pretty things

Marfa, oh how I love you

pretty things…hand ground coffee beans

books I’ve read since May

• Churched, Matthew Paul Turner
• One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp
• Fall Into Grace, Jay Bakker
• Bossypants, Tina Fey
• Sacred Romance, Brent Curtis & John Eldredge
• Find Your Way Home, Becca Stevens
• Enneagram Made Easy, Renee’ Baron & Elizabeth Wagene
• House of Prayer No. 2: A Writer’s Way Home, Mark Richard
• Reluctant Pilgrim, Enuma Okoro
• The Beauty of Different, Karen Walrond
• Making Sense of Scripture, David Lose
• Jesus, My Father, The CIA and Me, Ian Cron
• It’s All About God, Samir Semalovic
• Discover What You’re Best At, Linda Gale
• Expressive Photography, Tracey Clark
• I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee, Charles J. Shields
• Juztapoz Photo, Diane Weber
• The Help, Katherine Stockett
• Quitter, Jon Acuff
• The Promise of Despair, Andrew Root
• Begin Again, Believe Again, Sharon Hersh
• Four-Word Self-Help (Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives), Patti Digh
• Where Women Create – Book of Inspiration, Jo Packiam and Jenny Doh
• All is Grace, Brennan Manning
• Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design, Christine Lemieux
• The Long Goodbye, Meghan O’Rourke
• Mommy Doesn’t Drink Here Anymore, Rachael Brownell
• My So-Called Freelance Life, Michelle Goodman
• Handling Difficult Holidays: The Gracious Path to Overcoming Painful Times, Jane N. Geiger
• Zarella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design and Engineering of Contagious Ideas, Dan Zarella
• Divine Therapy and Addiction: Centering Prayer and the Twelve Steps, Thomas Keating
• The Care and Keeping of Creative Souls: A Manual, Jen Lee
• So, You’re a Creative Genius, Now What? Carl King
• There Are Two Marriages: A Manifesto on Marriage, Tony Jones
• Parched, Heather King

favorite albums of 2011

You know you listen to a lot of music when you have trouble narrowing down your favorite albums to 10. Or even 15 or 20. Here are my favorites from 2011:

• The Belle Brigade – The Belle Brigade
• The Black Keys – El Camino
• Bon Iver – Bon Iver
• Dawes – Nothing is Wrong
• Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
• Decemberists - The King is Dead
• Over the Rhine – The Long Surrender
• Markéta Irglová - Anar
• Ryan Adams – Ashes and Fire
• Wilco - The Whole Love

Honorable Mention: 

• St. Vincent – Strange Mercy
• Drive-By Truckers – GoGo Boots
• Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
• Gillian Welch – The Harrow and the Harvest
• Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Also worth checking out: 

• Blitzen Trapper – American Goldwing
• Laura Marling - A Creature I Don’t Know
• Lucinda Williams – Blessed
• Guy Clark – Songs and Stories
• Sigur Rós - Inni(live)

 

[be] gracious: 2012 word of the year

gracious [grey-shuhs]

adjective
1. pleasantly kind, benevolent, and courteous.
2. characterized by good taste, comfort, ease, or luxury: gracious suburban living; a gracious home.
3. indulgent or beneficent in a pleasantly condescending way, especially to inferiors.
4. merciful or compassionate: our gracious king.

So, I want to be more gracious in the coming year. Not in a sugary, Suzy Christian kind of way, and not in the condescending way that dictionary.com suggests in definition number three above. I want to be:

- gracious with my time.

- gracious instead of impatient or intolerant.

-  heavier on the compliments and lighter on the criticism.

- gracious in inviting more people to my table.

- gracious. grateful. full of gratitude.

i’ve gotten a lot of good from spiritual direction over the years.

including these guys.