Plot Points #9 💌
Big wins, coming home, reading lists, and travel ideas
Hey friends!
I hope you all had a wonderful July 4th 🇺🇸. I know everyone experiences this holiday a bit differently, but I have always loved the quote by novelist and activist James Baldwin which states,
“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
Being patriotic doesn’t mean that we wave our flags and turn a blind eye to the (many) wrongs in our country. It means we look honestly at the good and the bad, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. It means that we use our hard-won freedoms to call out greatness in our policymakers, our neighbors, and ourselves.
Also, I give you permission to just relax on a holiday without justifying your enjoyment of it. Sometimes it’s nice to idealize the place we call home in order to cultivate a deeper sense of belonging and hope in it. Hot dogs and parades are awesome, too. (The fireworks can go to hell, though.)
Moving on, we’ve had some big wins in the Nunnery house this week. My husband went out of town for four nights, and for the first time in almost five years I stayed home alone with my children. I’ve often had family come to stay when P is gone, but not this time. It wasn’t easy, but it was good. I’m super proud of myself for practicing this exposure and helping to retrain my brain a little bit more toward wholeness.
If you’re new here and not familiar with the why behind this win, I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (I wrote about my faith and mental health journey in detail in my book Good Enough: Learning to Let Go of Perfect for the Sake of Holy if you’re interested.) For me, OCD has most often manifested in obsessions/thoughts where I become increasingly afraid I will act out in harmful ways toward others. As a mom, you can imagine this makes being responsible for two tiny people especially triggering. I’ve worked through these obsessions in therapy for years, and I’m totally fine during the day, but new sleeping situations—being alone with the kids, going on vacation, sleeping over at a family member’s house—can cause anxiety of varying degrees. (And zero sleep, which only results in more anxiety.) Staying home alone for that length of time was a record for me and it will be a big help when I go to Tybee Island soon for a girl’s trip with my family.
Speaking of, my mama had a birthday this week and my sisters and I got together on Wednesday to celebrate with her. It was such a sweet day shopping, eating good food, laughing, and giving each other hell. (More prep for Tybee 🥳.) Being in a family with SO.MANY.GIRLS. is the actual best. We love you, Mom!
I hope your weekend is a lovely one, friends! Thank you for being here and sharing your time with me.
Point #1: Past and present, every version of you is worthy of remembrance.
A timely piece from Sarah Bessey about honoring our (messy, earnest, afraid, self-righteous) past selves hit me right in the feels on Monday, especially this line: “I’ve had to grapple with the stories I told myself about myself, this place, the people who were alongside of me. Forgiveness - received and given - doesn’t expire.”
Point #2: Being a teenager is awkward and amazing.
These scenes are proof.
Point #3: As July 4th passes, we might consider how to really use our freedoms for good.
Awhile ago, I learned about something called the “three-mile-an-hour life,” which is basically the idea that for most of human history people have moved at a speed of three miles an hour. Now, especially in the West, it’s “more, please” and faster...and not always to our benefit. This piece makes an interesting case for the somewhat controversial idea of degrowth, noting both its pros and cons, and has me thinking a lot about how I can “consume less, travel less, build less, eat less wastefully.”
Point #4: But…I also have a great idea for my 40th birthday (in a few years).
Just take me on a tour of my homeland to do alllll of this ❤️.
Reading In The Nook
I tackled a big project in my office this week: alphabetizing my entire book collection. I also rearranged the room to give it more of a library vibe and Lucy spent hours gleefully helping me put all the books in order. I’m really happy with how it turned out, and it inspired me to finally start reading all the books and series I’ve had on my TBR for years.
I made a list, cut and folded each one, and put them in a bowl to select the book I’d start with first. Some titles on the list I’ve read before (or in part ) but stopped short of reading the entire series, and some I’ve never read at all. I’d love to have all of these done within the next year, but I make no promises.
My first pick was C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy. I have vintage copies of the first two novels and ordered the final one from Pangobooks, so I’m just about ready to go! Here’s a peek at all the books on my list if you’re interested:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Little Women and Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
The entire Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montogomery (8 books in total)
The entire Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (9 books in total)
All of Jane Austen’s fully finished novels (6 books in total)
The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis (3 books in total)
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (7 books in total)
Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
It’s a grand total of 39 books, which I can definitely read in a year if I only pick from this list. (That’s a big IF.) But I’m not really concerned with the timeline. I’m just thrilled to dive deep into these stories.
Like Lucy here, with the stack of graphic novels she’s read so far this summer. She got halfway through logging her hours into the library’s summer reading challenge and it basically said, “Uh, you’re done. Thanks bye. Oh, here’s a badge.”
Love her ❤️.
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
—C.S. Lewis—
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