Thursday Things #144
Happy mail, flowers, a video I can't quit and an instant add to cart.
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!
I’m jumping right in today because there’s a writing deadline looming large. As of this morning I can publicly say that yours truly will be writing for Hallmark starting next month.
The invitation is to ‘write a devotional for a mostly secular audience’, and I’ll admit that the unknown of it has me going back and forth between which story to share. After all, it’s a new-to-me audience (that goes both ways: the vast majority of readers don’t know me or my words at all + I have no idea who will receive or see the words via Hallmark’s email list and website). It’s a bit daunting, but I laughed to myself this morning when I remembered that in some ways, it’s strangely full-circle. It’s brand new and unknown, yes, but it’s also somewhat familiar. In 2012 I signed Hallmark paperwork and became the first (in)tern at (in)courage. That turned into a part-time job, which later turned into DaySpring and (in)courage (which are owned by Hallmark) becoming one of my long-time VA clients, and eventually I also joined the (in)courage monthly contributor team. I’ve technically been writing for Hallmark, in one way or another, on either a daily or monthly basis since 2012 (with a gap of a year or so in there).
It’s a new audience in a new space, but it’s also not.
Like most (all?) new things, hello also holds a goodbye of some sort. I’m thankful to have known in advance that my December article (below) would not only close out the year, but would also be my final devo published at incourage.me—a website, a community, a place that has shaped me significantly. It’s been part of my life for half my life—literally. I started reading along every day as a high school student! Sometimes seasons shift and chapters close and you find yourself with gratitude in one hand and questions in the other. I may write more about it in the days to come, I honestly don’t know right now—it’s woven into so much of my life that there’s a lot of process in both the hello and the goodbye—but I simply want to acknowledge that the picture is still being painted and it’s right to say this surprise story is more than just one thing. But whatever it is, whatever it becomes, there is, still, this: God is good at the long game.
I’ll share the piece with you after it’s published in March, but for now I’d certainly appreciate your prayers as I draft the devo this week/weekend. :) (Thank you.)
I’ve got 4 more Good Things already saved for next time, but the deadline is calling so we’re slipping these in and saying thanksbetogod for the good still to come.
Here’s to the small, the random, the ordinary and beautiful, the good in the right here and now.
Evidence.
“I am coming home to a place I’ve never been and still I’ve always known.”
Beautiful.
Happy mail.
After sharing pictures of my tree forest(s) in Thursday Things #142, one of y’all asked “Could I mail a hand carved wooden tree your way to add to the collection?”
Umm, yes hello please and thank you! Diane’s kind gift arrived a few days before Valentine’s Day, and while it’s “just a day”, it still holds all sorts of thoughts and feelings for many of us, yeah? Some years this, some years that, but still, something.
A dear friend sent an “I see you” Starbucks gift card my way, knowing I write so many of these words holed up in my local Starbucks and would likely swing through over the weekend for a Valentine’s Day cup or to draft a new post. I did—and then I went home to unwrap the treasure from Diane. I gasped as I gingerly tore the paper away, then placed it among the others and stood there admiring the forest (that is absolutely still up in February—happy day to me) with an iced coffee in hand. There are bills and ads and junk mail showing up every ding dang day in mailboxes and inboxes. But happy mail, physical or digital, is 1000% a good thing.
PS If you’re part of All The Things and support my writing through being a paid subscriber, a little gift is currently en route to your mailbox. :)
Buy The Flowers Day.
On that note, happy Buy The Flowers Day to all who celebrate. Long before Miley was singing about it, we were doing it.
Here’s to on-purpose celebrations, stubborn declarations, and reminders of redemption that appear like clockwork on the calendar. Here’s to holding the tension of the two, of grief and joy at the very same time, and daring to look anyway.
Instant add to cart.
This is for my fellow gals who want to be cozy and comfortable, with minimal effort, and would prefer to wear what feels like pajamas but is presentable and put-together-enough for errands, a walk at a local trail, or meeting a friend for coffee.
I got you.
Please see: the Aerie Très Chic Chenille Sweatshirt. I came across it thanks to Melanie Shankle, and I promptly clicked Add To Cart because it’s the kind of thing I will wear for an actual decade and it was 70% off. I do love the rugged green, but I have a similar thrifted light green sweatshirt (that I wear probably too often and that assured me this $18 would be money well spent) so your girl now owns the deep cherry and has, as of this writing, worn it twice in four days.
Don’t @ me, just thank me.
LOL is that the dumbest thing I’ve ever written? Possibly. Very possibly. But I’m telling you, this sweatshirt is good. They’re still 70% off and I’m not going to tell you how much self-control it’s taking to not grab the green one too, but let’s just say that’s not minimal effort.
Can’t stop, won’t stop.
I’m just waiting for Instagram to bill me for the number of times I’ve watched this video.
The talent! The key change! The joy!
Scars and miracles.
(in)courage re-published one of my older writings last month and the comment section had me blinking tears, hand over heart, moved by the words left with care on a post that was originally published five years earlier… a post that begins with what is both an old story and an always-present reality, something that arrives again with every haircut and still crosses my mind when I finagle my hair into a ponytail or lopsided top-knot.
The scars are still there.
But then, the miracles are too.
Time has passed so the original dates are no longer accurate (what was eleven is now nearly sixteen), but the truth holds. If you’d like to read it—maybe it would meet you where you are today, all these years later?—I’ll leave you with this link:
What If Scars Are Actually Miracles Written on Skin?
I sit quietly in the chair as hair falls to the ground. She works quickly and with each snip of the scissors, another question comes my way: Remind me what you do for work? Are you dating anyone? Did…
I’ve been slowly putting together a new collection of words (like this one) for this in-between time, lines I keep returning to and turning over, here in the days of winter firmly hanging on even as spring slowly starts to poke through. Is there a quote, verse, song lyric or sentence that you keep going back to? I’d love to hear. 💛
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