Gold Standard

Make sure you stay good,
she calls after him as he leaves,
being the kind of three year old
holding more wisdom than most of us.
She says these things in passing,
rather nonchalant, evidence of never knowing
not having a good one–her father, I mean.
The kind who stays, makes sure she knows
she is worth her weight in gold. You stay good
and gold, my love. Even in absence,
this kind of gold can stay.

Behind the Poem: Overheard snippets from toddlers make great writing fodder. Their turn of phrase hardly fits into the predictable patterns that comprise many adult interactions. One morning when my husband was leaving for work, our three-year-old called after him, “make sure you stay good.” She has a way of saying thought-provoking things that lay in that mysterious place past literal meaning. This line firmly planted itself in my mind and kicked me back into my hamster wheel of thinking about what lasts beyond physical presence. What stays even after someone is gone? What and how are things passed from one generation to another in both directions?

This piece bubbled up from an overflow of gratitude for the kind of dad my husband is to our kids. It is an unbelievable privilege to watch his interactions with them and watch the foundation of being loved and valued shaping their worldview1, an inheritance that will outlast physical presence. Of this I can be sure, because I also had a really good one. And just like that–this is about my husband and daughter, also me and my father, and maybe you and someone in your life, too.

On a craft level, I had a lot of fun with language in this one. A sestina is a highly intricate, poetic form that uses repeated words in shifting meanings and uses. While this is a far reach from the complexity of a traditional sestina, I pulled inspiration from the form by reusing all of the words from the first line, as well as others, throughout the body–alluding to the questions the poem is asking about what remains.

This is ultimately a poem about inheritance, but not in the traditional sense, so word play around gold carries layers to shift perspective. Taking phrases that can be overused, like “gold standard” and “worth her weight in gold”, and putting them in a new context adds to the exploration of what holds value. Ending with an allusion to Frost’s famous poem makes for one final paradox between absence and staying power.

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Poetry From the Archives:

On surrender—

On motherhood and becoming—

On grief and learning to see—

In Theory

Things always sound lovely in theory–
my mind's eye wears rose colored glasses
and revels blissfully in the meadows
of what could be. 

The chosen parameters can never fail
if nothing ever starts,
yet this religion of idealism
is a wolf in sheep's clothing
ready to rob a life worth living.

The entry to reality
requires a toll of surrender
through a shadowy valley surrounded
by lies cloaked as desire,
abstract as the shape of fog.

Imperfection is the cost of existing,
the price of being real.

Behind the Poem: The seeds of this piece were written in my journal in the spring of 2025 and were finalized, at least as much as any poem ever is, on a plane home this past May. It was written tangentially to this post in the wrestling of being brave enough to put action behind ideas and the surrender of letting dreams outgrow my mind to live in the real world. Opposition accompanies putting beauty, goodness, and truth into the world—but in step with the Psalm 23 language, we have a shepherd who guides our dreams and desires into green pastures. The final stanza nods to the idea that in our increasingly artificial society, the evidence of human touch brings its own value. The duality that imperfection can feel like a detriment, but is also the authentic stamp of humanity.

✨Thank you for spending your precious time and attention reading my words—if this post resonated with you, I would be honored if you responded with a like or comment, shared with a friend, or upgraded to a paid subscription to financially support my writing!

Poetry From the Archives:

On nostalgia in all forms—

On motherhood and becoming—

On grief and learning to see—

“Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

-Rainer Maria Rilke

It has become somewhat of a ritual for the women in my family to go on a post-meal walk during family gatherings. Several Thanksgivings ago, as I walked with my flock, a cousin asked, What questions have you been thinking about lately? I was struck by both the expansiveness and specificity of the question. How it could be taken in endless directions, but nearly any path leads to something significantly personal in the response. It treads a layer deeper than simply asking a person what’s been on their mind by getting at the question behind the mental real estate.

The questions we are asking act as a map to our inner lives and without taking the time to reflect on what these questions are, we may miss important signposts. As a naturally reflective person, identifying the questions is fairly intuitive to me, but what to do with them is where the fog sets in. I get stuck before action. The Rilke quote above has been significant for me in the sense that it gives permission, even encouragement, to be unsure, but also prompts forward motion of living. Live the questions now.

A question tumbling around inside for a while had been, what is my art? I could trace a through line of creativity in my life, but have never considered myself an artist. My vast range of interests caused paralysis to pursue any of them deeper. At the time, I couldn’t reconcile how style and theology or hosting and poetry could all sit at the same table. Yet this question continued to echo through all avenues of my life—what I was reading, watching, listening to, experiencing while traveling, talking about. One of the main ways I sense the voice of God is through repetition of this sort and with enough echos, I begin to pay attention to the synchronicity.

Noah and the massive boat he built, per God’s instructions, has taken up quite a bit of brain space over the past year. It is a wonder that a narrative of mass destruction can be tidied up for Sunday school and nursery decor. Yet this harrowing tale has taken on new skin, past the surface of cleaned up church answers, and into my lived experience. What captured my attention was less about the flood and more about what happened before.

A storm was approaching as we felt the metaphorical clock of dad’s life ticking toward heaven and it can be disorienting to see the dark clouds of loss looming in the not so distant future. Engaging with creativity began to become a lifeline. The more I wrote and designed and played and cooked, the more anchored I felt. Cooking a new recipe on a day we were awaiting scan results or putting together an interesting outfit when feeling especially heavy kept me tethered to beauty as we looked death in the eye. It was also about the receiving—I craved art that didn’t flinch at pain. Watching movies like Hamnet and reading books like Whistler held my grief in a distinct way and provided much needed release. This wasn’t intentional at first. I usually didn’t realize the connection until after, almost like a subconscious current drawing me in. Let me be clear, this certainly wasn’t an everyday reality. There were (are) plenty of days I felt leveled by the ache and wanted to do nothing but lay in bed, but the impossibility of this with two toddlers quickly took this option off the table. If I had to keep moving, choosing to engage with and create beauty felt like forward motion in a way I couldn’t quite articulate yet.

Noah built the ark knowing a storm was coming, but had little context for the gravity, since something of this scope had never happened before. He engaged in obedience when it didn’t make sense and the thing he was being asked to create is what protected him and his family in the storm. Co-creating with God became a pathway of trust.

I remained caught on this idea that I needed a specific art form to be considered an artist, but as with most things, was reminded how much more it is about the process than the product. And also like most things, it all comes back to paying attention. The question I am carrying is shifting. How do I live like an artist?

Spending the past year working through The Artist’s Way1, both one-on-one with my mom and also a group of women led by , has been a masterclass in digging into this question. Not necessarily answer it, but to live it. Creative community has acted as a bouy in many ways, often in the palpable thread of connection between art and grief present in these conversations.

The ark became a metaphor for the areas in which I felt prompted by God to create, these were not life changing things on a grand scale, but places of refuge keeping me afloat. As it turns out, the things that actually change our lives are usually smaller than we think. Without noticing it, I began to live into the idea that my art form is the everyday and my canvases are all around—

Not limiting myself to a single medium, rather inviting them all to pull up a chair, allowing each to be enhanced by the others when they are in conversation. Art begets art. Each an act of faith. As I continue to explore how to live like an artist in the everyday, I plan to share my thoughts on different facets of my creative expression. My hope is for this to be a series that will prompt others toward creating or recognizing a current practice as art, even if it doesn’t fit the traditional understanding. I hold a deep belief that we are all born creative, an Imago Dei part of our personhood, and it is our responsibility to step into that part of ourselves to experience greater richness and depth waiting for us.

Noah was building a boat in what was basically a desert, not an ocean in sight. Creating doesn’t always make sense in the moment, but can be the thing God uses to save us.

Some Housekeeping—

For the past year this space has been a delightful creative experiment in living the questions now! While I want to continue trying new things and writing what flows, I’m also hoping to add a bit of structure. This is what I’m thinking moving forward, but held in a very flexible, I might change my mind tomorrow, sort of way:

• a poem shared weekly

• longer form writing (aka continuations of this series, Reading in Review, Thrift School, What’s Saving My Life, etc.) twice a month

• hang out with me in notes in between posts

ALSO—I’ve opened up the option for paid subscriptions. All posts will remain free for everyone, this is simply a way to financially support my writing for those interested!

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Sometimes when I want to remember a trip or a particular time of life, thinking about what I read is enough to kick up the dust of memories. There is a certain kismet between physical places and reading experiences. Returning to those pages can send me right back with the same magic as songs or smells. Summers in Colorado are packed full of reading memories—entire days devoted to binging series in a hammock, tattered paperbacks in backpacks with the hopes of sneaking in a few pages, even slipping a book in a saddlebag just in case.

All summer long I have experienced this compulsion to grab a past love and flip to a favorite part. Even reading a few paragraphs or pages settling something in me. I love a reread, but this is different—more an instinctual craving to read a specific scene or chapter right then, and then putting it back on the shelf. A few that held this gravitational pull this summer are Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, How To Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key (on audio), and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. Conversations with old friends. Reading my childhood favorites with my children holds this same sentimentality.

Poetry is the epitome of this type of reading. Great poems are enriched upon the reread. You begin to hear the pieces in a collection speak to one another, echoing similar or disparate themes threaded together. I cannot get enough of the How I Write podcast. There are a million things I could talk about in the episode with Ada Limón and Joy Harjo, but one of my favorite parts was listening to these world-renowned poets describe how they read poetry. They compared reading poetry collections to listening to an album of music—sometimes reading all the way through, but often grabbing the book off the shelf to read a specific poem. Letting instincts carry you.

As for new reading, here is a roundup of my highlights this summer. It’s important to mention that I read a handful of books that were just fine and a few that weren’t to my taste at all, but I mostly prefer not to write publicly about art I don’t love. If that piques your interest, I’m more than happy to discuss the reads that weren’t for me one on one—send me a message,let’s chat. In the meantime, I’d much rather shine a light on the treasures!

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• June Baby by Shannon Garvey

  I found this debut to be a lovely way to kick off summer reading. While it might be slow moving for certain readers, I felt it matched the pace of meandering summer days. Nothing forced or rushed. Many of my favorite elements of a story were also at play—character driven plot, setting as a character, connection between art and grief, coming of age. Lots of parallels to Writers & Lovers. Would make a wonderful end of summer read as well!

  

• Whistler by Ann Patchett

  Ann Patchett with another masterpiece, she just doesn’t miss. I say often that the most impactful books, or any piece of art, are the most difficult to write about. My experience with this book was largely beyond words and I’m becoming increasingly more okay with that. I do know that reading it was an integral piece of navigating grief and provided catharsis at a needed time. This has that gravitational pull mentioned above, I’ve already revisited the opening at the MET, the dinner party with the exceptionally witty banter, and several scenes from the end that I won’t spoil with too much detail.

  “I hadn’t known there was something in me to break, but there it was and break it did. I stepped into an open crack of time and fell backwards.”

  

• The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

  Because my aunt has remarkable reading taste, I often enter blind to books that come per her recommendation. Such was the case with this beast of a novel. Plus, she sold me with one of the most brilliant opening lines I’ve ever read:

  “My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call.”

  The prose is something to behold, true craftsmanship at every level. It also held no punches when it came to graphic descriptions of some of the most horrific experiences I have ever read. Even more heartbreaking to learn that much of what Pat Conroy writes is based on his own childhood. A friend of my mom’s was at the house and saw it laying flat on the counter, she remarked that Pat Conroy was one of her all time favorite authors, but she was scared of this one. By this point, I knew precisely what she meant by that. My blind entry knew not to be scared from the start and I was far too immeshed to jump ship by the time I did. The attributions by the San Fransisco Chronicle says, “A big, sprawling saga of a novel…the kind you hole up with and spend some days with and put down feeling you have emerged from a terrible, wonderful spell.” This was my exact experience and a terrible, wonderful spell it was.

  “There are no verdicts to childhood, only consequences, and the bright freight of memory. I speak now of the sun-struck, deeply lived-in days of my past. I am more fabulist than historian, but I will try to give you the insoluble, unedited terror of youth. I betray the integrity of my family’s history by turning everything, even sadness, into romance. There is no romance in this story; there is only the story.”

  

• Tiny Universe by Rachel Beachy

  This tender, poignant collection is akin to A History of Holding by Allison Mei-Li. Poems centered around the experience of early motherhood that get straight to the heart of it all. Beachy’s writing is incredibly approachable, not requiring much mental strain, making it a refreshing experience, especially for a likely tired young mother. I devoured it in a single sitting on my first read and it felt like eating fresh peaches at the peak of summer. Would make an excellent addition to a baby shower gift!

  

  

• The Remarkable Ordinary by Frederick Buechner

  You could read this meditation on faith in a single sitting or sit in it for much longer to absorb the depths of goodness and truth. One I will add to my stack of “books I am kind of always reading.” Buechner has sharp eye and humble delivery.

  I think that what true art, and true religion, does at its best is to put each one of us in touch with that holy part of ourselves, with that source from which art and love comes, and from which all good, wise things come, so that we—by virtue of this painting, this poem, this ballet, this piece of music, this Scripture—become finally, truly, human at last.

  

• Turning to Birds by Lili Taylor

  A delightful companion to my newfound birding hobby. Listening to Lili Taylor’s delightful anecdotes about how birding has shifted her perspective was both entertaining and inspiring. Hearing creative people describe what they love and how they alchemize the world around them is something I will never tire of.

  “And at the end of the day, that's all we have: a life of moments, assembled as one.”

  

Currently Reading:

• The Carrying by Ada Limón—Grabbed this poetry collection after listening to the podcast mentioned above. I’m savoring every line and have been thinking about this poem for days!

• Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell—Fitting title for this summer I’’d say. I snagged this one from the library while waiting for Land. The first half took me a while to get through, but it’s picking up. Plus, I’m perfectly content lingering in Maggie O’Farrell’s prose, never a bad place to be.

• The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad—using as a warmup at the beginning of morning writing sessions has been a great rhythm

• The Calamity Club by Katherine Stockett—just started on audio after high praise from several friends

• The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion—After a long awaited arrival I already adore Emma!

“How writing about an experience, inscribing it, reinscribes the memory. How language constantly revises the mind.” -Maggie Smith in her poem, Self-Portrait as an Incomplete List of Mysteries, from her book, A Suit or a Suitcase

Writing about what I’m reading allows the words and feelings to stay with me differently, reinscribing my memory. What books have lingered with you this summer? Do you have past favorites you turn to again and again?

