5 Quick Things #192 🎓

Clouds, light in the dark, movie nights, and a cute puppy

May 21

Hello friends,

My brain is mush as I type this — I’m misspelling easy words (I even just misspelled ‘easy’ the first time I wrote it), I’m on my second cup of coffee before 8 am, and my leg muscles refuse to move under these covers because YES, I’m writing this from bed. I know you’re not “supposed to,” but yesterday was officially the last day of school for me and you know what that means? TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER BREAK. 🍾🍹🧉🥂 I’m writing from bed.

I still have a few short stories to grade to wrap up the year and then I’m up to my eyeballs in editing my own book manuscript, and then you better believe I’m going to float on a body of water and think NO DEEP THOUGHTS for an entire afternoon.

Phew. How are you?

Healthcare workers walk through a field to vaccinate villagers in Kars, Turkey. #

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! Routines are going to the grocery store on Tuesday mornings and brushing your teeth twice a day. What, then, are rituals? Seth and I unpack how they’re different and why they matter, both the big and small. Graduations are necessary, yes, but so are Friday pizza-and-movie nights and praying along those beads.
2. The woman (a “media nun”) featured in this piece is one of my favorite personal Twitter follows. “It’s actually in facing the darkest realities of life that we find light in them.”
3. The light, the composition, the music, the subject matter… This is truly both breathtaking and calming.
4. A few years ago I left Israel and the West Bank with more questions than answers about the nuance required to understand the deep history, conflict, and seemingly-eternal tension there. As the recent news breaks my heart for ALL its inhabitants, this piece from a few years ago speaks into the necessary little things that reflect humanity’s needed compassion (etymologically, “to suffer with”).
5. And finally… I’m not going through night wakings, potty training, or desperation for some adult time away from littles — I’m going through the grit and grace-growing rite of raising teens. It won’t always be like this, just like quarantine, spring’s cool evenings, or complicated pregnancies. Perhaps you need this reminder, too.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green

Quotable 💬

“The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.”

― Plato #

From the Community 🏡

If you’re a paying member of The Commonplace, go vote for our summer book club read! Each of the five selections transports us somewhere interesting, are easy to read, and are purported to make us smile.

There’s currently a clear frontrunner but it’s still close! I’ll announce the winner next Friday and we’ll read in June, ending with a laid-back live book club chat.