About Becky Strom

My Story

Hello and thanks for stopping by. I’d like to tell you a few things about who I am, where I’ve been and where I’m headed. Though my given name is Rebecca, I’ve always felt more like a Becky—playful, optimistic, and someone who laughs easily.  I’m also a woman with many passions (some call me intense), which have influenced the direction and purpose of my life including:

Learning

I love to learn and education has been one of the routes I’ve taken. I obtained a master’s degree in counseling and a master’s of divinity degree. I’ve been a teacher, counselor, chaplain, and pastor. In my various jobs, I’ve addressed reproductive issues, death and dying, and addictions. In my most recent career, I moved through emergency medical training (EMS) levels. I eventually became a paramedic and worked with a fire department for sixteen years.

Formal education is only one way I pursued learning. I ‘ve also engaged in several informal activities including books, lectures, trainings, and conversations over a cup of coffee.

Healing

Underlying much of what I have done has been a deep desire for healing. Driven by a longing to feel whole after childhood abuse, I walked through the past, cried countless tears, and integrated the what I learned in the process. My personal journey, combined with my education, has allowed me the opportunity and skills to help others in their own healing.

Nature

My earliest memories that includes nature is climbing huge trees in the gully behind my home. After my parents divorced, my mother and I moved into an apartment in an older house. A Catalpa tree stood outside the bay window and I felt it had been waiting for me. Its beauty, huge leaves, and fragrant flowers spoke to my sorrow and I heard it say, “I’ll be your friend.”

Nature is a significant part of who I am. Though I no longer climb trees, they talk to me and you may see me hugging one. As a child, I made mud pies and still play in the dirt. Now, I garden, appreciate earthworms I come across, curse at the moles making tunnels. and talk to the birds who show up to play. What I know is, when I am  in the natural world, I feel connected to the holy.

Adventure

In my childhood, the world felt scary and unsafe and I tried to be invisible. When that didn’t work, my shame and pain caused me to hide, withdraw, and avoid participating in life . With healing, I’ve discovered a big, beautiful world and a place I am no longer feared.

These days I love to trying new things (sometimes to my husband’s dismay): I’ve jumped out of an airplane, learned to ride a motorcycle, spent a month in Spain, hiking on the Camino de Santiago, and drove around Scotland by myself for several weeks. I can’t wait to see what my next adventure is going to be!

Learning to live an honest and authentic life

This passion is not about my “doing” but about my “being.” It is the foundation for who I am, what I do and where I am going. Our world faces so much pain and injustice through the use of power and greed, to diminish and divide people. We abuse our beautiful earth, as though it was created just for our taking and destroying. I am committed to learning about the issues our communities face – systemic racism, climate change, and others. I work to confront my complicity in them, and to be a voice for those who have been silenced when , where and how I can. 

My first book, Walking on Sacred Ground, is a memoir about the three years I worked as a chaplain in a large trauma hospital. It includes stories of the people I met, my experiences, my struggle with the institutional church, and what I learned about myself and offering compassionate care to others..  

When I’m not writing, you can find me nurturing my other passions: playing outdoors; spending time with my beautiful family of one husband, two daughters, and their spouses, five grandchildren, and one cat; enjoying time with amazing friends, or sitting in a cozy chair, with a cup of something good to drink and my nose in a book. True confession—I am a biblioholic and suspect I came out of my mother’s womb with a book in my hand.

If you visit my blog, What I know todayyou’ll discover a hodgepodge of images, and reflections on topics including nature, spirituality, personal growth, and aging; or whatever I think might offer some food for thought. Mostly, I hope you will find a friend on the journey and new insights for growth, beauty, and how to live in the moment. 

Finally, in these chaotic times, we all need to nurture ourselves to maintain balance in our humanity. When I am overwhelmed, and my soul needs to be fed, I head into nature to connect with Earth Mother to discover what new thing she has to show me. There I can quiet my mind and remember who I am. My hope is you also have a special place or activity where your “heart center” speaks to you

Thanks for stopping by.

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When you listen with your heart, you will deepen your roots in the sacred and profound.

 becky strom

BOOK COMING SOON!

