Thursday Things #122
Soft thoughts & hot takes & good words & thriller.
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!
We have a new entry to my personal favorite Top 3 Halloween costumes1 over the years:
It’s the actual easiest + the most fun when someone says “Wait, what are you?” and then their eyes light up when you spin around. “OH! A plot twist!”
I am not a Halloween person, but you best believe I’ll be watching Insta and Facebook tonight to see all my little cousins dressed up in the yearly family theme! Whatever your plans today/tonight, I hope it’s a good Thursday.
October began with a mention of Anne Shirley, so it’s only fitting that we bookend the month with these words from Lucy Maud Montgomery:
September slipped by into the gold and crimson graciousness of October.
September, tick, October, tock, November — here we go.
Time for the good things.
“Thriller” but make it this.
It’s just that every time the minute ends, I start it over again. What a voice!
Soft thoughts and hot takes: the election season version.
This, please:
P.s. If you saw my comment on
’s post ^ and, a few days later, thought “oh that must be the wavelength post!” when you saw my “soft thoughts” Instagram image—consider yourself 100% spot on. :)
Two books that keep coming up in conversations.
You probably recognize these two from the fall book list, but highlighting them here feels timely and important. They each keep coming up in convos with friends, so file this under “the random good stuff we’d talk about over coffee or text if we had one another’s phone number.”
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a local lecture from
, and I promise you I tried to be semi-chill afterwards as I shared with her my genuine appreciation for The Mary We Forgot… but I can’t say I succeeded LOL. It’s well-researched, approachable, thought-provoking, encouraging and care-fully written.I have 76 highlights between it and Steve Bezner’s book, Your Jesus is Too American.
Full of truth and written with grace, it’ll make you think and invite you to wrestle. I’m still thinking about portions of the book two months after reading an ARC, and am anxious to discuss it more in depth with friends now that the book is available.
So I think this is my favorite anniversary post.
Take your pick:
Resurrection is not a story to keep to ourselves
If our kids ever dig through these archives, I want them to know that our love was the best story I never told.
The audacious resilience of love and the miracle of still being here, together.
The writing cabin is far from finished; so are we. But the smallest, uncelebrated moments are a marvel, too, aren’t they?
Yes and amen and dang, if an anniversary-related post didn’t make this single gal a little teary with the beauty and honesty of it. (I hope you’re following
?)
Happy “the end” day.
According to my camera roll, at 4:52pm on Halloween I finished the very last edit of Even If Not. A parade of princesses and firefighters and superheroes walked by outside the coffee shop as I blinked back tears, smiling at the cursor blinking back next to “The End.”
Last week, a friend and I stood in the church parking lot talking about how it’s honestly just so much easier to say the words than to live them and I declared all over again that I’d like to write about desserts or traveling next time, thankyouverymuch.
You think you’re writing about what’s happened before, telling the story of what you’ve already lived—and that’s true. But let me tell you what no one told me: you keep living it out as you write and then, also, for the rest of your actual life. Because the question is, do you (still) believe it? Do the words hold true?
I do. And they do. But also, yummy desserts and fun trips on repeat sounds nice.
Things feel wild and from your response to this blessing, I know many of you would say it’s A Lot where you are, too. The waves keep coming, stress is rising, emails keep arriving, the to-do list is stretching, the rain keeps falling, pain is multiplying, and people we love are hurting.
When I wrote the final sentence of Even If Not on a Halloween afternoon, I didn’t know the storms that would come… but I can tell you this, this truth that we held to and repeated last night during the live Zoom call for All The Things subscribers: The wind and the waves still know His name. Even when the waters rise, He’s still good on every single page of the story. He is what holds true in every high and low and in between.
It’s Halloween again. The rain is falling. And: God is still good.
Both/and. Praise God, He’s faithful and present in the “and” (&) of it all. God doesn’t leave when the waters rise; He’s with us in the boat, in both the hope & the heartbreak.
The middle place you find yourself in?
It isn’t “The End.” 💛
Have a good rest of your Thursday, friend!
P.s. If you’re a paid subscriber, the replay of last night’s book club Zoom call (with my parents popping in!) is now available.
Bookshop affiliate links are used in this post.
The others: Belle from Beauty and the Beast & Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz (I was Dorothy multiple times, with the entire family dressing on theme one year!). Basically: I’ve loved books/reading & Wicked for a very, very, very long time. Add in a plot twist as a writer and we have the Top 3.