5 Quick Things #313 ✨

Epiphany, culling books, ordinary encouragement, & sinking

Hey there,

Happy New Year! I’m starting 2024 with a bang by being sick. Such is life; it was inevitable, what with every conceivable germ seemingly swarming all of us around the world right now. I’m grateful that I can write you this from a cozy bed overlooking my empty garden beds, hopeful for what this time of year brings. There’s something about possibilities that reminds us of the virtue of hope: garden beds waiting for early spring, blank schedules eager for our plans, gym shoes ready in our closets.

The vice of despair is not allowed in the soul who presses on in virtue—don’t beat yourself up if you don’t yet live up to your expectations. That’s normal; in fact, that’s how it should be. As I’ve said in my newly-updated version of Create Your Rule of Life, a ruler (whose etymology, regula, is the same as “rule”) draws a straight line and shows us what a straight line should be. That’s what makes it good. The rules of our lives should be straight and narrow—if they weren’t, what would we have to know where to aim our longed-for, straight-and-narrow arrows? Pressing onward toward virtue is our lifelong pursuit. Don’t despise the little things; it’s in our ordinary choices where habits are made.

In the meantime, I’m taking this illness as an invitation to rest up for what’s ahead. I hope you’re hopeful for the new year! 🙌

Village Street in Winter (1865), by Gustave Courbet

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Seeing as today is the last day of Christmastide, I thought

Sara Dietz

‘s words about holding on to holidays and traditions was appropriate: “We absolutely don’t have to carry on every single tradition we were given, every single tradition we married into, every single tradition we saw on Instagram or Pinterest… We can choose one or two things that speak to our hearts, that really help us to enter into the spirit of the season, no matter what crosses we’re carrying. And then we can learn to see through them to the deeper realities that are being conveyed. We can teach our children to do the same. We can choose to put these things into practice even if we don’t always feel like it. Because the holidays exist for us; we don’t exist for the holidays.”

2. This is a lovely observation in time for Epiphany (tomorrow!), one I hadn’t quite thought of before: “So, I now begin to think, the great Feast of the Epiphany celebrates the arrival of the audience. It is not until the guests appear that we have the crowning moment of the Christmas story. ...It is our arrival onto the scene that makes the drama of redemption capable of redeeming.”

3. Are you in a January decluttering mood?

Joel J Miller

gives eight good tips on how to cull a personal library. It’s really tough, but alas, one does not usually have infinite shelf space.

4. In simply describing it, this sounds boring—a quiet video of a mom of eight children living an ordinary day in her life—but in reality, it is delightfully enriching. If you need a balm to your day, pour a cup of something warm and watch Lisa Bass go about her day while you go about yours.

5. And finally, need a hit of encouragement? Fr. Mike Schmitz never fails to deliver in that arena—here he is just yesterday, live at the annual SEEK conference.

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

Pope Peter, by Joe Heschmeyer

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Quotable 💬

“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive—it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it?”

-L.M. Montgomery

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For New Year’s Eve, do you typically go out or stay in? 🥂

I’m not surprised by these results in the least. There’s this strange assumption that it’s somehow standard fare to go out and partake in elaborate parties or other such revelry to ring in the new year, usually pushed by entertainment narratives found in TV shows and movies (or simply by watching the ball drop in Times Square). But really, the vast majority of us just …stay in our living rooms (or even head to our beds) to count down to the new year. And I’m a-okay with that.

• Stay In 93.5%

• Go Out 6.5%

Find this week’s poll here.

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Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📔 Order First Light & Eventide

• 🇬🇷 Join Me in Greece: June 20-30, 2024

Prosilio, by Pantelis Zografos #

There are only a few spots left on our summer 2024 Greece pilgrimage, and it’s shaping up to be an epic adventure (see what I did there?). I’d love to have you join us—claim some of the last few seats:

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If you wish you were the New Year’s Resolution-keeping type, it may be that you simply haven’t yet taken the time to think through what you really, truly value in life. Writing your own unique-to-you Rule of Life may be just the ticket. Here’s what I do, and what you can do, too:

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

Twelve months from now, what will I be glad I did today?

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Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. An oldie but a goodie.