Hello!

How was your week? Along with my turning 44, we finally started school which means I also dusted off my teaching hat. Two days a week I’m around teens, and I genuinely love it. This year I’m teaching British literature, which is my absolute favorite (I wish this could somehow be a class field trip), so my next nine months will be filled with Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Shelley, Lewis, and other familiar friends.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. 👉 New episode of A Drink With a Friend! 👈 There’s a purity to our childhood perspectives, and if we’re quiet enough, we can still hear them whisper to us. Seth helps me unpack a process he’s recently experienced as he listened to his nine-year-old self. Loved this chat.

2. Speaking of Seth, I nodded along as I read this recent piece of his because it’s so similar to my own story: “We’re struggling to answer this question: Why did we do this whole church-thing in the first place? It’s a question not born of cynicism... Instead, it’s a practical question, one born from the recognition that life was a little more relaxed without the religious gathering.”

3. I really like this foundational list.

4. One way I’ve been getting some short, thrice-weekly news updates: The Pour Over. Yes, it’s a faith-based curated newsletter and podcast, but not like that, I promise (so far, anyway). In the time I’ve subscribed (roughly a year), they’ve lived up to their tagline of “not conservative, not liberal, just Christian.” Might be up your alley, too.

5. And finally… This farmer’s unconventional “sheep art” is mesmerizing.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

• Humility Rules: St. Benedict’s 12-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem, by J. Augustine Wetta

Quotable 💬

“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”

— Madeline L’Engle #

Inside The Commonplace 🏡

This week, in honor of my 44 revolutions around the sun, I shared 44 things currently on my mind:

34. Speaking again of mood lifters, I’m here for this.

35. This is quite possibly the first summer in my adulthood that I didn’t try to will away the summer heat with mental mind games, and instead simply let it be — and I found beauty in it, even in its scorched-earth state. It made the heat so much more palatable.

36. That said… bring it on, fall. I’m ready for you. I miss my daily walks.

If you’re a subscriber, head here to read the rest. (And thank you for your support!)

Subscribe to The Commonplace

Elsewhere 📍

Tsh Oxenreider ☕️ @tsh

It's my birthday today! Would love to see your pics of animals: pets of all kinds, the bird in your tree, the crab you saw on the beach this summer, a meerkat at the zoo. 🥳

2:00 PM ∙ Aug 26, 2021

This thread is delightful! Click through for the animal gallery. 👆

Question For You to Ponder… 🤔

One month from now, what you will you wish you had spent time on today?

Have a good weekend!

xo, Tsh

p.s. I already shared this in my 44 things list, but seriously… this is such a delight.