When I first picked up Simply Tuesday, I had no idea what I’d find inside. I’d been told it was good. The first couple chapters convinced me that it was good, and then I hit chapter three. Mercy.
One of my favourite things is to read late at night, tucked in cozy, quiet house, with my reading light driving my beloved crazy. The night I read about Gates & Cul-de-Sacs, I was awfully glad that the rest of my people were asleep, because Emily’s words about places that are gates, living in cul-de-sacs, and finding home where we only believed we’d find transitions had hit a deep nerve, and I was a teary mess.
(For the record, the rest of the book was also so very, very good. I could quote a multitude of pages, and profound, beautiful thoughts that touched deep. Nothing quite like this did though.) In her story of going back home to explore her childhood hometown, I found myself, in my mind, back home. The near-new elementary school I attended is shabby now, some thirty-years past. The neighbourhood it serves seems tired. A lot of transitions for me happened in those concrete block rooms, with outside doors holding kindergarten classes, hormonal sixth and seventh graders chess clubs and sticker clubs and kids. My memories are good and bad and shame and growth and everything that comes along with puberty and burgeoning independence, honestly.
But I always felt like that place, the city, the orchards around my school (which are now subdivisions) was home. This place was a reference point for me. The older I get, the less like home it is. My family is there, and they’ll always be where my heart is, but my hometown, which I thought was my cul-de-sac, turned out to be a gate to the world to me, and I don’t know if I really realized it or wanted it to be.
When I moved to Ontario, I thought it was a gate. A career move. A thing to do until I moved home. I had no idea I was moving to my cul-de-sac. The place where I’d set up my bench, welcoming friends, becoming a neighbour, finding my people, building a life. And it’s still a conflict for me, knowing where home is. A conflict that can make a person feel so very small.
It’s hard to think of building benches or welcoming people to join you as you sit a while if you believe the place you are in is only temporary. I can be tempted to wish deeply, heart-achingly, for things to be different instead of living whole-heartedly in what is. Emily’s words about courage and wisdom and taking the Spirit of God with us wherever we are reminded me deeply: I bring home with me wherever I am and wherever I am is home. And being home? It means that I can breathe deeper, dream further, love stronger, and rest easier.
I will re-read Simply Tuesday – I know it. And I’ll likely do it right where I’m at, at home.
—–
Today, to share Simply Tuesday on Giving Tuesday, I’m giving back! Thanks, Christa Hesselink for the awesome idea! I’ll be donating $1 to the Better Beginnings Adoption Fund at Family & Children’s Services Waterloo Region for every comment and share of this post, on Tuesday, Dec. 1st, 2015. This is so close to my heart, that I’m praying you comment like crazy.
—–
Loading InLinkz ...
Loading InLinkz ...
Ellen, your words ring true – “And being home? It means that I can breathe deeper, dream further, love stronger, and rest easier.” Thanks for your generous heart and leaps of faith to help us keep coming Home. (yay for ‘Better Beginnings’ too!)
Thank you! Taking leaps of faith is easier with friends, right? 🙂 And thank you – $1 more to Better Beginnings! It’s a cause very, very near to our hearts.
Oh, yes. Home is one of my favourite words and deepest longings and your words resonate here, too. The fact that we bring home wherever we go because of the Spirit is such a game changer. Love this.
It IS a total game changer. Now to really wrap my mind around it! 🙂
[…] You can find the rest of this post on ellengrafmartin.com […]
There were a few words, phrases, even chapters that resonated for me in Simply Tuesday. But the quote from C.S. Lewis on page 203 still challenges and rumbles around inside of me. “Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment ‘as to the Lord’. It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.”
I often find myself not living in the moment and this reminded me to take a deep breathe, learn to be content, set aside my uncertainties about the unknowns, and embrace what God has for me in this moment at this time. And to learn to appreciate the simple things in life, and the everyday encounters with those around me.
Thank you for pointing out this quote – I almost missed it – and it’s profound! Love your thoughts!
