A veritable collection of food for thought on interdependence and being human
Come visit me in real life! Also- lots of links
Welcome to the Just Beautiful Newsletter where I write about making space for beauty and justice to meet, share about our journey from tinyhouse living to a home on 3 acres, and give you too many links. Right now, I’m focusing on making space for creativity in the midst of motherhood and other such chaos. If a friend forwarded you this email, hit subscribe to get the newsletter each month.
Hello good people,
I took last month off of writing the newsletter essay - too much going on that needed attending. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped reading… and I’d love to hear from you in the comments if you have read any of these things and something you’re thinking about lately! I’m working on curating your feedback to a question on motherhood and the limits of creativity, and hope to send that out this month. Although, this month will be an all-out focus on helping to host Windhover’s first event! A mini conference (minimoot!) looking at the intersection of faith, art and community. If you’re local and you like this newsletter — you will LOVE this event. We have speakers sharing on things like Classic Greek myth, beauty and mathematics, creating holy spaces for whole people, cultural exegesis in community, dance and corporate worship, the geography of spiritual formation… and more! We will have permaculture garden tour and chats about cultivating and place-making. We will be showing some work from local visual artists. If you like thinking about embodiment, what it means to be human, and the way the incarnation shapes our view of the material world… (or perhaps if you are an Andrew Peterson fan and went to Hutchmoot last year) this is going to be delightful! I’ll send out a reservation link once the programme is finalized, but reply to this if you want to stay in the loop!
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And now… to the Just Beautiful Links:
“And I think we experience this image, this thumbprint, this holiness, in ourselves, as that deep place from which come our best prayers, our deepest intuitions, our greatest wisdom. And I think that's where true art always comes from. It is that place, it is that holy place, that the great painting, the great music, the great work of literature, that holy place, that deep place that's God's place. And I think that the highest function of the artist is to help put us in touch with that holy place within ourselves. So that like them we too can become listeners, lookers, attention-payers to the miracle of life that we move through and that moves in us.”
-Fredrich Beuchner at the Calvin College Festival for Faith and Writing, 1992, who died and now suddenly I feel I must read everything he ever wrote.
The best lemon drizzle muffins. SO moist and fluffy on the inside, so crispy on the outside.
Being human is about interdependence. This article by Catherine Newman on why she doesn’t just let her kids suck it up when they forget their lunch boxes sums it up well. I, too, am married to a caring human who doesn’t make me feel dumb for forgetting, or messing up, or being tired. And I hope my boys grow up to be the same. (PS: This is one of Leah Libresco Sargent’s main points at Other Feminisims. Our society devalues women and children, in part, because of a misunderstanding of what it means to be human. We are a dehumanizing society when we over-value independence and build our world around a version of manhood that is all about autonomy).
Staring at UK Home and Garden magazine articles like this one of dreamy mansions that are pretending to be cottages.
An article about designing a youth room at a church. This feels like it should be basic. But for some reason… it is not! Especially in evangelical church spaces, it seems. From my experience, for some reason when budget-focused missionaries and church councils are planning spaces, they get hung up on what they call “functionality” as opposed to “extras” which fall in the category of “decoration” (so many air quotes, but can you please picture this with me). But I think this is a complete misunderstanding of the true function of spaces like this. You can’t design a space by running through a programme (We’re going to sing, so we need mics, we’re going to listen to a talk, so we need to sit on something, everything else is fluff). What is the purpose of the gathering? (As Priya Parker would say). Your room is only functional if it is fulfilling its purpose. If the purpose of your youth room is to create a space for youth to connect with each other and ask questions about God, it is possible God can fulfill that function in spite of your physical space. We believe in miracles, hallelujah. But as embodied creatures, your space in a basement with uncomfortable chairs, no heat, poor lighting, and toddler handprints on the wall is actually working against your stated function. Whenever someone says, “At least it’s functional” I want to yell, “BUT IS IT REALLY??” Okay, the end. Where do you see this misunderstanding of “functionality” popping up in your world?
Summer dinner party menus that look super fun.
My weird reading worlds collided with this tweet that Priya Parker shared about Libresco’s experience doing live action role play with a nursing infant, and how the hosts shaped the experience to include her. From Priya, “Loved this example of how #gencon not only “allowed” a parent to bring their kid but wove them deeply into the full experience. They didn’t create a diluted experience for this parent and child, the hosts fundamentally created an expansive experience for all because of the creative way they engaged this tiniest of guests.” (“An expansive experience FOR ALL because of the creative way they engaged this tiniest guest”… sob *cry* YES!! this could be my ideal life motto for community) Also, this is an example of a social media account that is so awesome to follow, in a time where I want to get rid of all social media. Priya uses it to crowdsource and share examples of people putting her principles for creating meaningful gatherings in their real lives.
I made some art, hurrah, which is my favorite type of art to make— art that comes from community and group interactions. Look what we made! (Click the image to see the full caption, even if you don’t have instagram).
Speaking of diverse communities, this was an interesting essay on what kidless or single friends which their parent-friends knew, and what parents wish their kidless/single friends knew. Required reading for anyone with friends. The Christian community is supposed to be built around norms like this - listening to others who are different, not assuming the world revolves around you, bending your preference towards the needs of another because of, well, interdependence.
The work of WellSpring community for mother artists is really taking off! If this describes you, check out their latest interview with Cat Ricketts, and be sure to sign up for a retreat!
BOOKSHELF gets its own list….
Also, I’m not linking to anything because your local library or bookshop is probably better to use than amazon…
To the comments!
I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading, thinking about, or wishing to read — or really any of your latest musings on what it means to be human and create spaces where justice and beauty meet.
Thanks so much for reading with me, friends! - Steph
This list! You are such a good curator!
That Catherine Newman article is lovely. I think the more we treat our children as real people, perhaps the more we can walk that line of balancing consequences and grace. She had a house tour on Cup of Jo recently and I just loved it - I usually hate home tours bc they make me feel like mine is messy, too lived in and there are too many dishes floating around. Hers was so refreshing:
https://cupofjo.com/2022/08/09/catherine-newman-house-tour/amp/