Years ago on American Idol, when they still aired the show several times a week (Girls perform! Now guys perform! One more night for results!) they used to ask the contestants to share something weird about themselves that no one knew.
During that segment, Melinda Doolittle explained how a weird quirk of hers was if one of her hands got wet, she needed to get the other hand wet to even things out. Same with her feet. She just felt more comfortable in a world where here limbs were equal temperature.
I thought that was so weird that it stuck with me. Until that very next day I washed off my right hand and immediately watched myself get my left hand wet too even though I didn’t need to. What is happening?!
As it turns out, that’s one of my weird quirks, too. Maybe we all do it? Strange or not, I think it is something in me that longs for balance in so many areas but I didn’t realize it until Melinda named it for me.
All summer I have felt like one hand is cold while the other is warm, one foot wet, the other bone dry. I haven’t yet found a rhythm to settle into and finally, here at the beginning of August, I’m realizing maybe that is the rhythm – the one of no predictable schedule to depend on, no balanced out days. The rhythm is defined by the need and the now and the waiting.
And so in the midst of this imbalanced jumble of days, here are a few things keeping me sane this summer:
1. Christie Purifoy’s first book, Roots & Sky, won’t release until February 2016 but I got my hands on an early copy. Go ahead and click on my affiliate link to her book and pre-order your copy or at least add it to your wishlist because it is a beautiful narrative of finding home and discovering the kingdom of God right where we are. I’ve enjoyed spending my mornings with her.
2. Our local farmer’s market embraced us like an old friend on Saturday. We went for the first time in a while and I forgot how much I love it there. We bought some peaches, a basil plant, and local honey from a friend. She even threw in our favorite lip balm for free, one for each person in the family. There is something healing about walking through row after row of local plants and farmers.
3. Practicing celebrating my smallness every Tuesday with you on Instagram has been so much fun. As of now we have 8,450 photos in the stream – that’s 8,450 regular moments captured on Tuesdays so far this year, remembered because we marked them. It’s a lovely stream just to scroll through. Even lovelier if you join in! (Check out #itssimplytuesday here and find me here on instagram).
4. The sunflowers in our backyard are growing out of control. But isn’t that what summertime is for? To grow a little beyond our own limits, to stretch out in the sunlight, to see the beauty in falling petals?
5. With a book releasing in 16 days (!!) it’s helping me to have some people to partner with to help get the word out. I have an amazing launch team who have been such a support. Also (in)courage is hosting me for a 3-day email series you can sign up for right here. When you do, you’ll automatically be entered to win all these fun things.
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