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✨Thank you for spending your precious time and attention reading my words—if this post resonated with you, I would be honored if you responded with a like or comment, shared with a friend, or upgraded to a paid subscription to financially support my writing!

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More Book Recs (never in short supply around here):

My favorite compliment I ever got from a student—

Reading as non-negotiable—

An ode to comfort reads—

If you have ever experienced the rush of stumbling across an absolute treasure in a thrift store, you have found yourself in the right place. After years of refining my craft and tucking away some tried and true tips, it is rare I enter a thrift and come out empty handed, or at least try to siphon off a few gems to whoever I’m with (sometimes strangers if necessary!) Yet there is a particular eliteness about a thrift store in a mountain town, which can be chalked up to a handful of reasons—

• towns centered around the outdoors yields a higher percentage of finding quality outdoor/activewear brands

• populations lean older, often retirees that have moved from cities to the mountains and are offloading much of their wardrobes—this generally means better quality clothing and classic brands will be in abundance

• typically more pieces with character and unique vintage finds, rather than racks upon racks of fast fashion brands

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June Haul—

July Haul—

Tips and Tricks for Small Town Thrifting—

(while these tips have a small town in mind, they will largely work anywhere)

• Befriend the employees/volunteers—most of all because human connection is always worth it! If it is not too busy, ask if there is any new inventory in the back you peek at. Several of the ladies in town know me and will offer, it’s the best. This is how I scored this lovely original painting below last summer. Also ask about which days they restock, any upcoming sales (aka bag sales, my favorite!), or if they have any days of the week with discounts.

• Beginning of breaks is best—this is true for summer, holiday breaks, even Spring Break. More people coming through town, the more picked over the thrifts get. Travel plans might be limiting, but pop in the thrifts as early as you can.

• Pay attention to tags—look for the good old ones, you’ll know them when you see them. This helps point me in the direction of vintage treasures as I’m quickly swiping through the racks. Also check fabric compositions on the inside tags, I typically find more natural fiber pieces in small towns.

• Search for specialized gear—over the years our family has collected boots and ski gear in all shapes and sizes. The collections live here so we don’t have to bother packing them when we come. The same concept with different items works in a lake or beach town if that is more your speed!

• Always, always check the men’s section—a thrift tip for everywhere! I nearly always find gems, mostly button downs, blazers, and sweaters. The smaller men’s sizes are usually less picked over and lend the fit I’m after.

• Don’t sleep on the pajamas and accessories—this is often where things get the most interesting. Ripe with charming vintage pieces and character for days!

• Look through the linens—napkin sets, tablecloths, and placemats are almost always in abundance. I love to grab sets of cloth napkins in my efforts to use less paper products and build my collection for hosting. There is also usually a solid stock of scrap fabric that I like to browse for craft projects.

  

• Take advantage of low prices and have some fun—prices are generally very reasonable at small town thrifts, especially if you stumble upon a sale! While algorithms funnel us all into dressing exactly alike, thrifting allows us to step into our own individual tastes. It exercises the muscles of personal style. Pay attention to what you are drawn to, where you can see a vision, pieces with character—even if it seems impractical. Take a risk and it will probably only cost you between three and eight dollars!

  ---

Style Notes for Now and Later—

It seems the the world is split 50/50 for staying put in summer or pining for the arrival of fall. In step with my people pleasing tendencies (oops!), let’s make everyone happy! While thrifting, I am usually thinking through how to style an item now and in future seasons. In Thrift School, Pinterest counts as research. Consider your homework pulling inspiration around a recent thrift find—I’ll go first!

Oversized Blazer:

Summer Style Notes: While wearing a blazer in the summer where I live is largely impractical, often the inside AC makes it the arctic. The contrast between outdoors and indoors can be shocking, so carrying a blazer into a restaurant might not be the worst idea. I’m very drawn to the blazer + shorts looks above. A pair of cute lace shorts paired with a blazer would strike amazing contrast between masculine and feminine. The key in summer months is having a fully put together look under the jacket and adding the third piece of the blazer if temperatures allow.

Fall Style Notes: In warmer climates, the looks above will carry over beautifully, but ideally we will have more styling options as well. When in doubt, a perfect tee and pair of jeans paired with a blazer will never lead you astray. To add some interest, using a button down or any long sleeve tied around the waist either over or under the blazer adds a great focal point and shape to a look. This will also bring a casual element to a piece that is typically worn formally.

Nightgown Dress:

Summer Style Notes: The beauty of ultra-feminine, whimsical dresses is the styling is as simple as summer styling should be. Throw on with a flip-flop and call it a day, or use it as a canvas for fun accessories. Cutting a long nightgown into a minidress akin to the ones from every brand this summer (Gap, J.Crew, Madewell) is a great option!

Fall Style Notes: While the summer styling is obvious, they can very much be carried into the fall, especially in richer colors. I am already looking forward to wearing the turquoise one I found with a vintage bag, simple heels, and fun earrings to a wedding in a few months.

Chocolate Brown Trench:

Summer Style Notes: Let’s be honest, it is unlikely I will be wearing this in the summer as this piece was positively made for fall. But if you live in a cooler climate, the brown trench over an all white or cream outfit with flip-flops is a lovely shift on the blazer look above.

Fall Style Notes: A chocolate brown trench is begging to be worn with good denim, also with cream, grey, yellow, red, really I can’t think of a color it wouldn’t look great with. The shoe options are range the spectrum—flats, loafers, sneakers, boots. I am thrilled about the versatility of this piece and can tell it is going be a workhorse in my closet.

Thank you for reading! At the end of the day, Thrift School exists to bring inspiration and encouragement around what you already have in your closet or to take yourself on an adventure to find a secondhand treasure! I love hearing about thrift wins as much as I love sharing them—share what you have found lately or what you are excited to try!

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Thrift School From the Archives:

Where it all began—

What to bring—

Collecting inspiration and styling stripes—

A tour of our art sourced secondhand—

This past spring brought growth, but not in the romanticized way, more like new life trying to claw its way through cracks of concrete. In mid-May, my husband and I snuck off for a few days to Santa Barbara to kick off his two month sabbatical. We limped into this trip feeling a strange combination of numb and raw. Rather than lounging in the sunshine, May in California is more along the lines of a walk on the beach in a sweater. The sun showed face on occasion, but mostly a heavy blanket of fog settled over the ocean. It was a picture of the disorientation of the past few months. I had spent exhaustive energy trying to be free of the fogginess of grief, but what if we just walked along the beach instead? Step by step, together. Even though we couldn’t see clearly, the protection of the fog gave us space to hide away for a bit, hash some things out, walk, read really good books, create, and trust that this heaviness would eventually lift.2

We leaned on rhythms that have held us before—some of them worked, others didn’t, but on the heels of this trip came a merciful levity of just getting to be. Almost like the fog gave us permission to not have to figure it all out and we experienced a perceptible shift at the start of summer. This is a catchall for what I am learning, what is bringing joy, and what has helped to hold the inevitable weight that comes with living a life.

• "What’s the simple choice?”

The question my husband and I have been asking all summer long. A summer of sabbatical, nostalgia, and toddlerhood largely spent in small town Colorado holds all the makings for leaning into simplicity. After years of learning to embrace the boundary lines, we are experiencing abundance within the limits. We are moving at a pace our children can flourish in, which turns out to be a healthier speed for adults, too. Simple is different than easy, we are not looking for the path of least resistance, rather simplifying the structures to make space for what matters most. This has looked like repeating what works, making plans but dialing it back a notch (and sometimes cancelling them), packing/buying less, lots of walks, choosing the trail right out the backdoor, living mostly off the grid, reading on the patio at sunset, being together, noticing the birds and flowers and clouds and trees.

• La Roshe-Posay Face Sunscreen

This one falls under the literal interpretation of “what’s saving my life”, no more sunburns for me! I can be picky when it comes to the texture of products as I strongly dislike the feeling of a heavy or sticky lotion, especially on my face. There was a sample of this sunscreen in our room at Soho House Austin and I could not believe how luxuriously light it was. Plus, it evens out skin tone and adds a lovely little glow. This paired with my beloved Merit flush balm (in cheeky!) is all my face has needed this summer. A little goes a long way and I have yet to be sunburned even at the intense UV in high altitude.

• Whistler by Ann Patchet

It never ceases to feel like magic when a book meets you at exactly the right time. That was this book, this summer.

• Novice Birding

Sometime I started to hear the birds. Likely a product of writing poetry (another thing always saving my life), which continues to sharpen my awareness of the world around and inside me. I joke that my newfound birding habit happened a few decades earlier than expected, but then again, I have always been an old soul. The Merlin app has been a wonderful companion to this endeavor as well as Lili Taylor’s lovely book (great on audio), Turning to Birds. Shortly after forming this habit, I read these words from Tish Harrison Warren in her (incredible!) book, Prayer in the Night:

“There is an overlooked, workaday poetry in the little-known world of birders. Like all great poets, birders speak out of their profound observation of the world. They remind us that glory comes only by watching and waiting, by keeping an eye out for what most of us miss.”

• Seeing the Unseen Things

Another theme that has echoed from all sides—in books, conversations, the natural world. I have read 2 Corinthians 4 every morning for weeks and a repeated breath prayer has been “Lord, help me to see the unseen things.” Creativity becomes a spiritual practice for working out of this muscle. Creating lets us really see. In a recent sermon, Tyler Staton said this about art and faith:

“Art at its best and purest is the practice of faith. It is paying attention to both heaven and earth, capturing and sharing the moments of overlap.”

• L.L. Bean Boat and Tote

Summer is for even more shlepping than usual and this bag has put in the work. Pool days, picnics, library visits, weekend trips, hauling laundry across camp—one bag to do it all. I have the open-top in size large with regular straps.

• Meals “Al Fresco”

While this may sound refined or somewhat fancy, what I am referring to is decidedly not. Think pizza on the patio, sandwiches by the river, asking for outdoor seating at the restaurant. Life with two toddlers means our stamina at the table is rather brief, but I am a firm believer that sharing meals as a family is formational. Moving that routine outside as much as possible has brought an ease to mealtimes that we have cherished. We head home to Texas in a few weeks, so I am soaking up every meal in the crisp mountain air!

• Colorado Summers

I have mentioned that this will have a standing place on my summer list. It dawned on me that the town of Pagosa Springs, Colorado has been the most consistent place of my existence. The mountains bring grounding and refreshment unlike anything else. Watching my children fall in love with the place that was the backdrop to my own childhood has brought about new layers of joy. I wrote a poem about it here:

• Dad’s Button Downs

This has been a big summer on the grief front with some significant steps forward—first time back at my parent’s house without dad, spreading ashes (some families have burial plots, we go to the river), sorting through his closet. Steps forward can be unnerving because it can feel like getting further away when all I want is to stay close. Since button downs are already a staple of my wardrobe, a stack of dad’s to add to my collection is another simple way to keep him with me.

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Part life update, part scrapbook, part things I’m loving—putting it all down in one place helps the patterns and through lines to emerge, the practice itself teaching me to see. These are some of my favorite posts to write and to read, so I would be delighted to hear what’s saving your life this summer!

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From the Archives:

The “what’s saving my life” of getting dressed this summer—

For looking back—

For remembering while looking ahead—

During a conversation about The Artist’s Way hosted by , the idea of opinion versus perspective was brought up. There was a collective agreement that it is easier to arrive at a perspective over an opinion. Days later, this concept was still rolling around in my mind when it dawned on me, poems are perspectives. While synthesizing all of my thoughts around a subject in longer form can be daunting, a poem gets to be a snapshot rather than a conclusion. The origins of the word perspective literally means “to look through,” which is just about the best definition of poetry and art in general. This is a collection of poems woven together by the thread of nostalgia in different forms, an attempt to look through memories and current experiences to catch glimpses of an unseen reality.

In 1994 my grandparents bought property in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, thus anchoring our family’s gathering place—the Fourth of July being critical mass every year. My mom has five siblings, which means a dozen and a half cousins for my sister and I. Summers at the ranch with family was formational. Writing about this has always felt somewhat unattainable, the most important things often being the most difficult to pin down, to do justice. Poetry lets me enter through a specific vantage point, a perspective, without the pressure of encapsulating the whole thing.

You don’t think you could possibly love something more, until you watch your children start to fall in love with it, too. Watching them begin to be shaped by this place has drawn out memories and emotions like some sort of ordinary penseive.

There is a preemptive nostalgia to parenthood, especially in the little years, that can level you from time to time. Knowing these are the days you will one day be nostalgic about is the ultimate sad pleasure. When this sensation grows into a physical ache, it’s time to put it in writing. The audience of this poem is my husband, who I haven’t shown this one to yet, because I know it will take him out. Hunter, if you are reading this, I’m sorry and you’re welcome.

Faith is also a perpetual nostalgia of sorts, a homesickness for a place we have never known, yet somehow in the mystery, know better than anything. We live a life waiting for a place of ultimate belonging, but in God’s kindness we are given a taste of what’s ahead, a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.1 These glimpses are all around us, if only we can train our souls to look through the ordinary to notice.

While on a walk with my aunt who just returned from a month in France (what a dream!!), she mentioned Monet’s experiment painting the Rouen Cathedral, sending me down a rabbit hole of research. Even if we can’t fully grasp it, isn’t this the point of it all—the Light changes everything.

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Poetry From the Archives:

On motherhood and becoming—

On grief and learning to see—

On friendship, living, and dying—

Since childhood, summers in Colorado have brought out pieces of me that feel aligned with my truest self and what I wear while being here often feels that way, too. It lets me step into a more casual, playful way of dressing. In one of her recent posts, Lindsay Sword said, “I can’t say for sure, but the secret to what you want to wear may be found in your memories.” Mostly, I still want to dress how I did in the summer when I was eight.

Realizing I want to wear the equivalent of this song—

My onslaught of nostalgia caused me to start digging through the top of my closet looking for relics of my college days. Read: Chacos, Eno hammock, Patagonia vest (haven’t found this one yet), and bemoaning to my friends the fact that I got rid of my entire collection of Patagonia baggies—what was I thinking?!

There is already a simplicity to summer dressing and being away from home for nearly two months pushes that further in a way I have grown to love. As I was packing for our summer adventures, a task that used to cause major overwhelm, I was reminded we just don’t need that much.

Even more so than other seasons, I find myself naturally falling into formulas for getting dressed in the summertime. There is an ease in having tried and true combinations that are practical for the day ahead as well as creatively stimulating.

