Stephanie Duncan Smith

1 month ago | laurakellyfanucci.substack.com | Laura Kelly Fanucci |Stephanie Duncan Smith

Want to do something good in the midst of everything terrible?Join our Compassion Brigade fundraiser for Catholic Relief Services. We’ve already raised over $34,000 to support the humanitarian work of CRS around the world that has been devastated by cuts to USAID. Special thanks to Meg Hunter-Kilmer, Rakhi McCormick, Julie Walsh, and Chris Damian who made this communal effort possible. We’ll keep the fundraiser going through Lent so folks can continue to support it with their almsgiving.

2 months ago | kaylacraig.substack.com | Kayla Craig |Stephanie Duncan Smith

Hope isn’t flimsy—it’s a force that propels us toward God's presence and redemptive plan for all creation, for all time. It’s vulnerable to hope. The more we hope, the more we can be disappointed. For those of us who bear scars from the hurt of this world, hope can feel scary—too risky, too unrealistic. Cynicism seems like a safer, more straightforward path. But cynicism doesn't change the world—hope does. Hope challenges us to declare, “It can be better,” and empowers us to make it so.

2 months ago | elenabrower.substack.com | Elena Brower |Stephanie Duncan Smith

Boundless Emptiness, 2022. That night in our twenties at the Argentinian restaurant on Lafayette Street, we couldn’t have fathomed it, we four—Josh, Blake, Dana and me. Cornell brought us together, and a decade on, there we were, stealing glances in the loo, making dreamy promises, drinking more than any of us needed to. Everything was possible. We didn’t imagine that one day a decade later, Blake would jump out of a burning tower to his death on a regular Tuesday morning in 2001.

2 months ago | emilypfreeman.substack.com | Stephanie Duncan Smith |Kelley Nikondeha |Emily Freeman

Once a month I offer these substack posts free for everyone so this post is accessible to all. If you would like access to these posts every week, I would be so grateful for you to join us at the monthly or annual level. Your support makes this work possible. Thank you. Here’s a simple morning rhythm could take as little as 15 minutes or as long as an hour. I’ll share it here with you now because I can feel the anxiety in the air less than two weeks before Election Day in the United States.

Dec 1, 2024 | unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Stephanie Duncan Smith |Sarah Miller |Alison Acheson

A gingerbread lighthouse from Christmas past…For years my boys and I made gingerbread houses early in December. They wanted to make a castle. Then we went to the UK and saw a water-wheel in a museum, so they had to add one of those. We ended up with a village with three houses—one for each—a castle and that wheel. One year, on a complete whim, we said, “Why not a lighthouse?” It made a perfect candle-holder. Some months ago, an editor requested a re-write from me.