Hi everyone,
Happy Leap Day! You only get to wish people this once every four years, so take advantage of it.
Earlier this week we moved home after spending ten days in a local hotel. We were getting our floors refinished after a dishwasher leak last year.
I think hotels are fun if you are on vacation. If you are trying to live your normal life in your own city, they are not as much fun. Yesterday morning’s First Coffee Back at Home in My Own French Press After Sleeping in My Own Bed was truly lovely. I took a picture to commemorate it:
The Part Where There’s an Essay: Shiny Things
(This was originally published after our first time at Hutchmoot in 2013. If you’re interested in attending, tickets for this year’s Moot go on sale March 15 & 16.)
The keynote speaker at Hutchmoot was an author by the name of Leif Enger. His most notable works are the bestseller Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young, and Handsome.
Leif gave us some encouragement to see from his life on a Minnesota farm. He and his wife like to take walks at sunset when the weather is warm. Leif usually carries some change in his pocket, and there's a certain rock where he will leave a coin or two.
Why? Because the crows like shiny things. When the couple passes by that rock later on, the coins are always gone. Leif said it gives the birds happiness to have shiny things in their nest, and it gives him joy to think of those coins making their way into trees around the property.
He said, "Look for the shiny things. Store them away."
What's a shiny thing for you?
A shiny thing this time of year is my husband's faithfulness to turn on the Christmas tree lights early in the morning. The kids' eagerness to shop for their siblings. The Behold the Lamb of God concert.
A shiny thing anytime of year is the light filtering through the trees a certain way. The smell of homemade soup. Times with friends when you laugh until you cry. Words from a familiar Psalm.
When I was eager to look at those crows as hoarders, Leif Enger turned that image on its head and said I should be a hoarder of shiny things. Shiny things make us grateful to the Giver of all good gifts.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:16-18
For the Anglophiles
How Anne Boelyn Captured Our Collective Imagination: Here’s a detailed account of Anne’s last hours and execution.“ ‘I heard say,’ she replied, “‘the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck.’” (DO NOT read this before breakfast.)
Reads & Listens of the Week
This long-form article on the social fallout of the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment felt oddly familiar—wading through what’s true and what isn’t in a community is such a challenge these days.
A good reminder here on Christlike love: “To live or minister or work in a context without love is to live (or minister) in a hell-like context. It’s death. It kills hope and shrivels the soul.”
I have enjoyed reading
as she recounts her family’s “Making of a Third Place.” Maybe someday I will stop by, Tresta!I’ve begun working through the episodes of this podcast: The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God.
Malcolm Guite was the guest on the Trinity Forum podcast recently. “Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and all your mind. And somewhere in all those ‘alls’ is all your imagination.”
There are two occasions when the sacred beauty of Creation becomes dazzlingly apparent, and they occur together. One is when we feel our mortal insufficiency to the world, and the other is when we feel the world's mortal insufficiency to us. ―Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
Such a great post! I’m not much of a tattoo fan, but “look for the shiny things” would be on my short list if I was ever to seriously consider one.
Remains my favorite HM keynote. ❤️