Lisa notes

5 Links, Books, and Things I Love—May 2020

By LisaNotes May 4, 2020 Life updates, Links I like 23 Comments

Every month I share my list of favorite 5’s.

5 interesting things online
5 funny memes
5 articles about words
5 pictures of things I love
5 things on the blog

What are you enjoying this month?

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5 Things Around the Web

The Reason You’re Exhausted Is ‘Moral Fatigue’

What was once a small decision now feels like it could be life or death.

20 Questions to Ask Instead of “How are you doing right now?”

And how to get a better answer than, “Hanging in there.”

Arguing with Your Partner About Household Chores During COVID-19?

Here are 13 suggestions from Gretchen Rubin to help ease tension in relationships.

Lockdown was supposed to be an introvert’s paradise. It’s not.

“For introverts, extroverts, and everyone in between, is the bizarre feeling of being socially overwhelmed despite the fact that we’re staying as far away from each other as we can.”

Meet the Illustrators Who Gave the Coronavirus Its Face

Here’s an interesting backstory about the little red coronavirus illustration we’re all VERY familiar with by now.

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5 Memes

More funny memes. We all need to laugh more, right?

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5 Things with Words and Books

8 Pandemic Words & Phrases People Absolutely Never Want To Hear Again

What words are you tired of hearing? This list includes: new normal, social distancing, and trying times.

A Side Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic? Reading Got a Lot Harder

Yes! These university students—and their professor—have trouble focusing on their reading.

7 Digital Libraries You Can Visit from Your Couch

I haven’t visited these yet (my library’s digital collection is more than enough for me), but it’s good to know these are available.

How Reading Books Helps Your Brain Recharge

Find a good book you love and recharge.

4 Books I Recommend

Reading was hard the first half of April (see above article). But it’s getting easier again each week.

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5 Things I Love

The Grands

We made a day trip in April to see the grandbabies. I couldn’t stand it any longer. Our youngest granddaughter has started sitting up and our oldest is talking in paragraphs. Jenna took the best photos, so they will sustain me for a little while.

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5 Things on the Blog

When You Need to Stay Where You Resist Being

Even when it may be easier to run away, sometimes we need to stay. With our pain. With God. With love. Excerpts from Stay by Anjuli Paschall.

Will Life Go Back to Normal?

Will things ever go back to normal? Probably not. But hopefully, some things will be better, if we learn our lessons right.

Just One at a Time

Keep reaching out, one at a time. Isolation will end; relationships won’t.

Is It Okay to Do Nothing?

It’s okay to do nothing sometimes. If we lose touch with our being, our doing is wasted. Just be. See what happens.

Congratulate Yourself – Thanks for How You’re Helping

Congratulate yourself. There are a lot of ways to help people through this crisis. Don’t underestimate your way.

What sustained you in April? What are you looking forward to in May? Please share in the comments.

previous Links and Books

The Call to Come Close—Grace & Truth Link-Up

By LisaNotes May 1, 2020 Community, Encouragement, Grace & Truth Link-Up 9 Comments

Check Your Closeness

We visited with my in-laws (Jeff’s parents) this week. It was the first time in two months. We’d been delaying a visit because they are in a high-risk category.

But we decided with safe physical distancing, we could talk outside for a bit.

And it was delightful. For them and for us.

But it was also weird. We had to check our internal calls to get closer. We typically hug hello and hug good-bye. We typically sit close and chat.

Not this time.

The life-and-death risk outweighed the benefits. For them and for us.

Concerns Are No Joke

Back in the moon shot days of the 1960s, scientists encountered a similar threat. They weren’t sure if the astronauts would leave potentially destructive germs on the moon (forward contamination). And/or if the astronauts coming back from the moon would bring potentially destructive organisms back to the earth (backward contamination).

Dan Heath explains it in Upstream. He adds,

“It might be tempting to mock these fears now, with the infallibility of hindsight, but this concern was no joke. Existential risk was in the air.”

One day we may look back on 2020 and see we were unduly afraid of risks that weren’t valid.

But right now? We’re still in the unknown. Existential risk is in the air.

NASA still keeps up its efforts to reduce contamination. Catharine Conley was one of the Planetary Protection Officers (formerly called the Planetary Quarantine Officer, interestingly enough). Conley said,

“So far as I can tell, planetary protection is the first time in human history that humans as a global species decided to prevent damage before we were capable of doing something.”

