For those of us who observe the Christian liturgical year, we have come to the end of Lent, and are now in the Easter season. Lent always feels long and this year even more so with what is happening here in the US and around the world.
When I am feeling the cold and bleakness of Lent, or when I am feeling anxious and fearful, I am always thankful for the words of wise people who have gone before me. And this is why Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, is a book I’ve kept close by throughout the Lenten and Easter seasons for many years. When my own faith wavers or my spiritual fire gets low, I can be inspired and uplifted by the insights and experiences of others, which fan the flame of my own spiritual hunger, and help me to keep walking.
Within these pages, I read (and re-read each year) passages from Barbara Brown Taylor, Wendell Berry, Amy Carmichael, Karl Barth, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Dorothy Day, and Dorothy Sayers, plus many more.
And I’ve been encouraged by these readings, such as by these words from Kahlil Gibran in the chapter entitled “The Crucified”:
“Jesus was not sent here to teach the people to build magnificent churches and temples amidst the cold wretched huts and dismal hovels. He came to make the human heart a temple, the soul an altar, and the mind a priest.”
Or from the chapter entitled “Not All Right” from Tish Harrison Warren:
“The ones Jesus calls are the weary ones, the ones who snap at those they love after a long day, the ones who battle addiction, the ones who aren’t who they wish they were, the ones who know they are not strong, the ones who wrestle and repent, who fail and fail again. This is the church, these ones through whom Jesus is strong.”
Or “Waiting With Mary” by Kathleen Mulhern which both honors Mary’s experience as mother and disciple of Christ and helps us imagine what it must have been like for her as he was crucified, buried, and resurrected.
If Lent is a season you observe, Bread and Wine may also become for you a companion to take you through the reflective season of repentance, fasting, and prayer to the celebration of Easter and beyond, all the way to Pentecost. Find Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter at your local bookstore, online at Bookshop.org and Amazon.
I am still getting over Covid, which I had earlier in the month. As someone with asthma, allergies, and some other chronic conditions, it’s taking me longer than I’d like. So, I’ve been reading several books and watching a lot of shows during my downtime.
Let’s start with the poem: I came across it while searching for a John O’Donohue poem for this Substack post I wrote about peace. John O’Donohue wrote in a way that drew his readers toward wisdom, nature’s beauty and the deep things of the soul. His poetry soothes me like the arms of a loving mother: comforting, clear, and kind.
Blessing For Peaceby John O’Donohue (from his book Benedictus)
As the fever of day calms towards twilight May all that is strained in us come to ease.
We pray for all who suffered violence today, May an unexpected serenity surprise them.
For those who risk their lives each day for peace,
That those who make riches from violence and war Might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.
That we might see through our fear of each other A new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.
That those who enjoy the privilege of peace Might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.
That the wolf might lie down with the lamb, That our swords be beaten into ploughshares
And no hurt or harm be done Anywhere along the holy mountain.
Next, the two books I finished this past weekend both left me inspired and encouraged. The first is Elaine Paigels’ Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus. I wasn’t sure if this would be the sort of book so high-minded and intellectual that the gospels would be torn into tatters or presented as simply myths.
Instead, Paigels presents any historical evidence there might be to support the stories while also clearly sharing what isn’t there. She looks at topics such as Jesus’ virgin birth, his resurrection, his claim to be God and doesn’t mock or tear down anyone’s faith. She just shares facts that are known and leaves it up to the reader to choose what to believe from there. Paigels, is, after all, a historian of religion, so I would say she did her work thoroughly. If you want to read more about the life of Christ from a historical perspective, I recommend this book.
The second book I read was Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground by Mirabai Starr. This book encourages us to find the sacred and the divine in everything we do, everywhere we go. To hear the voice of God in birdsong or our partner’s voice, to connect to Divine Presence anywhere we happen to be: a meditation room, a church, at work, in the garden, making dinner. She pulls in the voices of famous mystics like Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, Ram Dass and Thich Nhat Hanh, and everyday people she knows such as a writer friend and the woman who does her nails at the local salon.
Mirabai is so welcoming of others’ experiences, opening up the way for any of us to be mystics, to support and enrich our spiritual lives wherever we are and whatever we are experiencing. I also really appreciated her chapter on grief and how grief connects us to the Divine and to one another. I recommend this book if you’re looking to enhance your spiritual life.
Now for the three British TV shows:
Lynley is the latest TV rendition of Elizabeth George’s ongoing DI Lynley mystery series. If you’re familiar with the books or the earlier Inspector Lynley series from the late 1990s/early aughts, this is a fresh take. The mysteries were interesting enough to keep me guessing and the new versions of both the aristocratic Thomas Lynley and his detective sergeant side-kick, Barbara Havers were likable enough. Their chemistry is a bit different, as Lynley’s and Helen’s, his love interest. It has gravitas but doesn’t get depressing and adds just enough lightness to keep it balanced.
