August 2023 Top 3
August always feels like it has two distinct personalities—it’s the core of summer and yet the end of the month clearly has a crispness in the air and displays the first turning leaves. It’s easy to feel like the glass is half empty with these fleeting days.
My recommendations this month fall along this very duality—such appreciation for the life and laziness of summer and also the imminent hustle of the coming school year. Parenting for me these days has felt like this too. My emerging adults are one moment carefree children and the next pause brings big emotions and insecurity.
I’ve been a fan of Awkward Yeti for a bit but was re-introduced to it recently as I’ve been having a lot of “feelings” conversations with my kiddos lately. In particular Heart and Brain does such a beautiful job breaking down the basics of this tension but still capturing the reality of messy human-ness. It’s all gold here.
This book leans toward a Christian spiritual perspective so it may not be for everyone but I found the core of the message to be just in time for me. The author talks about reaching a point of exhaustion and craze and how to embrace the tenants of solitude, sabbath, simplicity and slowing. This a combination of personal testimony and practical advice for how to incorporate stillness into the American lifestyle. I am early on this journey but really enjoyed it.
“Because what you give your attention to is the person you become. Put another way: the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.”
Check it out here.
I Worried by Mary Oliver
“I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?
Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.
Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?
Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And I gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.”
by Mary Oliver
Let’s get out there and sing folks.
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