10 Beautiful Things, vol. 12
Growing up and looking up
Good morning!
If you are new here from my life update I’ve shared on social media, welcome, friend!1 This is 10 Beautiful Things, a weekly missive where I’ll share ten things I’ve found beautiful, online or off. I hope to share some beauty with you, and encourage you to find (and share!) some beautiful things of your own.
Parking lot skies, you know?
Not one, but two unpredicted warm and sunny days in our beach week otherwise filled with rain. We tried to get tans and swam in the ocean, and it was good.
On our return home, we drove through southeastern Virginia – low plains, loblolly pines, and a wide sky that asks you to wait around until sunset if you can, for you will be rewarded. The natural beauty of this region is precious to me, and I’m always glad to see it, even from the car.
We also came home to find our tomato and pepper plants absolutely thriving from all the rain Virginia has gotten recently! It wasn’t for nothing. 😊
This bush that’s in bloom right now, with flowers that smell wonderful. (More botanically-inclined friends – what is this?)
Bittersweet days that hold congratulations and goodbyes and new friends and old friends all at the same time. I think the beautiful thing is just being together in a most ordinary-Sunday way: hearing one friend tell the same joke over and over to five different people, hearing another friend’s dreams for a creative ministry on the near horizon, and quoting the Emperor’s New Groove with another (like always!).
This will be a song for all summer, I already know – and I could look at that album art all day.
Julie Canlis’ book, A Theology of the Ordinary. Well researched, incisive, deeply theological, and written for an ordinary reader instead of an academic: I’m exceedingly pleased.
A new, gorgeous (and huge) mug for morning coffee.
Seeing this community grow! I am so glad you’re here.
What’s something beautiful you found this week?
If you’re primarily a Substack friend: I announced on social media our plans for this fall, to move to St Andrews, Scotland where I will begin a PhD. More soon!