Life Lately

in only a few small acts

Life, the unexpected

Justin and I discussed a week or two ago that this year has been full of unusual things: things that are normal but that aren’t part of our regular routine. These unusual things have (mostly!) been good but they have taken extra time and it feels as though time has accelerated. We are somehow halfway through March and my rhythms feel unsettled. I have been looking for my anchors. Perhaps you are too?

Life in reading

February was a slower reading month, which is a hint that either what’s in me or what’s around me has been a little more chaotic. I DNF-ed Olive Kitteridge.¹ I did not like Olive. I didn’t like the short story format. I also HATED that the author kept referring to every woman over the age of 25 as “thickening around the middle.” Maybe we just get to age and that’s fine? It left me grumpy.

I tried multiple times to write a small review of Womanist Midrash and I just can’t do it. It feels too detailed to do it justice; I think I would have to read the whole thing again. She tackles uncomfortable passages with a bluntness that scares most of us. She asks a lot of questions that don’t have answers. And while I didn’t always agree with her conclusions (you should see my marginalia), I am better for having read it.

I also finished The Book of Amos by M. Daniel Carroll R. I’ve been reading this giant commentary for months for the Amos study and I was glad to wrap it up. Scholarship is such a gift.

My next Octavia Butler book was Pattern Master, one of the Patternist series. It seems that you can read this series in different (any?) order and I’m curious about that. The premise of the series is intriguing and also reminded me of her book Fledging. The setting was different, but so many parts of the design mirrored Fledging.

While I didn’t get to go to book club in February, I read Anxious People by Fredrik Backman and I loved it so very much. I was sad to miss the discussion. Every character in the story was seen in such a beautiful way and had such a snarky tone. I even took a picture of one page and texted it to friends because it was so funny.

Life in travel

Perhaps most unusually for us, I went on two trips back to back. Unexpected, I ended up attending the Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy Conference with some women in our Wesleyan district.² It was in February and in Minneapolis, which is unexplainable to me, but I had a wonderful time. The women were astounding. I attended a workshop on teaching adults where I took a ton of notes and promptly used them. And I dragged everyone else to an art museum where I saw a mummy. A MUMMY. I was beyond excited. I do love an art museum and a mummy was icing on that metaphorical cake.

Then the next week, I flew to Orlando with my 13 year old for a few days at Universal.³ I love Universal and was so excited to share it with him. We got to visit the new park which wasn’t open when I was there before and it was incredible. I personally would just take a chair and sit in Diagon Alley. To pass the time in lines, we played chopsticks with our fingers, the game where you sit your hands on top of someone else’s and they try to slap your hands, and paper, rock, scissors. We went early entrance to being in line for a ride as the park was closing the last two days we were there and then it had the nerve to be time change and we dragged ourselves through the airport to come home. 10/10

I’ll confess I’ve been slightly sad to not be there ever since.

Life at church

This past Sunday, I had the absolute joy of preaching to close out the book of Micah in our series on The Book of the Twelve (aka, the Minor Prophets). While I always hit a point in preparation where I think “this is stupid. I’m stupid. Who asked me to do this? Why did I agree?” once I get up to preach, I always have a good time.

Life in community

I’ve been subbing on and off at the local elementary school that my boys attend for a few years. Lately, they’ve been shorthanded so I’ve been there more. Some of it is boring, to be honest. But mostly? It’s a gift to be able to support the people who do so much for our community.

How has life been for you? What have you been reading and experiencing?

1. Convince me to change my mind if you loved it. I still have the book.

2. Have I actually mentioned we’ve been attending a Wesleyan church? Maybe not.

3. The plan is that I will take each one of the boys sometime in the year when they turn 13.