Leaning into summer nostalgia sartorially looks like wearing many of the things I typically wear but dressing them down and adding an outdoorsy edge. It certainly helps that this sporty, camp aesthetic is everywhere. Consider me smitten by J.Crew’s Camp Crew marketing campaign along with everyone else. And of course, Substack is a endless well of inspiration.

I have thought about this post by Lindsay Sword for months:

Fashion Soup

Clothes To Move In

Way back on New Year’s Eve, after a few days of discussing longevity hacks with old friends (among other more exciting pursuits, I promise), Instagram served up the Reel below. (Thanks for always listening…

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6 months ago · 238 likes · 80 comments · Lindsay Sword

A true delight of a read by Elle Sundberg:

Elle Dresses Well

Camp classics, revisited

Today, we are reconnecting with nature, lounging lakeside, roasting s’mores around the campfire, and staying up late playing cards. A respite from the complications of modern living is long overdue. …

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3 months ago · 98 likes · 31 comments · Elle Sundberg

Outfit Formulas—

We are approaching week three of being in Colorado and these are the formulas I have found myself most drawn to. They range the spectrum (in order) from City Mom at Camp Drop-Off to Most Enthusiastic of All the Camp Counselors. While they feel fitting for a mountain town, these are combinations that could apply to summer days in whatever context you find yourself in. They are also all prime canvases for fun accessories—mostly beads, bandanas, and hats for me.

(As usual, most of the items below are thrifted so the collages are a combination of my exact pieces and lookalikes—rather than pushing links your direction, I hope this leaves you inspired to get dressed using what you already have or find a treasure at a local thrift store.)

Feminine Top + Structured Shorts + Flip Flops

My go-to for anything considered a special occasion (summer’s version). A look I would wear with flats in the spring naturally shifts to flip flops with a pop of red polish on the toes all summer long. Over the past few weeks I have worn a version of this for dinner with friends, date night, the Mumford & Son’s concert (UNREAL), and a relaxed celebration for my husband completing his seminary degree. There is such satisfaction and crispness to putting on all white with freshly washed hair and sun-kissed skin. Light blue brings a similar freshness. Coordinating black flip flops and crochet bag brings a grounding element to the look.

Tank + Overalls + Colored Sneakers

Overalls are not for everyone, but they have and always will be for me! If you take anything from this post, let it be permission to throw on a bandana for any occasion. Adding a sleek sneaker in a fun color is the perfect touch, I am partial to my yellow tigers. This combination has worked beautifully for running errands and a picnic at the park. I even subbed in my red Ropers for a horseback ride.

Button Down + Sporty Shorts + Birkenstocks

This is my default summer uniform—button downs are always my comfort zone and bring a bit of casual refinement, while adding sporty shorts and Birks draws on the playful, nostalgic feel. Any sort of pull-on pant is an easy substitution that lends the same tone. I have loved adding this red cord pearl pendant necklace to add a pop of red to offset the blue and green I am generally always wearing.

One Piece Swimsuit + Cut Off Shorts + Chacos

We are deep into camp counselor territory at this point. If we are going to any body of water, I will be wearing some version of this, subbing flip flops for the pool but leaning on the practicality of Chacos for river days. Having a dependable one piece swimsuit that can act as a top is a game changer, especially with young kids. The detachable straps on this suit also allows for a tube top summer, a lá . I love being able to pop by the market or head to lunch after a swim without having to change. For sun protection I will likely throw a button down in my trusty L.L. Bean Boat and Tote to throw on if needed and a hat is nonnegotiable. Speaking of sun protection, this face sunscreen is saving my life.

You can find beaded necklaces just about anywhere, but might I suggest making your own, especially if you have a child in your life that wants to match! If DIY is not your speed, check out endless handmade options on Etsy like this one.

Mix and Match

The wonderful thing about these formulas is that it builds a quasi-capsule wardrobe, many of the components being easy swaps. For example, the timeless summer look of button down + cut off shorts + flip flops or a more unexpected choice of feminine top + sporty shorts + colored sneakers. The options are endless. Add a pair of poplin or linen pull-on pants and a crew neck sweater for cooler mornings and evenings and you’re all set!

Bonus Formula: Vintage Tee + Denim + Sporty Sneakers

This is very much an aspirational look created after stumbling across a photo of me and my sister with our grandfather on a hike circa 2001. I was immediately inspired to recreate what he wore with a feminine touch. What I would give for his vintage tennis tee! I have been feeling pulled toward styling vintage tees and hoping a pair of Salomons will eventually find their way into my wardrobe, but for now I will keep collecting inspiration.

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At the end of the day, after spending as much time as possible in the medicinal mountain air, the ultimate summer dream is to be curled up with an excellent book in a matching pajama set. This photo has always felt like my truest self!

Wishing you each a summer filled to the brim with nostalgic bliss, all the while shaping new memories with those you love most!

It has been a little bit since I have talked books in this space and I’ve missed it! If we know each other in real life, chances are high that one if not multiple of these titles has come up in conversation. This list doesn’t include everything I have read over the past few months, but those that have been the most impactful for one reason or another. It also happens to be an unintentional gallery of books with cappuccinos, my luxury of choice!

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Poetry—

A note on reading poetry: This is a relatively new practice for me in the past couple of years, but easily one of the most transformative. If this is of interest to you, but feels intimidating, Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry are excellent places to start!

• A History of Holding by

  This collection has been a companion of mine all year and inviting a small group of friends over to discuss it unlocked a type of gathering that I hope to continue! These poems hold the tension between the overwhelming beauty of motherhood without shying away from the reality of or potential for pain that every experience holds at some level. It is tender without feeling saccharin, a balance that can be difficult to strike when writing about motherhood, and is sure to crack your heart wide open. I keep returning to it again and again (I nearly have “The Heart Ceremony” memorized at this point) and am eager to see all that is to come from in the future!

  Personal Favorites: What You’ve Always Wanted, Whisper, Swallow, The Fine Print, The Heart Ceremony

• A Suit or a Suitcase by

  It is safe to say Maggie Smith was my gateway drug to the wonderful, mysterious world of poetry. Her brilliant memoir sent me down a rabbit hole of her poetry and the rest was history. After I read the title poem and saw the cover (isn’t it striking??) of her newest collection, I couldn’t preorder it fast enough. Through these poems, she explores the illusive relationship between the body and mind, something I have thought about rather extensively. At the heart of this concept, it always comes back to what it means to be human.

  Personal Favorites: The Score, Time-Stamped, Poem Beginning with a Line from An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, Triptych, To Each Its Own

  

• The Size of Your Joy by

  I first discovered Powers’ poetry through her Substack, , and was immediately drawn to her authenticity and ability to translate her experiences onto the page. Her poems dive into the vast abundance and also hyper-specific realities of being a woman in this world, I was especially taken with her exploration of female familial relationships—dynamics with her mother, grandmother, and daughter. Her writing is brave and approachable, a great place to start if poetry feels intimidating!

  Personal Favorites: The Climb, Tomorrow Maybe, Zombie Salmon, A Mother’s Alphabet, I Am Softer Now

  

• How to Fly (in Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) by Barbara Kingsolver

  After reading Kingsolver’s fiction for years (Demon Copperhead remains one of the most brilliant novels I have ever read), I was delighted to stumble across her poetry collection while browsing the stacks at the library and it made a wonderful companion for a getaway by the ocean. Organized in seven sections, each part of this collection holds its own distinct feel, the first and third being my favorite. In step with her prose, her poetry is whip smart, inextricably connected to the natural world, and deeply emotionally resonant.

  Personal Favorites: How to Be Married, How to Be Hopeful, Burying Ground, Creation Stories, Meadowview Elementary Spelling Bee

  

  

Memoir—

• Strangers by Belle Burden

  I am a pretty easy sell for whatever buzzy memoir is being passed around. If talking to people about what they are reading gives a peek into who they are, a memoir dives all the way in. I am fascinated by how and why people share their personal experiences and do my best to hold a posture of empathy rather than judgement. On a prose level, I was immersed in the worlds of Manhattan and Martha’s Vineyard, and was especially intrigued by the bits about her parents and grandparents. On a craft level, the motif and structural tool of the ospreys had my poetry loving heart taking notes, despite contrary opinion that she talked too much about birds. I listened to the majority of this on audio, a memoir read in the author’s own voice is my preferred reading experience, but I also had a physical copy from the library that I defaulted to when I couldn’t listen but also couldn’t wait to keep reading—a testament to its’ binge-worthy nature!

  

• Writing Creativity and Soul by Sue Monk Kidd

  I snuck this one into the memoir category, but it is also very much a book on writer’s craft and guide to the writing life. Reading about the genesis of her writing career felt shockingly similar to experiences I have had over the last few years making it just the right book at the right time. I felt something shift in me as I absorbed her story and advice. I used to avoid writing by reading about writing, and now I read about writing while writing every chance I get! Full of inspiration, hard earned wisdom (her own and from many others), and specific craft tips—this will hold permanent residence on my desk next to Maggie Smith’s Dear Writer.

  “Writing is more than creating language and story. It also involves the creation of the self. Writing is about who we were and who we are becoming. It’s a succession of leaps and small brave acts. It’s about what we carry and what we lay down.”

Fiction—

• Kin by Tayari Jones

  In the same way I felt while reading An American Marriage, Jones writes with such precision that you feel fully transported in time and place, as if you’ve known these characters all of your life. I read most of this book while in Madrid, or on a plane over the Atlantic, but felt transported to the midcentury American South. A brilliantly heartbreaking story about motherless daughters, dreams, inequality (sexism, racism, classism, etc.), and friendship.

  “You got a whole river running off a cliff inside you. You need to cry the regular way to get you some relief. Tears are meant to flow outward.”

  “Show me how to let it out, please, Mrs. Ola Mae.”

  “I can’t do that, any more than I can teach you how to breathe, or how to love.”

  “I can learn,” I said.

  “You have to,” she said.

  

• The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

  Strout has become an auto-buy author for me and I devoured her newest release in two sittings while on a getaway in Santa Barbara a few weeks ago. After finishing it, I spent the entire thirty minute walk from a coffee shop back to our hotel verbally processing it, my husband kindly bearing witness to my dissection of Strout’s genius as I went on and on (and on). Her writing brings you into the ordinary rituals of her character’s lives while they carry enormous silent weights. The specificity of their difficulties represent at large experiences of loneliness, depression, disillusionment to things once believed in, etc. while they also have to call the plumber, wrap the plants for winter, engage in small talk at a neighborhood party, and so forth. Life contains multitudes. The common narrative is that sharing heavy things with others brings freedom, which it absolutely has the power to do, but Strout breaks open the reality of vulnerability by adding the nuance that it is not always that straightforward. There is a cost benefit analysis that comes with trust which doesn’t always play out according to how we think it will, for better or worse. At the end of the day, imperfect connection is vital to our existence, and Strout captures the subtleties of this through the lives of these characters.

  “And now he knew why. Because to say anything real was to say things that nobody wanted to know. Or if they wanted to know, they would not care in the right way. Or even understand. It was a private thing, to be alive. He understood this now.”

  

On Faith—

• Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren — A close friend sent this to me in January and I have been absorbing it at a slow drip, reading almost every chapter multiple times. It has been an absolute balm to my soul, meeting me where I am in grief and also helping me notice and make meaning through it in a way I crave. Her lyrical writing paired with deeply intellectual and spiritual knowledge is rich. It also unexpectedly prompted me to download a bird identification app a few decades earlier than anticipated, which I have been loving! Her newest book released a few weeks ago and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

  “But beauty and wonder were not only comforting. They were also a high-density dose of reality. The tenacity of glory and goodness, even in this shadowed world of tears, trains my eyes to pay attention, to stay alert not only to the darkness of our story, but to the light as well.”

  

Currently Reading:

• Famesick by Lena Dunham — Remember what I said about being an easy sell for a buzzy memoir?? Also a friend very kindly sent it to my Kindle because my library hold was taking too long and she wanted to talk about it. That is friendship!

• Whistler by Ann Patchett — Not technically reading yet because it doesn’t release until June 2, but my preorder can’t come fast enough!!

• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron — still changing my life one chapter at a time

Would love to hear (it is difficult to stress how much I mean this!) the best book you have read lately or what you are reading right now. Any summer releases you can’t wait to get your hands on? What books are on your library hold list? Let’s chat!

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Summer reading holds a special kind of magic, wishing you a extra dose in the months to come!

(originally featured in Part Time Poets Issue 32)

A glimpse into what much of my writing life has looked like over the past few years and wouldn’t trade it for the world!

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One of the pillars of our trip was certainly the style, Madrid being one of those cities where you feel immersed in it on all sides. It was energizing and contagious!

I really love talking about clothes, always have and suspect I always will—noticing a great outfit in the wild excites me, I can remember significant events based on what I was wearing, and love sharing a really good find with my friends. What never felt aligned with me was the constant link sharing of perpetually new items in influencer culture that often results in a loop lacking creativity or originality. Thankfully, Substack has revealed a wonderful web of women who talk about style in a thoughtful, intelligent way— and being the first! It has been such a refreshing discovery that combined with thrifting has led me to a personal style that I have never loved more. I have dipped my toe into sharing outfits in my notes, but want to stretch myself creatively to elaborate in more detail. Why not use a trip where I thought a lot about style to take the leap?

PACKING

I have never been one to despise packing, but I have learned that if I give myself an ample runway, it can actually be a creative exercise I really enjoy. I am also used to packing for two tiny humans in addition to myself, so only putting items in a suitcase for me felt luxurious! I debated a Nuuly rental, something that I have loved doing in the past, but ultimately decided to bring what I already owned and I’m really thankful I did. It made me proud of the pieces I have curated over time and how they work together, while feeling very much like myself in my own clothes.

My packing brainstorm began on pencil and paper and moved over to IndyX once it was a bit edited down. IndyX was a real game changer. My thinking relied around a combination of workhorse items with a few hero pieces rounded out by the Three Shoe Theory.

Workhorse Items—

These are the backbone of every outfit and are also many of my most worn items at home, my comfort items if you will. Each really earned their keep with multiple wears often in different ways.

