Thursday Things #81

The thing that keeps making me cry, two poems on friendship, half a bajillion books (give or take), a song on repeat, and word of the year talk. 😭 💛 📚 🎶

Welcome! Every other Thursday, I share a handful of things I'm loving, reading, watching, listening to or just discovered. In other words . . . what I'd text you about if I had your number or mention if we met up for coffee! I'm so glad you're here. :)

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You can probably tell by the timestamp, but it has been A Day. I have big plans to press send and then immediately shut down all the devices, light a Christmas candle (I accept your judgement), curl up with a blanket and bury my nose in a book. I’ll pop in the comments tomorrow to read about the word you chose (more below), but for tonight—let’s get the good things. 😊

Still just as good…

Maybe we can begin here. Or, as it were, end the day here. This was both a comfort and a declaration Pre-All-The-Christmas-Songs . . . and as it turns out, it hasn’t let me go. It’s true of a few songs once again playing on repeat, actually, which likely means they’ll be sprinkled into the first few TT round-ups of 2023.

Maybe you could use these words, too. A comfort and a declaration all in one:

And I will build an altar

Stack it stone by stone

'Cause every ebenezer says I’ve never been alone

My faith will surely falter

But that don’t change what you’ve done

'Cause every ebenezer points to where my help comes from

Two poems on friendship

Highly recommend following poets on Instagram. Five stars. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Little known fact: I used to regularly write poetry, filling journals with sentences and stanzas. I’ll readily admit, though, as the reader I often feel like I don’t quite ‘get’ it, like I’m missing something. But—if a phrase jumps off the page (or the screen), I’m pausing to consider, accepting the invitation to sit with the words and reflect or exhale.

One line in particular stood out to me in each of the poems below. I wonder if the same is true for you? I’ll include the line below each image so you can sit with them on your own first! And of course, each one is linked to the account so you can follow along if you want.

“I’ll hold it for you.” (No surprise, really. It’s the sister to what my friends and I say to one another—I’ll hope for you—and nearly the exact title I proposed back when I turned in my January (in)courage article. (It’ll be live in a couple weeks.) Here’s to holding hope and carrying heartache and also, yes, bags of groceries for one another.)

“Take care of their names when they’re not in the room.”

Cue the tears.

I’ve blabbered on about The Chosen in Thursday Things before, so I’ll spare us both an essay of me raving on and on, but you guys? This season. THIS SEASON. Please tell me you’re watching?

Between this moment in episode two and, well, basically all of last Sunday’s episode (episode 5), I am just a blubbering mess who really should have invested stock in Kleenex.

I’ve prayed for physical healing for twelve years now.

Last summer, I wrote “Maybe this is the year my brain heals. Maybe not. But I’ll risk getting my hopes up & risk sharing this publicly for the first time, trusting that Hope will be the anchor and no matter the waves, I won’t sink.”

Last fall, I shared that the new treatment didn’t work, said I’m wrestling with the fact that it actually made things worse, told you that after all this time, after all these treatments and all these years of tears and prayers, hope is risky. And yet I know: Scripture says Hope will not put us to shame. It’s not a guarantee that healing comes on this side of eternity—but it is a promise that it is indeed on the way, and for now, there is a grace that sustains.

Last spring, a friend and I sat at a tiny table in an airport while waiting for our plane to board. She was finishing the final edits on her manuscript and, with a smile, said “read this” before slowly turning the screen around. I read and re-read her words (pictured below), a poem in a Word document inspired by a woman in Scripture.

Luke 8. The “woman with the issue of blood”, as she’s often called. But then there’s Jesus, naming her: Daughter. Twelve years of chronic pain and constant loss. Twelve years of hoping, of praying, of spending all she had only for things to get worse.

Seeing the story portrayed in the latest episode… her grief and her hope… met with the kindness and nearness of Jesus… it absolutely did me in. I know it’s a TV show, but my word. It was breathtakingly beautiful, the tenderness of Jesus.

“Have you watched the latest episode?” KJ called to ask. “I felt like it could have been you talking on the screen.”

Me too. Me too. I watched and I went through so many tissues and I thought of her poem, now bound in a book, pointing to the One who draws near and scatters suffering like dust.

from The Book of Common Courage, shared with permission

I told her I wanted to write about it but didn’t know if I could, if there could possibly be words.

This morning, with the birds already awake and chirping, I tossed and turned and begged for sleep. Insomnia is a beast and a thief. I fell asleep with dawn streaming through the blinds, but right before, I reached for my phone and typed a note. Words. Messy and honest and pain-filled, hope-full words.

He meets us. He draws near. He comes close. He names and does not put to shame.

It’s always been true.

But what a gift to see it portrayed.

(Go watch. Begin with season one. It’s worth every minute.)

All the book things.

A recap of favorite 2022 reads would be WAYYYYY more information than you’re interested in—trust me. But rarely does a week go by without someone asking me about a book suggestion, so I put together a collage of covers from last year. Of the 95 I read, these are the ones I gave 5 stars.

Plennnnnnnty to begin with! But should you want just a few more suggestions—and if by a few you actually mean 15—then this list is for you:

Happy reading! 😊😊😊

Word of the year.

2022: Joy.

2023: Rejoice.

It didn’t start off as a secret… I just didn’t feel ready to share it beyond my closest friends. (Although 100% yes I chuckled every time the word joy wove itself into a caption or article. There are always threads that tell the tale and honestly, that’s a whole sermon in and of itself. As Sophie Hudson would say “The Gospel is all over that!” I could ramble on just that one idea for 500 words but exactly no one needs that on a Thursday night, so let me close this and get back to it.) But then it became a hidden gift, a strange hide-and-seek-situation where ‘joy’ found me through conversations and prayers and Instagram DMs from strangers who said ‘I saw this post with a verse about joy. I thought of you and I’m not sure why, but here it is.’

It was a treasure hunt.

It was also an all out fight.

I waited until 2023 to say the word for 2022, and honestly I don’t think I ever would have shared except that I know ‘rejoice’ is meant to be public. Not because the fight is over, but because it isn’t.

Storms don’t stop just because the calendar pages turn.

But there is a thread running through (Oops. Brought it back.) and an actual anchor in the waves.

So. Yes to the treasure hunt. Yes to the fight. Yes to the challenge and the invitation to re-joy, to keep looking, confident that God’s goodness will be on these pages of the Story too.

I’m sure you’ll see more on joy/rejoice woven (LOL had to) into posts in the days to come, so I’ll stop here—but just know that if you’re sitting in the tension of the in between, choosing joy as the rain falls and finding that hope and heartache often hold hands, you are not alone and God will not let go. He might say, “Peace, be still” and calm the storm or He might show us how to walk on the waves that threaten to overtake, but no matter what, Hope is not going to let us sink.

P.S. I’m All The Way Here for traditions, so yes of course I have a new WOTY MudLove mug and it is 😍. Their mission is fantastic and I’m proud to support them. (Use code KAITLYN20 for 20% off anything on their site through 1/31.)

Do you choose a word of the year? (Or does one tend to choose you?) Click the “leave a comment” button below and share! I’d love to hear what word impacted you in 2022 or what word will be a banner over 2023.

P.s. If you’re subscribed to All The Things, the January print and lock screen will be on the way to you this weekend, scheduled to arrive as a Sabbath blessing to begin the new week. 📬