Heath adds, “May there be a second time.”

This is a second time.

Heath didn’t know when he wrote the book that as I was reading it, we are living in the second time.

May we continue to proactively prevent damage to each other.

Our Featured Post

In our featured post, “Draw Near,” blogger Linda Gill writes about drawing near, while staying apart, with her prayer partners on a Monday morning. It’s a beautiful story.

And so is her conclusion. Linda writes,

“BUT…the sweet news I share is that we are never…no NEVER…far from Jesus. He calls us to be near to Him.”

Read it all here. Linda always shares gentle, godly wisdom at her blog, beingwoven.org.

Thanks for sharing, Linda! Here’s a button for your blog.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

HEATHER HART & VALERIE RIESE – Candidly Christian
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
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We pray that Grace & Truth will point you to Jesus. Add your post to encourage others in the Christian blogging community.

1. Follow your hosts on their blogs and/or social media channels, if you’d like.

2. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.)

3. Visit and comment on 1 or 2 other links. Be an encourager. Please don’t link and run.

4. All links are randomly sorted. Link early or late. The playing field is even.

To Be Featured:

5. Post the button or link back to one of our hosts. It encourages new participants. (Not mandatory to participate, but required to be featured.)

6. Every host will feature and promote one blog every week.

Now Let’s Link Up!

Who have you missed seeing in person? In which situations have you practiced social-distancing? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

On the Blog – April 2020

By LisaNotes April 30, 2020 Archives No Comments

Here are brief summaries and links to blog posts from April 2020.

When You Need to Stay Where You Resist Being (4/29)
Even when it may be easier to run away, sometimes we need to stay. With our pain. With God. With love. Excerpts from Stay by Anjuli Paschall.
4 Books I Recommend – April 2020 (4/27)
Here are 4 books I recommend from what I finished reading in April 2020.
Will Life Go Back to Normal?—Grace & Truth Link-Up (4/24)
Will things ever go back to normal? Probably not. But hopefully, some things will be better, if we learn our lessons right.
Is It Okay to Do Nothing? (4/20)
It’s okay to do nothing sometimes. If we lose touch with our being, our doing is wasted. Just be. See what happens.
Are You More Discouraged or Afraid? – Grace & Truth Link-Up (4/17)
Whether you’re discouraged or afraid, evaluate your trust in God. See areas you need to encourage yourself in the Lord.
Just One at a Time (4/16)
Keep reaching out, one at a time. Isolation will end; relationships won’t.
Congratulate Yourself – Thanks for How You’re Helping (4/13)
Congratulate yourself. There are a lot of ways to help people through this crisis. Don’t underestimate your way.
Mercy Is the Way Through – Grace & Truth Link-Up (4/10)
We cope differently. Be gentle on yourself. And others. Mercy is the way through.
7 Gifts of Menopause (4/8)
Review of Cheryl Bridges Johns’ new book, Seven Transforming Gifts of Menopause.
5 Links, Books, and Things I Love – Corona Edition, April 2020 (4/6)
Links and pictures of articles, books, and things I love – April 2020.
If You Can’t Decide, Try This – Grace & Truth Link-Up (4/3)
Even small decisions are harder to make these days. But Debbie offers four tips to help us decide. Join us for the Grace and Truth Linkup.

When You Need to Stay Where You Resist Being

By LisaNotes April 29, 2020 Book reviews, Encouragement 15 Comments

“The wall we are pounding upon, tempted to walk away from, or passively disappearing at, is actually a well where Jesus is inviting us to sit with Him, drink life-giving water, and stay. Yes, stay.“
– Anjuli Paschall

Easier NOT to Stay

Sometimes it’s easier to run away than stay. Or easier to just distract ourselves. Or even easier to just fight back.

And sometimes each of those is the correct response.

But other times, we need to just stay. And sit. And experience.

This has been one of those times.

[SIDE NOTE: Ironically, I finished reading Paschall’s book Stay before I’d ever heard of COVID-19. Also pre-quarantine, I read Do Nothing and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. And The Grumble-Free Year. Um, God? He did lead me to choose “Linger” as my One Word for 2020. But sheltering-in-place didn’t cross my mind.]

Stay Where You Resist

I’m challenged by this statement in the book Stay by Anjuli Paschall:

“Stay where you most resist being.”