• T-Shirts: an essential starting point—I am partial to the Everlane Box Cut Tees and I also brought a thrifted long sleeve wide ribbed navy tee that is not pictured below

• Button Downs: my captains of the workhorses—a white, denim, and blue and white striped button down will take you far. I can’t stop talking about this denim one, the price is unmatched and the quality is shockingly GOOD

• Pants: four pairs in different colors of varying shapes and materials to expand versatility

• Sweaters: all lightweight for packing purposes and ability to wear over shoulders or around the waist with a range of colors and styles

• Trench: this is my PERFECT coat and there has never been a more opportune time than Europe in the Spring—mornings and evenings were crisp, so she got worn for at least a little bit every day even if not pictured (mine is vintage but looks and wears almost identically to this one)

  

Hero Pieces—

A few fun pieces that might not have as much versatility, but really add interest to an outfit. If 80% of my suitcase was tried and true items, the 20% that are hero pieces really made outfits feel special!

• Floral Tapestry Blazer: One of my all time favorite items in my wardrobe and the epitome of why I love thrifting so much! I probably never would have taken the risk of buying this at a retail price point (although this one is gorgeous), but I have been delighted at how seamlessly it fits into my closet and I feel great every time I wear it. There are some really fun ones on Etsy, Poshmark, and eBay if you search “vintage tapestry blazer”

  

• Striped Maxi Dress: A borrow from my sister that is very comfortable with a flattering fit, ended up only wearing once but had several more ways I could have worn it.

• Fun Accessories: My favorite kind of hero items for travel because they are small but can really pack a punch! One must bring a silk scarf to Europe and beads in the spring are always a good idea. I also brought a vintage burgundy clutch that lays so flat in my suitcase and can house all of my other accessories inside.

Three (Four) Shoe Theory—

At some point in time I heard it said that you only need three pairs of shoes for any trip, I wish I could give credit accordingly. I knew I wanted to bring a pair of sneakers, loafers, and flats. The pairs below were laid out as I thought through outfits, the visual helped me select the pairs that worked best with everything else. I ended up adding my New Balance 530s, but wore them to travel so pretending they don’t count!

The only item I did not wear was another dress I borrowed from my sister and I could have done without bringing the Golas, especially since I came home with two new pairs of shoes. But overall, I was delighted with what I chose to bring for this trip!

OUTFIT DIARY

(upon special request I will occasionally feature what my husband, Hunter, wore as well)

Travel Day—

The strategy behind a good travel outfit has many layers, literally. Comfort is key and it is helpful to think about what items you can wear so they don’t take up precious suitcase real estate. For me, that was my New Balance 530s and trench, which went in the overhead bin during flights. I knew I wanted to wear my comfiest pants which I have been loving with a grey tee. I kept the green cardigan over my shoulders and it ended up being very practical when the plane got chilly. This outfit worked so well that I ended up wearing the exact same thing on the way home.

Day Two—

I was still in a jet lag daze, not feeling much creative energy, when I put on this sweater and jeans. This outfit did the job and honestly I felt content anytime I was wearing my trench.

For the evening, I swapped the trench for my favorite blazer and added a burgundy clutch, which tipped it from a fine outfit to one of my favorites all trip! The structure of the blazer and loafers was balanced by relaxed fitting denim and the color scheme felt light and airy yet grounded.

Hunter wore a sage green rollneck sweater that he snagged at a Huckberry sample sale with a white tee underneath and dark denim. The first of several accidentally color coordinated outfits!

Day Three—

For a museum day, I started with the base of Le Bonne Shop pants and denim shirt with a subtle pop of red from the tee underneath and brown suede loafers that continued to carry me far.

The look felt incomplete at that point, so I added to the striped sweater over the shoulders to finish it out, loving the patten and texture it added!

Day Four—

This is a standard uniform of mine while back home running around with small children and I was so pleased that it felt put together enough for our trip! These pants are an amazing option for a much more expensive pair that have probably hit your targeted ads. Size down if in between sizes. We started this day taking a group of kids to a museum and then spent the afternoon shopping. The poplin button down and nylon pants were the epitome of comfort and the colorful beads and woven flats brightened it up just enough! The Baggu bag is an unsung hero.

Hunter went with a typical uniform of his own—white tee, dark denim, and sambas elevated with a vintage hat and cool sunnies. The whole outfit got a major boost with this incredible denim jacket from COS.

Day Five—

The two toned green was a combination I had tried and saved in IndyX before our trip. It was a chillier day so I needed a layer under the cardigan, retrospectively I wish I would have gone with grey for the base layer as the white feels like a bit too much contrast. I ended up taking off the t-shirt underneath when temperatures warmed up later in the day and liked it much better, but have no picture to show for it. Since I thrifted these Velvet by Graham and Spencer twill pants, they are a few sizes larger than I normally wear. I had them in a pile to take to the seamstress until reading Elle Sundberg’s post making me realize they might just have the perfect slouch as they are. They are now in regular rotation in their oversized state!

Day Six—

My new Mary Janes on their maiden voyage, pleased to report they are not only very pretty but comfy as well! When adding a new piece to my wardrobe, I have found it easiest to integrate alongside comfort items. In this case, the navy barrel pants (again), grey tee, and trench. The silk scarf pulled some color up, balancing it across the outfit.

For the evening, I simply swapped the grey tee for a white button down and added the burgundy clutch. I loved everything about these outfits!

Hunter went with some cream canvas pants and off white tee with a navy sweater. He has the sweater draped over his shoulders in very European fashion here, but ended up wearing it for most of the evening.

Day Seven—

After several days of getting dressed with ease, I came up against such a block. I was heading back to the Thyssen Museum by myself for the morning and could not land on what to wear. It was chillier than expected and rainy which threw off my original plan. I ended up in the combination below and frankly, didn’t love it.

After feeling a bit bland all day, I was excited to mix things up that evening! We were going to the nicer Italian spot for dinner, so it felt like a good time to bring out a dress. I needed another layer for warmth and was delighted to find my favorite blazer worked so well over the top. The color palettes were congruent allowing the pattern mixing to feel natural. Day redeemed!

Day Eight—

My feet were feeling a week’s worth of extensive walking, so I knew I wanted to wear sneakers. The silk scarf worked with the Golas similarly to a few days earlier with the Mary Janes. The long sleeve tee, Levi’s, and trench rounded it out.

Hunter wore the same navy sweater and white tee as the other day, but the black denim and red baseball hat completed changed the look.

Feeling eager to wear my new purchases from the day, I kept the same base of the long sleeve tee and Levis, but added my new oversized navy linen blazer that I snagged from a vintage shop and black patent leather loafers from Cremades. The tee is slightly darker navy than the blazer which added depth and the ribbed detail under the linen added texture. I had white socks on at first, but they felt way too stark with the rest of the tonal look. I applied grey tee trick, but with socks, and it worked beautifully! The burgundy clutch added the finishing touch.

Hunter wore a wide stripe vintage button down with jeans and his new boat shoes, also from Cremades. Another accidental coordination!

Day Nine—

Hadn’t had enough of my new blazer and was feeling inspired to style it casually. I loved it with my New Balances, Levis, grey tee, and a baseball hat. Hunter and I have an extensive shared hat collection and it works to my advantage that he packs great hats, meaning I have them at my disposal.

This outfit base also worked perfectly when I finally found my leather jacket at the El Rastro flea market.

Hunter rocked the denim on denim again today, but flipped the washes with lighter wash jeans and a darker denim button down on top. The canvas tote (that he is kindly carrying for me) and baseball hat really work together to balance it out.

That afternoon it had warmed up significantly so I changed directions and went with my new striped poplin pants from a local boutique in Madrid, white button up, and beads. The beads felt too bright with just the white and blue, but adding one more color through the muted pink settled the whole look nicely. This outfit also worked beautifully with a swimsuit underneath to go to the pool, so this combination is sure to be a staple for me this spring and summer!

Now that I have been reliving our trip by writing about it for the past three weeks, it might be time to wrap it up and mentally return to the real world. I am genuinely so grateful to each of you for following along! Writing about travel, and now style, has felt easy and light acting as a much needed counterweight. Hopefully you are leaving sartorially inspired to try something new with what you already own! With some exciting travel on the horizon, I am already looking forward to writing similar posts in the future. Until then, you can expect some new poetry as well as book reviews coming in the next few weeks!

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I had expected to enjoy the process of writing about our trip, but not nearly as much as I have. Not only for Hunter and I to have a time capsule of sorts, but also as a way to engage with others around travel, one of my favorite topics of conversation. The question “how was your trip?” has always been a bit tricky for me because regardless of my response, it never feels like I am able to do the experience justice. Being able to share the details and convey the feeling of a place in longer form has led to richer conversations and in a way, the chance to continue living in our memories.

Writing the details is also cementing them in my mind with a stronger foundation than I have felt with past trips. Even the awareness of planning to do this while we were there made me pay closer attention-snapping more photos than usual, jotting down bullet points each morning about the day before, absorbing experiences with all of my senses. Recognizing and appreciating the gift while we were still living it.

Having as many days as we did in one city felt distinct and really special. We toyed with the idea of taking a train to a surrounding town for a day trip, but ultimately decided to stay. Madrid giving us endless opportunity to discover new pockets and revisit ones we had already grown to love!

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DAY SIX—Thursday, March 19:

This was the second of the two business meeting days and since it was a different group of kids we were able to run back the Museum of Illusion. We finished up with the group at 3:00 and headed out to a neighborhood we had not yet explored. Along with being a lively and creative hub, the Malasaña area is marked by its coffee scene and vintage shopping so naturally we were both very happy here. It houses a few museums and is a bit more polished that Lavapiés while still having an edge, more like a curated grittiness, making it extremely cool. Almost like Brooklyn if we are making New York comparisons (because this is fun—Salamanca would be Upper East Side and La Latina would be Greenwich Village). As was our habit, we stopped in a few stores that caught our eye and made a note that we wanted to come back when we had more time.

With dinners being later, we fell into an organic rhythm of having a later breakfast in the morning and finding a hearty snack, most likely a pizza, in the afternoon. We stumbled upon a cafe called La Bicicleta—part coffee shop, part (organic) wine bar with a full food menu as well. Differently than most of the tiny cafes we had been in, this one was much larger with a buzzing environment of people working on computers, having meetings, catching up with friends. We ordered a camembert flambeado con miel, a wheel of cheese set on fire with garlic, honey, and herbs served with toasted pita to share.

Realizing the time, we headed back to the hotel for a quick change and then back out again. Hunter had made a reservation to paint pottery at the studio we saw on our first day, Mama Pottery is a bright and creative atmosphere with a lovely staff ready to walk you through the painting process and take orders for coffee or wine. They were also able to put a rush order on the firing process for an extra 5€ to ensure we could pick up the finished pieces before leaving town. We ordered a couple of glasses of bubbly and gathered our materials.

It has been a long standing tradition of mine to find a mug as a souvenir while traveling and having the chance to paint our own was a special twist. I took inspiration from iconic Spanish pottery while Hunter wanted to capture the quintessential patios. Until we were sitting there painting, I didn’t realize how much I needed this type of activity. The calm environment, slow pace, engaging in creativity together—I felt an overwhelming sense of contentment.

Our dinners kept getting later and later as the week went on as we fully adopted the Spanish way! After painting we enjoyed a 20 minute stroll to our 9:30 reservation at Villa Capri, though upon arrival we learned our reservation had actually been for 8:30 not 9:30, oops! Thankfully they were still able to seat us at a hightop. The interiors were retro and bold, the food was excellent. We thoroughly enjoyed a burrata appetizer, caesar salad, cacio e pepe, and chicken parmeasean. Neither of us took any pictures, but we ended the night full and tired.

DAY SEVEN—Friday, March 20:

Since visiting the Thyssen earlier in the week, I had felt a pull to go back and spend longer with one specific piece we had seen, as well as a visiting exhibit we didn’t make it to the first time. Hunter was excited about spending some time working on fun projects at a coffee shop and I knew some solo time and space to think would do wonders for my introverted self. We went back to Feliz to grab coffee on our walk toward the museum and Hunter ventured out to find a place to hang out for a few hours. I still had 45 minutes until my ticket was active, so I found a bench on the ground floor, put my headphones in, and spent some time writing.

The piece that kept rising in my mind was Merzbild Kijkduin by Kurt Schwitters, an influential German artist in the Dada Movement, which was an artistic response to the destruction of WWI. While it was a short-lived movement, it redefined what was considered art and laid a foundation for surrealism and other modern styles that would follow. Schwitters created his own distinct style within the movement called Merz, a type of collage that created beauty from discarded fragments of a post-war society. This particular piece was created in 1923 from debris found along a beach in the Netherlands called Kijkduin. Hence the title, Merzbild Kirjkduin.

From the moment I saw it, the piece itself really captured my attention, and was brought alive by the way it is displayed at the Thyssen. It is housed in a room of its own with large, individual components of the collage arranged around the room. I had never seen anything like this before. Even with zero context of the piece, I felt immediately connected to this installation and had the thought, this feels like looking inside of myself. A room full of seemingly random objects that are all connected and come together to make something beautiful. The meaning comes from how the fragments work together, the combination of chance and structure. This is the process my brain is rehearsing at any given moment, especially when writing poetry. The core of my faith, which is to say my life, hinges on the redemptive nature of beauty from brokenness. I’m finding it difficult to synthesize this experience into a sentence or two, but am sure it will find its way into some poems in the future. The chance to spend time in that room thinking, praying, being was deeply impactful.

The other place I wanted to spend some time was the Hammershøi exhibition, The Eye That Listens. Located in a different wing of the museum, Hunter and I completely missed it on our first visit, but the title alone was enough for me to make a point to see it. In the words of the curator:

“Hammershøi has often been called the painter of silence. But it’s not an empty silence, it’s full of possibilities. This exhibition is an invitation to listen with our eyes, to explore with all of our senses the solitary, silent settings he captures in his works.”

The walls were drenched in this soft blue and the lighting felt a bit warmer than the rest of the museum, I felt immediately settled amongst his work. Impressionist art has always felt like my comfort zone in the art world and his quiet paintings are particularly reflective, a headspace that feels like home to me. Speaking of home, many of his pieces focued on his own home in Copenhagen. Doorways, or rather thresholds, have been a significant symbol for me over the last few years, so his frequent use of them was powerful.

I didn’t leave myself nearly as much time as I should have for this exhibition, but even my rushed immersion was moving. The concept of an eye that listens has already had real staying power for me.

