October replay + a question for you 🍁🎥
A better end, not the bitter end. (Okay but truly, thank God for God.)
I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.
“Hope plays the long game.” (June)
“Hope is not a liar.” (August)
“We hold onto hope, even in the darkest of dark. Not because it erases our pain, but because it points to a better end, not the bitter end.” (October)
There’s a hope-full thread woven through our most recent All The Things author calls + book club. From what y’all have shared with me and with one another in ATT each month, I know I’m not the only one who needs the ongoing reminder, another knot in a rope to hold onto in the midst of All Of This *waves hands around at the world.*
Hope will hold.
And apparently, Hope will just keep on showing up book after book, conversation after conversation, month after month.
Access to the replay of our October Author Call is below, plus a few links and a question about another ATT extra. (This would be in addition to what we talked about adding in last week, not in place of . . . gah, so many fun things coming before the end of the year!)
One more quick thing before the October wrap-up: Did you seeeeee?! Holley talked a little bit about y’all + our August chat . . . and she wrote an article expanding on one of the questions asked. It’s called For the One Who Is Trying to Hold On to Hope. Please see: I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.
Some of the things we talked about on our October call:
How our actual place, our surroundings, our home impacts who we are and who we’re becoming
The cost and the gift of putting roots down
The beautiful impact of our grief on generations to come
Not rushing through or stuffing grief, but trusting that eventually you will find a way to hold the tension of both/and — what was and what is now
“Where is Jesus in the midst of loss and grief…”
Having ‘permission’ to be angry
“We are not the first, the last, or the only.”
Navigating grief + ordinary days after loss as a person who is single
The answer that’s the anchor in shifting seasons
The vulnerability of saying to God, “I trust You”
Sitting with and showing up for friends who are grieving
Going first (with honesty, not denying or diminishing)
The backstory of the book cover (I MEAN. Actually genius.)
What Melissa would go back and say, much like Louisa later wrote in the margins of her old journals, if she could tell herself something as she was living the book and as she was writing the book
The puzzle pieces of little details providing hope in the dark
More good words from Melissa:
A number of y’all said how much What Cannot Be Lost meant to you, that you’ve read it multiple times now, etc. So you probably already know this, but just in case . . . have you read Melissa’s first book? They go together beautifully.
I have the hardcover on my bookshelf but because Melissa reads it herself, I downloaded the audiobook too. (P.s. If you have Audible Plus, it’s free there! Just know you’ll likely find yourself pausing, reaching for a pen and notepad, and replaying several parts.)
AND → I just need to make sure you’ve seen the ‘If Books of The Bible Had Theme Songs’ series from Melissa on Instagram?!? We ran out of time to talk about it live, but just start HERE and enjoy. A delight. An actual delight.
Behind the screen:
Okay so the polls I put up in the All The Things Insta Stories a few days ago? Wow to your overwhelming ‘yes’ to the idea about a potential new November/December bonus. I have another surprise already in the works, but we’re absolutely going to make this extra extra happen too!
So here’s my next question:
Do we also want an All The Things ‘Voxer Chat Come To Life’ with me, Melissa, and Aliza (as mentioned in the recording)? All things friendship, writing and social media, single lady life, dating, theology, etc? Our Voxer thread is hands down one of my absolute favorite things. You saw me get teary about it (them) on the call so I’ll spare you a repeat of mushy words about Exodus come to life, and instead I’ll just ask — thoughts? Yes, no?