Welcome to A Long Work, a project by Taylor and Laura Birkey.

2024 update: On Wednesday, January 24th, our family lost our house to a fire. Old things have gone, but new things are beginning. We’ll share about our experiences here.

We started A Long Work in response to a sharpening conviction that conventional wisdom is wrong: faster doesn’t necessarily mean better. Some of life’s most important lessons take time. Some experiences stretch across decades. We are — too often stubbornly — learning this. Maybe you’re in the boat with us, so to speak: questioning the pressures this world places on you. Searching for deeper purpose in your relationships, your work, and perhaps even life itself. This is long work. It is good. It is necessary. It is exhausting and scary at times. But for us, it’s what makes life meaningful.

Posts in Reflection

Unfolding faith

If you have walked closely with someone in their last several weeks of pregnancy, you are likely familiar with the roller coaster ride of waiting.

ReflectionLaura BirkeyMay 30, 2020A Long WorkFaith, Fear, Waiting, PregnancyComment

On expecting

So began a journey of redefining “living” according to Jesus’ life in me. I had fresh hope, not dependent on answered prayers for a family or for health.

ReflectionLaura BirkeyMay 17, 2020A Long WorkTestimony, PregnancyComment

Seasons of unravelling

A couple weeks ago, I stumbled across a small little journal that wasn’t stowed away in the same place as my other journals.

ReflectionLaura BirkeyMay 8, 2020A Long WorkFaith, ParentingComment