💬 Friday Thread: What's Your Last, Current, Next?
Books, tv shows, products, hacks, etc.
Hello! The start of June, the unofficial start of summer at least in my mind, has me feeling a bit scattered and in need of an entire day (or three) to just catch up. If life could just slowww down for one day, I feel like I could get back on track—I’m sure you can relate:)
I started reading the new 70th anniversary edition of Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberg for my morning reading and it’s been a comfort. You know when you pick up a book and the author’s words make you immediately feel seen and understood? That’s how I feel reading this little balm of a book.
In the opening pages, when she’s spending time alone at her cottage by the sea, she writes of her desire to “live in grace” and to achieve “simplification” of her life. She feels a high level of busyness as a writer who’s also a wife, mother of five children, community member and so on. I want to share a few quotes that I’ve underlined, starred, and tabbed—and remember, she’s writing 70 years ago, long before the internet and social media. So I’m saying, take what she says and multiply it tenfold at least….
For life today in America is based on the premise of ever-widening circles of contact and communication. It involves not only family demands, but community, national, international demands, through social and cultural pressures…My mind reels with it. What a circus act we women perform every day of our lives.
This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity…it leads not to unification but to fragmentation. It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul.
It is more basically: how to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life; how to remain balanced, no matter what centrifugal forces tend to pull one off center, how to remain strong, no matter what shocks come in at the periphery and tend to crack the hub of the wheel.
One answer, and perhaps a first step, is in simplification of life, in cutting out some of the distractions.
This feels true today, even more so in my opinion. I continue to read posts, newsletters, articles, and to talk with friends in my life about the fact that we all feel so distracted, so scattered, so busy! It’s so easy to get pulled into overconsumption (I’m feeling this now as far as content) and to feel overwhelmed by all the things. But where do we start the simplification process? Do we delete apps from our phones? Do we add apps like Forest onto our phones? Do we severely limit all screen time from our day to day life? And if we do that should we brick our devices, put them in a lock box, go analog, and the list of possible shoulds and coulds goes on and on.
I don’t have the answers. I’m working this out for myself on a daily basis and I would bet you are too. I’ve gotten on a bit of a tangent and maybe I’ll write more about this when I finish the book:) If you have thoughts, I’d love to hear them.
For today, let’s share our lasts, currents, and nexts. In the comments, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on one of the last books I finished—With a Vengeance by Riley Sager, the two tv shows I’ve been watching this week, and an upcoming new release I just started and am loving!
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Question Time
The questions I ask in weekly threads are meant to be fun and help us connect, so please know you don’t have to answer each question, if you only have the time/desire to answer one, great! Please put book titles IN ALL CAPS for easy reading:)
What’s your last, current, next? - could be the last book you read and loved (or hated), your current read, and what you think you’ll read next. Or could be the last tv show you binged, what you’re currently watching, and what you'll likely watch next. What about the last product you bought/used that you loved? You get the idea, feel free to be as creative as you’d like:)
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