Playing Nice is a four-episode suspense/drama about a couple who find out that their son is not their biological child. The boy who they’ve raised as their own was switched with their biological son in the NICU. Their lives unravel quickly as a sociopath attempts to not only take the son they’ve raised, but prevent them from ever seeing their biological son. Starring James Norton of Grantchester and Happy Valley and Jessica Brown Findley of Downton Abbey.
Line of Duty is a police show and I watched all six seasons this month. AC-12 is a police department whose purpose is to root out corruption in the police force and catch bent cops. It’s intense and, if you like this sort of show, it’ll be difficult to stop at the end of each episode! Each season, there is a particular police officer connected to a suspicious incident that AC-12 is investigating, often undercover. The good news is a seventh season is in the works.
What have you been reading and watching lately? Please share in comments!
My favorite scene from the Harry Potter films, which I’ve mentioned before is the one where everyone from Hogwarts stands in the courtyard and lifts their lit wands to the night sky against Voldemort and his minions.
Every day, we, too, can lift our wands. We have a choice. We don’t know whether or not we will win in the end, but we can both collectively and individually raise our power.
How can we do that? By being kind. By sharing what we have. By smiling at someone. By listening. By speaking up. By making something just because we were inspired. By using our gifts for good.
It’s simple, really, but it takes some determination not to listen to the voices of doom that zap our energy and leave us feeling completely helpless. We aren’t helpless. We were all given certain strengths and gifts and we’ve honed skills that we can share so that others can benefit from them.
When I think of the small things an individual can do to help children in Gaza, for example, it may seem useless to even try. But I wonder how many of us have been influenced by the social media mindset? That we have to reach thousands of people in order for our effort to matter.
Those of us who know the stories about Jesus know that he stopped for the one. He tended to one person at a time. He didn’t say, “In order not to waste my time and energy, all of you sick get in a crowd and I will wave my arms and you’ll all be healed at once.” He took the time to heal one person at a time.
What does that have to do with Gaza?
Well, we might think our little contribution to a humanitarian organization doesn’t do much. But what if it allows one mother to receive formula for her baby or bag of rice or flour and a few vegetables to feed her family? What if it gives one starving child a meal after several days without? What if, along with a few other people’s small donations, it allows an injured child to fly to another country to receive medical treatment?
Do you still think it doesn’t matter? What if that mother was you? What if that child was your child or your niece or nephew or grandchild? Wouldn’t it matter then? If it matters to one, it matters. You matter. Your choices matter.
My daughter and I have been running a fundraiser for Palestine Children’s Relief Fund called Steps for Gaza this month. This is what my daughter asked for instead of gifts for her August birthday.
PCRF helps children and families in Gaza receive food, water, medical care, and humanitarian aid. PCRF holds a four star rating for accountability and finance from Charity Navigator (only 3% of charities have this rating).
We set the goal at $2000 and agreed to walk 350,000 steps in August dedicated to the children and families in Gaza. (We reached our steps goal on Tuesday night and are still walking!)
Get Real, Lucille! by Laura Petrisin is a colorful, fun picture book with a positive message.
Lucille is a rubber chicken who performs in a traveling circus with her friend, Peaches. But Lucille wants to be different. She wants to be real, like the chickens in a nearby farmyard.
Will Lucille get a magical transformation to make her real? Or will she learn to appreciate who she is and the talents she has?
It’s a positive message for kids ages 5-8/K-3rd grade, as well as the grown-ups who will read this book to them. With many colorful illustrations, this book will capture children’s attention while the sweet and nurturing storyline will encourage them to be proud of who they are. And maybe take up juggling!
I highly recommend Get Real, Lucille! for the child or children in your life.
Get Real, Lucille! is being released in less than a month, on Tuesday August 5th, 2025 and is available from Bookshop.org, Amazon, Barnes and Noble or wherever you purchase books.
Thanks to Monarch Educational Services for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Fun personal note: Laurie is a dear friend of mine who gave my two kids art lessons for many years when we homeschooled. She’s a gifted writer, as well as illustrator and artist, and I’m so happy she has a new book coming out into the world!
Once again, the time has flown by and it is almost three months since I posted here. Partly it’s because I’m writing so frequently on Substack, and partly it’s that the holidays took more time than I anticipated, no matter how much I tried to have a slower season. But I’ve been planning posts for you here as well and now that we’re into a new year, it was time to write and catch up with you.
