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Whatnots :: July 2015

Summer CampHappy End-of-July!

What are you occupied with this week? Buying school uniforms? Scrambling from a/c to a/c? Reeling from the Bachelorette decision?

We’re scurrying along like mice in a marathon. Our little feet are scrambling away, but there are moments when we don’t feel any closer to a finish line. If there even is a finish line.

It’s been a fun month, though. We had lots of visitors at the Home, and however much it strains us, our kids had a blast with all the programs and camps and swimming and hiking. We’re also working on a big project for Serious Creatures (I’ll share more later this year), preparing for a new iteration of the education program at the Home (which begins Monday), and preparing for our housemate to return for another year to hold it all together alongside us.  Brady and I remark often that there’s a fine line between faith and cuckoo, and we sometimes wonder if we’re on the side of the line we think we are.

But the many-plates-spinning scenario has pushed me back into some necessary best-life practices, and those have been glorious. We’re taking time for solitude each day. We’re going out. I’m planning my weeks and spending the working part of my days accordingly. There’s a sense of daily rhythm developing even though one day can be unrecognizable to the next. I’ve hoped for that. Prayed for that. But I knew I was praying for a miracle. Good news! I’m happy to accept miracles, however long or short-lived they may be.

What I’m listening to…

I’m listening to music again! I’ve been using it as a mood elevator and cacophony-drowner-out-er-er.

I never got into Spotify. I tried, I did. But it always lost me somewhere between rebuilding my playlists and the radio stations serving up LOTS of music I wasn’t interested in. But I’ve been trying Apple Music (no need to rebuild playlists!) …and I’m kind of loving it. There are the customary glitches first-adapters encounter, but the beyond-excellent custom radio capabilities more than make up for it.

Are you on Apple Music? Listen to a little Sleeping at Last or create a radio station from Taylor Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble and tell me what you think.

What I’m reading…

Confession time. I’ve been reading, but I haven’t finished anything in far too long.

I’m re-reading the David Allen classic Getting Things Done and it’s pretty much the reason my life isn’t spinning out near Saturn at the moment. I knew I needed to revisit his task and project management principles, but I’d forgotten how truly life-changing they are. So happy to be reading this again.

Game of Thrones (the book) has been picking up, and I’ve been meandering through this book on the Enneagram (whoa), and I’m dabbling in other works as well. I’m hoping August can be a month for wrapping these up. I have so many books that need getting to!

Watching…

It’s guaranteed to be a fan fall in our house where Star Wars is concerned, and we kicked it off with Star Wars Rebels. Have you seen it? Uhhhh… LOVE it. The first episode didn’t grab me, but soon I couldn’t wait to see the next episode. And the next. And the next.

We finally finished season two of Reign. The fantastic finale had me wishing we hadn’t waited so long. And of course, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!

Elsewhere and so forth…

Brady gave a TEDx talk several months ago and they finally posted it. He talks about using your story to pick a “thing” to be about in the world. If you’re the TED-talk sort, check it out!

Anne Bogel has me wanting to watch this Documentary on the September Issue of Vogue. Have you seen it?

And finally, this Star Wars comic con behind-the-scenes bit might have just watered my eye a bit. Can’t. Wait.

What are you looking forward to this Fall?

It’s Been Quiet Here, But…

HOH dark empty room

Hi.

It’s been a while. Life has been… well, life, and has been full of priorities elsewhere. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t always get to post as I’d like, but still. Five months?

We’ve been adjusting to Lebanon and learning the things and, surprise! That and seventy kids make a full life. Add a small business to that and I can’t even tell you what you get. Maybe you get crazy. Which is probably why I’ve been away so long.

Anyway, as we’re figuring out this new life-of-many-hats… one of the neatest things has been the chance meetings and lovely people along the way. That’s how I “met” Kris, actually. She heard about our work in Lebanon through Serious Creatures and asked if we would share with her Grace Table readers. Of course. And we’d love to. And thanks, Kris.

