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Bailey Ree | Writer

@baileyreewrites

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✨writing my way through faith and motherhood
👇🏼better on Substack

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WHO’S WITH ME? taken in Dallas, Texas by @baileyreewrites

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2 years ago

Hiiiii, I’m Bailey.

In all my years of instagram-writing I’ve never done #FridayIntroductions before so here we are - in my little square of the internet, saying hello and here’s why I’m here.

Being a writer in this increasingly video-driven space is weird and a little lonely. Sometimes it feels pointless and silly. I don’t want to fight for your attention. I don’t like that it stings a little when a post doesn’t “perform” or I feel hidden beneath the flood of trendy reels and curated content.

But that silly, stinging feeling pulls me back to a more grounded place. One rooted in a love of using words for worship and wonder. Where writing is both catharsis and confession. Where the goal is not engagement or performance, but something softer, smaller, an obligation of the heart.

Just as we are called to love because He first loved us, we are compelled to create in response to, and worship of, our Creator. That looks like so many different things for so many different people in their many different seasons.

For me, in this season, it looks like poetry written on whims, long-form posts powered by caffeine, and (my personal favorite) a weekly newsletter on Substack where metrics don’t matter and I just get to be - in my space, hashtag-free, with my people.

Maybe in the next season that will change. Just as, I’m sure, the technology that powers these mediums will shift and settle in ways that are frustrating and strange and inevitable.

But for now, I’m thankful to get to write, create, worship, love through poetry and prose, buried deep beneath a silly algorithm or floating to the top of your inbox on Monday mornings.

baileyree.substack.com taken in Dallas, Texas by @baileyreewrites

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4 years ago

I think my point is that I spent so long trying not to love anything too much out of fear that it would tip over into idolatry and God, being GOOD, would take it away.

And now I’m convinced that that’s a terribly reductive and inaccurate view of how He operates (thank God!!!!) and now I can love good things as much as I want and that kind of unrestraint feels so wild in my body.

Sometimes when Jo is excited about something new, she opens her mouth as wide as it can go and shakes all over because she doesn’t know how to express it and that’s exactly how I feel all the time now.

I take one look at her curls or Penny’s blue eyes or the laugh lines on Ryan’s face that I feel largely responsible for and I just can’t. fucking. take. the goodness of it and the fact that that doesn’t scare me anymore is an absolute wildflower field of joy within me.

What I’m trying to say is, I’ve been really, really wrong about how God loves us and that’s such a funny place to be at 36.

I’m trying to know Him again. While also trying to know myself.

I’m learning my children as they grow and change and learn to turn sounds into syllables into words into songs.

I’m learning how to mother as a whole person. How to steward a curiosity in them about themselves and life and the world around us as an outflow of my own. How to answer Jo’s seven thousandth “why” of the day with “I don’t know” and let that feel like home in my body.

(Full post of Substack ✨) by @baileyreewrites

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a month ago

Penelope Lynne, child of the covenant! ✨

Last Thursday we moved into our new house, on Friday Penny turned one, and today she was baptized with family, friends, and godparents all around her.

I can’t say I recommend squeezing all of those things into one short weekend if you care about your sanity or your marriage.

But chaos and boxes and not being able to find a single thing I need (!!!!) aside, we are overjoyed to mark this oh so holy moment in the life of our sweet pen.

It was a wild weekend, a wholly joyful day, and a beautiful reminder of just how deeply we are loved. by @baileyreewrites

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2 months ago

At work I’m now required to outsource my brain and at home I continue to outsource my body and I suppose I’m not unwilling to do either but both are taking a toll.

I just feel a bit consumable. I’m this increasingly tired combination of webhooks and smile lines and human jungle gym. Ever accessible by ping or cry, both of which I hear in phantom form while I don’t sleep.

I have such utility in this season. And I find it appropriate that you don’t hear too many deathbed reflections of one’s usefulness.

Thankfully I am only dying in the regular, universal way right now, so far as I’m aware.

So for now I make grocery lists and wonder how to tend to my soul while I commoditize these other parts of me.

An attempt that can only be made, I think, by way of joy. In the tiny bodies that find their way to mine at 3am. The slick of summer rinsed from their velvet necks swirling to the bottom of the tub. The bottle of Chablis Ryan thought to chill well before I did. And so on.

Joy, it seems, is the sacrament of usefulness. The dogged sprout finding its way through cracks in the milquetoast sidewalk.

Not a remedy so much as a dissonance against the despair. A quiet harmony of hope where agency might otherwise seem lost.

Joy, it seems, is this saturday communion. Fruit punch and espresso and a body broken by the gorgeous monotony of motherhood. These small cups of salvation poured out for her and for her and for me. by @baileyreewrites

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3 months ago

Sweet baby Jo turned three today and we had the very best time celebrating. Jo is sensitive, thoughtful, curious, and delightfully weird.

She has the best hair. The very best laugh. And a better understanding of the taxonomy of dinosaurs than any adult I know.

She calls crocodiles “crocadillos,” all her stuffies “girlies,” and told us, “thank you for getting my birthday-day ready for me” about 25 times today (and counting).

I know everybody hates on 3 (and like, i get it…), but damn this kid is just the best. We are so very grateful to God for her life and for the incredible gift of being her parents. 💕 by @baileyreewrites

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3 months ago

it’s shaping up to be a very cute summer ☀️ by @baileyreewrites

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4 months ago

Out of office: chasing fireflies, eating melting ice cream, and making summer memories. ✨

We made a LBD-coded Summer Bucket List for the slow mornings, backyard dinners, sprinkler runs, and tiny magical moments ahead. What’s on your summer bucket list? by @baileyreewrites

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4 months ago

first dance recital in the books for jo baby 💕 one of us cried through the whole performance and amazingly it wasn’t her or penny… by @baileyreewrites

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5 months ago

ryan gave me flowers, a card, and the gift of sleeping in only to wake up to fresh coffee and bagels in bed.

the girls gave me a cold 🤧🤪

still, this day always make me so weepy. being their mom is the best part of me 💛 by @baileyreewrites

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5 months ago

Flew right past 7 months so had to combine it with 8 and if that’s not youngest child energy idk what it is. We sure do love this gap-toothed girlie 💛 by @baileyreewrites

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6 months ago

against, amidst, despite all the despair… h o p e ✨ by @baileyreewrites

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6 months ago