It was a little after 1:00 when I met back up with Hunter outside the museum gates and we had both worked up an appetite. After a series of the most beautiful, bluebird sky days, we were surprised to find it gray and drizzly. Thankfully there was a ramen bar Hunter had read about right around the corner that opened at 1:30. Chuka had the most nondescript entrance, you would walk right past if you weren’t looking for it, apart from the gathering of people waiting for it to open. We did not have a reservation but, again, were able to be seated at a high top and within minutes of opening, every table was full. We quickly learned this was for good reason because it was maybe the best ramen I have ever had in my life and the ginger old-fashioned was definitely the best cocktail of the trip. We ordered shrimp wontons as a starter and unfortunately for Hunter they were topped with crushed peanuts (he is allergic), which meant I had them all to myself and am still thinking about them. Tonkotsu for the both of us, the perfect meal for a rainy afternoon.

Back at the hotel we took our siesta reading by the pool in the spa where we discovered they bring you tiny plates of macaroons, just lovely! That evening we joined the group for dinner at Numa Pompilio, a spot in the Salamanca district with gorgeous bourgeois design. The meal was a set menu of traditional Italian food complete with Tagliolini mixed in a wheel of pecorino and Tiramisu prepared tableside, everything was excellent!

We ended the day with a nightcap at Dani Brasserie, the rooftop restaurant at the hotel. The menu is overpriced, which can be expected at the Four Seasons, but the views of the city are incredible.

DAY EIGHT—Saturday, March 21:

As our trip was coming to a close, I really sensed a shift in our familiarity with the city and we became very comfortable giving recommendations to others in the group for coffee, restaurants, and areas to shop. After noting Malasaña as an area we wanted to spend more time, we found a brunch spot to make our way towards. Conveniently walking past another Cremades location, we stopped in right as they were opening to see if the selection was different. Indeed it was and we both made it out with another pair of shoes, patent black loafers for me and chunky boat shoes for Hunter.

After a bit of a scavenger hunt, we found our brunch spot, Carmencita, that was everything we needed it to be with mimosas for 1€ and delicious eggs benedict.

Malasaña is known for its coffee scene, so Hunter had several places flagged to try. Toma was the first stop and some of the best coffee of the trip. The atmosphere was super fun and lively with appropriately loud music and a stylish crowd. We both took orange cappuccinos that were not at all sweet but the citrus flavor certainly added interest.

Magpie showed up on all the lists for “best Vintage shopping in Madrid” so we started there and found another vintage shop about every three storefronts after that. I am very fortunate to have a husband that cares about style and enjoys shopping, at least the kind of shopping we were doing, and I was consistently surprised at how long he could hang. Mostly we were just browsing and the price points were generally higher due to how curated the selections were, but I did snag an oversized navy linen blazer for 5€ tucked in the back of a little shop on a sale rack.

We made one more coffee stop at Masamune, according to Hunter their drip coffee was amazing and my iced matcha latte was just fine. The cloud-like duvet at the Four Seasons was calling to me as we walked back to the hotel. Hunter went to the gym while I read in the room and he kindly brought me back a few of those divine macaroons from the spa.

After a recharge we ventured toward the Plaza de la Independencia where our dinner reservation was later in the evening. One of the stores on the list I had collected was in this plaza, I only knew about it and was able to find it thanks to . Pietra is a gorgeous local Spanish brand with bold prints and feminine silhouettes. To find the store you have to go through a courtyard and down a set up stairs, all of sudden stepping into the most charming little shop. This was truly a hidden gem in the most literal sense and while I would have loved to come away with one of their stunning dresses or matching sets, the experience itself was a treat.

With about an hour before dinner, it was the perfect amount of time to enjoy some tapas and a glass of Albariño at Gastón, a very cool wine bar right off of the Plaza.

If possible our Texas hearts need a dose of Mexican food every few days, so when we saw Bakan as a recommended restaurant, we were sold. Guacamole and flautas to start. As for mains, I ordered enchiladas suizas and Hunter the tenderloin a la leña complete with accompaniments of roasted corn, black beans, and a stuffed poblano pepper. We ordered entirely too much food and savored every bite.

As we walked back to the hotel we really soaked in the sights and sounds of this city we had come to love, letting ourselves revel once again in the gift of this trip.

DAY NINE—Sunday, March 22:

One of the first things I ever read about in Madrid was the famous El Rastro Flea Market that takes place every Sunday. Knowing our last full day in the city would be a Sunday, I knew exactly where we would be spending the morning. It is hard to overstate just how widespread this market stretches. As we we walking toward El Rastro, we started seeing booths several neighborhoods before we even arrived at the main section. There was an excitement in the crisp air of another bluebird day, full of much more eager bustling than a typical sleepy morning in Madrid. Plus, there had been a marathon through the city earlier that morning, so it was contagiously energizing to see people walking around proudly donning their medals.

I could have spent entire days and filled many a suitcase full of the treasures we saw. Clothing, art, antiques, cameras, watches, jewelry, books—it was all there! The prices were very reasonable and if were willing to dig, you could truly find some steals.

I was thankful for the vintage shopping we had done throughout the week because it gave us a good handle on reasonable pricing. Most booths only accepted cash which was helpful to know beforehand and I was thankful to have my personal negotiator (Hunter) because that is not my forte while he is very good at it.

Some highlights:

• After trying on what felt like hundreds of leather jackets all week long, I FINALLY found my perfect match! My qualifications were rather specific and this one hit all of the notes.

  

• Hunter made it out like a robber with a leather bag and duffel that would cost $$$ back home, his favorite find of the day! Plus the extra duffel was helpful in bringing home our new acquisitions.

  

• I had been looking for a piece of art all week that we would be able to hang in our home to remember this trip—finding an original oil painting was best case scenario!

  

The crowds were no joke and eventually piles and piles of stuff get to even the highest stamina treasure hunters among us. After a few hours we had had enough and were ready for some brunch. El Rastro is right next to La Latina and why not end where we began? We found our way back to Pascal, the spot we ate on day one. Happy to report that it was just as lovely as the first time!

To balance the day after a morning of crowds and shopping, we made a plan to spend the afternoon at El Retiro Park, a sprawling green space in the middle of the city with a handful of famous landmarks. Unfortunately the iconic Crystal Palace was closed off for construction but we still had a lovely time seeing the large pond, statues throughout the grounds, and gorgeous landscaping. There were grassy areas surrounded by hedges all over the place that you could hang out inside of and it was so refreshing to see the park full of people reading, playing, and spending time with each other.

It was only right to end the afternoon at our favorite patio for a final glass of Albariño and a pizza snack. I got admittedly teary reflecting on the week and what an abundant gift it was to have this experience. Sitting on that patio, over 5,000 miles away from home, we felt a clarity of undeniable evidence of a God who takes care of us in more elaborate ways than we could have ever written up on our own. In a beautiful way, it felt so easy to picture dad collaborating alongside God to make this happen for us. This trip was more significant than I even have words for yet, but in the simplest terms, it was a giant pause button from all the hard and wonderful things we had been carrying. Even the grief felt put on pause in a way I didn’t think possible. Although occasionally, like on this patio, it would pull up a chair when invited in. Grief feels different when you are able ask it to join, more like a companion on a journey than an enemy lying around every bend. And here I am teary again, inviting grief to sit beside me as I write through every detail because not a single person would have been more excited about how much we loved this trip than dad. Not a single person harnessed a zeal for life and love of adventure more than dad.

We ate dinner and hung at the pool with the kids for the last adult-only evening of the conference. Afterwards a Pavlovian response led us to Five Guys for a burger and fries before our final sleep.

DAY TEN—Monday, March 23:

A quick breakfast at the hotel, said our goodbyes, and Ubered to the airport to catch our 11 hour flight to Dallas feeling really, really excited to see our kids. Highlights were finishing Kin (a great read, more on that later) and watching Interstellar (a MASTERPIECE) simultaneously with Hunter. We made a tight connection for our 40 minute flight to Austin and then caught an Uber for the same length of time as the flight. We made it home around 10:30 PM (which felt like 5:30AM) feeling tired but mostly just very, very grateful and luckily just in time to sleep before hitting the ground running with work and parenting two toddlers the next morning!

I finished M Train back at home and just as she sent me off into a week of adventure, Patti Smith aptly welcomed me into the delights of the ordinary.

“Home is a desk. The amalgamation of a dream. Home is the cats, my books, and my work never done. All the lost things that may one day call to me, the faces of my children who will one day call to me. Maybe we can’t draw flesh from reverie nor retrieve a dusty spur, but we can gather the dream itself and bring it back uniquely whole.” -Patti Smith, M Train

How about that for a narrative arc? Thank you for joining me in gathering the dream and bringing it back uniquely whole.

And if “Carla’s Song” by Harry was our Madrid anthem, Mumford and Son’s “Clover” feels like my truest self and the beautiful reality of our actual life.

Yes—normality is, indeed, a treat.

Getting to share our adventures in this space has been a gift to me and I am deeply grateful anytime someone chooses to spend time with my words. The next post will be a lineup of what I wore and why, because I plan to drag out talking about this trip for as long as possible and I really like talking about clothes, along with some observations of Madrid’s street style. It will be a fun one!

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The “we” in question is my husband, Hunter, and I. The short version is that on the side of our normal lives, we coordinate youth programming for a financial group for their employee incentive trips each year. This has allowed us to travel to some unbelievable places staying at incredible properties we wouldn’t be able to otherwise. But the other short version is that it feels like this trip quite literally fell into our laps. It wasn’t even on our radar until late January and by mid-March we were flying across the Atlantic, both of our mothers tag-teaming the two toddlers back at home.

As I have shared in part, the past stretch of life has included tremendous loss alongside inexpressible joy all the while juggling young children, work, and all that comes with ordinary life. The timing of this trip felt ordained in the sense of having some space to catch our breath as well as extended time together. Space and time, the real luxuries in life! It was our first trip, longer than a weekend, that was just the two of us since our daughter was born three (three!) years ago. Another detail worth mentioning is that my dad paved the way for these trips and getting to continue carrying them feels exactly right. Somehow Dad continues to send us on adventures and toward goodness.

Going in under these circumstances we knew what this trip needed to be and what it didn’t. We needed time to be together, to linger, to sleep in and stay up too late, to happen upon beauty, to sit on patios in the middle of the day, to eat delicious meals. We did not need jam packed days full of group tours and excessively touristy activities.

Considering this was our first time in the city and we were very much figuring it out along the way, this is not a guide to Madrid. Consider this more of a chronicled narrative of our explorations or better yet, a treasured collection of memories (to stay on brand). That being said, there are absolutely places we hope to return to and would highly recommend! Especially when it comes to coffee, our extensive sampling provides the basis to confidently give a solid short list of spots1. This post walks through each day of the first half2 of our trip outlining all we did with some added musings along the way because I simply cannot help myself.

DAY ONE—Saturday, March 14:

Air travel is not for the faint of heart these days, with rumors of massive crowds at the Austin airport due to Spring Break, SXSW music festival, and TSA craziness, we left well before we typically would giving us ample time to leisurely grab Taco Deli after security. On the first leg to Miami I read M Train by Patti Smith which turned out to be an ideal travel read. This memoir is the musings of writer, Patti Smith, during various trips, sitting in cafes, reflecting on childhood memories, art that shaped her, etc. It put me in the exact headspace I needed after a week of a million logistics and the mental gymnastics that comes with getting out of town, and several months (years?) of grief. Off balance is a way myself, and others, have described our experience of loss, so this quote met me in a timely way:

“I’m off balance, not sure what’s wrong. —You have misplaced joy, he said without hesitation. Without joy, we are as dead. —How do I find it again? —Find those who have it and bathe in their perfection.” -Patti Smith, M Train

We grabbed a very quick bite to eat in the Miami airport before boarding the long leg of our journey. I started reading Kin by Tayari Jones, which I have been eagerly awaiting the release of since loving An American Marriage years ago. Hunter and I ended up watching Sentimental Value simultaneously and WOW. The storyline. The acting. The house!! A plot with a home that feels like a character is a specific love of mine. So many layers of meaning and emotional resonance, a slow burn with real staying power.

Attempting sleep, I got a few fitful stretches at best, ultimately giving up to queue my default airplane movie, Crazy Rich Asians. I then listened to basically the only two albums I have listened to for weeks:

“Carla’s Song” quickly becoming our anthem for the trip:

At some point in this stretch, without pretending to fully understand time change whilst moving at over 500 mph, it was officially Sunday.

DAY TWO—Sunday, March 15:

We landed at 5:10AM, made it through customs, baggage claim, etc. and caught an Uber to our hotel in the city center, an easy 20 minute ride. Pulling up to the Four Seasons in all of her glory felt like a dream, partially due to the travel exhaustion, but mostly out of sheer giddiness about the whole situation.

Despite all advice to push through the jet lag, we checked into our room and instantly crashed for several hours. Feeling brand new, we opened the windows to an actual string quartet playing “Canon in D” on the street below, you cannot make this stuff up. After a quick change we ventured out to brunch at a place I had read about located in a neighborhood called Lavapiés, a creative, multicultural area just south of the city center. It was a crisp 53°F and sunny as we walked about 15 minutes from the hotel passing vibey cafes and indie art galleries. Conversations in French, Dutch, German, and of course, Spanish floating through the air. To say we were excited would be a vast understatement. The coffee at Pascal was excellent—I took my go-to, cappuccino with honey3, and Hunter was delighted by a fantastic V60 pour over. To eat I had a quinoa bowl for some much needed nutrients and we split possibly the best grilled cheese of my life, four types of cheese with pesto on sourdough and a kimchi aioli on the side. Hunter got pancakes topped with a pistachio sauce.

On our way back to the hotel we popped in a few bigger stores along Gran Via, to grab a few basics (read: white t-shirts because one can never have enough and I had been wanting to try this one). While the t-shirts are in fact very good, I was quickly reminded how overwhelming these stores can be and remembered why I always prefer to shop small or secondhand.

We regrouped at the hotel and I added my favorite vintage blazer and burgundy leather clutch for dinner making this one of my favorite outfits I wore all week.

Thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely stroll to the La Latina neighborhood where we had a dinner reservation at 8:30, we popped into a handful of shops that caught our eye, including a bookshop, vintage store, local boutique, and pottery studio noting several we wanted to come back to. Embracing the Spanish way, we stopped at a tapas spot and drank a glass of Albariño on a sidewalk patio before dinner.

