Running Off the Side of a Mountain Turned Out to Be the Safer Choice
And other reminders that we're not in control
The other day, I asked my phone to play “How Great Is Our God.” Siri didn’t catch me saying “play” and thought I had just asked how great our God is. Siri’s answer? “iPhone cannot provide an answer to that question.” Ha! For once, technology is honest about its limitations.
Our God is great and He is good. Seven years ago, I was at my oldest son’s kindergarten graduation, still wrapping my head around the fact that I was pregnant with another little one. Yesterday, said little one celebrated his own kindergarten graduation. He was so very excited, which makes me more joyful than wistful.
Everyone says raising kids goes so fast, and it does, but more importantly, it goes in His goodness and in His providence. This family is the way God has chosen to draw me closer to Himself. I thank Him for that.
Some updates
Normally this section is reserved for writing-related updates. We’ll get there, but work has taken a backseat (you’ll get that pun in a minute) to a slew of impending changes. In the last few weeks, I’ve learned that we’re getting a new principal, a new pastor, a new Taco Bell (which I’d convinced myself was a Chipotle before the sign went up), and after a minor car accident this week, a new car.
It’s a lot. Like, a lot. I’m embracing routine in the little things and time with my people to keep me grounded. All the rest will happen when it happens. I am seeing God in all these things—not always as quickly or in the way I want, but I know He’s there. Most prominently, I’m seeing Him in the people around us who are checking in and making sure I’m okay (I am).
Last month also held a trip to Switzerland for a friend’s wedding. My reaction to the realization that my husband and I could make this trip work was that it would be a good time to read Maria Von Trapp’s memoir. I know Switzerland is not Austria, but it’s closer than New Jersey is.
My husband’s reaction was that we ought to go tandem hang-gliding with trained pilots.
I went back and forth on whether I wanted to do it, whether it was prudent to do it. I Googled how safe it was and so on. Eventually, I decided it was safe enough and that it would be a good way for me to push myself outside my comfort zone. I also figured it would help my teenaged and pre-teen sons to remember I’m cool for the next couple of years. Long story short, I did it, and it had the intended results.
It was worth the scary double-cable car ride up a very tall, increasingly steep mountain. The whole thing was beautiful . . . as is Maria Von Trapp’s memoir. When the groom at the wedding danced with his mom to “Edelweiss,” I admit to feeling a degree of vindication.
As for the accident (I was safe hang-gliding, but not turning into a senior citizens’ center with hopes of voting; there’s a lot we could unpack there on a another day), I was alone in the car, it was in town, and while the car was damaged, I came away only a little sore.
The day after the accident, I opened my Bible for my daily chapter and found I was at my favorite place in Scripture, Philippians 2:
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
I could go on and on with all the ways God is showing me that He is right here with me, but this section has already gotten quite long. So let’s get to something of a work-related update: I’ve been finally started to work on my novel a little bit every day. Dealing with all the change is coming through there, so I guess I’ll leave it at that.
What I’m reading
As mentioned, I’m reading The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta von Trapp, which is a total delight. I’m also rereading portions of A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. My husband is reading the latter as well. I knew I enjoyed this book, and it’s so fun for him to be interested in it too.
What my kids are reading
I’ve been reading the first Winnie the Pooh book to my newly minted first-grader at bedtime. We’re familiar with some of the stories from other Pooh books we’ve been given, but the original is, obviously, better. I wish I’d read these with my older kids, but then again, there is something special in having kiddo number four be able to experience something like this on his own, rather than having it passed down.
Something I love
I love ThriftBooks. I buy a lot of my books for school used on this site/app, as well as books for my kids. This summer and last, I worked through curated book lists I found elsewhere and bought a bunch of used books to give to my kids over the summer. Last year, they woke up to a shelf full of new-to-them books the first day of summer break. This year, I’m going to have the books appear a few at a time to keep things interesting.
What I’m creating (knitting, lettering, embroidery, etc.)
So the thing about finishing sweaters in the summer is that it means having a pile of wool on your lap when it’s already eighty degrees outside. Starting sweaters in summer, on the other hand, is much easier to bear.
On Mother’s Day, I had some time to knit, and I worked for about forty-five minutes on a new sweater. When my time was just about up, my row count was off because I wasn’t working a stitch correctly. I realized I needed to rip out everything I’d just done. Sigh. I restarted a few weeks later and got things sorted out.
It’s easy to see situations like this as a waste of time, but I learned something in the process. It may have cost more than I wanted it to, but sometimes we can’t control that kind of thing.
Where my work is
CatholicMom.com: “The Promise and Power of the Rosary: The Joyful Mysteries”
St. Austin Review: “The Man Who Was Chesterton”
What I’m working on
I’ve committed to a fifteen-minute word sprint every day of June and July to make progress on a draft of a novel. I learned this technique during National Novel Writing Month a number of years ago. It’s not a way to write a whole novel, but it is helping me enter into this world on a regular basis and so more easily get the words flowing onto the page. Once we’re in full-on summer mode, I’m looking forward to finding longer stretches of time to fit these rough pieces together and see what they make.
A quote to sit and sip with
Well, the part of the mind that reads a story is also the part that reads the world; it can deceive us, but it can also be trained to accuracy; it can fall into disuse and make us more susceptible to lazy, violent, materialistic forces, but it can also be urged back to life, transforming us into more active, curious, alert readers of reality.
—George Saunders, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain