5 Quick Things #273 🎒

gardens, pilgrimages, dopamine, & the humanities

Mar 03, 2023

Hello!

I’m writing this late Thursday evening with an eye on an early Friday morning, so my hello to you will be quick… We’ve got one week left until Spring Break, which hardly seems possible (wasn’t it just the holiday break?), but I’ll happily take it. I’m listening to the thunder roll and the peals of lightning are giving just enough seconds of visual on the backyard garden to make me giddy to see how the seeds fare through the night. Pollen is covering our front yard and the humidity around here is sky-high… Yep, spring has sprung in these parts.

I hope you’re well — truly.

*Adolphe Monet Reading in the Garden*, by Claude Monet (1866)

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. 📻 Bonus episode of A Drink With a Friend! 📻 I’ve got a quick additional episode for you this week — I’m chatting with my friend Bond Strong, who went on my pilgrimage to Italy last summer. We talk about why travel makes us love our home even more, how our love for travel only grew once we became parents, what we loved most about our time in Italy, and why YOU should go on my 2023 pilgrimage to Ireland. Really.
2. As an English major, this piece by Joel Miller does my heart good — it’s only when we think of education as merely utilitarian when student population numbers drop in the humanities.
3. If you’re still searching for a Lenten fast, consider perhaps a fast from dopamine? Sounds strange, but this makes sense — supposedly working out, cold showers, and other unpleasant activities that press on the pain can actually increase pleasure.
4. As the self-appointed backyard gardening hobbyist around here (who also deals with depression), I can one-hundred percent believe this: “My generation is riddled with anxiety and disconnected from nature. We’re addicted to screens, addicted to junk food, and deficient in both nutrients and the connection to stabilizing community that feeds our souls. I started gardening to increase food security, but the most valuable thing I got from it wasn’t the harvest I put on our plates.”
5. And finally, if you haven’t listened to a lute this week, well then, here you go. Bonkers talented.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

The Awakening of Miss Prim, by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

Quotable 💬

“You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving.”

— St. Francis de Sales #

The Classic Learning Test 🏛

You know I hardly take any sponsors for this newsletter — so when I do, it's because I truly, legit believe in them. The Classic Learning Test is a game-changer in the world of education, in my opinion as both an English teacher and a mom of a high school senior.

As I mentioned in this recent chat, my daughter weirdly enjoyed taking the CLT several times as her preferential placement test (to then get into her first-choice college, which still blows my mind 🤯). Over 200 colleges now accept the CLT as an entrance exam and that number is steadily growing.

The CLT is offering all my newsletter readers 25% off any test registration with the code COMMONPLACE. They currently provide placement exams and assessments for grades 7 and up (with grades 3-6 coming soon!). Truly — the folks at CLT are doing really amazing work. …I never thought I'd say that about a standardized exam company.

Learn More About the CLT

Do You “Do” Lent? ➕

I love your honesty. I’ll admit that while I’m typically in the enthusiastic category, I think this year I find myself more in company with you halfhearted folks. That’s okay. God’s still talking to me this season.