We ate at a nearly perfect restaurant called Ástor that I had read about before our trip and snagged a reservation, since they only have eight tables, to give us a solid plan for our first evening in the city. While 8:30 seems late for dinner by American standards, most restaurants in Spain do not open for dinner until 8PM, and many people start dinner closer to 10:00. We are partial to a late, lingering dinner so we welcomed this custom gladly. Ástor is a fusion restaurant blending Spanish, Latin American, and Asian flavors while using traditional techniques to make the cuisine have a comforting feel. The ambiance was warm and cozy while still feeling fresh and energizing. The service was personal and extremely attentive without being overbearing. We started with some potato croquettes with a delicious dipping sauce (on the house) and the Char Siu. We both ordered steaks which came over fries, I assume from French influence, with a divine Chimichurri sauce. The dessert really sealed the deal in making this one of our favorite meals of the whole trip with an unbelievable cheesecake4 and homemade ice cream, the flavor of the day being pistachio. If there had been an available reservation, we would have gone back and can only dream of being able to go again someday!

DAY THREE—Monday, March 16:

We slept in a bit to recoup some of the lost sleep due to travel. Plus, alongside their late nights, the Spanish enjoy a slow morning, many places not opening until 10 or 11. Hunter went for a run and brought me back a cappuccino from GoodNews, a little spot across the street from the hotel.

With plans to visit an art museum, we found a cafe en route to the Paseo del Prado for brunch and a better cup of coffee. Nomade Cafe had similar offerings, although not quite as delicious, to Pascal and a cozy atmosphere.

We discovered the Thyssen Museum has free entry starting at noon on Mondays so it was our lucky day! The entry line was wrapped around the building but moved at a steady pace and we were inside in no more than 15 minutes. Madrid has a triad of major art museums including the Prado which is the largest and most classic, the Reina Sofía houses the more contemporary works, and the Thyssen, the smallest of the three yet includes art from each movement of Western history providing a comprehensive overview.

The Thyssen is organized in chronological order from the top floor down which made it very accessible with a natural flow. This structure literally walked you through a timeline of art history and the physical movement paired with absorbing the art really cemented themes of each time period in a way I had never experienced before. Watching the shifts in art correlating to historical and cultural factors was fascinating. We spent about two hours working our way through the art, lingering in certain areas that drew our attention (read: impressionism) and others we sped through (read: postmodernism). Laying eyes on originals dating back to as early as the 1300s, as well as pieces by Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, and Monet, amongst other masters was a surreal experience.

The idea that a piece of art can draw you in before you can articulate why fascinates me, not to mention is very good for me in my ongoing journey of living more in my body, not just my mind. The interesting combinations of color, shape, and texture from different pieces and styles had me buzzing. It became my duty to be a sponge and absorb all of the beauty around me even without knowing where inspiration might lead! In an effort to spread that contagious creative energy, I present to you a feast for the eyes:

A snippet from a very full camera roll that will continue to propel me creatively. We stopped in the lovely gift shop (I love an art museum gift shop!) to grab a few prints/postcards of some of our favorites.

We walked to a patio in the Plaza de Santa Ana for a glass of Albariño and a Margherita pizza to share, an afternoon pizza snack becoming another beloved rhythm of our trip. Back at the hotel, we read on the terrace for bit overlooking the most incredible view of the city before heading to “work.” Dinner was the first event where we had the kids, meaning we ate dinner with them and hung out at the hotel pool for a few hours.

Neither of us ate much for dinner and nothing sounded better than a good ol’ fashioned cheese burger so we walked to a Five Guys which has never tasted so good. Satisfied stomachs gave us a second wind, so we decided to walk to what we thought would be a relaxed wine bar. After a fairly long walk, we arrived not where we thought we were walking to, but rather an incredibly trendy bar with a line of twenty-somethings in “going out” clothes waiting to get it. Not exactly our speed. At that point the tiredness kicked in, evidenced by the 23,000 steps that day. We counted our losses and grabbed some gelato on the way home aka the hotel.

DAY FOUR—Tuesday, March 17:

This was the first of two days of business meeting for the group we were with, which meant we hung out with the kids from 8:30-3:00. We ate breakfast from the lovely hotel spread-chia seed pudding, fruit, and a croissant was my go-to, and then headed to the Museum of Illusion, a super interactive, hands on experience. We came back to the hotel for lunch, played some games, did some crafts and called it a day!

After freshening up in our room, Hunter and I took a quick Uber to the Salamanca district. Salamanca is Madrid’s most luxurious area which felt palpable right away in the nicer restaurants, upscale stores, and polished outfits of nearly everyone we passed. I was noting impossibly chic outfits left and right. We positioned ourself just off the Golden Mile, an elite stretch of upper-end shopping, at the flagship Flabelus store. I have been eyeing their gorgeous, velvet Mary Jane’s for a few years and when I learned they were a Spanish brand, it felt only right to secure a pair from their original location called “The Library” which delighted me even more. Not to mention, buying them local saved some dollars. This was my only pre-planned purchase of our trip and anticipating the experience added to the fun! It is a small, charming shop bursting with color and pattern. I was pretty certain I would be getting the two-toned burgundy pair I had been pining over and trying them on was the confirmation I needed.

Our next stop was basically next door. Cremades is another local shoe store but outside of location and quality, is a foil to Flabelus. Bare bones, bright lights and rows and rows of genuine leather shoes made in Spain. The quality is excellent and the prices extremely affordable. I tried on several pairs but felt more drawn to the good deal than really loving the shoe, but Hunter snagged a pair of very cool green sneakers for 35€.

I owe a major shoutout for our shoe shopping adventures along with several other shopping stops throughout the week. Her Travelogue of Madrid truly could not have come at a more perfect time!

We stopped in several more shops that caught our eye, the highlight being COS as I had never been in one of their physical locations. Everything was so beautifully displayed and the fit of the clothes felt much more expensive than it is. Hunter ended up finding the most perfect denim jacket which was probably his favorite purchase of the trip and one I will be borrowing for myself as well!

Made a quick stop by the hotel to drop off our bags and then walked to the Hammam Al Andulus for our spa reservation at 8:00, but not without stopping by a nearby local boutique we had visited earlier in the week to get a pair of pants I was still thinking about.

This spa experience included an hour and a half in the pools, a collection of baths set at different temperatures from cold plunge to sauna that you could move between at your own pace, as well as a massage. I had read that going in the evening allowed for a really beautiful light to stream through the draped windows adding to the experience. After the amount of steps we had been clocking each day this was the ideal way to spend an evening. We finished at the spa around 9:30 feeling rejuvenated and in true Spanish form walked to our 10:00 dinner reservation at Macao, an Asian street food restaurant that serves tapas style. We each ordered three small plates and Hunter ordered seconds of his sushi roll to round out the night.

DAY FIVE—Wednesday, March 18:

Hunter going for a run and bringing me back coffee and a pastry is a pretty standard part of our traveling routine, one I’m thankful held strong in Madrid. I had a lovely morning of reading and writing in the room made lovelier by the cappuccino and lemon loaf from Ambu.

Since apparently we believe that one can never have too much coffee, after getting ready we walked to Feliz for a second round. Their cappuccino with brown sugar syrup rivaled the one from Pascal on day one and the mixed berry crumble was divine. Before diving into our books for a bit, we chatted with a delightful barista named Claudine. Most of the coffee shops are tiny and specifically state “no laptops” making them feel much more communal and leisurely.

Eventually we ventured back toward the La Latina neighborhood knowing we wanted to spend some more time there during the day. La Latina is one of Madrid’s most historic neighborhood with a classic feel to it. The medieval architecture is striking and people feel settled and established. It is much quieter than other parts of the city in a decidedly unhurried way that is refreshing. After popping in a few vintage shops we realized most were closing for the afternoon siesta.

Our siesta was margaritas and guacamole on a patio at a Mexican food place that caught our eye called Sahuaro. To our delight, the guacamole could rival any from back home in Texas and they served it right inside the avocado peel like a little bowl nestled in the basket of chips. A simple and charming, not to mention sustainable, presentation that I will definitely be borrowing in the future!

The hotel terrace became a favorite pre-dinner spot so we took our books up there and read a while longer. The conference had two waves of people coming through, this was turnover day, so that evening was the welcome dinner for the second wave. We were invited to join to meet the kids from the new group and enjoy the traditional Spanish cuisine they had catered from different spots around town. After dinner we got an earlier bedtime for the sake of endurance with the wonderful realization that we still had half of our trip left.

If it isn’t blatantly obvious, we were completely smitten with this city by this point and felt at home in Madrid very quickly. The first half of the trip felt novel and exciting, while the second half had an ease about it from the familiarity that comes with some time in a new place.

Stick around for Part II coming next week! Also another post in the works with more space to elucidate on everything I wore and why for the more niche audience. These kind of travel posts are ones I find myself giddy to read and I’m pleased to report that writing them is just as much fun!

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The thread of writing has connected and sustained humanity through the darkest hours of history in both personal and collective ways.

Reading is non-negotiable because it makes me more human, less overstimulated, more empathetic, less untethered, quicker to give the benefit of the doubt, slower in general, quicker to talk about things that matter, slower to become numb. The list goes on and on.

Other non-negotiables: writing, walking outside, drinking water, laughing, etc.

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• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans —

  There is delight coupled with dread that my favorite novel of the year might have possibly been the first one I read. A bit late to this party but here to report, it’s as good as they say! This is the kind of book I figure out how to weave into every conversation. When the epistolary structure can be pulled off like this, it is such a brilliant vehicle for character development and plot. Plus it allowed me to read book reviews of many of my favorite titles within the pages of another story I loved, how fun! The exploration of grief was both heart-wrenching and hopeful, meeting me in a very tender place like a weighted blanket wrapped around me.

“Most of us live less theatrically, but remain the survivors of a peculiar and inward time.” This feels like the truest thing I have ever read. I guess there’s no bottom to a person, but I feel you have left fewer stones unturned than anyone else who’s ever passed through, and it’s taken me some time to recognize how knowing you has been like coming in from the cold, lonely road to find a warm fire and a table laid.

• Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage by Dani Shapiro —

  At a slim 145 pages, Shapiro delivers a striking portrait of marriage through intricately woven storytelling. The brilliance is in the vulnerability, wrestling with terrifyingly honest questions as she looks back on the past and speculates about the future with only the perspective of the present. An attempt to reconcile who she (as well as her marriage) has been, is becoming, and will become. She doesn’t flinch from addressing the frailty of time and life which was oddly comforting. A reminder that control is an illusion, a realization that bolsters my personal faith. Excellent memoirs captivate me for a lot of reasons, but as a person predisposed toward reflection, it fascinates me to climb inside the mind of another as they share their experiences and perceptions of those experiences.

“Years vanish. Months collapse. Time is like a tall building made of playing cards. It seems orderly until a strong gust of wind comes along and blows the whole thing skyward. Imagine it: an entire deck of cards soaring like a flock of birds.”

• Always Remember by Charlie Mackesy —

  Hope that acknowledges the dark, this is what we all need right now.

“Those are dark clouds.” said the boy.

“Yes,” said the horse,

“but they’ll move on…

the blue sky above never leaves.”

• Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan —

  I fell into a rhythm of savoring a poetry collection each month and it has continued rather naturally into the new year. As a reader who used to devour as many books as fast as I could, this practice has recalibrated my pace. Poetry cannot be raced. I first heard of this collection while reading Awake (more thoughts here) and it carried me into the new year with themes of stepping into the unknown. Narrative poetry is Joy Sullivan’s sweet spot and she is inspiring me to work more of my personal stories and memories into my writing. describes it as “poems of hope, freedom, vulnerability, and transformation, we see a woman wholeheartedly embracing herself as ‘a woman willing to feed herself—light, bread, joy.”

“I wrote a pep talk recently to myself on a bar napkin: no matter which road you take, it will be both glorious and unbearable. Every road is lonely. Every road, holy. The only error is not walking forth.

Yesterday, a friend in California, when giving me directions, told me I could take the trail toward the tall pines or turn left and find a field of poppies, growing gold and savage at the edge of the valley.

When I asked which to choose, she simply shrugged and said: either way, it’s all heaven.” (from the poem, Culpable)

Currently Reading:

• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron — joined ’s book club, you should, too!

• The Body Teaches the Soul by Justin Whitmel Earley — another book I am bringing up in nearly every conversation

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck — honestly flabbergasted I have never read this

• A History of Holding by — my heart will be ripped out and stitched back together all month with this stunning poetry collection

• The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jauuad — an excellent morning companion

Make space for the non-negotiables, the things that make you feel like the most like yourself. It’s worth it!

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Would love to talk books—What are you reading right now? What books do you find yourself weaving into conversations? What titles are lingering in your mind?

As grief and despair seem to encroach on all sides, personally and collectively, a rewatch of all of the Harry Potter movies in the wake of loss was not only comfort, but also became a way to let emotion rise within the parameters of a plot that is as familiar as my own skin. It functioned as an effective way to invite grief in. In her book Prayer in the Night, Tish Harrison Warren says, “I needed a comfort that looked unflinchingly at loss and death.” While she is referencing ancient liturgies, these beloved stories did this for me.

As brilliant storytelling is apt to do, it speaks to the current circumstances of our individual lives as well as the broader story of the human experience in unique ways with each pass. Dumbledore's Pensieve transfixed my attention this go around and it dawned on me that poetry, or really any form of writing, can function in a similar way. Despite not being afforded the ability to entirely relive a memory, putting our experiences on paper holds them in a way that allows us to thoughtfully carry them forward and revisit as we choose to. This is the gift Heather Cox Richardson is giving us and future generations through Letters from an American. An unflinching account of the present, informed by the past, to guide us forward.

Our family spent a portion of the end of 2025 at my parent’s home in the majestic Colorado Rockies for my dad’s last few weeks of this life. It was sacred and hard. We laughed a lot and cried a lot. We hold immense gratitude and miss him more than words can say. Putting pen to paper took on a new importance in those last weeks as I had the privilege of capturing his memories and my own as well. Dad went to his true Home on December 7, 2025 surrounded by the ones he loved most after 64 incredible years of squeezing every bit of Heaven out of Earth. Death is not how it should be, and with the hope we carry, it is also not the end of the story. Dad was quick to remind us that he had the better end of this scenario. In the wise words of Dumbledore, “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love.” Watching recent horrors unfold over the past few weeks makes this feel more true than ever.

Heaven feels different now. Earth feels different now, too.

One of the last things Dad said to me was “keep writing” and that I will. Most of the writing from this experience still feels too tender to share, but this small collection of poems, a pensieve of sorts, feels ready.

