About

Updated August 20th, 2013

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I recently got a hair cut. I’m pretty proud of it.

My name is Teryn O’Brien.

Here are some things you should know about me:

1. I graduated from Bible college in May 2011 with a degree in Communications. Communication, especially writing and the arts, has always been a huge passion of mine. It’s the way I’ve always processed my world.

2. Books are my passion. I’m unashamedly a book nerd! Especially the classics. The English Language is beautiful. My favorite authors are Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Ray Bradbury, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Jane Austen, St. Augustine, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fyodor Dostoyevsky… to name a few. I also am getting into poetry recently– found all these old books on English Poetry and am reading through them. Lovely.

3. Wild things and nature thrill my soul. Like, really. I stand on a mountainside and I feel this soaring joy and an ache to be part of it. Does anyone else feel that? I think I’m wild-souled.

4. In 2012, I moved to the great state of Colorado. I feel at home.

5. This Christmas, I got a camera. A real one. It’s a Canon EOS Rebel T3i Digital SLR. That is code for: really nice camera. I’m hoping to get into photography this year. I’ve always taken pictures, but I’ve never had good equipment. I’m thrilled!! If you have any tips, let me know. I’ll probably be posting pictures on here from time to time.

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This is me and my camera taking an artsy shot of myself in a window. I try hard to be artsy, I really do.

6. I want to travel and go on adventures. Countries at the top of my list are Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, England, Iceland. NOTE: I just went to Ireland in July 2013. I don’t think I’ll ever be content to just sit around in America ever again.

7. I’m Irish. And I’m proud of it. St. Patrick inspires me, as do many of the old Irish monks. It’s probably where I get my mystical, monkish tendencies. In fact, I’d call myself a Celtic Christian. I’ve now journeyed to Ireland, and I’ve been forever changed. It is a beautiful land full of spirituality and depth.

8. I love cats. But I like dogs, too. And horses. And really, any wild creature. I’d love to have several pets someday (or wild creatures that hang around my house and know me to be a kind human). As a child, I always wished animals could speak (which is probably why I loved Narnia so much).

9. My nickname is “the whimsical one.”

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Here I am enjoying nature, being wild-souled and whimsical, and loving Jesus. Can you see it in my eyes? Maybe that’s just the sun through the trees….

10. I’m excited for 2013, as I believe this year I will continue to embrace my identity in Christ. This whole blog has been so healing. Christ is the source of all of satisfaction, my joy, my solace.

***

Now, on to the serious stuff…

I began this blog in May of 2011. (Read a more in-depth story here).

Throughout my life, I’ve struggled a lot with my identity, identity in Christ, and what that really means. One time I was in a class at Bible college where the professor mentioned that phrase. And I remember a lot of students–all of them Christians, by the way–blankly staring.

Originally, I was just going to write about 20ish topics that had to do with my past struggles and pain. Then I’d quit the blog after a year. (For a list on all my original Identity Renewed posts, click here.) But it’s so much more now.

You see, I have a passion for the wounded. I see so many broken people, Christians and non-Christians, who long for honesty and hope. I write to let others know they aren’t alone in their brokenness.

And I also write to give artists and creators and writers and broken people and questioning people a place to read and feel freer. Freer to love God and to be loved by Him as beloved children made in His image.

Identity Renewed is about revealing wounds. It’s about exposing those sides of us that we don’t often expose, in hopes that we may all feel a little less alone in our humanity. It’s about freeing us up to learn that God can often meet us in the wounds. That when we are honest and confront our pain, healing comes and we embrace God’s love.

So generally, a week of blogging looks like this (although this really is more of a guideline than an actual rule)…

1). On Tuesdays, I post a poem, a piece of artwork, or photography. Just anything creative. Anything worshipful and honest and true to the human condition.

2.) On Thursdays, I will continue to post on Identity issues and other issues, talking about brokenness and how to heal. Or just any topic I decide to cover for a month. (For a list on all my original Identity Renewed posts, click here.) I also am having more guest bloggers on the site now, sharing their stories. I’m SO excited about this.

And…occasionally, there will posts that fit no category! Sorry. I am an artist, after all. I can’t be too organized all the time.

***

Inspiration for this blog comes from three sources.

One, Mary E. DeMuth’s book Thin Places. She’s a Christian author that explores the pain of her past, always trying to find God in those dark times. She’s about as honest as you can get about devastating pain, yet she also gives great hope in Christ. Someday, I want to write something half as good and honest as her book.

Two, Melissa Hawkin’s Drama in Ministry class. That was the first step in vulnerability for me. The first time I realized I could actually say something about my brokenness in a creative way. I will never be the same. Read about this class and a drama I performed to face my pain here.

Three, God. No, I’m not saying I speak the direct words of God. :) But I have doused this blog with much prayer, and I try to write about things I feel God prompting me to write about. Sometimes, I might feel as if a certain topic makes NO sense, but I need to write about it…and always, there’s a reason.

37 thoughts on “About”

  5. Pingback: Very Inspiring Blogger Award | Devin Berglund

    • Thanks, Devin! I’m so honored. I accepted that award a few months ago. But I really am truly honored to win it a second time from you. Keep up the inspiring blog you have. :)

      Reply

  8. You’re a sister in Christ. I’m your brother of the mountains. I learned an immense amount on Long’s Peak. Hallett’s is in the background of my profile pic. I don’t live in CO, but I would like to. You are blessed.
    God bless and be with you

    Reply

  9. Hey Teryn, very pleased to meet you and find your place here. Have been here 3 times now reading your thoughts but today is first time commenting. You are a very talented writer and your stories resonate within me, they are from the heart and that makes them very special, something rarely seen today.

    I am glad you found your dream in the wonderful mountains of Colorado, it is truly God’s country with natural beauty abundant for the mind and heart to embrace, you seem to have an eye to take it all in. Love the images you do all over your blog. Look forward to reading your work when you share it from now on.

    From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
    Psalm 61:2

    I hope you have found you place of peace.

    God Bless
    Steven

    Reply

    • Hi Steven,
      Thanks for all the likes and comments today! I’m glad you like my writing, and that you appreciate my writing from the heart. It’s hard to do nowadays, as so many people have shut their hearts off because it’s just too hard to feel or love or think with our conscience nowadays. I have enjoyed your blog, because you are talking about political issues, etc., from a place of conscience and heart. Not just convenience.
      God bless you, too.
      -Teryn

      Reply

  14. Hi,
    I stumbled across your blog while searching for blogs which share my blog’s scope of writing. I love your writing style and means of expression. Could you please check out my blog and go through my writings there and perhaps follow back if you like what you read? Keep up the good work :)
    Ghada

    Reply

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