Welcome to the Just Beautiful Newsletter where I write about making space for beauty and justice to meet, share about tinyhouse living, and give you too many links. Right now, I’m focusing on making space for creativity in the midst of motherhood. If a friend forwarded you this email, hit subscribe to get the newsletter each month.
As an evangelical kid in non-denominational Bible churches, we didn’t really do much about Ash Wednesday or Lent. Easter was where it was at. It wasn’t until I became a parent and was craving some kind of embodied way to invite my kids into the whole creation-fall-redemption story of God that I was like, “Oh! Liturgical traditions! They’ve all been doing this since, well, forever!” A little late to the party, but I’m here now. Whatever your faith tradition, I hope some of these links can spark your mind and heart as you think about making space for beauty and justice to meet in the weeks before Easter. —Steph
Something for you:
A weekly poem in your inbox? Sign up here. I love having someone else hunting through poetry volumes for me, so I can just open up some timely, beautiful words. Poetry slows us down, a great practice during Lent.
A long-form article on growing deep, not wide, from artist Joy Ike. This comment, especially, made me think about making space for beauty+ justice this Lenten season. “Something was off. I was hoarding happiness and it didn’t feel . . . happy. I felt bloated, that kind of “Thanksgiving full” where you overeat and it’s just not fun anymore. There was a dissonance growing, and it was becoming bolder and bigger.”
Art for the wilderness: You’ve seen me recommend this Museum PhD candidate, writer, and toddler mom before. But a 7-week email series helping us to ground ourselves in the present, while looking at some amazing artwork - how’s that for justice+beauty?
The time we were locavores for Lent back in 2018. It’s amazing to see how much that season affected us long-term. We eat way more local produce now than we did this time 4 years ago. Have any of you picked up a Lent practice which really shifted your habits long-term? “Kingsolver says in her book, “the conspicuous consumption of limited resources has yet to be accepted widely as a spiritual error, or even bad manners”. So we thought locavoring would limit our choices, make us more aware of where our food comes from, and we hoped that the discomfort of not being able to get exactly what we want when we want it would help us think about how these same consumeristic tendencies we have play out in other areas in our lives.”
Two books I wish could make it through our postal service in time- Bitter and Sweet and The Book of Waking Up. (I just finished Coming Clean and it was also a really good kind of a book for Lent).
Something for your kids:
I made myself some Lent flashcards for my kids last year since I couldn’t find any I liked. I’m sharing this download with you for $6.50 or literally pay what you can!
If you want more info on what they look like, you can look at my Instagram stories from last year.
“I would definitely recommend the Lent Devotionals. They gave me kid-appropriate Bible sections to go over with my toddlers and simple questions that cultivated purposeful discussions. I loved the stories and questions that pointed directly to characteristics of God rather than behaviors we ought to be doing. My son is prone to being a major rule-follower and I want him to grasp who God is before he jumps into doing the rules for God.”
—Courtney, Chicago IL (kids age 5yrs, 2yrs, 1yr)
Alissa at Little Way Chapel always has great family resources, including a family Lent guide, check out her instagram or website.
Thanks for welcoming me into your inboxes! See you at the end of a month with an essay. As always, you can hit “reply” , or publicly comment below — maybe there’s a resource you have found really helpful you want to share?
-Steph