5 Quick Things #408 🚶‍♂️‍➡️

touching grass, orange peels, an ancient creed, & first jobs

May 01, 2026

Hi there,

I turned in my book edits on Monday! …And then immediately took a rare, mid-afternoon hour-long nap in celebration. 🎉 Every time I hit some major milestone—turning in a book manuscript, coming home from leading a pilgrimage, graduating a kid, even simply ending a school year of teaching—my body celebrates by getting sick. Either getting sick, or just getting really, really tired. It’s like I’d been running on fumes, but by God’s sheer grace I was able to power through… I woke up from that nap with had no idea what time it was or what planet I was on.

This now means I’m only moderately busy on an insane level vs. outlandishly so. I won’t belabor the issue, since no one loves reading someone else’s laundry list of to-dos, but let’s just say after I get this email scheduled for your inbox, I’m working on finishing wedding programs and reception signage, followed by scheduling our parish’s monthly email.

But at the time you’re actually reading this, Tate and I will be on a quick, mother-daughter pre-wedding overnighter: nothing major, just a local guesthouse for some time away where we will decidedly not talk about the wedding. …Marriage, though, is definitely on the table. I’m hoping we’ll have good conversations, enjoy a massage and pedicure, get some local take-out for dinner back at the house, and maybe enjoy the backyard pool (though thunderstorms are forecasted). Oh, and maybe watch a movie or two. I’ve been looking forward to this getaway for weeks!

*Plum Trees in Blossom Éragny* (1894), by Camille Pissarro #

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. If you’re a Commonplace subscriber, head to April’s gratitude check-in from this week and add your lists! It’s always a highlight of mine to read them: some favorites include breakfast for supper, a local Italian market in a reader’s area that has the most delicious bread & food, steak from steers raised by another reader, reading Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn for the first time, the smell of freshly cut grass, and The Boxcar Children on the Libby library app for yet another reader’s 7-year-old.
2. Every morning there’s a group of neighbors, mostly older, that meet here at the local coffee shop (I’m here right now, writing this), and I love that this simple gathering has become such a mainstay in their lives. They don’t stay too long, but they do show up religiously. They welcome newcomers to their table, they squeal with delight at all the regular babies and toddlers that come through the door, and seeing as the baristas know my order by heart, I’m sure they know this group of locals’ orders, too. Seeing them here is a bright spot in my morning.
3. “Go touch grass” has nearly become a cliché these days, but I say there are worse ideas to turn into a platitude—I mean, it’s true; we do need to touch grass. I enjoyed Arthur Brooks’ recent episode of why we have to get outside more than we do in our modern world, along with practical ways to do so (hint: evening walks!).
4. In the same vein, I appreciate Hadden Turner’s reminder about why we need more, not less, friction in our lives: “…It is here, my friends, that we really feel the friction: what we need is not what we want; and what we want is not what we need.”
5. And finally, this week I taught on the 4th-century Council of Nicaea in my humanities class, so I revisited this excellent Catholic-Orthodox dialogue on the Creed between Bishop Robert Barron and Metropolitan Nathanael Symeonides from last year (which was the 1,700-year anniversary of the historic moment!).

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

The Chill Mix made for me by Spotify

Quotable 💬

“I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather God has to offer.”

-Dodie Smith

Where/what was your first job? 🛒

This week’s question was my son’s suggestion (again!), and I thought it an apropos one, since he’s about to have his last day at his first job in order to embark on his first day at his second. My first “real” job (I babysat here and there, but nothing major) was at Target. Yep, retail. It actually wasn’t too bad for a big-box chain store, but I think I only worked there for about six months before I became an assistant at my church for several years, followed by waiting tables at local restaurants for years and years (that’s where the good money was).

Babysitting: 68.8%
Food service: 12.6%
Retail shop: 7.1%
Camp counselor: 3.8%
Grocery store: 2.7%
Newspaper delivery: 2.5%
Lifeguard: 1.5%
Movie theater: 1%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Join Our 2026 Scottish Pilgrimage! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Travel is one of the most formational activities we can do on earth; one of the few that, for the most part, is worth the money spent—especially when it’s invested in something that pays dividends in our souls for years afterward. That’s been the case with pilgrimages for me, and it’s one of the reasons I love, love, love leading them.

Consider joining my family and me (along with some new kindred spirits) in Scotland this summer, where we’ll walk through the rugged highlands and listen to God’s voice on the Isle of Skye, in the halls of medieval castles, walking through historic St. Andrews, and more. And if you sense through prayer that this pilgrimage is meant for you, I’ll join you in prayer that God will provide all you need to go. It’s worth it!