Today, I’m in Pebble Beach. My son has spent the last week here playing golf and meeting leaders and legends. It was a dream come true, a dream we didn’t even know to dream The truth of it is, when my son started working with his golf coach five years ago, when he was 9 (We are those people, just so you know), his coach said, “don’t stop doing First Tee. They have this amazing program where some of their best players get to play at Pebble Beach, maybe you can do that someday!” So, we kept that in the back of our heads. He kept doing First Tee, and this week he was one of the “big kids” who played Pebble Beach, who represented the best of First Tee and the future of golf. I’m a proud mama.
I’m reposting a piece from last year this week. I had forgotten about this quote by Epictetus, and I LOVED it when I re-read it. I hope you will too. What I did remember from this newsletter last year is the last quote from Delia Owens, “Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.” Almost every time I see a leaf floating to the ground, I think that this is their only chance to fly. I give it a bit more attention and bow my head at the chance to witness the one flight. I hope it will change the way you see leaves this autumn!
I’ll be back next week with fresh content and hopefully some heart-felt stories from this week.
Caretake this moment.
Immerse yourself in its particulars.
Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed.
Quit the evasion.
Stop giving yourself needless trouble.
It is time to really live, to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.
You are not some disinterested bystander. . .
As concerns the art of living, the material is your own life.
No great thing is created suddenly.
There must be time.
Give your best and always be kind.
— Epictetus 50 -135 CE
I recently came across this quote by Epictetus. I love timeless wisdom. Words from two thousand years ago that have meaning for today. Instead of my reflections on these words… I'm inviting your reflections.
What do these timeless words mean for you? What are they inviting you to? What does your soul need to start the week? How do these words provide some guidance?
Here is the smaller & deeper invitation.
Read Epictetus's words through a time of two.
Remember, go Slow. (Slowly, slowly, slowly)
What word or phrase from Epictetus speaks to you?
Grab a piece of paper. Write it down.
Read Epictetus SLOWLY another time through.
How do these words written close to two thousand years ago make you feel? (Write it down!)
Slowly read the passage another time.
In the words of Epictetus, is there an encouragement? Is there a challenge? Is there an invitation? (Write it down.)
Maybe print the passage (Here is a printable I made for you!) and read it several more times over the next week.
Recently Finished
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lai
I found this book on my daughter's bookshelf. It's pure gold. This was my first lyrical novel. I sort of love it. (It's a smaller and deeper form of writing if there has ever been one!) It's the story of a young girl who leaves Siagon on a boat with her mother and finds herself a refugee in Alabama. It's based on the author's own story. The entire story was told in free verse poetry. Dates, times, and locations at the end of a poem provided context which created the flow. I'm really amazed at what a complete story was told through so few words. In the author's note, she said, “First, write down your line. Then cut one word at a time while asking yourself, has the meaning changed? If not, keep cutting. You want the syrup without any sap.”
God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney
This is the fictional story of the two daughters of a famous southern evangelical preacher in the aftermath of understanding that the image of their family was just that, an illusion. It was a page-turner, and I was invested in the young women. I wanted them to emerge stronger and bring about change in an institution that shaped them and that they loved.
More than one review on Amazon mentions the ending, and for me, the end was a complete disappointment. I wanted a more hopeful ending. It didn't deliver.
Father Melancholy's Daughter and Evensong were much better novels, covering a similar topic. (Those were better written too!)
It's always fun when I see on my calendar "Haiku Talk." Once a month, Michael, Davin, and I meet on Zoom to share our Haiku and Haibun (reflection on a Haiku). A year ago, we decided to record our conversations, really because we enjoyed them so much and thought others might like to listen in too.
Listen to our September 2021 Haiku Talk Here.
I added a hope scavenger hunt to my haiku mail this month. I made a printable copy for sharing with you! The idea is hope is hiding in plain sight; we just have to pause to see it! I've enjoyed thinking over my week and trying to find hope in the categories on the scavenger hunt.
(I try and pay attention to words or phrases that stand out to me in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that collects short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and put them together. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.)
A Practice:
Read slowly.
Notice if a word or phrase stands out to you.
How do the words make you feel?
Is there an invitation?
(I’m sharing in italics the lines that stand out to me in these passages. Maybe it’s the same, or maybe it’s different. There is much food for thought in each of these passages)
Theme: Autumn
In this lovely season when the dance of surrender is obvious, we find large spaces left where something beautiful once lived. As one by one the leaves let go, a precious emptiness appears in the trees. The naked beauty of the branches can be seen, the birds’ abandoned nests become visible. The new spaces of emptiness reveal mountain ridges. At night if you stand beneath a tree and gaze upward, stars now peer through the branches. This is an important autumn lesson-when certain things fall away, there are other things that can be seen more clearly.”
-Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr, The Circle of Life: The Heart’s Journey Through the Seasons
Autumn is a wondrous metaphor for the transformation that takes place in the human heart each season. When we notice a subtle change of light outside our windows, we know the dark season is near. Everything is being prepared for winter. Autumn calls us in from summer’s playground and asks significant questions about our own harvest: What do we need to gather into our spiritual barns? What in our lives needs to fall away like autumn leaves so another life waiting in the wings can have its turn to live?
-Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr, The Circle of Life: The Heart’s Journey Through the Seasons
Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.
Delia Owens,Where the Crawdads Sing