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April 2013

What I'm Into (March 2013 Edition)

03/29/2013

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There's nothing better than when Erin and her family come for their yearly visit to Nashville. Erin, Tracy, and I have been friends for over 17 years now. This makes me feel old and yet incredibly lucky. Last weekend was a blur of laughter, tears, and activity. I love groaning at Mark and Joel's jokes and seeing my nieces-in-love play together. But most of all, I love when Erin, Tracy, and I steal away for a little bit. It's as if time never passed at all.

 

Read and Reading:

I finally read Kate Morton's newest work The Secret Keeper and it might edge out The Distant Hours as my favorite of hers. I didn't see the twist coming at all!

A friend gave me The House of Belonging for Christmas. Whyte's work is worth reading for the title poem and The Truelove alone.

Mudhouse Sabbath (Winner) is short but rich. Beautiful examination of how Jewish traditions can inform Christian spiritual disciplines.

My review of Shauna Niequist's Bread & Wine is coming soon. Spoiler alert: it's Shauna's best work yet.

I'm trying to be better about listing all the books I read over at Goodreads. And for those of you looking for recommendations, I started Pinterest boards for my fiction and nonfiction recommendations, comprised of books with 4 or 5 star ratings. You're welcome.

Currently reading: The Omnivore's Dilemma (Pollan), A Homemade Life (Wizenberg), Quiet (Cain), Walking on Water (L'Engle),  When Helping Hurts (Corbett and Fikkert).

(I read 10 books this month.)

 

TV:

Must-see TV: Once Upon a Time,  Psych, Rachel Zoe Project, Vampire Diaries, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

The Americans stresses me out every time I watch it. I'm never quite caught up but I still find it completely fascinating.

I'm so excited the second season of Call the Midwife starts Sunday!

 

Music:

New Discovery: Penny and Sparrow, Kris Orlowski, Anais Mitchell

Patty Griffin has a new album coming out May 7!!!!!

I saw The Mowgli's and Family of the Year at 3rd & Lindsley a few nights ago. I came across both bands earlier this year and couldn't pass up a $10 show. I love living in Nashville.

 

Best Videos:

From the guy who made the best proposal video, a video that made me ugly cry.

 

Now that you're drying your tears, here's a Disney princess spoof to make you laugh.

 

 

  Things I Love:

  • I've got this friend who is like my fairy godmother. After I posted a picture asking if a foundation sample could count as "own something Chanel" on my Life List, she sent me this and I promptly died:

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  • Preston's Sacramental Baking e-course is changing my life. It's been a rough season but maybe there's fallow ground after all. If Preston offers this again, you need to sign up. No questions asked.
  • Food memoirs. While I've read a couple every year for the last few years, I am on a legitimate food-related book craze lately. Can't get enough.
  • Visiting my friend Lora Lynn! I haven't seen her since last fall and decided to go visit her and her family for a couple of days. Don't worry: she's promised to make sure I stay on task with writing.

 

 

  What I'm Into site

What I'm Into Link Up Guidelines:

1. Today’s link-up will stay up for one week. The next What I'm Into link up will be Tuesday April 30.

2. Link the unique URL of your post, not your blog's home page. Readers peruse link ups months after the fact and you want to make it easy for them to find your What I'm Into post.

3. Please include the What I'm Into button or mention you're linking up to What I'm Into at HopefulLeigh.

 

 

What have you been into this month?

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Posted at 07:03 AM in Music, Reading, What I'm Into | | Comments (39)

This Is How We Met: Fiona Koefoed-Jespersen's Story

03/04/2013

The This Is How We Met series is much more occasional these days but when reader Fiona sent me her story, I knew it was a keeper. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do!

 

It was a stunning May day, one of those with the heat of summer but still the fresh smell of spring. I left the small dark church with its pews and stained glass into the freedom of this glorious day and walked down the long hill to the Sunday market. There I found the stall with the freshly baked quiches and ordered one in my stuttering French.

I was heading for the park, where my roommate and her church friends were gathering for a picnic lunch, friends who I’d been getting to know the last couple of months, who were becoming my friends.

