When John brings a bouquet home from the grocery store, the routine is almost always the same.
He takes those long stems still gathered in v-shaped plastic and sticks them in a drinking glass filled one inch with water, still held together with a twice-wrapped rubber band.
When I see this tightly wound love offering displayed in my kitchen, I know it’s my turn.
Cut the rubber band. Remove the plastic. Separate the stems. Throw out any baby’s breath (ew). Find the right container. Trim the stems. Arrange. Display. Enjoy.
Last year on Valentines Day, it was this same routine, long stems in a drinking glass left for me to cut and arrange.
Those flowers died a week or so later but the greenery hung on. And on and on. So long that now it’s October and just this week, the greenery from my Valentines Day flowers finally started to turn to yellow.
These stems have no business still being here. They weren’t meant to last through February, much less see all of spring, live on through summer, and now all the way into fall.
It’s so regular but it’s also kind of blowing my mind.
I realize that, in recent years especially in the corners of the Internet around which I run, it’s become the “in” thing to see the beauty in the everyday things: to notice, to slow, to pay close attention. I know some people roll their eyes about all that, make cynical Saturday Night Live-like sketches in their heads about the gift to be found in the orb of a bubble of dish soap.
Personally? I love everything about this movement to notice, to see, to finally pay attention.
I believe this is a step in the right direction and I am here for it in every single way. How can we possibly live our lives grateful or content if we don’t first notice the life we are actually living? How can we begin to move gracefully toward the people around us without stomping all over their nuance if we don’t first take the time to listen and see?
This is step one. This is breathing in and out, noticing the world spinning around us, noticing ourselves as we spin.
But this is only step one. When it comes to step two and beyond, things can get fuzzy at best, heavy and hopeless at worst. How can noticing the moments we’re living begin to change anything in this broken open world?
This is where I begin to look for teachers, people for whom paying attention is making a difference, mentors who tell me how paying attention is changing the world.
Maybe our country is divided more than ever or maybe it’s always been this way and we’re finally talking about it I don’t know. But here’s what I do know: conversations are hard and solutions can feel complicated and that can cause us all to numb out, shut it down, and dive deep into distraction.
And this is where step one can lead us into step two if we’re willing.
“We might have a zillion reasons to be jaded about our world, but that is not the kind of person I want to be. I want to be someone who clings to the grace and the gift and the good. Rather than spend my days scanning the digital horizon for a dopamine hit of false comfort, I want to keep my ear tuned to the groanings of my place.” — Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places
In Shannan Martin, I have found my teacher. You will not see her face on the side of a tour bus. You will not see her on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday (at least, not yet). But if you’re looking for a step beyond paying attention, I hope you’ll find her book.
Because in a world where hope seems dim and solutions feel complicated and partisan, Shannan offers us a starting point that is as radical as it is domestic: widen your circle, hush your mouth, and lock eyes with the world you’re in.
And this is where I tell you how I wish, just for today, I had never met Shannan Martin.
Because she has written a book that is, in my opinion, one of the best books of 2018, and I worry you will think because she is my friend, that somehow it discounts my opinion of her writing, her message, and her brilliance.
Here’s what you need to know: My love for Shannan’s writing came first.
I read her before I knew her, I followed her before I met her, and I was influenced by her before we ever stood side-by-side and I realized how tall she is in real life.
She often says she found her voice in the country and her story in the city and I was there for all of it. I read as a stranger from hundreds of miles away when she wrote from her flower patch in Indiana and I fell, head over heels, with the way she could turn a phrase.
But slowly, over time, the gospel of Jesus turned her upside down and her writing changed as she did – the wells deeper, the voice richer, the courage more pronounced.
Her second book, The Ministry of Ordinary Places, releases into the world today and I have a hunch that if Shannan was a stranger to me, maybe you would trust me more when I tell you how much I loved this book.
This is the right book for this moment in time and I simply cannot get over it. I either laughed or cried on almost every page. We need these lyrical, prophetic words now more than ever before.
Because it’s one thing to see the tightly wound love offering in one inch of water. But it’s another thing altogether to engage it, to cut the rubber band, remove the plastic, separate the stems. Shannan shows us how.
“Living an on-the-ground, available-and-engaged, concerned-for-our-neighbors lifestyle . . . means we’ll have to unlearn what we’ve wrongly absorbed about how people are and what they deserve.”
— Shannan Martin
This book will be a kind friend to you if you have ever:
- felt broken hearted over the state of the world but don’t know where to begin to make a difference
- wanted to hide in the hallway when someone knocks on your front door
- wriggled in your seat at the back of the church because you’re not getting anything out of the sermon anymore
This book taught me how to see, how to stay, and how to get over myself. I’m grateful to Shannan for living her one life well and writing it all down.
Shannan Martin is a speaker and writer who found her voice in the country and her story in the city.
She and her jail-chaplain husband, Cory, have four funny children who came to them across oceans and rivers.
They enjoy neighborhood life in Goshen, Indiana, a place they fall more in love with every year. Get your copy of The Ministry of Ordinary Places right here today.
I’m honored to share this post in glad partnership with Thomas Nelson.
jasm Elliot says
October 9, 2018 at 7:07 AMThanks for the post
Heidi says
October 9, 2018 at 7:13 AMI listened to her podcast with Annie Downs and have been BREATHLESS with anticipation for this one! I, too, have read her writing for years, but I think this one will be special, much-needed, a gift.
xo Heidi
jenn in GA says
October 9, 2018 at 8:22 AMi have many of the same feels about Shannan as a teacher and a writer. thanks for sharing her work with your people.
