5 Quick Things #203 🎈

earth-handling, sheep art, hobbit trivia, & frog-and-toad fall

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.

The sunrise yesterday over a lighthouse in Brittany, France. #

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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.

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

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

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Quotable 💬

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

— Madeline L’Engle #

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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!)

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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. 🥳

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

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Question For You to Ponder… 🤔

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

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Have a good weekend!

xo, Tsh

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