5 Quick Things #182 🎒
5 Quick Things #182 🎒
Learning a language, a pile of paper, Instagram religions, & the given life
Hey there,
Not only does this week mark the one-year anniversary of calling this whole thing [*gestures broadly*] a pandemic by the WHO, but it was also our family’s last week of school before our Spring Break. How is it already time for that? I’m more than eager for a teaching break, don’t get me wrong, but it really is wild we’re in the last part of this school year. Already.
I know I’m not alone in feeling hopeful that we’re (maybe?) seeing a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. I’m grateful to have gotten a vaccine this week, thanks to expanding the list to educators, and I’m glad that our small central Texas town continues to mandate mask restrictions. Let’s see this thing to the end, y’all. We’re all tired, but let’s love each other well and hold on for the collective common good.
A lamb in Slovakia. Signs of spring are all over the place. #
5 Quick Things ☕️
1. Today on the pod Seth and I use the art of writing as a springboard to talk about the art of doing all sorts of creativity just for the sake of doing it, for the love of its beauty. Every one of us needs it.
2. How anxiety hides in our habits — good thoughts about unpacking the why behind our anxiety before trying all the usual remedies.
3. I’ve been wanting to learn an additional language for years… these are helpful musings about how to learn a language so it actually sticks.
4. I've been contemplating this piece on the empty religions of Instagram... “There is a chasm between the vast scope of our needs and what influencers can provide. We’re looking for guidance in the wrong places. Instead of helping us to engage with our most important questions, our screens might be distracting us from them. Maybe we actually need to go to something like church?”
5. And finally, I loved this random, sweet story about a German tourist in the 70s who thought Bangor, Maine was San Francisco.
Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 🎧
The Daily Poem podcast (it’s the thing I mention in this week’s episode)
Quotable 💬
“We live the given life, not the planned.”
― Wendell Berry #
From the Community 🏠
In homage to the one-year mark of the pandemic, this week I asked what memory stands out from the past 12 months. …So many great thoughts, including those in healthcare. But this one really stood out to me:
Elsewhere📍
Have a good weekend!
xo, Tsh
p.s. After this week, this made me smile.
This article on language learning is fabulous, thanks for sharing!
We move to a new country every 2-3 years, so I find myself about to work on a new language again this summer. I know I’m getting better at figuring out how to do it, and the advice here was along the same lines I’d been thinking for this go around - but more fleshed out.
I love that you included that NYT editorial in your list. I’ve been thinking about that too, alongside a piece from Anne Helen Petersen “The Anti-church of Glennon Doyle”. In some respects the two writers seem to disagree, but there are connected threads. One common thread is that many of us our aching for the in-person community that has been known through church, but many had abandoned. Perhaps as we emerge from the pandemic, those types of gatherings will be central in our lives again.