Misty says
October 9, 2018 at 8:42 AMProps to your greenery! This is amazing! (perhaps it was a nod in solidarity towards your disregard of babies breath because EW is right! How did that ever become the filler elected to accompany most floral arrangements? I DO NOT GET IT.) moving on… the “movement” is so perfectly fitted to illustrating reality. Like how healthy food trends end up gravitating away from authenticity and moving towards other things. People love to say this, but still, so few genuinely embrace it. I imagine THIS is the reason for the cynicism.
I’m all for embracing the moment and slowing down, for real. Let the haters hate, they know they’re fake anyway. (Right? I mean sure, it could be a Taylor Swift song, or maybe it is… It’s true at any rate.) I posted on IG yesterday about laundry, being tired and streaming sunlight because it wasn’t just beautiful, it was UGLY and beautiful. That is the moment.
Shannan says
October 9, 2018 at 9:19 AMJust one hour ago I said with a lot of optimism, “I don’t think I’m going to cry today!” Wrong. This undid me. Thank you for finding me and being found by me all those years ago. Our words introduced us. We owe them a party of some kind.
Lisa-Jo Baker says
October 9, 2018 at 9:21 AMYes yes yes to all of this!! Perfectly putting Shannan into words. And this metaphor made my eyes brim:
“Because it’s one thing to see the tightly wound love offering in one inch of water. But it’s another thing altogether to engage it, to cut the rubber band, remove the plastic, separate the stems. Shannan shows us how.”
Sandy Burch says
October 9, 2018 at 9:24 AMThank you, Emily for sharing this. It indeed sounds like “what the world needs now”.
I trust your judgement, having read/heard you over the years, so I’m stopping by the bookstore on my way home today.
We are what the world needs but we need help shaking off the junk that’s continually being slopped on us. The strong presence of Jesus is so necessary but we truly need a bit more clarity to take that second step and turn it into more.
Again… thanks!!
Simi says
October 9, 2018 at 9:26 AMSo I don’t know if you know but you were sent Emily. I have been struggling with my call to connect people to their own story in order to help them share it. I sense that I looked at this today because the Lord wants me to get better at looking at the ordinary. He really wants me to see what is there and get good at it and it seems Shannan will be a mentor for me too. Thank you so very much for sharing about her book!!!
Sarah M says
October 9, 2018 at 10:02 AMI had noticed the cover –it’s such a beautiful cover — and now seeing it here, that’s a definite “yes” from me…can’t wait to read it!
Dianne says
October 9, 2018 at 10:06 AMThank you for this post because I apparently pre-ordered the Kindle veraion of her book – likely from something you said or wrote – and when its arrival was announced via email late last night, the book sounded good, though I had no idea how I’d come to place a pre-order. Now it is all clear and I’m excited to read it.
Zhanna says
October 9, 2018 at 10:07 AMMaybe you should take a look at babies breath a little closer. Every flower is beautiful. And babies breath is so delicate and shines in its own beautiful way. Since this post is about really seeing the ordinary and noticing the details 🙂
Meghan says
October 9, 2018 at 11:01 AMI agree Zhanna! One of my favorite things is a little vase with JUST the baby’s breath. And I also stick it in the bare spots on my Christmas tree. ❤️
Lucy says
October 9, 2018 at 10:38 PMYes, yes, yes to baby’s breath!
Michelle says
October 9, 2018 at 10:40 AMI did exactly this with my Valentine’s day flowers! I only had to toss the last green stem a couple weeks ago. I have contemplated asking the florist if I could get a bouguet of just the greenery, haha! They are beautiful. I haven’t read anything of Shannan, but did just order her book!
Lorraine says
October 9, 2018 at 11:06 AMI’ve been following since the flower patch and it has been so incredibly amazing to watch God draw her in deeper and deeper to His extraordinary/ordinary love. This book is so so good, just about every page is underlined or highlighted and I imagine that when I go back and read it again, those pages that were untouched will have their time with the pen 🙂
I feel like I could use a solid month alone with this book to really truly process all that it holds within its pages. Kudos to Shannan for being obedient, vulnerable and beautifully ordinary <3
Debby says
October 9, 2018 at 11:17 AMThe title got my attention but your sincere words have me all in on this. Thank you. Yes, we need this in these days.
Leigh says
October 9, 2018 at 1:09 PMEmily,
You’ve proven yourself trustworthy to me and no doubt to anyone who spends some time “with” you. Therefore, your recommendation of Shannan’s book is not suspect to me! I’ll be ordering it as soon as I return home. Thank you!
Nita Beshear says
October 9, 2018 at 3:05 PMWill be looking for it. The fact that you are Shannon’s friend does not make your opinion less valuable. It makes it more. As a friend, if you didn’t enjoy the book, think it had so much value, and appreciate the wisdom in it, you would have had two choices; 1- to not promote it and come up with a reasonable reason when she asked about it, or 2- tell us about it and move on, maybe even just tell us in passing as part of another post. Instead, you expanded on not only how much you enjoyed it, but why. Someone who goes into that much detail is more than a friend, she is a fan of both the author and her work. Thanks for sharing your friend with us.
Tabitha Dumas says
October 9, 2018 at 9:35 PMOrdering now. Your endorsement means a lot. I have grown to be noticer and hope to expand that even more.
Beth Weikel says
October 10, 2018 at 3:16 AMAmen & Amen regarding Shannan and her writing. Yours has been a kind voice for many years, so your endorsement only confirms what I already know. God isn’t caught by surprise. This book is what we all need at this time, in this moment! Cannot wait to start it. God bless you all in this corner of the interweb. Peace, Beth
Sarah says
October 12, 2018 at 8:21 PMJust bought this. Thanks for sharing this wonderful recommendation. Can’t wait to dive in.
Tondra Denise says
October 14, 2018 at 9:55 AMThis is the message that has been calling me… thank you