Thursday Things #108
Fake fire, the gift of lost stories, a lot of feelings about Wicked, good words, and the return of a podcast.
Every other Thursday, I share a handful of good things I'm loving, reading, watching, listening to or just discovered. AKA the random good stuff we’d talk about over coffee or text if we had one another’s phone number. I'm glad you're here!
Hi friend 😊
A real special combo of pounding headache & nausea has me arriving in your email inbox later than usual for TT, but we’re here, we’re making it, and thank goodness for the gift of a new day real soon. New morning, new mercies, you know?
Most of today was spent horizontal in a room with the lights off, so I’m crossing my fingers there are no broken links and sending quickly while I can, but there are too many Good Things saved in a list on my phone to skip this week. Words and music, art and an encouraging listen. Yes please to it all.
Back to regularly scheduled programming next time. :) For now . . . onto the random good stuff. As always, feel free to share one of your own recent finds in the comments!
The gift of Lost Stories.
Are we all going to refer to them as such now?
I could copy/paste the entire caption, but for the sake of space — and to point you straight to Scott — I’ll just share the last bit that I keep turning around:
May I see my lost-ness not as sign of being forgotten,
But a necessary preamble to the celebration of my belonging.
Click here or on the image below for the full prayer, inspired by 3 parables of “lost stories” in Scripture.
They’re back!
One of my never-miss podcasts took a five month break, but they’re back as of last week and if you’ve never listened, now is the perfect time to jump in. I’ve heard every episode and highly recommend it.
Here’s the official podcast blurb:
Welcome to Out of the Ordinary, the show that helps you grow a daily life that matters. In a world that loves bigger, better, fast, and famous, longtime friends and authors, Christie and Lisa-Jo, are here to remind you that the very best stories actually grow out of the soil of ordinary life.
Netflix: Fireplace for your home
We all know this, I’m guessing, but let this be a gentle reminder that Netflix has two “television shows” of a fire crackling in a fireplace and I’m just here to say it’s a lovely addition to your living room year-round. For whatever reason I tend to only remember these exist between Thanksgiving-Christmas. I guess it feels holiday/wintery to me? But it turns out they’re (obviously) still just as cozy in February. I mean I probably won’t play these as background noise through the blazing furnace of the summer, nothankyou, but for now? While reading a few chapters each night? It’s a yes for me.
More good words.
I came across these sentences, tucked within the poem Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower by Rainer Maria Rilke, and thought I’d share them with you here . . . may they encourage you, the pinprick of a lighthouse glowing in the distance, a reminder that you are seen even in the dark.
(Reminds me of the verse that says of God, “even the darkness is not dark to you.” My phrasing? Even in the deepest depths, and despite the darkest night, I am —we are— always seen by the One who sees it all. It isn’t to say that God sends the dark, but that He sees us in it, walks with us through it, and redeems every night. (Don’t even get me started on Revelation 22:5, how night will be no more. Yours truly, the girl with a decade+ of chronic insomnia until 4-5am, could do laps just thinking about the layers of goodness in those words.))
Quiet friend who has come so far…
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength
- Rainer Maria Rilke
The remix I didn’t know I needed.
Wicked has my whole heart for my whole life and there will never, I repeat never, be a Broadway musical that takes its place. I’m not going to say juuuuuust how many times I’ve seen it, but it’s not reallllllly an exaggeration to say I know it by heart. Ahem. 💚💕
The obsession deep love for Elphie and Glinda the Good (formerly known as Galinda, toss toss) began in high school and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. Right before It All Began in 2020, I took a quick solo trip to New York in the fall and saw the show from the front, my early birthday gift. When I tell you I had zero chill, what I mean to say is that I don’t think I stopped smiling the entire show. (Or after when meeting GC, let’s be honest.)
I say all that to set the scene, or the stage as it were, so you know when I see there’s a new remix of the music I learned to play on the piano a decade ago, I have my own mix of hesitancy/anticipation/dread/excitement. Could it be great? For sure. (See: any videos where past Elphabas or Glindas do a mashup, or the #OutOfOz studio session series) It could also be really weird or just not that good. You know? It almost has to be so different that it stands on its own, not competing with the original.
(Apparently I have a lot of thoughts and opinions and words about this. Oops? Apologies… except not if this is your intro to Wicked The Musical. In that case, to quote the girl who comes and goes by bubble, “you’re welcome.” (lol))
ANYWAY. Then this appeared in my Instagram feed.
Defying Gravity but make it disco funk?
Oh.Kay.
(If you want to save/share/rewatch a dumb amount of times on IG, they currently only have part one and part two up.)
Live footage of me the first time I heard 3:36
Quick reminder:
So, this kind of blew me away. Hundreds of y’all have entered across the four book giveaways, many leaving an extra message to say how much you or someone you love need a message like this one.
Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll draw winners from all four book giveaways (feel free to enter multiple places). But I’m thinking . . . maybe March needs another giveaway of 100 Days, based on your comments. So! Please do enter now, if you’re interested, and stay tuned for another.
Okay, I’m pressing send, laying back down, and promptly hitting play on a certain Broadway album. :) 💚
Happy Thursday to you, friend! Thanks for being here. I hope your day held many good things, and if not, that you too are resting in the promised new mercies and manna of tomorrow.
WOW! Just Wow!! 😮 Thank you for sharing the Defying Gravity video. WOW!