Plot Points #10 💌

Messages in bottles, calling off shame, sourdough starters, and thrift hauls

Jul 14, 2023

Happy Friday!

Today I’m on Tybee Island with my mom, daughter, sisters, and one of my nieces for the start of a girls’ weekend together. This is such a sweet time to have with family because my husband and I met at Georgia Southern University, which is just a short drive away from Savannah and Tybee, and I have a thousand precious memories of this little stretch of beach.

One memory, in particular, is a fun story for dinner parties. (I imagine, anyway.) Back in 2009, my friend and I spent a weekend on Tybee for her birthday. As we were leaving the island, I threw a message in a bottle over the Lazaretto Creek Bridge—an item I’d had on my bucket list for a long time—and then promptly forgot about it for the next eight years.

In 2017, a few days after Hurricane Irma hit and severely damaged several areas of coastal Georgia, I received a phone call from a man who had found my message in a bottle drifting in his flooded backyard on Tybee. It was a delightful moment of hope in an otherwise painful week for him, and we marveled together at how God had offered this little light to us in the darkness. We were subsequently interviewed by The Savannah Morning News and the man later put the article on display in his living room, alongside my message and the bottle. (Which, if you must know, was a screw-top Arbor Mist my friend and I had enjoyed that weekend. Ah, to be 23 again…)

There probably won’t be any messages in bottles this weekend, but I’m certain it will be a lovely one just the same.

I hope yours is wonderful, too, friends! Thank you so much for being here.

Point #1: Your idealized self is calling. Stop answering the phone.

This piece from one of my absolute favorite Substackers, Claire Swinarski of The Catholic Feminist, is a call to action for all women who find themselves idealizing their should-be selves (what she hilariously terms “The Prairie Woman of Shame”) so we can feel free to rejoice in the actual women and mothers we are.

Point #2: The era of pissed-off influencer kids is here and we need to pay attention.

I was so challenged by this family blogging piece and how grown children are speaking out against their entire childhoods being monetized or broadcasted on social media without their consent. (Bravo to them for taking back the narrative!) Unless we make drastic changes soon, my generation is going to have some serious amends to make to its children.

Point #3: Sourdough is a lesson in perseverance.

Thanks to the warmer temps here, my sourdough starter finally got going and I was able to make my first two loaves of bread! It only took forty-five million steps, during which I ~~did~~ might have stomped like a toddler in the kitchen once or twice, but man. This bread is delish.

Point #4: Teaching our kids to honor life doesn’t have to be complicated.

It can be as simple as pre-ordering this beautiful new book (from my fellow Paraclete Press author, Courtney Siebring) which celebrates the wonder of fetal development, calls out purpose in every created person, and makes a sweet gift for new parents or families of young kids. You can read a sample here.

Reading In The Nook

I’m still working on C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet, the first novel in The Space Trilogy. It’s so very Lewis, which means snappy observations about human behavior written in a version of English that always takes me some time to adjust to. But I’m really enjoying it so far!

I also picked up this major thrift score the other day thanks to a generous reader who donated their Book of the Month picks, among others. I’ve had all of these novels on my TBR for a while now, so it looks like last week’s prediction about sneaking in other books between my must-reads this year has already come true. I make no apologies.