I’m still not at the “link up our blogs” stage with this. But I do have lots of thoughts about this book. Can I say it was perfectly timed? I have been talking with God about these very ideas a lot lately…about how I don’t want to be so focused on what I think He might be bringing down the road that I miss what He’s already got right in front of me. That I want to be as intentional about the every day stuff of now, even as I allow Him to ready me for what may be next. That, I think, is why I so loved the idea of the bench. Because it gave me a picture in my head of what He and I have been talking about together lately. Someone just posted this inspirational saying on Facebook that popped up in my newsfeed: “The path IS the destination”. And I thought, yah. Just like Tuesday IS the weekend, really. It deserves as much glory and attention and intention as the plans for the weekend, because it contains so much of the life stuff that is actual real life stuff.
I also resonated with Emily because I can be so hard on myself. Second guessing, triple guessing my interactions with others. Because I don’t want to offend or hurt or alienate anyone. And, selfishly (and embarrassingly), I want to be liked. I loved reading through her journey about that. Hearing my thoughts and feelings expressed by another. And then this morning, my bible study was about how God doesn’t remember our sins once they’ve been confessed to Him, because of Jesus, so we shouldn’t remember them either. Stop the unrealistic expectation of perfection and people pleasing. Because it’s impossible. But, embracing my smallness and His bigness is something that I can do. And it keeps me free. Gives me much more time on the bench…
I am so glad that we can kind of share a bench this way. I suspect your thoughts resonate with an awful lot of women!
To see you Ellen- the strong entrepreneurial woman of faith a teary mess is a beautiful picture. God calls us to the places of brokenness so that he can strengthen us with His mercy, His love, His truths, His wisdom. Simply Tuesday=Simply beautiful. Enjoy the journey of Home:)
Thank you, Jodi! 🙂
[…] bench on the cover of Emily’s book represents many things as Ellen writes in her blog reply on the Cul-de-sac bench. Ideally, I see it as a symbol to settle down in the […]
What a wonderful book! I found myself in the midst of each chapter thinking “this is what I will write about for Ellen’s Picks,” and then the same thing happened with the next chapter and the next. How does Emily know me so well, and yet we’ve never met?
Simply Tuesday is a book full of wisdom and insights and really, a mirror into my own soul. This book challenged me to look at myself and see me as I really am, and better still, to see how God sees me. I was challenged in the chapter, Confession and Laughter, about my responsibility and action, not to make things right, whole or better, but to usher my abilities, inabilities, failures and successes all into the presence of Christ.
So many of Emily’s contrasting thoughts throughout this book resonated deep within me. Some highlights: Competition is the enemy of connection, struggle and gratitude can co-exist, clarity is really another word for control, cities and benches.
This is a book that will linger long with me. I will return to it and have written down some questions that I want to spend time working through in a quieter time.
Thank you for this beautiful gift and reminder of the value of slowing down and living small.
Finally catching up here with this amazing book pick! Simply Tuesday – simply changed me! It was a profound word from God and timely as I look upon this new year, 2016. I share in my blog post a little of what I learned and will carry with me for the coming year – and hopefully the remainder of my life.
I attempted to do the link up – not sure it worked – but here is my blog post
http://www.loriehartshorn.com/want-to-live-an-epic-life/
Thank you Ellen for this amazing book! So grateful.
Lorie
Before I became a member of the #EllensPicks community, a friend loaned me her copy of Simply Tuesday. Emily P. Freeman’s words were like salve for my wounded soul.
I purposefully took my time reading this book. While part of me wanted to plow my way through it, I had to intentionally slow myself down & let Emily’s words sit with me for a bit.
I loved Emily’s honest & brave writing. She was able to name & put down on paper some of the thoughts I’ve been wrestling with for some time. In some ways, it was if I was reading chapters of my own heart (but organized, logical & figured out). Somewhere in between the introduction on page 13 and her final thoughts on page 243, Emily became a trusted friend.
I drew tremendous encouragement out of Simply Tuesday. Because I was reading a borrowed copy, I wasn’t able to mark up the pages with my bright yellow highlighter. I am purchasing several copies of this book – one for my own personal library that I intend to reread & highlight, and copies for some girlfriends.
The chapters were simple, yet so profound. One concept that has “stuck” with me is what Emily penned in her introduction, “I’m exploring what it looks like to release my obsession with building a life and embrace the life Christ is building in me…”.
I just know that I will be rereading this book several times over. An excellent pic, Ellen!