I enjoyed a slow start to January, and needed about ten days after Christmas to catch up on sleep and calm myself down after weeks of activity and lots of stimulation. Do any of you feel this way after winter holidays?
Yet I also have this excitement about a new year beginning, even though I know we really can start something new or start over any time of year. I love to write down goals and plan out how to make them happen. And I like the discipline of a routine after a few weeks in limbo during late November and December. Below is a list of what I’ve been doing or thinking about, and what I’m planning in the next few months.
Re-committing to a Routine: This year, I plan to meditate and practice yoga every morning. And to work out and/or walk every day as well. I feel the need to be as strong, grounded, and healthy as I can be for whatever this year brings. And journaling every day is also one of my commitments.
Journals and Planners: Starting new journals and planners is such a joy each January. I’ve got several going for different reasons or needs. I recently shared a post about journaling on Substack, which you can read here (and do subscribe!).
The Cycles Journal is to track my cycle, physical and emotional symptoms, moods, wellness routines, etc. This is my fourth year using this journal and I wish I’d had it in my twenties and thirties. I gifted one to my daughter and another to my niece in hopes that they’ll connect more deeply with themselves and their cycles this year.
Molly Remer’s Prayerbooks on Lulu are what I use to write down spiritual things specifically such as prayers and poems, thoughts and questions.
Woodspell Apothecary’s Planner is beautiful, spiral-bound, and connects me to the land, the moon and herbal medicine. It’s my third year using this planner and I love it more than ever.
The Bullet Journal is where I write daily lists, goals for the month and year, and record other things such as favorites lists.
We’Moon Planner is feminist datebook with artwork and there are poems and short pieces throughout that are read from during Molly Remer’s monthly circles.
Leonie Dawson’s 2025 My Brilliant Year Workbook: Biz Edition is a good way to reflect on what worked and what didn’t in my business last year and how I want to do things differently this year.
The Life Organizer by Jennifer Louden isn’t a journal, rather she offers weekly questions that are very helpful for women, especially busy mid-life women, to discover what they really need and how to make themselves a priority in the middle of it all.
Journaling & Gentle Movement Course: I’m offering an online course called Nourishing Your Roots: discover what is healing and restorative for you this winter. It starts January 14 and goes through February 3rd. I hear so many people say they’re stressed, tired, sick, unmotivated, and don’t seem to have clarity about their lives and goals. Journaling is one way to get focused and clear on what you really need and want in order to heal and have a more nourishing life. And movement helps us connect with our bodies, supports our immune systems, and lifts our mood. If you’re a paid member of either my Patreon or Substack, this course is free to you. Or you can sign up on my website, here.
A few of the books I’m reading this month (because there are always more):
This is Happiness by Niall Williams. I read Time of the Child just as Christmas was arriving and had to go back and read This is Happiness. So Irish, so full of characters that have a lot of life in them, such good stories.
The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander. I’m reading this one for my Substack’s Book Club. You can subscribe here.
Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery–I started reading through the series again in the late Autumn for comfort and to escape the harshness of the world scene.
When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone–all about the history of the suppression and destruction of the goddess religions worldwide. For someone who grew up in Christianity, there is a lot I never knew about the damage connected to even the roots of our faith. It is a lot to take in, but I’m glad to know what history tells us.
And I hope to start The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge. This is one of the books I received as a gift for Christmas and one of my friend Laurie’s favorite novels. I’ve been meaning to read it for years! Let’s see how I do with all of these this month.
How to format a book for self-publishing to Kindle or Lulu.
Projects I’m working on:
I want to make a few new scrunchies. One of my favorites broke the other day and I looked at it and thought, “How hard can this be?”
I’m putting together a few new sets for my shop: a Winter Skin Care Box, an Imbolc/Brigid’s Day Box, and a Valentine’s Day Box.
I’m brainstorming new courses to teach for Late Winter & Spring which may include yoga, Ayurveda, herbs, aromatherapy, journaling, and/or meditation.
What about you? What journals, planners or workbooks are you using this year? What are you learning or what projects are you working on? What are you reading this month? Please do share!
You may or may not have heard of the Triple Goddess or the supposed three phases of womanhood: the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. As Henes writes in this book, this concept was invented by a man in the 1970s, so it’s a relatively modern idea. And she brings up the point that many women don’t reach midlife and suddenly turn into a crone. There is a missing phase.
Just as there are four seasons, we are missing “Autumn”, and what Henes has titled “the Queen phase” of life. This is an apt description of midlife. For one thing, Autumn weather is a season of fluctuation and change, which is what women experience at mid-life. We may not be in our prime, instead we are beginning to reap an abundant harvest of all we’ve planted and tended to in our earlier years.
