There’s a “mascot” for my music: a nocturnal creature. It is often depicted by a silhouette of a raven. A nocturnal creature is a name I’ve given myself. The mascot not only describes my nature of staying up really late at night, but also describes the focus of most of my songs: loneliness.

There I was at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in the underground room traditionally considered the very place where Jesus was born.

In the library of the Alliance Evangelical Divinity School in Anaheim, California, I find Pastor Tai Nguyen hanging up a series of photos with an air of nostalgia, visual reminders of evangelism and his ministry in Vietnam before 1975.

I grew up on a steady diet of Saturday mornings, pajamas, and cartoons. My brother and I would wake up as soon as the sun shone through the blinds. Together, we’d run to my parents’ room to ask them if we could watch TV.

It was an unusually warm March night in Northern Indiana. The expansive Midwestern sky was illuminated with starlight, but the beauty of the night was dimmed by the ire in my heart.

“COMMUNITAS AND COLLECTIVE effervescence describe aspects or moments of communal excitement; there is no word for the love — or force or need — that leads individuals to seek ecstatic merger with the group.” - Barbara Ehrenreich

A FEW YEARS ago, a friend was working on a documentary on the immigrant story. He asked if he could tell parts of my childhood story of growing up in an inner-city neighborhood in Baltimore.

I'M FLIPPING THROUGH my phone in Target, and glance over at my son. He doesn't want to leave and has been lying facedown and noncompliant on the floor for about five minutes.

HAVE YOU EVER been rejected by a church? The first stop on my month-long Asia trip: Shanghai.

FEAR. SADNESS. UNCERTAINTY. These emotions used to scare me, but I’ve been discovering that they’re actually the feeling of breaking new ground.

ACCORDING TO TRIPADVISOR, you can’t experience Nashville without a visit to “Honky Tonk Row”, a downtown strip packed with world-famous venues where many great musicians started out.

I ALWAYS ASSUMED I knew what Sabbath and rest looked like.I had a mental picture of solitude and silence, one that revolved around the idea of retreating — either into nature or into your own private space. Rest for me­ — especially as an introvert — meant taking a break from being around people and activity. Then my world turned upside down.

YOU CAN'T FIND GAO YAO on a map of China. But in this small town, there’s an orphanage that takes care of girls who are already in their late teens — girls with disabilities because the caretakers wanted to focus on those that were more at risk.

“Wo zhu le Niuyue yi nian. Hen weixian; nali you hen duo heiren.”

LEE AND HAILY NGUYEN sleep in one room, which they share with their three young children.