On the Common 106
The Most Wonderful Week of the Year
Hi everyone,
It’s my favorite week of the year, heavy-laden with chocolate, leftovers, movies, and soccer. I got in the car yesterday, and it felt like a foreign country because I hadn’t left my house in days. To top it off, we had rain on Boxing Day, which I think should be a requirement from here on out—it made everything a little slower.
It’s even better if you’re under 12:
The Part Where There’s an Essay: Beware the New Notebook Energy
At the company Christmas party a few weeks ago, the game had us all picking an object that would represent us for the Twelve Days of Christmas. Amidst the Party Puffins and Nose Hair Trimmers (yes, really) was my entry: the Perfect Planner. It’s become a bit of a joke on myself; I have tried everything in the planner department (within reason—no I will not be spending that much on a self-designed quest manual, thankyouverymuch).
Part of this Perfect Planner Disorder is just that I love beautiful paper products. There are so many lovely options in this world, and I love looking them over, flipping through them, and setting them to work in my life.
For a long time, I was a bullet journaler (I even have an Instagram highlight on my setup if you’d like to check it out). This gave me the ultimate amount of control over how my planner operated, plus it gave me an excuse to buy more pens and washi tape. However, I’ve even fallen away from that in recent months. I’ve reverted back to a small paper planner, with longer-term tasks falling to apps and digital platforms.
I’ve known for years that I tend to start well and finish poorly, or not at all. Maybe that sounds familiar to you. A new planner gives me an avenue to blame my lack of follow-through on a bad system. If I can blame the system, that saves me from the day-in and day-out-ness of life. I call this New Notebook Energy: fleeing actual responsibility and good habits in favor of reorganizing and starting again.
There is some merit to cleaning out and starting again; those of you who’ve followed me for a while know that I have a method for assessing things in January. But ultimately, showing up daily is the trick; something that a new notebook cannot replace. The good news is that God’s grace is there, new every morning, for our day-in and day-out life, whether it’s located in a pretty New Notebook or not.
What a New Notebook cannot change:
The earth and things on it tend towards disorder, and it is part of your role to set things in order. The next day—or maybe the next minute—they will fall out of order again. (Read this one three times if you have a person under ten living in the same home as you.)
Your body is aging, and it’s not because you don’t exercise enough.
People will inconvenience you. They weren’t in on your plans for the day, anyway. Or didn’t you know?
Unplanned, unpleasant circumstances will occur. These will include (but are not limited to) traffic, money troubles, car troubles, diaper blowouts, miscarriages, broken appliances, bad decisions by family and friends, sickness, and death.
Unplanned, pleasant circumstances will occur. These will include (but are not limited to) blooms where you didn’t plant any flowers, bright sunrises, babies laughing, surprise recoveries, growth, confessions and apologies, music, and kind words.
God’s word will feed you in every season.
Seasons will change, for worse and for better. Most changes in seasons are a combination of both, though we are slow to see.
Good habits do you good; bad habits do you bad. Virtuous cycles triumph over vicious ones. Virtue must be fed, or it will starve.
Happy planning for 2024, and be careful out there. I’m cheering you on!
For the Anglophiles
This week we have a special feature on a most underrated character in medieval manuscripts: the fighting snail. “In one popular legend, a Lombard peasant encountered a heavily armoured snail, which the gods encourage him to fight – while his wife pleads with him not to be so reckless.”
Reads & Listens of the Week
For years, Google Podcasts has been my app of choice for listening. Well, Google has announced it’s going away, and they finally gave me a deadline, which means I’ve spent part of this Christmas season trying to get used to PocketCasts. I’m resisting using Spotify for podcasts, and I’m unsure why. Something in my brain likes having a different app for talking. Anyway, I am old, cranky, and set in my ways, and I resent app companies changing because it makes me learn new things in a part of my life that I thought would be automatic. (This is one of those “unplanned, unpleasant things,” right?)
As for reading, I’m rereading Lord of the Rings right now. Give that a try!
All that to say, this part of the newsletter will be back soon.
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. -Annie Dillard, A Writer’s Life
I am also mourning the loss of Google Podcasts, but have not yet attempted a switch. Let me know how PocketCasts goes or if you have heard of other glowing recommendations.
Yay to PocketCasts. It's my go to. One can't leave comments or ratings, but I find that to be a benefit, not a drawback. I'm too quick, sometimes.