This post was complicated for me. There’s the part of selecting from a million tiny experiences and then whittling one into a short telling. Then there’s the part where, like the man entrusted with the single mina, I’m condemned by my refusal to act on knowledge I really do have. Writing this post is changing me on the inside, still.

If you have a minute, check out the post over at Grace Table. And linger a while after reading… Kris has a fantastic group of contributors with a wide variety of perspectives. I bet you’ll find a little something extra while you’re there.

How to Read More Books That Matter

read more books that matter

I always want to read more books. If I go too long without exploring times past or hearing new-to-me ideas or happening upon intriguing fields of study I get kind of pent up and cranky. It’s like my brain decides it’s been caged up too long and revolts.

It took me a very long time to notice this. And really, I only figured it out after repeatedly watching the revolt make a big fat mess in the middle of my favorite relationships. (Sorry about that.)

But it’s not just reading more books that helps me be my better self. It’s reading more books of a certain type that makes the real difference. I love a quick movie-type read that has me page-turning through the early hours, but those usually don’t have the elements that let my wild-monkey-of-a-brain out for a run.

I bet you’re similar. It might not be histories and culture that let your brain play in just the right way, of course. For you it might be poetry, or engaging characters, or quantum physics, or spiritual memoirs, but I’m guessing there’s a difference in the soul-soothing for you between various types of books.

So how do we get more of these reads into our lives? 

One way that’s been working well for me lately is to make a list of topics I’m currently interested in reading about. I don’t mean a list of anything ever that in your wildest dreams you’d want to read about. I mean what’s on your mind right now.

Here are a few of the questions I use:

  • What book have I wanted to read but have been putting off?
  • What subject is on my mind a lot right now that might be better thought through with the input of an outsider?
  • What am I wrestling with right now that could use some encouragement?
  • What books have my friends been reading lately which have sparked my interest?

Assuming you’re reading regularly (and here’s a tip for jumping back on the reading bandwagon if you’re not), all you need to do is start referring to your list when you’re ready to begin a new book.

I’m a big fan of reading whatever a person feels like. It’s easier and more impactful that way. But choosing between books that we’ve already decided matter to us (rather than browsing that ever growing “to read” list) moves us toward books we feel like reading AND that matter in the broader scope of our lives.

I’ve been using my annual reading sub-goals as my list, and have had my best reading month in a long time. The books are timely and enjoyable but are also nurturing my mind and life in directions that are important to me.

What better books are on your list this year?

Higher Even Than This

We spent last Sunday meandering the cobblestone walks near Beirut Souks, surveying Roman ruins and peeking around in the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque. As we rounded the corner past the Martyrs’ Statue, though, we came upon a deeply affecting sight beyond the usual neighborhood fixtures…

charlie hebdo demonstrations beirut lebanon2 1

Demonstrations like this are all the news this week. But there’s more here than meets the eye, reflections of the beauty that is Lebanon.

For one, the group was able to gather. I’ve been around the Middle East, and more often than we realize, this sort of gathering would land you in prison.

For another, the group did gather. They have the freedom to express themselves, and they did. “Charlies” and “Ahmeds” (Who most often do not cross paths in sectarian Lebanon) stood in solidarity. Declarations in French and English and Arabic.

Lebanon is neither fully eastern or western in its collective leanings, making conflict a permanent part of the fabric. But on this one day, in this one space, conflict elsewhere brought this small group of people together.

I hope one day “Je suis Lebanese” rises higher even than this. For today, I’m encouraged.

Reading Goals 2015

It’s time again for annual reading goals. But first, true confession time. 

For the last three years running I’ve failed hard at my annual reading goals. Last year, in fact, I shared exact quotes where Brady makes total fun of me and insists I’ll never meet my reading goal. Nothing like someone who believes in you, right?

But he’s just calling it like it is. 2014 was a repeat of 2013, which was a repeat of 2012. And perhaps I’m setting myself up for another round next year.

