Candles, Carrots, and Colbert

a getting-through-it grab bag

Happy September! Wow.

Life is both gorgeous and wrenching, isn’t it? Monday found me on a text thread with pastor friends and colleagues, two of whom work very close to the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, and another of whom has a daughter there who was quoted in news stories about the lockdown. Here’s the front page of the campus newspaper on Wednesday:

As horrific as that event was, it wasn’t even the deadliest mass shooting this week. What a horrible set of yardsticks we have to contend with right now. 

Closer to home, our kids’ school started this week, which means a return to stabilizing routines on one level and the introduction of massive complexity (and yes, anxiety) on another. Our college junior drove solo back to school in Atlanta this year, which means one of our cars is currently in Georgia. That’s been a logistical challenge for the Virginians. Needless to say, Caroline is in no hurry for us to come retrieve it. But Robert will probably head down there in the next few weeks, before starting an exciting new job at the end of the month. Meanwhile I’m in the last few weeks of training and prep for the Pemberton 24… while pastoring a congregation that’s gearing up for the fall, which for me includes exercising some youth ministry muscles I haven’t used in, oh, a couple of decades.

Y’all know in times like these, my favorite question is “what’s saving your life right now?” Here’s a grab bag of stuff that’s keeping me going—items both massive and miniscule.

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Books

Sharon Blackie’s If Women Rose Rooted: A Life Changing Journey to Authenticity and Belonging (more Celtic stuff!)

Tricia Hersey’s Rest As Resistance

Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times (when are times ever certain?)

Relatedly: the holds shelf at the library. I love perusing the online catalog on my laptop, clicking some buttons, and having the book appear on a special shelf for me to pick up at my leisure. 

Relatedly again: libraries in general. I love the cool blast of air, the quiet bustle, the book smell, the can-do helpfulness of the staff. One of my kids did some tutoring this summer, and they met at various local libraries. I read this week about a person with some mental/emotional difficulties who got lost and confused. She made it to the local library because she knew libraries were safe spaces. Indeed they are, in multiple senses of the word. (In some places, anyway.)

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Podcasts

Strike Force Five is a new pod benefiting the writers on strike, hosted by five titans of late night: Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver. It’s just as goofy as you’d expect.

Brett Goldstein interviewed Jason Sudeikis in a two-part episode of Films to Be Buried With. They talk Ted Lasso a bit, and it’s a master class in the creative process. 

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Blogs & Newsletters

Here are just a few Substacks that have been good companions lately:

A Micro Moment of Calm

Noticing...Butterflies (and a few other things)

Good Flowers Make Good Neighbors

And Hugh Hollowell’s Life Is So Beautiful is, well, beautiful.

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Iconography

One: A series of mental-health-related signs at Herndon United Methodist Church, where I had a meeting yesterday. ~taking notes for my own congregation

Two: You’ve no doubt seen these:

I’ve often said the world would be better if everyone treated one another as if we were all new drivers. Well, I saw a car yesterday that had scraped off the bottom line of the bumper sticker. A kindred spirit.

And three: just in time for shorter days and cooler temps, aka candle-burning weather. My Ted Lasso candle is all used up, so this is on its way from Etsy:

Blessed be Our Lady of FAFO.

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This and That

—Robert, James (age 15), and I are playing D&D with another family every couple of weeks. I’m a half-orc barbarian, a very unnuanced character that allows me to fly into a rage and go all Hulk-smash on goblins. Quite cathartic. Mainly it’s great to have an excuse for parent and teen to play together. And as often happens, once your awareness is raised of a thing, you start to see it everywhere.

—Carrot recipes to deal with my recent bounty, like these spicy pickled carrots (NYT, no paywall). This weekend: cake?

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Milestone

It’s been one year since the release of Hope: A User’s Manual. The actual anniversary passed me by, but thankfully a friend jogged my memory by sending this:

I’m celebrating today with a writing date with a friend in which I will (deep breath) begin putting together a proposal for book number four. But also, let’s have a book giveaway! Share what’s saving your life lately, whether through an email reply or a comment, to be entered into a drawing for a paper or audio copy of Hope: A User’s Manual. And thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who’s read, reviewed, and recommended this little message in a bottle, flung into the world one year ago.

Steady on.