Welcome to Jensen Road

Let me tell you a story.

Two and a half miles from a small, rural town in Northern California sits a gravel road between rows of almond trees. It is a straight road, wide enough for tractors, pickups, and even cars visiting from “the city.”

Before the gravel, the road was dirt, and your feet would sink into the mud when it rained. But when my dad, back when he wore boots—and either a cowboy or a green John Deere hat—pulled out two rows of almond trees to carve out the road, he made it wide and straight. It is good to clear the path for hope, for the good you know is coming but can’t yet see.

Today, the road still leads to a house, a white mobile home. But when I lived there, the house was brown, and my room, in the front right corner, looked out onto the orchard of almonds my dad planted in the ground with his hands. Even though another farmer replanted the almond trees, replacing the ones I played, ran, sang, dreamed, and cried under as a child, I nevertheless still walk under the original trees when I visit. My heart knows this place. What is in you, when planted anew, never leaves.

I believe that life, our lives, are ones of returning—to opening our hearts to what was written within us before we breathed our first breath on earth. In this orchard of my father, I became aware of the life within me written by a different Father, the One who writes time and story, who knows heartbreak and can show us how our struggles and heartbreaks shape us into beauty at first unrecognizable but still good—and blossoming all the same.

Welcome to Jensen Road, where story and poetry map what we know but may have forgotten: the yearning for wholeness, healing, and home. 

Hi, I’m Jennifer.

I am a listener and writer, teacher and leader. I am a co-founder of a nonprofit organization based in Silicon Valley called Gather Ministries. Loop for Women is the community close to my heart.

By joining me here, you can expect new essays and poems a few times a month. They are often inspired by the latest Loop Encounter, a heart-and-mind exercise of contemplation and imagination.

My latest book, The Uncovering, a collection of poetry published by Fernwood Press in April, is one of the most vulnerable pieces of writing I’ve ever done. You can check it out here.

I’d also love to connect with you. I look forward to learning from one another. Please reach out at any time!

With gratitude & expectation,

Jennifer