Ordinary Delights: Wonder, 80's synth, & the book I didn't write
Plus an Ordinary Time playlist, Just Beautiful Links, and a READER POLL!
We’re in Ordinary Time. No string of high holy days to get us to add an extra spoon of sugar in our coffee or sprinkles on our yoghurt. No Christmas music or twinkling lights enchanting our living rooms. Just the winter solstice. Long, cold nights. School. Being sick from school. Answering emails. Fighting with the electric bill.
But I will tell you this. My children ran a race at school, their first time running in public. The preschoolers ran in a pack around the school building, with hordes of over-enthusiastic grownups drinking coffee out of paper cups cheering them on, pop music blaring from the PA system. So much hype and pomp for these poor five year-olds. We put on the theme song to Chariots of Fire as we drove to school for the race. We told the boys it was from a movie about a famous runner.
(Above, a terrible picture of the race because of the sun, but also because of child protection laws😊 Did I mention it was sunny?)
I mean, Chariots of Fire. It’s a joke. You don’t get more cliché than that. It’s like the definition of cliché:
Chariots of Fire.
Slow motion.
School running events.
The entire 80s. You can’t take it seriously. We were just turning it on to have a little laugh between us grownups. But then, an interesting thing happened.
“Wow. Play it again, Mom”.
It was a gloriously frosty morning, the sun tinging the golden hills a dusty pink. The grungy eighty’s synth was shaking our chests, the sweeping piano soaring above like the bright blue winter sky.
I mean, it won best original score for a reason. It is hard to imagine a world without Chariots of Fire.
And when you’re six, and on your way to run your first school race, there are no memes. There is no cultural commentary, no layers upon layers of references, no need to climb onto a stand of intellectualism and prove We’re Not Basic. We’ve Arrived. We can joke about Chariots of Fire.
When you’re six, there is just that staticky thrumming base thumping along making your feet want to run into the sunrise.
Encountering Beauty, or anything sacred, for that matter, isn’t easy. It’s too bright. Too big. Much easier to knock it down to the ordinary with a joke or two. Take the power back in hand. But when we diminish awe, when we become jaded adults in our encounters with the world, life just becomes a litany of to-do lists, twitter snark, news-induced anxiety, and traffic. Really, the worst bits of ordinary time. To be open to meaning and connection and beauty, we have to be willing to be bowled over.
As C.S. Lewis says, “To love at all it is to be vulnerable.”
Perhaps the best Christians among us are a little bit silly. A little bit basic. A little bit more open to ordinary wonder.
Friends, I always want anyone, ever, anywhere in the world to read this newsletter! But, after this month, the portion below will be behind a paywall. You can upgrade to become a paid subscriber to access my more personal news and Just Beautiful Links, OR, shoot me an email and I’ll give you a free subscription. For real. No questions asked. Just reply to this email. If you’re already a paid subscriber, nothing will change :)
Book news
So, back when I started this newsletter, I was researching and pitching a book on the topic of mother-writers from history. Some of you have travelled with me on this topic for quite a while! I’m here to tell you, if you’re still fascinated by that topic, there’s a whole book on it! It’s very good! And, spoiler, it wasn’t written by me. It is The Baby on the Fire-escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem by Julie Phillips. It’s a very strange feeling to read a book that was pitched at the same time I was pitching my book, about the exact same topic. I know every writer is different, and my book would not have been this exact one, the field is big enough for many voices, we are all unique blah blah blah. But, honestly, it’s pretty dang close enough. Well, maybe my book would have been more like a baby between this book and this book (also just published!)