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As my parents do with nearly everyone who crosses their path, they developed a rich friendship with the lead oncologist on dad’s case. She is a brilliant scientist and researcher with a drastically different life and worldview than my parents, yet they built such a mutual respect and care for each other over nearly three years in less than ideal circumstances. My dad has always carried an expectancy about Heaven with no fear of dying, which was very confusing to his medical team. But as they put it, “he has a way of getting under your skin” which they said in a way that by “skin” it was clear they meant heart. When the time came a few months ago to stop pursuing treatments and go home, his doctor invited our entirely family to her home. Over dinner, her husband shared that in the several decades of his wife’s career, he has only met three of her patients and none had ever been to their home. It is one of the kindest and most deeply human invitations we have ever received and the entire evening will be something I always treasure. Having the opportunity to affirm and thank her for the way she cared for my dad and upheld his dignity was an honor. Alongside the depth, this bond was forged through wit and a sarcastic sense of humor, so a cheeky text I sent to my sister felt like a great entry point for this poem that was birthed out of that evening as well as an ode to a very special friendship.

I joke that sleep is my spiritual gift because I am generally blessed with deep, consistent sleep. Although while we were in Colorado, that was not the case. Nearly every night at 3AM, almost on the dot, I woke up wide awake and stayed awake for several hours with thoughts pulsing through my mind. At first I was highly irritated by this, but I read a chapter in Wintering by Katherine May (more thoughts here) that talked about the concept of “Night Watch”, or two sleeps, a preindustrial practice of being up in the night. This reframing alongside the companionship of Psalm 130 during those inky black hours helped me embrace the night in a new way. It became a protected time of silence to think and pray and process.

Upon my dad’s diagnosis, my counselor described me as a person that is “wired for hope.” That phrase became an anchor for me. Using it in this poem prompted me towards playing with language around electricity, especially in contrast to the original practice taking place before artificial light existed, and adding to the overall theme of seeing. A reminder that what we pay attention to is how we remain wired for hope, even in the dark.

Answering the question “how are you?” usually feels lacking or incomplete these days, but the best way I know how is to say “grief right now mostly feels like exhaustion with a short fuse.” Remembering and feeling sadness around missing dad is a comfortable place for me for the most part, but anger is something I am learning how to hold in a new way alongside the sadness. In an effort to pay attention to my body, poetry has been a helpful tool in paying attention to where and how I am experiencing grief in a physical sense.

Loss is disorienting and the path forward is far from linear, but let us remember that we are guided and surrounded as we walk in the dark. May we acknowledge the dark while we look for the light!

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“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”

-Charles W. Eliot

Books are certainly some of my best friends, counselors, and teachers. Especially in “wintering seasons” (more below), these are the kinds of books that bring comfort and security in the midst of the unknown. The concept of comfort reads varies distinctly from person to person. An important part of the reading life is determining what they are for you, so when necessity strikes, you have a soft place to land.

In my case, comfort reads are a combination of books revisited and new ones that contain elements in my comfort zone, some of which are character driven fiction, author’s I trust, memoirs, writing about food, descriptions of the natural world, gorgeous prose bursting with descriptive language grounding me in the five senses. This month I prioritized this type of reading and have found myself more prone towards the tried and true in recent months.

• Wintering by Katharine May

During a recent counseling session I was reminded how impactful this book was for me several years ago and the timing in picking it back up, both seasonally and emotionally, has been a gift. I have always been intrigued by how the natural world mirrors the human experience, especially with regard to the seasons. While the author is not a follower of Jesus, I cannot separate her words from my faith and the divine design of our world and personhood. It is a reframing of difficult seasons and primer in how to lean into and learn from them instead of avoid or sugarcoat. Wintering seasons could include any season of grief or transition including loss, sickness, postpartum, a painful ending, etc. I originally read the physical copy but have gone back and forth between the audio and physical for the reread, both are excellent!

“Now that I’m upright, my thoughts settle like flakes in a snow globe. Everything falls back into perspective. I clear the surface of my desk and make a pool of light with my lamp. I go off to fetch matches and light a candle. One light is steady and sure, the other uncertain and flickering. I open my notebook and work between these two poles. On balance, it’s where I prefer to be: somewhere in the middle. Certainty is a dead space, in which there’s no more room to grow. Wavering is painful. I’m glad to be traveling between the two.”

• A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

Maybe one day I will stop talking about Mary Oliver’s brilliance, but today is not that day. Her poems continue to be nourishing to both my heart and mind. This collection was my November companion, I have Winter Hours is lined up for December, and Devotions is on my Christmas list to keep me company into the new year. I really enjoyed this read by Shauna Niequist about appreciating the entire context of one of her most famous poems.

• Wreck by Catherine Newman

A follow up to her novel Sandwich, but this time at their family home in Massachusetts in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. The family is the same and they contain nods to each other plot wise, but each can easily be read as a stand alone. I have enjoyed Newman’s work in the past, especially We All Want Impossible Things (which I just got an inkling to reread as I type this), she is an author in which I simultaneously know what I am going to get while also being consistently surprised. Distinct tones of a familiar author as well as character driven novels are both ingredients of a comfort read for me, so I had a feeling this would serve that purpose well. Maggie Smith has a whole chapter in her book, Dear Writer, about how more specific writing makes a piece more relatable and Newman’s writing is a masterclass in that. She braids humor with depth so fluidly and explores the complicated nature of being human within her pages. There is a fair amount of shock value humor so be forewarned if that is not your cup of tea, while it typically isn’t mine, the way it is used as a craft tool in character development intrigues me.

“But every individual question was really a version of the same existential one: People are different from me. How do I survive it? ‘With as much grace as possible’ was our answer, every time. What else is there?”

• Hinds’ Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard — Another reread of one of the most impactful books in my life. A stunning allegory of life with Jesus, the kind of book that lands differently each time through. Being able to read it surrounded by mountains during my own “Valley of Loss” was especially profound.

  “Strangely enough, down there in the Valley of Loss, Much-Afraid felt more rested, more peaceful, and more content than anywhere else on the journey. It seemed, too, that her two companions also underwent a strange transformation. They still held her hands, but there was neither suffering nor sorry in the touch. It was as though they walked close beside her and went hand in hand simply for friendship’s sake and for the joy of being together.”

It can’t be a surprise to anyone that books are high on my list of favorite gifts to give and receive. There is something sacred in giving and receiving words that have been impactful to another. Recently a friend (read her striking work at Bramble) dropped off a copy of Every Moment Holy, Volume II: Death, Grief, and Hope beautifully wrapped in fabric and fresh herbs with a handwritten note including a curated playlist. The intention put into the presentation as well as the contents of the gift made it one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received. It inspired me as we head into peak gifting season to be motivated by thoughtfulness and care.

My favorite books to give as gifts:

Ideally when giving books they are highly specific to the person, either circumstantially (like the book above) or to their unique taste, but the following are titles with a wide range that bring me such joy to put into the hands of others. I always snag these titles if I see them while thrifting or stock up at Thrift Books, so that I have them on hand!

• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy — Perfect for any age!

• To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue — My favorite hostess gift. A beautiful book of blessings to use individually or in gatherings. When gifting this, I pick out a blessing specific to the recipient and place a card explaining why on that page.

• I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet by Shauna Niequist — The title speaks for itself, isn’t this all of us??

• The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld — You had to know I would include a few picture books! A tender story that is relatable to just about anyone.

• You Are Special by Max Lucado — I keep a stash of the board book version to toss in baby shower gifts, another gem for both children and adults alike!

Currently Reading:

• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron — on Week 7 and seeing synchronicity everywhere!

• Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee — I started this on audio promptly after listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast episode #442 Thoughtful Gift-Giving When Budgets are Tight

• Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton — Did I mention food related memoirs are major comfort reads for me? (see also: Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl, Taste by Stanley Tucci, Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara)

• Time of the Child by Niall Williams — Novel about the Christmas season transforming a small Irish town containing many of my comfort read elements!

December Picture Book Calendar:

Christmas picture books make me positively giddy! Rich nostalgia from sharing books I loved as a child with my own and the delight at discovering new wonderful ones together, there is such opportunity for connection and organic faith conversations about Christmas through books. Faith in Jesus is the foundation and driving force of our family and that really shows through in this picture book calendar, but even if that is not your story, there are so many wonderful titles about kindness, generosity, and purpose here. Don’t forget to check your local library for titles! Would love to hear which ones you love and any new ones you are excited to try!

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Here’s to curling up with comfort reads near twinkling lights or flickering flames and giving great books to one another this holiday season! What makes a comfort read for you? What are your favorite titles to give to others?

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Naming the things that are saving my life continues to be a practice that anchors my attention to the goodness and beauty all around us. I live by the concept that anything can be a spiritual practice if we are aware of God in and through it: an after dinner dance party as praise, noticing the intricate design of the natural world as prayer, reading a picture book to a child as embodiment of Christ in us, giving new life to a thrift store treasure as a gentle reminder of redemption.

The idea of braving the bend from Even After Everything by Stephanie Duncan (yes, I am still talking about this book), makes me hold on even tighter to these unconventional spiritual practices, these doorways to joy and hope, that help me hold the tension.

“The cycle of the seasons, of both the earth and the sacred year, shows us there is no clean, straight line. There is only the slow-gathered accumulation of wisdom through the circle as we move through the seasons high and low, dignifying each through honest witness. If time is not linear but cyclical, authentic resilience is cultivated through braving the bend again and again, deepening with every new orbit. The strength we need most is sourced not in bouncing back or powering through or even fighting forward, but in holding in tension the highs and lows of the human experience by declaring, This, too, is true.”

-Stephanie Duncan Smith

The Artist’s Way

More to come on this, but in short, my mom and I have been working through this book together, discussing one chapter every two weeks. This pace has worked beautifully for us. We are halfway through and it has been nothing short of transformational for my creative life, not to mention such a special experience to get to share with my mom. The timing feels divine.

Making Plans with Myself

Days at home with young children can be such a paradox when it comes to time—on one hand it can feel like I rarely have time alone, yet when I think about the reality of my days, I have many more pockets of time than I used to. My downfall can be passively letting the nap time or post-bedtime blocks go by without really doing anything because I’m attempting to do way too many things, such irony in it all. The concept of “making plans with myself” has been such a helpful mental pivot in how I spend time. This often includes my artist date for that week (see: The Artist’s Way), a time to prioritize creativity and inspiration. Other times my plans are tasks that simply have to get done, but combining them with something I am looking forward to. For example, saving a podcast to listen to while cleaning the kitchen or watching a Homeworthy tour while folding mountains of laundry.

Anniversary Date

In October, my husband and I celebrated eight years of marriage. While it is not a milestone number, eight felt distinct in a way I can’t quite place. He made dinner reservations at a vibey Italian spot in East Austin, I wore an outfit I was excited about, and my sister and brother-in-law met us after for a nightcap at another great spot. On our way to dinner, we took turns queuing up songs that held specific memories of our relationship, some lighthearted and others with significant depth. Even as I type this, I am smiling thinking about what fun we had walking down memory lane when each song came on. We could have gone back and forth for hours and it was such a special way to remember a decade spent together.

Communal Experiences (of the media sort)

Including but not limited to: watching Dancing with the Stars every week with friends, breaking down the new Taylor and Olivia albums via voice memos, analyzing each episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty and Nobody Wants This on Marco Polo, extensive discussion about Awake by Jen Hatmaker, etc.

Long Weekend in New York

At the end of September, we traveled to New York for a family wedding—one day in the city and a few upstate. It felt like a thin veil for a myriad of reasons (I wrote about it a bit more here), I feel certain it will be lodged in my memory for years to come.

Picture Book Calendars

Reading is one of my favorite ways to orient myself to the season at hand, picture books can do this in spades. Making monthly picture book calendars (October and November…working on the December one right now!) has been a fun way to remember to read favorites with my family and also put excellent titles in the path of others!

Breville

My self-taught barista husband can now make me the best cappuccino in town from the comfort of our own home. He also makes “big girl coffees” aka frothed milk with cinnamon on top for our two year old and it bring us all a lot of joy.

Writing Poetry

I have shared a few poems and wrote a bit about why this has been a helpful outlet for me here and here, but something that has been specifically energizing lately has been watching a personal process begin to unfold. I have been dabbling in poetry writing for about a year now and I feel like I am finally able to pinpoint some specific rhythms that work for me personally. This includes consistently reading poetry, the Psalms always as a mentor, and choosing another collection to be a companion and teacher for a month or two which has been a fruitful habit. I am also learning how to take a thread of an idea jotted in a journal or in my notes app and shift it into a first draft. It feels really good to be getting better at something!

Marco Polo

This has been on nearly every seasonal what’s saving my life list for two years. I could go on and on about the lifeline that this has been over the past few years, but in short, the ability to get glimpses into the lives of my friends and maintain a consistent stream of conversation on a daily basis remains one of the brightest, most formative, parts of my life.

Our family is entering an incredibly unique holiday season that will likely include deep loss, I know we are far from the only ones. In a season of ever-present grief, fighting for hope and joy is nonnegotiable. Here’s to keeping our eyes wide open and being people who keep the lamps lit.

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I would really love to hear what has been saving your life this fall. How have you been fighting for joy and hope? How lovely would it be to have a whole list of ways below to usher in the light—let’s hear them and borrow from one another!

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I cannot shake these words I heard recently and am struck by how deeply related they feel to art. Poetry has been a way to hold the collision of grief and joy, a place where God meets me and guides my hand. This is the most vulnerable offering I have shared thus far and my prayer is that these poems might meet you in your own places of pain and gently point you toward hope.

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This is a poem about the restorative nature of hours of uninterrupted conversation with the closest of friends, the kind of friends that waste no time getting to the heart of things and keep talking until we can barely hold our eyes open. When I got home from an overnight with friends like this and my husband asked what we did, I answered in the simplest of terms, “we talked.” “The whole time?” he asked, to which I replied, “we always have so much to say.” This became the title of a poem I had started that morning on the porch of the lake house where we stayed. In the early morning hours, as I listened to the variation of bird songs and watched the leaves fall from the trees, the metaphors began to take shape. I became curious about what made a song sound harmonious, which took me on a research jaunt around melodic contour and how a wave pattern of ascending and descending pitches creates a melody that sounds complete. Notice how the shape of the poem resembles a wave and the word play around the shape of music, trees, and a nod to pregnancy. I also had fun experimenting with the repetition of several phrases, maintaining cohesiveness while also shifting their meaning.

