Week 26 (2021)
gardens & staring out windows, neighbors & haphazard hospitality, asking better questions & reading better stories
(Open in your browser — emails cut off at the end!)
to read: essays, articles
I never thought I’d feel at home in my neighborhood—until we got The Slide— Kate Watson, Curbed — “I hadn’t meant to have a revolving-lawn policy with 40-odd people and their offspring; I never saw myself as domestic enough, or logistics-savvy enough, or handy enough with a cheese board to be what you’d consider a “host.” But being a host isn’t about keeping everything in place or staggering the hors d’oeuvres. It’s about welcome, and sometimes welcome works best when you’re willing to lead with the chaos…”
The Last Days on Speakeasy Street — Kate Watson, Breaking Ground — “As I sit here still, I can feel its wind, as I wonder about the things that will make my kids comfortable, knowing they are not the same as the things that will make them good.”
Scandalized Reading — Jessica Hooten Wilson, Fathom — “We convince ourselves that we do not have time for War and Peace or The Odyssey. We do less than fiddle while Rome burns; we sit glazed-eyed watching images of unexamined lives stream by on Instagram while the church crumbles. As Ray Bradbury says, ‘There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.’”
How To Ask Better Questions — Josh Spector, Medium — Loved these so much I put them in a google doc & printed them off on some good paper. I love a good hard-copy of things worth remembering & referencing.
Gardening in Quantity — Matt Miller, A Habitation — “If you can bring yourself to accept what the garden gives you, whatever its quantity, pleasure will follow close behind. Even if what also follows is a mere mouthful of strawberries, or a sweaty month over the pressure canner.”
The Importance of Looking out the Window — The School of Life — “…we needed periods of purpose-free calm. Staring out the window offers such an opportunity.
We see the world going on: a patch of weeds is holding its own against the wind; a grey tower block looms through the drizzle. But we don’t need to respond; we have no overarching intentions, and so the more tentative parts of ourselves have a chance to be heard, like the sound of church bells in the city once the traffic has died down at night.”
to read: books
The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah — audio — I was enthralled by her novel, The Great Alone (even more-so than her most popular one, The Nightingale). This one was another fantastically-told story, and I loved the author interview at the end of the audiobook.
to watch
allll the YouTube videos on Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul
to listen: music
Surf — Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment
to listen: audio
The Rise & Fall of Mars Hill: Who Killed Mars Hill? (Episode 1) — Mike Cosper — Admittedly, I was big into Mars Hill & Mark Driscoll for a while. This podcast is so, so well done. Thankful for this series venturing out to bring new perspectives, truth and clarity.
Here’s the Overcast link. According to Mike, there will end up being about 12 episodes total.
to cook
Quinoa Salad — I made it again. It’s a perfect, easy dish for hot weather.
Peach Crisp — This one is great because you can use frozen peaches (and in my case, peaches AND mangos because you work with what ya got). It also calls for pecans, which were a delicious touch. (I added way more than it called for.)
to celebrate
Friends of ours here on Long Island are moving away this upcoming week (hi Yamil and Gittel). We had an early birthday celebration for their girls’ summer birthdays. There are few things better than watching a gaggle of tiny people play in the water, make a bunch of noise, & eat snacks together.
My old roommate/our friend back in Missouri also had a birthday (hi Sarah)!
You could say the combination of remembering friends we moved away from — and anticipating others moving away from us — had me a bit tender.
to remember, reflect
A Year Ago...
Got film photos back from a beach trip.
This Week...
Picnic dinner at the beach (Ezra as Skinny Pete). Outside birthday party for our tiniest friends. Ezra’s third week in a row at the church nursery, which wasn’t terrible. Good things happening with our church’s food pantry plans. A new favorite park, with shade. Gyros in the parking lot of the local Greek Orthodox Church (with dancing music). Cold treats and sweat. The highlight was Jakob spotting & obtaining a pirate ship on the side of the road. I cleaned it up and assembled. One man’s literal trash is our toddler’s absolute treasure. (Who knew these things could be so expensive? Or that ratchet straps would be so handy?)
A couple encouraging & noteworthy items for those making things with words (professionally or otherwise).
The latest SLANT newsletter.
Hannah Anderson’s thread of thoughts, below (whose latest book I’m currently reading.)
A piece from Haley Stewart I’ve shared before, on Madeleine L'Engle’s work & motherhood.
“Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands…”
1 Thessalonians 4:9-11