I bought this as a gift for myself for my forty-eighth birthday and have only read through chapter three. However, I have felt so validated and comforted by her words; seen and heard. This isn’t a part of life to pretend doesn’t happen, to be ashamed of or to hide, and I’m so glad she addressed it in this book. It’s a natural phase of life and we can choose to celebrate it.
The second book is Jennifer Louden’s The Life Organizer: A Woman’s Guide to a Mindful Year. I waited to start this book until my birthday at the beginning of September. I thought it would be interesting to start a yearlong book and see where it takes me by the time another birthday comes around.
It’s not a “whip yourself into shape and get it together” type of book. Instead of barking at us like we are in boot camp, she comes alongside with very deep questions that lead to insights about ourselves that we wouldn’t otherwise have addressed. It’s a gentle and unexpected delight that I am thankful to have as a companion for this year.
It’s one that you’ll return to again and again. I also like the small size. I expected a huge book but it’s one that fits well in my hands (6×7.5 inches and only. .5 inches thick).
At various times in life, you may feel like the path has become uncertain, hard to define, or that you are lost and are not sure what to do next. This is such a helpful tool to guide you with questions so that you can pick up the threads of your own life and begin weaving again. In other words, you can live in a way that is more you and less the person you think you should be. You can allow yourself to explore, to rest, to learn, to discover, to grow, to just be you. Also if the word “mindful” in the title bothers you (because it is overused these days), when you see it, simply substitute it for the word “intentional”.
I am reading a string of excellent books these days. If you’d like to find get some more recommendations, read my latest bookish Substack post: September Reading. (And become a paid subcriber to my Substack–it helps me fund this blog so I can keep it an ad-free space of quietness, beauty, and reflection for all of us!)
I have seen the sun break through to illuminate a small field for a while, and gone my way and forgotten it. But that was the pearl of great price, the one field that had treasure in it. I realise now that I must give all that I have to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
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This morning I awoke to another day, with muted birdsong, and an orange sun rising over the trees at the end of the field across the street. My goal is to get up just before the sun and stand on the front porch or walk around for a few minutes to be present at sunrise. This is supposed to support a healthy circadian rhythm as well as give my eyes some much-needed red light therapy. My eye doctor said sunrise and sunset are good for reducing inflammation and bringing some healing to my dysfunctional dry eyes. (I don’t stare at the sun, I just face in its direction.)
It is cool this morning, and fairly quiet. The starlings left last week, I think. They were congregating all over the trees and lawn in front of the house one afternoon, making a racket, and then they were gone. They’re easy to notice because they’re so obnoxious, but other quieter birds have probably left as well and I’m not even aware of it yet. I haven’t seen a robin recently, but it seems too early for them to have left.
Since late August, it feels as if everything is waiting for Autumn to come. We’re still in that in-between place of what is now and what is not yet. I try not to be impatient for cool, crisp weather and the bright reds, yellows and oranges of leaves. The landscape seems to have faded into a yellow-green, and it’s dry. Not drought-dry, just dry. We haven’t had rain in a week and a half.
The Calendula and Bachelor’s Buttons are not putting out as many blooms, but the Asters and Dahlias are going strong and the Lavender Munstead/English Lavender bushes are blooming for the second time this season. This is the Lavender I love the most. It blooms in June, I cut it back after that, and then it blooms again till frost. I’ve been able to collect and dry many bunches, while still leaving plenty for the bees.
I walk around the garden, saying good morning to the plants, shaded by the row of White Pines in the backyard. I gather some parsley for my morning juice (currently celery, carrots, apples, ginger, lemon & parsley) and head back inside.
After a few minutes of yoga stretches and breakfast, I go outside with a basketful of new aromatherapy blends and crystals for my shop, plus my phone and a table for a product photo shoot. I collect a few flowers (yellow and gold Calendula, Feverfew, Lavender & Bachelor’s Buttons) from the garden as props to pretty up the photos and then spend an hour taking photos. This isn’t one of the favorite parts of my business. Editing I don’t mind, but the actual photography always makes my lower back hurt. I have to crouch or bend in an awkward way to take photos so an hour at a time is the max I’ll do. Right now I’m working through my product catalog, changing the background of things I keep in stock and taking photos of new products. I take photos, plus short videos of me holding each crystal so people know how big they are.
After a workout and a shower, I eat lunch and go upstairs for a nap. I don’t nap every day, but more often than not, I take a short nap and read for a while in the afternoon. On days that I’m tired and try to power through, I am so unproductive. I can’t think straight and make clumsy mistakes in whatever I’m working on.
