How is it the middle of October already? Our days have been filled with school in the morning, lots of play time outside with friends, naps for me in the afternoon, followed by me avoiding making dinner as best I can.

But in the midst of these wearying days, there are good things! Here’s a little recap:

Recent Art

And how can I not share this little treasure of a family portrait from my son?

Homemade Chai

This is my favorite cold weather drink! It’s a good alternative to my afternoon coffee. Credit for this recipe goes to my friend Madiha who shared with me how she makes her chai.

Here’s what I use (*affiliate links):

• cinnamon sticks (from the grocery store)
• whole cloves (also from the grocery store)
• black cardamom pods*
• Tapal Danedar Black Tea*
• loose mint leaves* (I buy them bulk at a local grocery store)
  
  I use a steeping tea pot like this one* for steeping the tea and a vintage water kettle to heat the water (something like this*).

To use the cardamom, you have to break open the pods and remove the black sticky seeds. Add the cardamom seeds and mix with cloves, mint leaves, a cinnamon stick (I break it up with a knife). I take the end of my rolling pin and crush these up in a small plastic container, and then add plenty of the black tea. You can play with the ratios until you get the flavors you like.

Once brewed, I add whole milk and lots of sugar. So good and comforting through the winter!

Listening & Reading

A local blogger I know has a great blog with lots of fiction and non-fiction recommendations. I ambitiously checked out a whole stack of fiction from the library last week, but so far my brain feels too muddled for other people’s drama. Anyone else having trouble reading? Do you have good fiction recommendations?

I love reading the daily Psalms from The Book of Common Prayer. *

I’ve appreciated David French’s writing on politics lately. I follow a lot of more progressive-leaning people on social media, so he provides a more conservative perspective. He’s a conservative lawyer and founded the news organization, The Dispatch. I enjoy reading their free morning news recap newsletter. I also learned a lot from French’s article on the Breonna Taylor case and his article answering the question, “How do politics impact abortion rates in the United States?”

The Be the Bridge Podcast. Latasha Morrison recently discussed Critical Race Theory with Jemar Tisby, and Dr. Christina Edmondson. I also enjoyed her chat with Beth Moore.

Phil Vischer and The Holy Post podcast released another video answering the question, “Why do white Christians vote Republican, and black Christians vote Democrat” by looking into our history. It’s good!!

BOOK REVIEW | Unsettling Truths by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah

I highlighted so much from this book and really need to read it a second time. It is aptly named, and challenged and revealed a lot of my cultural assumptions. There were a few times where I actually gasped out loud as something hit me in a way it had never done before.

The authors trace the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery on the ideology and “theological imagination” of our nation and in particular, the Christian church. Both Rah and Charles long for the healing of the Church and nation, and argue for how that can take place.

Here are a few quotes:

This Ted Talk by the author Mark Charles is a great introduction to his work:

BOOK REVIEW |Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther Dr. King Jr.*

There’s no way to adequately sum up the genius and depth of Martin Luther King, Jr., so I won’t try. I didn’t fully appreciate his leadership and vision until reading this book, the last he wrote in 1967 before his assassination on April 4, 1968. Getting to sit with his convictions and vision of the world, especially his vision for this country moving forward, was transformative.

I keep thinking about what we lost when he was murdered. The deeper and harder work we faced as a country, after the basic human rights achieved by the civil rights movement, was just beginning. In many ways, it seems like we have failed to implement the “community” he spoke of, and that unaddressed injustices lie beneath the chaos we see currently. Dr. King’s vision for creative and transformative change through sustained, non-violent, organized, creative, and costly struggle for justice is the call we all need today.

Here are a few quotes:

NEW IN THE SHOP!

Notepads are here!!

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