Weekend Daybook [September, 4]
It's a weird season of life, and I've been spanning the full spectrum of emotion that accompanies it. I spent some time looking back through my blog archives of the last ten Septembers, and discovered that September often feels that way to me. It's always a transitional month, I guess. I seem to always be asking big questions about who I am and what I'm supposed to be doing with my life in September (see some examples below). How about you? Have you noticed a seasonal rhythm to your Big Life Questions? I'd love to hear about it.
While you're at it, please let me know what you've been reading, making, doing, listening and enjoying this week. I love the ideas you share here! (and if we happen to see each other in real life this week, by all means I want to talk about it all with you!
| a little song |
Facebook kindly reminded me that five years ago this week one of my favorite garage bands released their second and final album. I still love listening to it, and admit that I cry when I hear this lyric: "Lo, and behold, I never thought I'd be afraid to get old.... / We've aged and it shows. Just remember the places we go."
| a good poem & a fine picture |
MAN WITH SUNFLOWER by Frans Claerhout (Belgian/South African, 1919–2006) SOURCE
Sunflower
BY FRANK STEELE
You’re expected to see
only the top, where sky
scrambles bloom, and not
the spindly leg, hairy, fending off
tall, green darkness beneath.
Like every flower, she has a little
theory, and what she thinks
is up. I imagine the long
climb out of the dark
beyond morning glories, day lilies, four o’clocks
up there to the dream she keeps
lifting, where it’s noon all day.
(source)
Catching the sun with Frans Claerhout via Art & Theology (a lovely, lovely post!)
| something to make or do |
Ideas for your September garden via Houzz
Northeast Gardener's September Checklist via Houzz
Watch Our Heart Within Us (short documentary) from The Perennial Plate
| a few good stories |
Remember, friends: Only you can prevent small talk! Hopefully, I've given you a few things to contemplate and share in your conversations this week. If all else fails, here's a great question to ask everyone you meet.
You have 15 minutes to address the whole world live (on television or radio — choose your format). What would you say?
p.s., I LOVED the stories you all shared on my facebook page from last week's question. Click here to read (and while you're there, I'd be delighted for you to "like" the page!)
a simple breakfast for new friends
| consider a few reasonable words |
September Equinox Celebration | A completely geeked-out way to celebrate the astronomical start of fall in the Northern Hemisphere - a recorded live stream of the equinox as well as Connecticut scientists balancing chicken eggs and more! via Old Farmer's Almanac
An Infrastructure Crisis? | If you're interested in a political article that's actually about an issue, may I recommend one like this? "This campaign season, we have heard both frontrunner presidential candidates claim they want to increase infrastructure spending in America. Hillary Clinton said: 'We are going to have an investment in infrastructure—our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our ports, our airports.' Donald Trump said: 'I would say at least double her numbers, and you’re really going to need more than that.' At Strong Towns, we have a very different perspective." via Strong Towns blog
5 Travel Pillows, In Order of Increasing Ridiculousness | Actually, the more ridiculous, the more they made sense to me. I'm putting them all on my Christmas list! via Apartment Therapy
Podcast episode I can't stop thinking about this week:
from the archives: September seems to be a reflective month for me.
Waiting for our next step (2015) | A few thoughts about some of the great books I read this summer - including titles by Kathleen Norris, Christopher Smith, Walter Brueggemann, Patrick Taylor & J. D. Vance. What are YOU reading right now?
Anybody Want to Read Stories About Staying Married (I'm asking for a friend...) (2015) | This means it's been one year since so many of you kindly answered my questions: If you were to read some stories about married love on a blog, what sort of stories would you hope to hear? Would you even want stories? (Maybe you'd prefer a list of tips and techniques? Lord help us...)
The time we got macaroni & cheese as a wedding gift (2013) | I loved stumbling on this post in the archives because I was just thinking about it the other day. Since moving to Connecticut, we have had meal after gracious meal prepared for us with the sort of hospitality that makes you almost speechless with gratitude. Yet, the other day, receiving a delicious grass-fed steak I flashed back to that one of the most generous meals ever prepared for me. I don't ever want to forget it.
I also think it's kind of hilarious that both the Republican and Democratic candidates of this year's election showed up in two previous, non-political September posts.
Parenting Unrehearsed: It does take a village (2012) | This post from the parenting series I wrote back in 2012 is especially timely during back-to-school season. It's one of the most transparent posts I've ever shared, and requires me to pray intentionally against pride, shame and fear. The words tell the essence of our family's redemption story, authored by a most-gracious and ever-loving God. I can not be afraid.
Pumpkin chip cookies on the first day of school (2010) | It gives me a sort of juvenile delight that the only time I've named he-who-shall-not-be-named in this space in a post about cookie recipes!
Around the corner from our house last week.
**The Amazon links in this post are affiliate links. After blogging about books for ten years, I thought it might be OK to get a little help financing my reading habit. Thank you! **