This isn’t a day I can actually nap though, because the farmer who rents the field that surrounds us on three sides has sent what seems like every piece of machinery he owns through the field today. There’s more equipment out there again now. It looks like a disc harrow. Yesterday, a tractor with a spreader came through and it seemed he was dispersing pellets of some kind–fertilizer possibly? Then today, there was a plow, a seed spreader or maybe more fertilizer, a machine that sprayed something (hopefully water and not pesticide on a bare field), and then a couple of other machines that I lost track of.
So I work on a couple of Substack posts, and don’t finish either one. I start one about daily rhythms and another about a sense of place, in a similar vein to what I’m writing about here, and then drift off, uncertain how to wrap them up. I start a post about books I’m reading and then head over here to show up on this dear blog I’ve been neglecting for months!
When I think about this sleepy part of the world I live in, I have to laugh at how annoyed I get at all the farm machinery. Honestly, this is the most noise we ever hear up on this hill, during planting and harvesting. And it doesn’t last long. No construction noise, except occasionally in the distance, like a half mile or more away. Even the grain bin fan down at the end of our road is noisy only a few days a year. We have trucks and cars and school buses that go by, but nothing like on a main road. I live in Paradise compared to so many, and I acknowledge my privilege and am thoroughly grateful.
As that last piece of farm equipment chugs and whines away down the road, I listen and watch for the birds to come out of hiding and look for our herd of cats (six!) to come to the back door in demand of their dinner. The sound of crickets and the breeze tickling the leaves of the maple outside my window are all I can hear.
Tonight is the Harvest Full Moon. And the Equinox is only days away. As the Moon rises high over the fields and trees, I’ll give thanks for the many blessings in my life, and will offer a prayer for peace and wellbeing for all.
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Family Family by Laurie Frankel had such an unusual feel to me. Themes include teen pregnancy, adoption, and childhood trauma, but it isn’t sad or even serious. Everything almost feels like a joke.
Her main character, India Allwood, is bright, determined, creative, and goes after what she wants. She makes mistakes but makes the best of tough situations too. All the characters seemed weird, too quirky, and bit unreal. The lighthearted feel the characters and the writing had seemed too bright, too glossy, too fake like Hollywood where India lives with her adopted kids. I like that India won’t paint herself as a victim, but she also doesn’t seem to think her poor choices are worth learning from. I found her habit of ripping up pieces of paper and throwing them all over like confetti whenever (and wherever) she celebrated really irritating.
At the end some things come to the surface and are dealt with, but everything wraps up a bit too perfectly. It’s almost as if the book was written from a kid’s perspective, except it wasn’t. If you read it, I’d love to know what you think.
North Woods by Daniel Mason felt like a collection of short stories all centered around one place, instead of a novel. But I don’t like short story collections and I loved this book. It had an element of magic realism with ghosts and also a strong sense of the swiftness of time passing, and of the never-ending cycles of life, death, and rebirth.
There was a deep reverence of wild nature embedded into the novel. When I finished reading it I wanted to bow and kiss the earth and embrace the trees nearby. The author also imbued an interest in human history, starting from Puritan times and going into the future. I found it so creative and refreshing to have story after story of humans interacting with the land, the trees, wildlife, and the house as the years went on. Most were written in story form, sometimes as a letter, article, or poem. Certain characters I cared about more than others, but I never was bored. North Woods is a sweeping, unforgettable novel that is unlike anything I’ve ever read. Highly recommended!!
One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall is a mystery/thriller that has a few surprises up its sleeve. I knew that all must not be what it seemed as it starts out with Cole’s POV because this novel is a commentary on the #MeToo movement. Cole obviously thinks he’s “one of the good guys” and just seems too good to be true but he’s the only viewpoint for more than half of the book. So something felt off but I just didn’t know what exactly.
And then, as Leonora takes over telling the tale, the reader begins to be clued in to what is really happening. And that there is a clever, daring, carefully-laid trap for one unsuspecting person. It didn’t have the same feel as a typical murder mystery because of the point the book is trying to make is so loud and clear. It takes over any mysterious elements. It definitely held my interest and had some creepy/scary elements. I liked the switching POVs in the second half as it gave a clearer picture of what was going on. Trigger warnings include IVF treatment and violence toward women. Oh and I forgot to mention the book is set on the English coast with dangerous cliffs and mist and cozy cottages and the stormy sea. If any of these elements or the novel’s theme interest you, I think you’ll enjoy reading One of the Good Guys.
Life of Kim 