Slingshot Designs
Writing
Essays, field notes, and applied observations about how people orient under pressure, notice what systems are doing, recover agency, and decide what happens next.
This is a working library, not a niche blog. The throughline is orientation: people, systems, relationships, work, place, recovery, creativity, and the practical consequences of what we notice—or fail to notice. The communities and disciplines beside this work are treated as neighbors and collaborators, not territory to occupy.
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Leadership & Systems
Decision-making, communication, operations, complexity, accountability, and the structures that shape behavior.
Family & Community
Belonging, relationships, local systems, stewardship, and what it takes to remain human when the system is under load.
Steel Toes & Plaid
Manufacturing, work, women, grit, field lessons, blunt truth, and practical rebuilding.
Cardinal Chronicles
Personal essays and narrative observation where memory, place, relationships, identity, and meaning intersect.
Recovery & Repair
Survival easing, grief, repair, capacity, and the work of rebuilding without turning lived experience into a diagnosis or doctrine.
Land, Seasons & Observation
Gardens, land, seasonal work, and the lessons that appear when attention gets quieter and more precise.
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Subscribe for new essays and field notes as the body of work develops. No artificial cadence is promised; the signal matters more than filling the calendar.
Latest writing
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Love, Paperwork, and Hot Febreze
Love doesn’t become stronger because life gets easier. It becomes deeper because two people keep choosing to learn each other through every season. Sometimes that looks like Iceland. Sometimes it looks like paperwork,…
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Emotional Maturity Is Not Automatic: A Five-Step Framework for Leading People Without Losing Yourself
Emotional maturity doesn’t arrive with age. It develops through intentional practice. Here’s a five-step framework for building healthier families, stronger teams, and more resilient communities through accountability,…
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When the Garden Stops Growing
How do you know when it’s time to create distance from someone—or when it’s time to repair the relationship instead? The answer isn’t found in one painful moment. It’s found through careful investigation, honest…
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Covered in Joy
A tiny pollinator disappears into a flower, emerges covered in pollen, and reminds us that some of the best work happens where no one is looking.
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The Residue We Carry
Yesterday, it took me three washes to remove sticky tomato pollen from my hands. It reminded me that the harshest voices we carry often aren’t our own—they’re residue left behind by relationships, workplaces, and…
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When Your Customer Becomes Your Administrative Assistant
Sometimes the greatest test of a system isn’t whether mistakes happen—it’s who is expected to carry the recovery work. A Saturday morning CPR class became a reminder that administrative burden is often invisible until it…
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The Garden in My Mind
The older I get, the less I believe gardening is about growing plants. It’s about learning discernment—knowing what to cultivate, what to wait on, what to remove, and what to intentionally plant in its place. It turns…
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Cardinal Chronicles: If You Know the Taste
There is a particular kind of grief that rarely gets talked about. It isn’t the accusation itself—it’s the wondering that follows. If You Know the Taste is an invitation to think more critically, lead more…
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The Work That Doesn’t Show Up on the Spreadsheet
Some of the most significant costs in our lives never appear on a spreadsheet. Administrative burden quietly consumes time, attention, and capacity—at home and at work. What if leaders focused on building capabilities…
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Steel Toes & Plaid: Midnight Chicken Crisis
A late-night disturbance in a neighbor’s chicken coop became a lesson in stewardship, discernment, and the courage to take the next responsible action. Sometimes leadership begins by refusing to ignore the sound that…
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Compliance Is Not Trust
Administrative Harm: Field Notes from the Patient Side A completed form is not evidence of informed participation, psychological safety or trust. One unseen electronic signature reveals how easily administrative…
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Ask the Question That Removes the Burden
A good survey question does more than collect feedback. It reduces burden, clarifies value, and shows whether the system is asking the right people to do the right work.
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The Goal Was Always Zero
This essay is one of the more personal pieces I have shared. It sits at the intersection of motherhood, adoption, leadership, and quality—and asks what becomes possible when we finally acknowledge the human systems…
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Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks
A backyard game with Dylan became a leadership lesson in trust, change, play, and why resistance is often risk assessment—not refusal.
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Worry Is Creativity’s Shadow
Worry and creativity both create something from nothing. The question is what we are building with that imagination.