Six Things I Learned in June

I have long appreciate almost everything Emily Freeman writes. I love how each quarter she takes stock of what she’s learned, and I thought I’d give it a try.

June came and went in a huge blur, like a comet, but a beautiful one.

Here are six things I learned: 

Eating dinner together, as a household, or as a family, does matter. Managing meals, organizing life, and doing all the things necessary to get the table set and bring everyone together in the evenings can take an awful lot of time. I’ve known it matters, but this month I feel like I’m learning it again. I’ve noticed that with the days going longer, we eat later. Sometimes, I’m tempted to skip the gathering around a table, but sure enough, the kids usually ask, “What’s for dinner?” and I realize they want to gather, and eat. It’s a time to connect, tell our stories, and discuss the world-wide-happenings. It matters.

I still love to read novels. I used to read more novels than I could keep track of. For over ten years, I read at least two-four novels a week. I love to read stories. But life has changed. I am going to seminary and am reading lots of required seminary books, and for whatever reason this feels like a non-fiction season of life for me. However, two weeks ago I went to Minnesota and read two novels on the airplane. It was so fun! I read, Love and Ruin by Paula McLain, and I read The House of Spies by Daniel Silva. Both were fun for very different reasons. I definitely recommend Love and Ruin. The House of Spies is great if you’re into espionage.

My children love to watch vlogs. They watch them on YouTube all the time. My question is, are vlogs the new sitcoms? This is what I want to know.

Building a garden is wonderful and fun and wholly life-giving. I highly recommend it. Last year, we had a little deck garden. This year, John built me a garden that is one of the most beautiful things anyone has ever done for me. It’s gorgeous. We tend to go into the garden in the cool of the evening and sit on the bench and rock back and forth, and listen. I’d also like to mention that it’s sad when you leave town and some animal eats all your tomato plants.

(The post is going to be a literary signpost. I’ll take more pictures.)

We are a divided country. I feel it more and more every day. I am not sure if I learned this in June, or keep learning it but this month has felt exponentially heavy to me. I do not know how to heal us, but I’m convinced we must keep listening to one another, keep making attempts to show up for one another, and we must love one another. There are things that matter and points to be made, and there is a time to take a stand and to keep standing, and then after you have done everything to keep on standing, but in all of that there is also the high command that sums up the entire law and prophets, and that is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We must find ways to love.

The final thing I learned this month, and probably learn every month is that life is breathtakingly beautiful and deeply heartbreaking all at the same time. My gorgeous daughter had a little move-up ceremony this month. I watched her glide into her new school, tall and ready. It was just so tender. It broke my heart and took my breath away all at the same time. When I think of all the things my kids have lived through, and the roads I’ve asked them to walk, it’s sometimes hard to breathe. And yet, here they are strong and sure, happy and desperately normal. There is nothing that could make me more proud or more thankful to God than to pause in the middle of the afternoon and listen to the song of my children’s laughter gliding across the water, or through the tall green grass. This is God’s grace.

How about you? What did you learn this month? Send me a comment, I’d love to hear.

Finally, I have a gift for you! I compiled a little booklet of Faith Practices. It’s called, Rekindling: Five Faith Practices for the Burnt Out and Overdone. If you subscribe to my weekly Hope Note, you’ll get it. (Scroll down to sign up to Tina’s Hope Notes.)

Which leads me to say, sign up to my weekly Hope Notes. They are short notes meant to encourage you. I usually put one or two, or three things that interest me that I think might also interest you.