Lately…

I haven’t been writing much lately.  I mean- I HAVE, if you count watching cute animal videos on YouTube and making notes, and reading other people’s work, talking to my amazing friends, snuggling with my dog and opening up drafts of essays, reading them, thinking, shrugging and then closing them again.  And you should TOTALLY COUNT THAT, because it’s all part of my process.

Anyway- I haven’t posted in a bit and I don’t know when I will- but here’s what I’m into/thinking about of late:

1.  Still giraffes.  Because when it comes to giraffes, I JUST CAN’T EVEN.  My Favorite gave me a giraffe encounter for Valentine’s Day.  I. KNOW.  He’s too much.  If anything, it only increased my love for them.  They are just so…improbable!  They are awkward and graceful in equal measure.  To be clear, I do not COLLECT giraffe-type items.  I want a REAL giraffe.  #achievablegoals

2.  Sharing my friends’ writing.  I know, it sounds silly- but I have amazing friends and they are doing SUCH great work.  It seems as though every day something pops up in my Facebook feed that just knocks me out.  If you haven’t discovered them yet, let me just turn you on to Mary and Jessica and Matt and Callie and Kathy and Kate and Arwen and Katrina and Rachel.  There are more who I am forgetting and will freak out later over having omitted.

I had someone tell me a while back that if I want to be taken seriously as a writer I need to not talk about OTHER people’s writing on social media so much.  I think that was some well-intentioned nonsense.

3. The Work of the People.  Do you guys know about the amazing place Travis Reed has created?  Thinkers and philosophers and writers- all people of faith- discussing grace and forgiveness, faith, love, redemption… I can easily lose an entire day going down the rabbit hole watching the videos there.  Richard Rohr, Brene Brown, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Glennon Doyle Melton… So much goodness.  Check it out.

4. Starbucks cold-brewed iced coffee.  It is currently chilly out, but iced coffee is the thing.  Because, SPRING.  Once summer kicks in, it will switch to Starbucks shaken black iced tea, no water.  Or, as my best friend Angela calls it (and she texts me photos when she gets one- because drinking iced tea is a spectator sport) “liquid sunshine.”

5. My circle of women.  My phenomenal, dependable, wise, funny, profane, profound group of women friends.  I do not know WHAT I did to deserve the women in my life, but I an incredibly, outrageously blessed.

6. My kids.  Parents will get it- you always love your kids, right?  Of course.  But then you go through a period where you fall MADLY in love with them.  Like- it’s too much, frankly.  It’s good, because it offsets the times when you want to tear your hair out and send them to military school.

I’m in that place where I am brought to tears nearly every day with gratitude that I get to mother these two spectacular human beings.  Heading back to the PNW for a visit in a couple of weeks and I will see my boy.  You know the song Julie Andrews sings in The Sound of Music, Something Good?  You know,

For here you are
Standing there
Loving me
Whether or not you should

So somewhere in my youth
Or childhood
I must have done something good

Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good

That’s how I’m feeling.  So incredibly blessed and madly in love.

7.  My dog, Diego.  He is, in a word, perfection.  Dumb, dumb, perfection.  He used to be really well-behaved.  Those were good times.  Now he is older, and he…cares less. He has figured out that my love is unconditional, and seems determined to test that notion. Daily.  I am but his humble servant.

8. Carpool Karaoke with James Corden.  I am certain you’ve all seen this, but I’ll post it, anyway.  He fills me with delight.

9.  Fixer Upper on HGTV.  I want to buy a dilapidated house and have Chip and Joanna Gaines come do a Fixer Upper: New England Edition, renovate it, knock down walls, discover ship-lap, maybe we’ll buy a goat or two, and then Joanna and I will become bff’s.

10. Books- Just finished Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey- amazing.  Almost done with The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk- astounding and game changing.  How To Be Here by Rob Bell is up next.

11. Painting.  I go through long periods when I do not paint or create in the visual arts at all, and then I’ll have a burst of creative energy.  I’m working on three or four paintings right now.  No idea where they’re going, not concerned about when I’ll be done- if I ever will.  Leonardo da Vinci famously said, “Paintings are never finished, only abandoned.”  I kind of agree with that.  It is one of the MANY ways Leo and I are virtually indistinguishable.

12. Prayer.  I’ve been trying to write about prayer lately- specifically how it has changed and is changing me.  I’ve not quite managed to get my arms around it.  All I can say is that multiple times a day I find myself deep in prayer and that my idea of what that looks like is evolving.

13. Advocacy.  Mary and I were fortunate enough to be asked by the incredible Adrianne of The Mama Bear Effect to be part of a social media PSA for Child Abuse Prevention Month (April), called Tie One to Child End Abuse.  If you haven’t checked out MBE yet, you should.  Her content is unbelievable and so practical for parents of small kids, especially.

Anyway- we were honored to be given the opportunity to raise our voices in support of a safe childhood for kids everywhere.

14. Patience.  I tend to be very patient with other people and incredibly impatient with myself.  I have, I kid you not, 97 posts in draft form.  I feel stuck on all of them.  I’m also working on a book proposal.  Stalled there, too.  There was a time when that would have sent me spiraling, but I am reminding myself daily that when I figure out what I think the writing always follows fairly easily.  The writing is not the hard part for me- it’s the thinking- and you cannot rush that.  In the mean time, I am amusing myself with the fact that the working titles of top three essays in my draft folder, with minimal tweaking- bear a striking resemblance to a Madonna’s Greatest Hits album.

That’s it, sweet friends.  That’s all I’ve got right now.  Let me know in the comments what you’ve been up to lately- what are you into, what are you working on?

Love you.

PS- My handsome Favorite just showed up with THIS in hand, which serves as a lovely reminder that part of the reason I am not crazy-busy writing about my life is that I am LIVING it.

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