The last sentence is one of my favorites I have ever written. It continues the thread of birds and music that is woven throughout, but shifts into the idea of a bird’s eye view perspective, geese being some of the highest flying birds in the world. Soul level conversation with these friends consistently brings each of us perspective, allowing us to see where the hand of God is moving, especially in the areas of life that feel the heaviest or most hopeless. Time away together, even if it’s less than 24 hours, helps us to zoom out and see the bigger picture before entering back into the details of each of our individual worlds.

Visio Divina or “divine seeing” is an ancient prayer practice that allows me to see the presence of the Lord more clearly in my life. After engaging in prayer around the photograph below, this poem began to form. “The Chance to Love Everything” by Mary Oliver has been rolling around in my brain for months, the specific lines used as the epigraph have been particularly significant and intertwined with where I sense the Lord is asking me to go.

Two weeks before our daughter was born, my dad was diagnosed with stage IV cancer, that was two and a half years ago. I still haven’t found the words to share about most of it yet, but reading and writing poetry has been a lamp on the path. This fall things took a turn and our family braved another bend, the end becoming more visible. At the end of September, we spent a long weekend as a family in upstate New York. There was a sacredness to the time together, our collective resolve felt palpable. The changing leaves consistently stopped us in our tracks and it dawned on me for the first time in my life that their changing color was a preparation for death. Reading about the process of leaves changing color has been incredibly grounding, the Lord’s glory on full display through this design and the redeemed picture of death it has given me. There is a rarity in the opportunity to see a person die well, but my dad who has always paved the way for so many of us, is dying a really beautiful death. An embodiment of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, renewal in the culmination of a faithful and obedient life.

The three stanzas each pose a question that begins with the title and represent preparation, death, and resurrection. Just like glory is displayed in the death of the leaves, the same holds true for those in relationship with Jesus, the one who enacted the ultimate victory over death in which we get to follow. This does not mean there is not deep sadness and grief, but what if grief was sent to us by God as a place to take our pain? I wrote a poem about that concept called “House Guest”, which you can read here.

Sharing these words feels a bit like letting little fragments of my heart live outside of my body, thank you for receiving and holding them with care!

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During my stint as a teacher, there were few things I loved more than cultivating a love of reading in my students. Each year in collaboration with our brilliant librarian, we would transform the library into a Reading Cafe. The first lesson a “book tasting” where we would expose students to a spread of different genres, topics, and formats to guide them in refining their reading palettes. They would sample a variety of books and take notes on what they enjoyed and/or wasn’t to their taste from each. The follow up lesson was about having a balancing “reading diet” and how each type of books serves distinct purposes, growing us in different ways. We discussed what books might be considered which part of the meal, a few examples—dessert, fun and delicious; vegetables, not always our first choice but necessary; or comfort food, hearty and sustaining. Each type of reading experience bringing its own value. Students would inevitably start saying things like, “you need all types of food for a full meal” or “eating the same kind of food all the time would get boring or make your tummy hurt.” We would reference this idea throughout the year and it gave us language to broaden horizons and try new things in our reading lives. Variety brings nuance. This concept has had staying power in my personal reading life and I notice a difference when I have a balanced reading diet versus the monotony that comes with reading a lot of the same.

All that to say, October was the most balanced my reading has felt in a while—a variety of genres, tones, and topics that seemed to be in conversation with one another bringing expanded perspective to the whole. Each of them really played with the concept of time in different ways and how the past shapes the future, they also all had an embodied element to them that felt different yet related.

• Awake by Jen Hatmaker

I am less interested in talking about what I agree or don’t agree with, but rather the stunning piece of writing this memoir is—captivating prose written in a string of vignettes jumping back and forth in time while simultaneously telling the linear story of the present. The storytelling immersed me from the start (speaking of: the essay “Storytelling” about her dad wrecked me) and I remained fascinated by the structure and craft choices throughout, gosh can she write! There is such bravery to walk through fire and then publicly write about it in a way that articulates the grappling and rebuilding with such authenticity. I was struck at multiple points how the specificity of grief can, at times, transcend circumstance to become something of communal experience. Along with that, was reminded of the holy opportunity we have to surround and carry each other through. The way her family and friends did this for her and her children over and over and over in such thoughtful and abundant ways was an embodied lifeline to hope. Audio is a must for this reading experience, especially because many of her treasured souls recorded their own words throughout. Many of the essays lingered with me for one reason or another, these are a few: Hidden Corners, For Grief, Lighthouse, Front Porch, Telluride, Jenna, Shauna, Mrs. Palmer, Storyteller, Resistance, Forgiveness, A Little Tidier.

“Sometimes the whole truth gets scaffolded by the remaining love elsewhere. We may have to bear it, by choice or by force, but the whole truth only shatters the fraudulent parts, not the beautiful ones. Sure, a truth and a lie can no longer coexist once exposed, but truth is no threat at all to whatever else is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, anything excellent or praiseworthy. These are truths bedfellows and it turns out, they can hold an entire life together.”

• Good Energy by Casey Means

To continue the reading diet metaphor, this is vegetables in the most literal and figurative sense. A fairly dense but deeply important work of nonfiction outlining the effects of metabolic health and interventions that can be taken to improve it. While it is data forward, there are many personal anecdotes and narrative examples that make the writing more accessible. The background Dr. Means has in surgery and her career shift into a more wholistic approach is fascinating and the wisdom and experience she brings to the table is a gift we can all benefit from. I switched back and forth between audio and my kindle for this one, finding both formats to be helpful for different reasons.

“I reflect on the fact that many of the problems in society—including violence, mental illness, developmental issues, and pain—start in humans, and humans are made by cells that become dysfunctional largely because of oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and chronic inflammation. How miraculous that food can directly combat those things. We can’t have a healthy society without well-functioning humans. We can’t have well-functioning humans without well-functioning cells.”

(Side Note: The next two novels I read within the span of a week and they felt especially in conversation with one another. Even though they were set in a different time and place, they held a striking synchronicity to one another in plot and theme, as well as gorgeous, emotionally resonate prose. Important to note: both contain either a child who is sick or the death of the child in respective order below, these are particular plot points I appreciate being aware of in advance.)

• Heart the Lover by Lily King

The relief I felt once I settled in with this one and realized I was going to love it, it carries the same tone I adored in Writers & Lovers and gave bookends in both a prequel and sequel to Casey’s world. Lily King is a masterful storyteller and has a way of propelling a story forward through the details. Her scenes with children in them always feel especially astute and fully realized in my mind, one particular scene that gave this kind of energy. I have thoughts about the ending and am dying to talk to someone about it.

“You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you’re reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.”

• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Another stunning and absolutely heartbreaking novel. The descriptions of the English countryside, both an extravagant estate and cozy family farm, were lovely. As I have mentioned before, I love when an author uses the setting almost like a character, the land also was used metaphorically in a striking way. The plot and pacing felt akin to Where the Crawdads Sing in that they are both lyrical love stories highlighting the beauty of the natural world juxtaposed with a riveting courtroom drama. While this was a stand out read for me, the details around the death of the child were excruciating and I am also wary of anything that feels like it encourages the reader to root for an affair in a marriage.

“It’s strange, the patchwork stories we tell someone when we want them to catch up, a shortcut to knowing us, as if such a thing were possible.”

Currently Reading:

• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron — on Week 5!!

  

• Dream Work by Mary Oliver — I wrote about this last month, but continue to sit with a poem or two from this collection most mornings. Themes around time and embodiment that I mentioned above are very present here as well. The poem “The Chance to Love Everything” has been particularly impactful for me.

  

• I Just Wish I Had a Bigger Kitchen by Kate Strickler — Flew through the first five chapters last month and then took a break to listen to some library holds before they expired. I am back to it for the second half and the refreshing tone is bringing another wave of encouragement and levity to the mix of some other intense inputs.

• Among Friends by Hal Ebbott — A highly anticipated debut novel that takes place in Upstate New York in autumn. After spending months on the waitlist my library hold came in at the perfect time, library serendipity is a thrill. Forty pages in and the prose is brilliant and the tension is palpable.

November Picture Book Calendar:

Every titled included is one I have read and loved, either with my own children or during my teacher years. Each month’s selections include a wide variety of titles including a handful of seasonal picks, various genres, different target age groups, and themes. My hope is that each title selected would point you in some way towards beauty and goodness in our world and empathy toward each other. An Oak Inside of an Acorn by Max Lucado is the only explicitly faith-based title this month, but many can be connected to the character of God and the world He made. Please share with anyone seeking quality picture books!

Ideas for how to use it:

• bring along for library visits

• hang on the fridge and cross them off as you read them

• send a copy to school with your child so they can look in their classroom or school library

• keep a running list of your family’s favorite reads from the month or each family member could have their own copy to track their favorites

• organic discussion about generosity, thankfulness and how to care for people around us—Those Shoes, We’re All Wonders, Boxes for Katje, Mustafa, Last Stop on Market Street, Hello, Neighbor, The Thank You Book, Bear Says Thanks

• conversation about facets of the natural world—In November, Tidy, An Oak Inside of an Acorn, Because of an Acorn, The Leaf Thief, Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter

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In the same way a shared meal can foster connection and joy, talking about books with others adds another dimension to the reading life, a bridge from a solitary activity to a shared experience. What have you enjoyed reading lately? What type of reading experience are you wanting to add more of? Do you have any favorite childhood reading memories from this time of year?

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While the biggest factor in achieving that sought after “Nancy Meyers aesthetic” is time, finding secondhand treasures infuses spaces with character, timelessness, and a sense of story in a way decor from big box stores never could.

There are sure to be more home related Thrift School episodes in the future, but today the focus is specifically on how to fill the walls. There is the art of creating an individual piece and then the art of arranging things in a space, this is a primer on the latter. The structure will be consistent with past episodes (1, 2, 3). During the haul, I will walk you through different spaces in our home that feature art and other wall decorations that have been collected secondhand. The thinking will include practical tips for how to curate a collection of your own as well as some musings because I can’t help myself. Finally, in the styling section, you will find a gallery of some of my favorite spots in our home to pull inspiration from.

The Haul

I have been on a big kick of watching Homeworthy house tours, usually while folding laundry. This habit has been more effective for creative inspiration than my family having clean clothes, it certainly makes menial tasks more fun! I often add items to my Thriftlist while watching these. This is my own, very casual, room by room house tour:

Living Room—

Dining Area—

Playroom—

Son’s Bedroom—

Daughter’s Bedroom—

Kids’ Bathroom—

Primary Bedroom—

The Thinking

Where to look:

• Family Heirlooms—

  The word “heirloom” has a sizable dose of pretension attached to it, but the word simply means an object of value passed down through a family. When it comes to value, we get to define what that means to us. While sometimes it might be something of monetary value, often it is of the sentimental nature, an object that houses memories of people and places that are special to you. As a particularly sentimental type—this is my favorite kind of household object, specifically art, to collect. Anytime there is an opportunity to acquire physical items from the homes of family members, or people you love, don’t let the chance slip by. My parents’ storage, the homes of my grandparents, and pieces my cousins have offered to pass along have become some of my most treasured possessions.

• Estate Sales—

  This is how we have collected the majority of our art. The nature of everything in the house being up for sale allows for a higher probability of finding a treasure. There is something special about the opportunity to give a piece of art a new home beyond the life of the human that owned it for that season. A simple homage to that person, most likely a stranger, to value something they valued. Most weeks I check estatesales.net to see what sales are happening near me. The listings typically include photos of the inventory, which helps determine if it is worth the trip. And of course, keep your eyes peeled on the weekends for handmade signs calling to you!

• Thrift Stores—

  I can recognize that not all thrift stores are created equal, but if you immediately thought something along the lines of, “the thrift stores near me never have anything”, I would like to challenge you, dear reader, to reframe your thinking. The beauty of local thrifts is the constant fluctuations, i.e. there are always new treasures to be found. Thrifting is much more about training your eye toward potential rather than how something may look in that exact moment amidst the clutter and fluorescent lights. A lesson in how to approach human beings, too. It is also about experimenting and being okay with not everything being a winner, because when you try something new and it works, that is where the magic is.

• Antique Shops—

  If a typical thrifting experience feels overwhelming to you, a more curated environment might be a good route. While you still typically find lots of inventory arranged in small spaces, the deep weeding has already been done for you. Of course that will come with a bit of a premium on the price, but often still very affordable relative to other options.

• Online Auctions—

  This is my next endeavour since reading Hannah Berry’s piece from her incredible publication, Making Home, on sourcing original antique paintings. Stay tuned.

What to look for:

• Variation in style and texture-a combination of landscapes, abstracts, line drawings, photographs, needlepoints, tapestries, etc. The variation creates a collected feel.

  

  

• Pay attention to interesting frames and mats. You can always switch out what is in the frame for something better suited to your taste.

• If a frame doesn’t have a mat, take a field trip to your local craft store and have them cut a custom mat to elevate the look. Especially with photographs, opt for a smaller print and a larger mat, I think about this post all the time. Polaroids strips or other mementos (ticket stub, map, matchbook, etc.) on a colorful mat are also a fun, affordable option.

  

• Put drawings, letters, or handwritten recipes from loved ones in thrifted frames.

  

  

• Frames are not the only things you can hang on your walls-experiment with sconces, plates, mirrors, tapestries, hats, baskets, etc. Shelves are also a great thriftable wall addition that can take of a good amount of space and give you more surface areas to style.

  

  

  

  

• Books make excellent art! I love forward facing covers, especially in children’s spaces. Framing book covers or pages can also make for a beautiful, inexpensive option. It is no secret that I love picture books, also be on the lookout for art, photography, design, and cook books.

  

  

• If you start to get restless with a certain area, move things around! “Shopping my own home” usually does the trick to freshen up a space. Especially in prominent spots, I like to swap out artwork seasonally. Focus more on collecting color palettes rather than overly themed pieces for a subtle nod to the season.

The Styling

Some of my favorite spots around our home:

The concept of home as an ever-evolving canvas fascinates me, it is art we live inside of. In their purest form, homes are designed for belonging, connection, and safety—what a privilege to create these kind of spaces for my family and every person that steps inside these walls.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read the words I put out into the world. I hope you feel inspired and equipped to add some beauty to your home in an accessible way. What items do you already have that could be turned into art? What home projects are you working on or dreaming about about right now? What things are you on the lookout for?

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