And It Was Good
Beauty in unexpected places whispers incarnation, every time
If you’re new to
welcome! I write a Saturday newsletter for your reading pleasure: one week an original essay, the next week a round-up of others’ creative work.
Just reread And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginning by Madeleine L’Engle. Reinforced my belief that one of her books needs to stay on my nightstand at all times.
A delightful ode to public libraries.
Don’t care if they’re no longer trendy, I will always love flash mobs. This performance of a favorite Gustav Holst piece moved me to tears: Jupiter from The Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra.
Last week’s essay on March Forth reminded me of two favorite poems that I meant to share. On grief: The Thing Is by Ellen Bass. On spring: Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limón.
My friend Shannon wrote a powerful essay about her recent…brush with death? Sounds too dramatic but it’s true. For an author launching a new book this month, the timing is tough & she could use your support:
Other new books from writer-friends that I think you’ll love:
Create Anyway: The Joy of Pursuing Creativity in the Margins of Motherhood by Ashlee Gadd (
)A Home in Bloom: Four Enchanted Seasons with Flowers by Christie Purifoy
My Body and Other Crumbling Empires: Lessons for Healing in a World That Is Sick by
(check out the coupon on Amazon!)A surprising and thought-provoking read if your kids are board-game-obsessed like mine: Monopoly’s Lost Female Inventor.
SK Mooney shared this achingly beautiful poem for anyone who’s ever teared up at a children’s book: “Wondrous” by Sarah Freligh.
Finally, if you don’t know the Litany of Trust from the Sisters of Life, it’s a prayer for returning. Every time, a different line hits me between the eyes. The same might be true for you.
A question for you
I’m working on an extra essay for paid subscribers about a remarkable encounter I had at church last weekend. Which makes me wonder: where’s the last surprising place you caught a glimpse of God? A conversation with a friend, a stranger’s smile, an unexpected moment of beauty or source of hope—I’d love to hear it, big or small.
Thanks for sharing my book! The last surprising place I met God was in the bathtub :)
My surprising place to find God ... my daughter's Irish step class! Whenever my daughter misses a Thursday class, she can make up the lesson on Sunday morning. The trade off is she misses Mass with us as a family. I was feeling quite guilty as I dropped her off one Sunday morning while the rest of us headed to church 3 minutes down the road. However, when I walked in to pick her up I saw this group of girls leaping for the heavens perfectly in sync and my guilt began to melt. While we were in the pews reciting the prayers passed down from many generations, sitting, standing and kneeling in sync with other parishioners she was dancing a dance passed down from her ancestors and moving her body in sync with people she doesn't necessarily know very well but shares common interest with. She comes out of that lesson beaming, buzzing with a mystic vitality pumping through her veins ... not so far from the feeling we had walking out of Mass. I much prefer to have our oldest in the pews next to us and participating in Mass but I now see her Thursday classes as her own special, unique, and graceful dance with God.