On the one hand, I do feel a little sad. It’s kind of like watching a play you tried out for but didn’t get a part in. But on the other hand, I feel a bit of relief. The person they chose is very good😂 Also, when I pitched this book, I was hoping the feedback would either be, “Yes! We want this manuscript!” or “Sorry, you need to work on your idea,” / “Sorry, you need to improve your writing,” / “Sorry, the timing just isn’t right for us.” Instead, the feedback I got was, “Great idea, timely topic, good writing…. you need a platform to publish this book. Come back when you have 10k followers.” Thank you, faithful friends for being some of those readers! At the time, I was frustrated because I felt like this topic was one that was glaringly obvious and needed a book! I was frustrated because I had just left a mostly full-time job marketing and didn’t want to spend my life building a platform for two years around the topic of mother-writers, only to be sick of mother-writers by the time I had to sit down and write the book. I was fascinated by the topic, but I also knew this wasn’t my “book I must write or I will die, even if no one reads it.” (Um, that whole concept, which people say to emerging writers all the time, seems pretty exclusive to me. What mother has enough time to write something no one else is going to read?! Unless it’s a PhD. But, anyway). The point is - mother-writers from history, the intersection of care-giving, creating, patriarchy, capitalism, and why hasn’t anything changed in 60 years… if you’re interested, read The Baby on the Fire Escape.
In the mean time, I’m pretty glad for my mental health that I didn’t spend two years on instagram, that I get to write this lovely monthly newsletter with all of you, and that actually, I have two books coming out in 2024! If I hadn’t gone through the pitching process for my first book, I am not sure I would have had the confidence or momentum to pitch different things and ended up with the chance to write a picture book and a book about Little Women, so… yeah. I think I came out on top here. And if you’re a writer on the publishing journey- have hope. Creativity is a winding road. Nothing is wasted.
Just beautiful Links
🎵 Here is my Ordinary Time playlist. It has some new-to-me Southern African worship artists, some contemplative tunes about the passing of time, ordinary work, and some joyful worship. I’m also listening to the Rabbit Room’s Autumn playlist.
♥ We are sponsoring a kid to go to iThemba Kids Camp as a family. This camp lets kids in the community of Sweetwaters, South Africa have 3 days of being mentored, loved, and just having fun. Sponsoring a camper is such a great way to connect our kids to the idea of sharing and helping others. I used to work for iThemba and can vouch their camps are amazing, and their long-term community development work is even better. We watched this camp video, and my four year old can’t wait to see the picture of the camper we have sponsored, and hopes that our camper gets to dump mud on his leader just like the video. Camp has started this year, but you can still give generally towards camp at iThemba’s USA partner here! And follow iThemba on Instagram to find out when to sponsor a camper next year.
An ordinary time reel from last year: my window prism.
Speaking of ordinary wonder, I fell deep into the Extraordinary Attorney Woo TV show on Netflix. If you know me in real life, you have probably heard me mention this show. It was just SO DELIGHTFUL. It took me about two episodes to really get into it, but then I was hooked. I loved learning more about Korean culture (up until this point, it’s pretty much just been the K-pop song Light it Up Like Dynamite , I’m sad to say). I will also say, this was much better with subtitles than with the Netflix English audio.
We have gotten into a sweet “Ordinary time” morning routine. After all of the Christmas focused, then Lent focused, then Easter focused family devotions, it has been fun to start our mornings with a reading from this captivating nature book, and this short and sweet kids devotional (with great artwork).
Friends, Plough’s latest issue was on the topic of money. If anything says just+beautiful it is this issue. (Eh, maybe the hospitality one takes a close second). It was extremely challenging learning about these two early Christians who disposed of their wealth to serve the church and live with the poor. What is more crazy is that it was normal. That’s what following Jesus meant.
I loved this article about Urban Design, and how we actually can’t make good judgement calls on use of space until we feel what that space will be like. I feel this way about my living room arrangement. Kind of cool to see towns adopt temporary measures to get a community to buy into a change before it is permanent.
📖 I have been doing lots of read-alouds to the kids this month with all of our sickness. But I’ve managed to read Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children by Angela Hanscom, and now I want to pull my kids out of school and go climb trees (although, actually, the kid’s preschool has jungle gym equipment that would not pass code in the USA, and they don’t wear shoes, so… we’re probably doing pretty fine).
Thanks friends! And, since the links are going behind a paywall (but you can still see them for FREE if you email me!) - would you like to see more of anything? Or is this mix just fine?
— Until next month! Steph