Finding Anchor

August 2024 || I like it much better than being tossed about.

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I’d every intention of camping out at my favorite coffeeshop this morning for the couple of hours I had to work. Out for the summer, I’ve missed the energy and buzz that had become so much a fixture of my spring: the space, the coffee, and the food. I’ve missed the way I feel like a functioning creative there, instead of the lapsed one I’ve been the last couple of months.

Though it may be our second week of this business as usual school schedule with my allotted two days to myself, I’ve not gone anywhere but home.

Home to write just a little, home to handle finances, home to snuggle the dog, to fix quiet lunches, and to ponder my place in this world, anew. Home to do laundry, run the vacuum, and prepare for overnight company. Home to watch episodes of mindless television and catch up on read-alongs.

But today, I came home to the library.

And instead of this monthly wrap, what bubbled up was the beginning of a piece I look forward to sharing soon about the things that stand sentinel when the world around us shifts. It was a surprising thread I found only as I walked through these sliding glass doors, and I reveled in having the ability, the time, and the space to pull at it, uncovering a sense of anchoring I could sense but hadn’t yet named.

We need that now, don’t we? Anchoring.

Whether it’s new schools, new routines, increasingly divisive political climates, cross-country moves, widening or narrowing social circles, diagnoses, work challenges, or [insert your brand of shifting right now], it’s easy to feel tossed about. Easy to fall into a place of reacting versus responding. Easy to — as mentioned in my last post — lead with fear instead of curiosity.

As I re-evaluate and re-establish my own points of anchor in a new and shifting season — my faith, my creative practices and places, my home rhythms that nourish and tend, my care for my whole self — it’s easier to see and let loose the habits and practices I think bear weight enough to hold me together, but instead, when I’m honest with myself, only add to the chaos.

I wonder, what holds anchor for you? When you’re feeling tossed about, what brings you back to a place of still and center? What gives the appearance of doing so, in your life, but actually makes things worse?

I’d love to hear from you.

It’s not my first anniversary here, just yet, (I consider that my published post on September 8 — so soon!), but today marks one year since I took a shot in what felt like the dark and started a Substack account. I’m planning a little Sunday special edition to mark the official date, but I can’t let even this small milestone pass without a note of thanks to you for being here. Whether from the beginning or within the past week, I don’t take your reading (and commenting! liking! restacking!) for granted. I love that you’re here!

And on that note, here’s:

A Linky List of Things I’ve Loved in August

• I’m still off socials, but one of my best friends sent me this post knowing it was essential reading. A new Backman book next June has me over the moon! Fredrik’s writing never fails to get straight to my core, and the description of this one got me right in the guts. A book about “art and artists, about being young and desperately wanting to create something, anything” and how “a painting in a museum can knock you over so completely it changes the whole trajectory of your life”? Pinch me! It’s already available for pre-order!

• The new Coldplay single on repeat:

• I don’t know how long Lacroix’s Mojito flavor has been around, because we’ve become pretty partial to Waterloo sparkling waters the last year or so — but oh my goodness, what a delightful sparkling water! A splash of Trader Joe’s limeade and it’s vacation in a glass! (I’m now on the hunt for the Strawberry Peach, because that also sounds absolutely delightful.)

• One of our favorite snacks we discovered while staying at my sister’s last month is not just Lesser Evil’s Moonions (in “Intergalactic Onion”) and Space Balls (in “Outer Planet Pizza”), but in particular — the COMBO of the two. Out of this world (pun intended), really. Trust me!

• Disclaimer: my intention is not to step on any toes on this next topic, as I’m still actively working out my own thoughts on it, only to bring anyone else along who’d like to consider new angles or approaches. This podcast episode got me researching kids and group chats as a form of “closed” social media with the potential for more harm than good. As a parent of tweens (soon to be a tween and a teen) with iPads they can sometimes use and group chats they have (or haven’t!) been included in, this has had me a bit befuddled for the last year or so. But like a lot of the rhetoric I hear about smartphones, it’s been “that’s just the way things are now, get used to it.” But really, do we have to?

• On a lighter note, our oldest’s bi-weekly (and often painful) orthodontist appointments this summer have had meant more smoothie consumption. Once upon a time, I worked at Smoothie King and introducing our daughter to the Pineapple Surf has been both a blessing and a curse. Finding this perfect copycat recipe has been a game changer, a money saver, and so very refreshing!

• Last but not least, I loved (and needed) this post by

  Claire Gibson
  . “A fleet of unimpressive gifts makes for an infinitely interesting life.” Whew.

I’ve long since left the library, served my volunteer hours, and shuffled between pickups. We’ve divvied up chores, popsicles, and homework. One kid is playing with a longtime friend and neighbor, another with new friends and classmates, and the other is wandering around outside snapping photos for science class.

I’m warming up some of my triple-batched crockpot salsa chicken for Taco Tuesday and enjoying the steadily pumping AC on this 100°F+ day. It’s quiet. Quieter like many days are, now, though some are loud in a new way, new friends and faces around.

Soon we’ll gather around this table for family dinner, something we get to share most nights now in this new season, and I’ll say, “Thank You,” yet again, for the blessings in all of them.

Here’s to finding anchor, friends.

Until next time,