makes me want to dig deeper into my own soul and unearth what profound truths lie just below the surface. Suddenly, I want nothing more than to be in a forest somewhere, listening to the sounds of nature breathing in, breathing out…

The Way Back to Ourselves is proud to announce our THIRD workshop, The Poetry Hour 301! Come join us for a night of learning, community and creativity, as we learn about building an AUTHENTIC writing platform and improving our craft on OCT. 23 at 8:00 p.m. EST. Register NOW! Seats are limited. Questions? Email us at thewayback2ourselves@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you! Can’t wait to SEE you again! YOU BELONG HERE.

The Way Back to Ourselves is excited to present our feature series, The Artist’s Interview. Each month, we will be talking with amazing creatives about life, faith, art, and everything in between. Check out this interview with the founder of Calla Press and Publishing and published writer, Samantha Cabrera. Samantha is a faithful creative who has endured a great deal of suffering, and Calla Press is the direct result of God’s beauty from ashes story in her life. Samantha is a kind leader and inspiration who has a story to tell. So, click, read, share, and enjoy! You belong here.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way!” I said aloud to God as I drove home from doing the school run. Deflated, annoyed, and disappointed—like steam wafting from a boiled kettle–I was pouring out my heart to God as I released the emotional pressure that had been building up within me. When I arrived home, I nestled my exhausted body into the sofa and allowed my gaze to turn toward the tips of the trees in our garden and then beyond into the blue sky. There, I watched these strong trees gently sway as fluffy billows of white clouds passed by. Unlike me, the nature around seemed completely at ease with the rhythm of patience needed between seasons.

I have been an addict since I was a child. No, I wasn’t addicted to any substances. I was addicted to people’s praise. I couldn’t recognize it as addiction, however—none of us can when we’re under the influence—until I learned the term codependency in counseling just under a decade ago. Until then, I sought people’s approval, sacrificed extravagantly, gave beyond my limits, and breathed in their thanksgiving. 

The Way Back to Ourselves is proud to announce the ENCORE of our SECOND workshop, The Poetry Hour 201! Come join us for a night of learning, community and creativity, as we learn about publishing and improving our craft on SEPT. 25 at 8:00 p.m. EST. Register NOW! Seats are limited. Questions? Email us at thewayback2ourselves@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you! Can’t wait to SEE you again!

The night I came home after my third surgery’s hospitalization held a darkness I’ll never forget. After many months of being bedridden, I finally looked in the mirror to see my mangled body, as my husband propped me up. I was gazing at a stranger. My frame hunched forward and was an unrecognizable, emaciated shadow of my former self. My arms were pocked and bruised with hundreds of uninvited needles that delivered lifesaving antibiotics over the previous months, but also destroyed my veins and sanity in the process. But worst of all, my abdomen had become a landmine, covered in sutures and scars…

The Way Back to Ourselves is excited to present our NEWEST series, The Artist’s Interview. Each month, we will be talking with amazing creatives about life, faith, art, and everything in between. Check out this interview with the founder of Written to Speak and published poet, Tanner Olson. Tanner’s writing has been described as unique for his adept ability to blend faith, humor, and curiosity as he points readers and listeners toward the ultimate source of hope and love, Jesus. So, click, read, share, and enjoy!

The Way Back to Ourselves Literary Journal is proud to announce that our SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN for the Fall Collection 2023: RESTORATION, which will be published in November. Come learn all about our theme, details, and submission window. Questions? Email us at thewayback2ourselves@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

It’s often we hear about homes burning down to the ground and people losing everything. Collectively, we understand on a gut-level what that means for the survivors. It’s an object lesson in randomness, vulnerability, and the unified response of the village. We understand what the fire does, the lives that are shattered in one devastating night, and the tangibility of a loss that takes years to recover from. But sometimes, lives burn down like houses do, too. And when it happens, we find ourselves a little unnerved by the randomness, our own disbelief, and our less-assured heroic response. How do we navigate THAT kind of grief?

The Way Back to Ourselves is excited to share our newest addition to the blog: The Way Back Devotional. Please welcome Dr. Zaher Alajlani, our newest contributor, as he writes about the very timely topic of FORGIVENESS. May his words bless you and minister to your heart.

The Way Back to Ourselves is proud to announce the WINNERS of our FIRST-EVER “Storytellers” Summer Poetry Contest! Click here to find out who won first place and runners-up. Winner gets a cash prize. The winner and runners-up get publication, promotion, and TWBTO merch! We are so grateful to everyone who entered!

I woke up this morning to what felt like a thousand notifications. If it wasn’t a thousand, it sure was close. To my great surprise, the liturgy I wrote the night before in the middle of a late night of emotional turmoil, which I posted to our Instagram account the following evening, had truly struck a nerve. Hundreds of faithful creatives posted, shared, commented, tagged friends, and direct messaged us that they were in tears, shaken (in all the right ways), moved, soothed, and seen. Somehow, the simple words that fell out of me, written alone in my own need to pray through our realities as faithful creatives, was exactly what this community needed to hear.

My serving roots go deep. As the oldest of ten children, an empathetic listener, and a high-capacity follower of Jesus, I attracted other people’s projects and problems and learned to bear responsibility for all needs I encountered at the expense of my own. This seemed right to me—after all, aren’t we supposed to “deny ourselves,” “bear each other’s burdens,” and “look to the interests of others”? How could I do those things if I allowed my own needs and desires to have any place in my life?

The Way Back to Ourselves is excited to present our NEW series, The Artist’s Interview. Each month, we will be talking with amazing creatives about life, faith, art, and everything in between. Check out this interview with published and award-winning poet Nicholas Trandahl, whose lines are full of awe, myth, spirit, and truth. Just the way we at The Way Back to Ourselves like it! So, click, read, share, and enjoy!

I screwed up—as I often do. I haven’t been quite right with my coordination since getting sepsis and having to relearn many of my fine motor skills for daily tasks—like writing, cutting vegetables, and doing the dishes… And because of this, I am always fumbling, forgetting, and most certainly breaking things I shouldn’t. But back to my screwup: So yesterday, I was picking up a bit after our July 4th party with our friends and church family, and I clumsily knocked over one of my potted orchids. It shattered all over the tile floor into a million little pieces.