5 Quick Things, #135 🐇
Screen-free days, farm dogs, looping, & 3 questions
Hey there,
This is a Good Friday like no other, isn’t it? As our local church hosts yet another virtual service this evening — for which I am grateful for — in a way it drives home even deeper how much I long for community right now. Partial solutions are necessary, but it’s also right and okay to acknowledge when it just stinks when the ideal isn’t possible. I miss people. I miss places outside my house. I miss not wearing a mask to the grocery store.
And yet, I’m still thankful. Still, still, still. I’m glad it’s spring. I’m glad I have a home where we can quarantine safely. I’m glad my people are still healthy. I’m glad technology exists so we can still connect on a partial-solution level. I’m glad there’s good art in the world — books, movies, TV series, poems, silly TikToks, delightful dogs on Twitter. There’s still so much good in the world when we remember to see it.
Tulips bloom this week in the Roma Flowers Park on the outskirts of Rome.
5 Quick Things ☕️
1. This week I pulled up a favorite post of mine, from my friend and author Shawn Smucker, about when the art you create disappoints you. I feel this in my bones.
2. And then there’s this gem from Katherine from a few years ago, about how to help a friend who’s hurting. Such a fitting reminder right now.
3. A reminder: for the next little bit, I’ll be doing shorter, more frequent episodes of The Good List. On Monday, I shared 3 questions you can ask yourself when things get hard.
4. On Wednesday, I shared a conversation with my pal Sarah Mackenzie, who knows how to homeschool sanely. We talked about a super-useful hack I learned from her several years ago that makes homeschooling MUCH easier.
5. And today, I’m reminding you of something I’m basically reminding myself — let’s do this, okay? It’s good for our bodies, minds, and spirits.
Quotable 💬
“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”
― Pope John Paul II
Time Machine ⏰
11 (!) years ago, I wrote about why we should use our good stuff, even on ordinary days. Seems fitting to remember this in our current state of being home, day after day.
Elsewhere 📌
Have a good holiday weekend — keep washing those hands & wearing those masks,
xo, Tsh
p.s. The top photo is one of The Atlantic’s photos of the week.