Except that really, seriously, truly-madly-deeply… each year I’ve desired and intended to read 50 books. And it’s not the 50 books per say, it’s the routine of finishing one book a week that I’m after. And it just so happens that 50 books a year would mean that I’m finishing a book a week. And that’s the person I want to be becoming. So I’m going to keep aiming for it even if I fail for five or ten more years running. Because there’s something tragically lame about lowering my aims to accommodate my undesirable habits.

So I’m still aiming for 50.

Last year I began setting sub-goals, and I’m going to stick with that this year. When I remembered to review them, the sub-goals kept me moving, so I’m tweaking them and trying it again.

Here’s what I’m aiming for in 2015:

Total:  50 Books.
Monthly:  Three of my finished books should be from different topics/genres.

As my sub-goal, I’ll read at least 12 of the following 16 items/categories:

  • Game of Thrones #1
  • The Last Battle (the final Narnia book I’ve never read)
  • Re-read Harry Potter 6&7 (finishing up last year’s HP re-read goal)
  • Memoir (probably food-related)
  • Writing
  • Prayer
  • Beauty
  • C.S. Lewis or related (probably the McGrath biography)
  • Storytelling
  • Kingdom
  • Habits or neuroplasticity
  • Child Psychology or Education
  • HSP or Enneagram
  • History or Biography
  • Something I’ve been long meaning to read (like Walking on Water or Dune)
  • Something I’ve been meaning to re-read

Some books would count in more than one category, but no harm in that, right?

And I miiiight even push myself to round things out with Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Reading Challenge for the year, but my track record doesn’t make that too promising.

What do you want to read in 2015? Do you set goals or just wing it?

My One Major Goal for the New Year

My One New Year's Goal

I’m ready for a new year.

Twenty Fourteen was a monumental year for which I’m so thankful. We went all in with our business and all in with a new life direction. For the second time, we parted with (nearly) all our possessions and moved internationally. We endured periods of waiting and severe unknowns and came out on the other side. It was exhilarating. And it was exhausting.

As I write, we live in an un-furnitured apartment and work in the highly-trafficked common area of a Home for abused and neglected kids. But our apartment has a lovely view and our work has real purpose and it’s obvious we’ve traded down and traded up simultaneously.

As 2015 dawns, we reach our 3-month anniversary here in Lebanon. And I need the re-centering and re-focusing that the turning of the numbers incites. Who do I really want to be? What is the best I can give of myself in 2015? What is it that I’m uniquely responsible to give and do and be with the whisper of life entrusted to me?

Though things barrel forward on every front, and my lists (oh gosh, my lists) teem with tasks and figurings and unrealized possibilities, I so badly need to pause and reflect and recenter.

In these first days of 2015, I’ve been coaxing reflections from their corners-of-hiding. I’ve used my go-to prompts (What was great? What could be different?), and I’ve borrowed prompts, and better than those, I’ve given my mind space to meander and I’ve let it lead me to things I should be thinking about (minds are great tools when you give them some breathing room). I’ve probed our home-life habits, our business trajectory, and my spiritual realities (soooo different than my intentions can those realities be), and I’ve surveyed the 2015 reading landscape (details coming soon).

I needed the new year to cue all of this, but I need to not keep waiting for a year to arrive before repeating the exercise. One of these years, twelve months will be the majority of what I have left.

So my one major “goal” for the new year is to regularly take time to reflect. To set aside time, often, to revisit the aims and words and work I desire and have been given.

To have a bit of built-in accountability for this, I’ll share bits of them on the blog this year. If it’s July, and I haven’t posted how I’m doing, that means I’m failing. If that happens, please start sending howlers to spur me to action, would you?

As I aim to do that (something I’m obviously failing at), I’m curious how you do it. Do you set goals/aims/intentions/whathaveyou around the turn of the year? If so, how do you revisit them as January becomes April becomes August?