Walking on Sacred Ground 

My first book is entitled Walking on Sacred Ground and is a memoir about the three years I worked as a chaplain in a large trauma hospital. It includes stories of the people I met, my experiences, my struggle with the institutional church, and what I learned along the way.

I Went Looking For Spring.

I Went Looking For Spring.

I went looking for spring today, but winter was the only one willing to show up. The dried leaves swirled around as though in a final dance. The sun played hide and seek with the clouds, so its potential warmth didn’t reach me, disappearing more than out in the open....

Spring is Busting Out All Over!

Okay, maybe I lied, maybe springs not busting out all over, but instead, just peeping its head out. Which is good, since I’m reading a book about wintering. It would seem contrary to talk about wintering if spring was gloriously erupting around me. The book I’ve been...

Finding Your way Home

Finding Your way Home

At the beginning of January, the church celebrated Epiphany. Epiphany represents the day the three magi arrived to worship the Christ child. Not everyone realizes the Christmas story, often told, is a composite from three different gospels, all rolled into one....

I Hug Trees

Trees have always been an important part of my life. When I was young, I climbed them and went up as high as I could go. Those trees were my friends and I felt safe as I rested in their arms. Later, when I was eight, my parents divorced. Mother had to sell our house,...

The Beauty and Richness of Diversity in Life.

The Beauty and Richness of Diversity in Life.

(Blog Redo! I’m still learning this thing called blogging, making mistakes, writing poorly, but mostly trying to write from my head, rather than my heart. Recently I wrote a post that in hindsight I disliked for several reasons I just mentioned. So, I removed it. But...

TIS THE SEASON OF JOY – the complexity of joy.

TIS THE SEASON OF JOY – the complexity of joy.

  “Joy to the World!” The song rings out, at churches, in elevators, and stores, to bring good news. Plus, this Sunday was the lighting of the third Advent candle, identified as joy which the definition tells us is an emotion of great delight.   Certainly, I...

Some Days Family May Mean Cleaning, Cooking, and Hammering

Some Days Family May Mean Cleaning, Cooking, and Hammering

My hope is that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Because we were in rural Kansas, we missed the biggest part of holiday shopping and Black Friday craziness in stores. Which, in my mind, only means no people crashing into me, short tempers, or standing in line...

Gifts of the Friends In My Lives: Four Characteristics I Value

Gifts of the Friends In My Lives: Four Characteristics I Value

During the Pandemic, many things have been difficult. One of the hardest for me was the sense of isolation and aloneness. My 103 yr. old father-in-law could no longer live in his house alone and my husband didn’t want him to have to go into a nursing home, but desired...

The Three Reasons Why I Love to Read Children’s Books

The Three Reasons Why I Love to Read Children’s Books

Reading is an important part of my life and has been since childhood. But what may seem strange to people, is that I’m still reading stories that are written for children and youth, including picture books. I do this for several reasons. One is that they make me...

All Saint’s Day and the act of Grieving

All Saint’s Day and the act of Grieving

                   No Matter how hard your heart is broken, the world doesn't stop for your grief.     Faraaz Kazi Today, in church, we celebrated All Saint’s Day, which is a Christian holiday. It is also known by the name of All Hollow’s Eve or the Feast of the...

Welcome to my blog, What I know today. I’m in a stage of my life where I asked myself, “What now?”. One of the answers I heard was to pursue writing. My first book, Walking on Sacred Ground, is a memoir about my work as a chaplain in a large trauma hospital. 

With this new venture, I learned two things: I love the writing process, and in the seventy years I’ve been hanging around on this earth, I’ve learned a lot about life, growing, healing, and loving, and I want to share it with others.

A blog seemed the logical place to fulfill both of those (and much better than shouting it out on a downtown street corner). So here I am, starting a new journey. 

                                           *** 

My blog's title, What I know today reflects the ebb and flow of our existence, reshaped in both subtle and major ways. What I know now is very different than what I knew and thought yesterday, a year, and even a lifetime ago. I want my blog to reflect that reality of change. 

I’m glad you stopped by, and I hope to see you again. Until then, live fully in the moment – it’s the only guarantee we have.    

"What I knew so clearly yesterday, may change today, because there is an ebb and flow to our existence and is always evolving."

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