5 Quick Things #359 🛶

pressure cookers, paragraphs, personal retreats, & primers (on Lent)

Hey there,

Glory hallelujah, it’s Spring Break around here! Eight years of teaching high school (plus 15 years of homeschooling), and this mid-March milestone has become a bellwether for how I’m doing overall. …Do I feel like I’ve just run a marathon and need to collapse for a week-long nap? Or do I feel energized by the beautiful weather and just need a week of outside time to recharge to power through the rest of the school year?

It’s the former for me this year. The combination of starting a co-op (that became much larger than I anticipated!), teaching three separate classes (all of which need a lot of prep work every week), and trying to juggle book-writing and pilgrimage prep while doing all the above has just proven to be …a lot. I know, I know — a giant duh. I’m right there with you. But still… I know my ‘yes’ to this full plate was the correct response, yet I still feel the conviction to say yes to a lot less this next school year.

In the meantime, because of my exhaustion I’m kicking off Spring Break with a personal retreat. At the time you’re reading this, I’m holed up in a little guest house for 24 hours of solo time: prayer, reading, walking, napping, and maybe even a movie or two. Just me and a French press, plus permission to eat from a local taco truck for three square meals, and my prayer for this short getaway is that God speaks to me in a clear voice and says exactly the things I need to hear. It’s happened 100% of the time I’ve done these personal retreats, so I have every confidence it’ll happen again.

Chestnut Trees, Louveciennes, Spring (1870), by Camille Pissarro #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! …And it’s not so much a friend this time (well, kind-of) as it is a DAUGHTER, because I’m chatting with Tate! From an empty classroom with wifi in Austria, she and I chat about studying abroad, living cross-culturally, Theology of the Body, friendships, and other sorts of sundry. She’s currently in a four-way tie as my favorite human.

2. Speaking of Tate — earlier this week I wrote my third letter to her, in case you missed it: “I first got to know your dad in warp-speed time because we were living in Kosovo; it was a pressure cooker season that forced us to bond in ways we didn’t expect because of the intensity of that post-war environment. That’s why we basically knew we’d be getting married within weeks of meeting.”

3. Oh my goodness, YES TO THIS. I really appreciate John Mark Comer’s thoughts, approach to his work, and overall philosophy in life, but I have hesitated for years to recommend his work for these very reasons (God love him). I, too, sing the praises of a long (or at least fully fleshed out) paragraph for all the reasons mentioned, and have intentionally written more in this style for most of this decade on purpose. From

Samuel D. James

: “The paragraph is more than a literary convention. It’s a way of thinking. ...Paragraphs that contain a thesis sentence and then sentences that support, illustrate, or explain the thesis sentence are uniquely germane to the way we humans think.”

4. A few years ago I had a student, a senior in high school, who said something so wise that it seared into my brain (to be fair, I’m almost positive she didn’t come up with the thought herself, but I still give her credit for adding the third part of the maxim onto the idea I’d otherwise heard for decades): If you feel like you’re mad at everyone, go eat something; if you feel like everyone’s mad at you, go to sleep; if you’re mad at yourself, take a shower. …Sometimes it’s as simple as that.

5. And finally, ever wondered when we started “doing” Lent? Here’s a good quick primer.

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat Based on the Teaching of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, by Fr. Jean D'Elbee (currently blowing. my. mind.)

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Quotable 💬

“Love God, and do what you will.”

― St. Augustine

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What’s your favorite thing about March? 🍀

This is when multiple-choice questions are hard because I know March is a volatile month in so many places. Here in Texas, it’s the dawn of spring, but I remember living in Oregon where it didn’t feel like spring until May. March was so hard for me there as a native Texan, because to me, March is the epitome of breezy spring weather, wildflowers, and general signs of life after (an albeit short) winter. So, I appreciate your flexibility here… My answer, at least today, is Spring Break (see above). But that’s only because April is when wildflowers are really in full force around here.

• Wildflowers are starting to peek out from the soil: 43%

• Temps are warming up!: 43%

• Spring Break (aka, a break from school or teaching): 8%

• Sportsball: 4%

• The arrival of autumn (for you Southern hemisphere-ers): 2%

Find next week’s poll here.

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Join us on the Rhine River 🛶

I’d love you to join Kyle and myself on our boat this summer — be part of our pilgrimage down the Rhine River! A reminder that Select (our pilgrimage organization) is currently running a special just for our trip, and only until March 21… Use the code SPRING500 for $500 off per person.

Every year just the right people join us, and it’s been remarkable to watch kindred spirits find each other. We’d be stoked to have you join us:

Amsterdam (2013), by Henrieta Maneva #

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Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🛶 Join me along the Rhine River: Summer 2025!

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

Who’s someone you admire — why? What of theirs is reasonable to emulate in your own life?

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Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Cool. Also, I think I’d get seasick just sitting there.