“Bits & Pieces”

As a first-time author, Carolyn Nowotny helps readers reflect through her newly published devotional, “Bits & Pieces: 52 Reflections on God’s Wisdom.”
Nowotny, who became a life coach about three years ago, said she decided to write the devotional about nine months ago after encouragement from her own life coach.
Nowotny said she wrote the devotional based on wisdom from her personal journals. She explained that as she journals, she sometimes has thoughts or insights that come to her that she attributes to being from God or the Holy Spirit.
“We get wisdom bits by bits,” she said. “That’s the theme of this devotional.”
Nowotny, who attends Project:Re3 and is one of the church’s founding members, explained that her faith is very important to her. Along with being involved with the church, Nowotny homeschools two of her four children and is very involved with the Belarussian Relief Organization.
“That’s why I became a life coach,” she explained. “Along the way, I’ve always had men and women come alongside me and mentor me.”
As a life coach and now an author, Nowotny said this is one way she is trying to give back to all of those who have mentored to her, while also giving back to others.
“I want to help people live a fuller life, one with more meaning,” she shared.
Nowotny explained that the devotional has 52 scriptures, enough for people to reflect on one every week for a year.
“The idea is to do one a week,” she said. “Being a mom with four kids, finding the time to sit down and think about things is hard to find. I did it with busy moms and busy people in mind.”
Along with each scripture, Nowotny has included thoughts about the scripture that have come from her personal journal and how she has reflected on those scriptures. She then asks a question or gives ideas on how the reader can reflect.
“Those are the things I have learned to do throughout the year,” she said, adding that every morning, she takes time to do reflective thinking whether it’s reading scriptures or someone else’s book, or listening to a podcast.
Nowotny noted that with each scripture, she includes an area for writing notes, as well as a page where people can reflect with bullet points or by doodling.
“Not everyone expresses themselves through writing, so I wanted to offer a space for that,” she said as she added that when her son reflects it often comes out as a doodle.
The one scripture from the book that Nowotny said means a lot to her is the fifth one, “Then Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’” John 5:6
“I like this scripture because that is where personal growth starts. We can sit and stay stuck our entire lives and not know that we need to be healed,” she said.
While some of the scripture in her book she found by reading the Bible, she said this one was one that her pastor brought up during a sermon, one that he took apart for the congregation.
“I just kept coming back to it,” she said.
Having never written before, other than on a few blog posts, Nowotny didn’t realize how much she was going to enjoy writing; however, looking back on high school, she said English was her favorite subject.
Nowotny noted that the process of writing her book only took about three months and she self-published. The book, which is $12, is now available on Amazon.com and will be available at Local Roots Coffee Bar & General Store, located at 247 North Cherry Street.