I attended this traditional Presbyterian church across the city, but she’d been pestering me for months to come to hers – the way they spoke of church was exactly what I was espousing in some of our late-night, wine-fuelled rants, she would tell me. And I’d shrug and say, maybe, but it’s a scary thing to start trying to practise what you preach.

That Sunday, wearing my prettiest sundress because the day seemed to call for it, I was really looking forward to the picnic. I wandered across the large park, the triumphant arches towering over it all, and found the group already spread out across rugs and blankets – a beautiful mix of Belgian, Lebanese, American, Bosnian, Icelandic...

And one Danish man. I did the normal Belgian round of the group, one quick kiss on the cheek for each friend, a slightly more awkward kiss on the cheek for each stranger. I still wasn’t used to these new customs yet. I sat down next to my roommate, sharing delicious tabbouleh with a Lebanese couple, and we chatted our way through the afternoon. 

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Sometime late afternoon, as they were all getting ready to leave for church, they got a call. The bar they usually met in had been closed by the council. The decision was taken fast – well, we’ll just do church here then!  I glanced around awkwardly as a guitar was produced. It would be super weird for me to leave now right? Even though it wasn’t really my church? I guess I could stay.

I stayed and loved it. And afterwards, as a smaller group decided to head to a nearby restaurant and consider the next steps for their enthusiastic but stranded little church, I was ushered along with them and found myself sitting next to this young Danish man. 

I liked him straight away. He was quiet but enthusiastic, a gentle strength to him. He would listen to everyone else speak, and then give his own thoughtful opinion, bringing together what everyone else was saying. I was drawn into the discussion and we finally agreed that for the coming few weeks we’d meet at his flat for church, because it was close to a Catholic church where 150 immigrants were on hunger strike to receive their papers, and we wanted to visit them. 

It was exciting and inspiring, this mishmash group of people from all over the world, desperate to figure out where Jesus would be, what he would be doing, and do it themselves in their city.

The sun was setting when we parted way at the metro entrance, saying goodbye and promising this Danish man I’d see him next Sunday – part of the church without even realising how it had happened - before he got on his bike and cycled away. Oh, he’s a cyclist too, I thought, impressed. 

Three years later and packing all our belongings to move to Luxembourg, I’d lift the bike off its rack, on the wall of the flat we’d met for church in so many Sundays, where we’d got to know each other as good friends, led church together, where I’d flirted shamelessly until he’d asked me out. The flat where we’d slowly fallen in love, where we’d first kissed, where he’d asked me to marry him. 

I’d brush the dust off the bike and laugh to remember that first impression of the man I’d married, who’d cycled all of two times since then...

  2012-10-07 09-42-10-3Photo by Almyra Knevel Persson

Fiona is married to her Danish husband, Rasmus, who she met in a park five years ago. They currently live in Luxembourg, where she is a wedding and events planner. She loves throwing parties and dinners, gathering people together, seeing the new friendships and plans that emerge. She loves seeing people find their role in God’s big story. Her one word for the year is Joy.

Blog: http://fionalynne.com/blog/

Twitter: @fiona_lynne

Posted at 08:00 AM in Guest Posts, This Is How We Met | | Comments (15)

Matriarch-in-Training

03/01/2013

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Once the visitation for my aunt started, I tried to keep to the edges, darting into the middle of the fray only as needed. Hundreds upon hundreds of people poured into the church hall to pay their respects. I checked in with various family members to see how they were holding up. I helped a second cousin set up the food she'd brought us and then let everyone know where it was. I hugged people in the receiving line and listened to their stories about Aunt Sue.

Then I would find a chair and sit, giving my feet and myself a break. But still, I'd talk and listen and counsel. Bereavement counselor that I am, I poured into others for a few hours that evening. It comes naturally to me. Taking care of others is in my blood.

Our family has experienced more loss than anyone should. I worked for the same hospice that cared for my great-aunt and grandma and shepherded my family through those goodbyes. My cousins looked to me for support and I gave it.

I found a role in my family without even looking for it...

 

Please head over to A Deeper Family to read the rest.

Posted at 08:09 AM in Grief and Loss, We Are Family | | Comments (0)