5 Quick Things #204 ☕️

childhood stories, grayscaling, fake rain, & rickrolling the teacher

Sep 3, 2021

Hi there,

When you splash the sleep from your eyes and pour your second cup of coffee, it’s hard to dive into the day when the news has been heavy for days (weeks? months? years?) on end. This has definitely been one of those weeks — natural disasters, political moves, casualties from both, what feels like infinitely more ad nauseam — and somehow we’re asked to keep on keeping on with our dirty dishes and spreadsheets.

I’m right there with you. To force myself into perspective, here’s what I do — not because I’m chock-full of wisdom but because I know my own human tendency towards melancholy:

I take care of my basics (sleep, food, water, coffee, etc.),
I moderate my news intake, not burying my head in the sand but stopping when I know enough (again, this is my first go-to source),
I avoid social media so as to avoid doomscrolling,
I go outside daily (even when it’s bonkers humid and gross), and
I read something timeless (poetry, an old classic novel, etc.).

Your mileage may vary, but this checklist centers me and keeps the hope lit in me when I’m tempted to despair. I encourage you to find your needed guardrails so you can still be an engaged citizen while having the chutzpah to tackle the laundry pile.

How are you?

Canola fields in front of unusually heavy snowfall in the mountains in South Africa.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. 👉 New episode of A Drink With a Friend! 👈 The books we read in childhood transform us—so what do we do with the classics that are full of virtue yet still have their vices (often products of their era)? Seth and I chat with fellow writer Mitali Perkins, who’s passionate about why what we read in childhood matters (because her own immigrant story was steeped in stories).
2. I’ve started this process with my own phone. So far, the grayscale feels both weird and liberating.
3. Kyle shared with me this conversation, which really narrows down what ultimately became my foundational reason for becoming Catholic (ignore the ‘bro’ style intro… he really is a good guy).
4. I’ve been starting my day with gratitude for a while now — this quick list of helps to make it a habit is a good go-to if you’d like to better cultivate this practice.
5. And finally… Four easy food preservation methods. This fall I want to get better at preserving food so we have less waste, but I’m rather overwhelmed at the thought of the canning learning curve. (Tomato powder? I’m intrigued.)

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

Autumn Rainy Day Ambience as I work — wildly therapeutic

Quotable 💬

“You become like what you worship. When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship.”

— N.T. Wright #

Inside The Commonplace 🏡

This week we did our favorite thing — book chat! As always, you added more to my TBR list:

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

To start off the year for my high school juniors & seniors, I assigned them a horribly written essay: write the worst essay you could imagine (and note which specific writing sins you're committing). My fave might just be the one in Comic Sans with a hidden rickroll link.

Question For You to Ponder… 🤔

If I could dedicate all my energy today to one project, knowing I’d be able to fully complete it, which one would it be?

Have a good weekend!

xo, Tsh

p.s. Ahem.