January 3 for 3: short note, big updates edition
What I've been up to lately plus work from other creators and cultivators who are helping us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty - all arranged in lists of threes.
Our Epiphany mantel
When a friend texts good news and I don’t have my hands free to respond.
A belated anniversary getaway with Brian and we were the only ones staying in the inn because of an ice and snowstorm. Heavenly
Tamara’s Note
I’ll keep my note short in order to make space for a longer update about some changes I’m making on the website.
Basically, every photo I took in January fell into one of three categories: Epiphany, snow, and my grandson Julian. I also shared a few brief reflections on my Instagram account earlier this month. You can read them here.
May you find warmth and healing rest with Jesus this month, friends. I wish you a Blessed Epiphany.
xo,
Tamara
p.s., Read below about some big changes I’m making on my website this year.
Big Changes to Member Areas in 2022
The welcome mat is still out. Come on in!
Thank you for joining me in this membership adventure in 2021. I’m so grateful for each one of you who’ve entrusted your time and financial resources to support not only the work I do here on the website but in other, less-public offerings.
During January I’ve been prayerfully discerning what’s working and what’s not in the way I steward my time, energy, and finances. As I prayed and talked with a few trusted voices I began to realize what I needed to release in order to live from a place of rest and peace. I’m not going to lie. I was pretty surprised by what emerged in this process and, frankly, resisted the outcomes for a few weeks.
I have loved the creative and relational process of creating all three of the member areas this year: Stories, Daybook Meditation, and A Sacramental Life Community. With a year to experiment, I’m able to see what fits best in terms of the way I’m wired to create and relate and what’s seeming to work best for your needs.
Long story short …
The Stories Blog is now free and available to the public on my main website and the $3 a month membership fee has gone away. Subscribe to my public blog to keep receiving new posts. Please consider joining the Daybook Meditations member area to continue receiving exclusive content and supporting my work.
A Sacramental Life Community retreats and guidebooks are now available one at a time in my SHOP and the $17 a month membership fee has gone away. Please consider joining the Daybook Meditations member area to continue receiving exclusive content and supporting my work.
The Daybook Meditations membership remains exactly the same and now includes the Holy Week Lament Stories series. Members will continue to pay the $5 a month membership fee.
Simplifying in order to remain in Jesus’s unforced rhythms of grace and inviting you to do the same
The process of making these changes began during the 31-day Rhythms of Grace and Rule of Life series I shared in the fall. I want always to live into the same practices I’m recommending to you and the astounding offer Jesus gives us in Matthew 11:28-30 never stops giving me life. I long to share this invitation with others as a Spiritual Director and a writer.
If you’re looking for encouragement to worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty wherever you find yourself right now, you’re in the right place. I continue to be all about helping those who are weary or burdened by the unexamined practices of their faith listen for the fresh invitations of Jesus to watch, walk, and work with him in unforced rhythms of grace.
If you’re struggling with spiritual weariness, I hope that my writing, devotional guides, or spiritual direction might offer just the right guidance you need to live into your faith or relationships in a new way. Thank you for continuing to learn from Jesus with me. May our capacity to live in his invitation grow in 2022.
Peace,
Tamara
p.s., As you look ahead at 2022, I invite you to consider adding a practice of spiritual direction to your year. So many folks long to live from a place of Jesus’s rest. I’d be honored to share with you the work I do as a spiritual director. You can learn more about spiritual direction and contact me for a free introductory conversation here: What is Spiritual Direction?
Favorite Links
Monthly picks to help us worship God, love people, and enjoy beauty!
Worship God
A Sacramental Life Categories: Spiritual Direction & Practices | Liturgy & Church Calendar | Daily Work & Callings
What does a reflection on Psalm 104 have to do with a rare nocturnal animal in Singapore? This lovely reflection explains: Wild Wonder: Look, it’s a Pangolin! by Prarthini Selveindran via A Rocha Blog
Especially hoping my non-denom and non-liturgical Christian readers will open this link: Livin’ la Vida Litúrgica by Rebekah Curtis via Front Porch Republic
“But when the things Christians have in common include commoner things—walks and bonfires, buns and roses—we have one more point of connection. As long as the season of squabbling remains upon the great house of God, we need some excuses to get everybody out of their rooms to do something fun together. You go to your church and I’ll go to mine, but let’s bake bread together on our knees. Then you can tell me how you got yours to look pretty.”
One of my favorite podcasters talking about one of my favorite topics. Yes, please! Season 2 - On Calling with Kaley Ehret via Me: When I’m Free podcast
Love People
A Sacramental Life Categories: Family, Friends, Church & Neighbors | Peace & Justice | Wholeness & Healing
This is the subject I want to bring up as a sequel to every gun reform conversation: Driving Went Down. Fatalities Went Up. Here's Why. by Charles Marohn via Strong Towns
We worship in a synagogue because of the hospitality of our Jewish neighbors so these stories capture my attention and prayer more than ever: For Jews, Going to Services Is an Act of Courage by Deborah E. Lipstadt via NYT Opinion & The Hostages Escaped. But Synagogues Ask, How Can They Be More Secure? by Ruth Graham, Jacey Fortin, and Troy Closson via NYT & As rabbi was held hostage, interfaith colleagues gathered to help end the standoff by Yonat Shimron via Religion News Service
Two excellent selections from the latest Plough Quarterly, one by my friend Maureen and another story so beautiful I can’t stop thinking about it: The Art of Disability Parenting: What’s it like to raise a child with a physical disability? I asked six mothers around the world. by Maureen Swinger & The Way Home: A daughter with Down syndrome comes to terms with her mother’s death. by Erna Albertz via Plough Quarterly Magazine
Enjoy Beauty
A Sacramental Life Categories: Look, Listen, Make & Do | Creators & Cultivators | Reading & Writing
Looking forward to following along (and privileged to call the founders my friends): Vox Omnibus Consulting began a weekly Mindfulness Mondays series with a beautiful excerpt from Wang Guxiang's visual and poetic appreciation of the world in “Flowers of Four Seasons, with Poems”.
So good and so timely: Don’t Do Your Best by Karen Stiller via Ekstasis
Click through all the links for extra beauty: We sing of snow by Lore Ferguson Wilbert via Sayable
Bonus: After this weekend’s weather, I found this especially fascinating: Blizzard of 1934 Bridgeport History Center, Connecticut Digital Archives
Currently Reading
From the Book Pile 2021 | See my giant reading list here.
ICYMI: What I Read July - December [From the Book Pile 2021]
A Playlist
A little schmaltz and a little romance for your Valentine’s month - We’re For Love: February 2022
Here’s to another month of worshiping God, loving people, and enjoying beauty, friends!
Thank you so much for your continuous support. Every time you mention my spiritual direction offerings, retreats, writing or devotional guides to a friend, or engage on my social media accounts, you're helping to support my work that reaches beyond the scope of this website. I am grateful for your help!