Paschall isn’t talking about literal, dangerous situations. If you’re being threatened, don’t stay. Take appropriate action; get away.

She also wasn’t writing about physically staying in our homes, because who knew that was coming? (But now? It applies.)

Instead, she was writing about staying with God in our pain instead of running away.

In this time of a global pandemic, we may feel a general sense of anxiety. But rather than think it through or feel it out, we’d rather do other things with our disturbing thoughts.

We may deny the thoughts altogether.
We may drown them in food or substances.
We may shift to distractions of probabilities or preparations or just plain ol’ worrying.

But what if, instead, we stayed with the anxiety long enough to really see it, to root out its source?

Look underneath the generalities. Are there specific anxious thoughts that need addressing?

Linger to See Then Release

I’m trying now to take a longer pause when I feel anxious. Not to indulge it; that’s not helpful either.

But I need to stay with it long enough to understand it, inviting Holy Spirit to show me what I need to see.

And then, let it go.

Too often we try to let it go before we look at it head-on.

It’s uncomfortable to stay.

But Jesus invites us to stay. With him. Paschall says,

“We have to let the ache be exposed. We have to stay with the pain. We have to let all the nerve endings rise to the surface and let the stinging make us weak. This is where we meet God.

When we stay, He comes. We have to be real with God in order to find real help from God.”

We don’t have to be strong to stay. We just have to be willing.

Paschall also says,

“Jesus is the kind host, inviting us to linger, spill the milk, break a dish, be known, and stay, not as guests, but as daughters.

He wants to hear our laughter, comfort our ache, ask us questions, and heal our hurts. God, in love, always welcomes us to stay and dine at the table with Him. He is cultivating a home within us. This is the sacred gift of staying.”

And when others need us to sit and stay with them, we can do that, too. To listen to them. To listen for God.

Stay at the table. Eat the meal. Then leave together.

And live a more whole, healthier life as a result of the staying.

“When I stay right where I am, with all that is beautiful and bent out of shape, I find God. I find love waiting for me.“

I want to stay for Love.

Are you tired of “staying”? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

My thanks to Net Galley
for the review copy of Stay

4 Books I Recommend – April 2020

By LisaNotes April 27, 2020 Books I Recommend 31 Comments

Reading is as important as ever these days. Both for information. And for escape. I’ve done a little of both this month, although neither as much as usual.

For a moment in time we leave ourselves; and when we return, sometimes expanded and strengthened, we are changed both intellectually and emotionally.
– Maryanne Wolf

Here are books I recommend from April. See all my recommended books here.

Nonfiction

1. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World
by John Mark Comer

This is another book that was written before its time, and is especially pertinent now (also see Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee). John Mark Comer, a Christian pastor, writes about how he learned to slow down and eliminate hurry from his own life. He offers us ways to do it as well. But it’s not a how-to book.

“The problem isn’t when you have a lot to do; it’s when you have too much to do and the only way to keep the quota up is to hurry. That kind of busy is what has us all reeling.”

Read my review here about The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

2. The Art of Living
Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now
by Thích Nhất Hạnh

My book club recently finished this one (we’ve now started Brene Brown’s Braving the Wilderness). Thích Nhất Hạnh is a gentle Vietnamese spiritual leader who reminds us to live consciously. He works through seven practices in this book to help us do that. I didn’t agree with everything, but with plenty to make this book a wonderful read.

“Freedom is a practice and a habit. We have to train ourselves to walk as a free person, sit as a free person, and eat as a free person. We need to train ourselves how to live.”

3. Human(kind)
How Reclaiming Human worth and Embracing Radical Kindness Will Bring Us Back Together
by Ashlee Eiland

This is a beautiful collection of essays by a beautiful black woman who grew up in majority-white spaces. She shares stories that both remind us that racism still exists, yet give us hope for future transformation.

“But maybe it’s worth showing up anyway. Maybe we still show up just to prove that kindness and proximity aren’t always about our comfort. We keep showing up to remind ourselves that dignity and hope weigh more than humiliation’s sting.”

Fiction

4. A Spark of Light
by Jodi Picoult

The Picoult novels I’ve read aren’t emotionally easy books. This one is no exception. It’s about a gunman taking over a women’s reproductive clinic in Mississippi. One of the hostages, Wren, is caught up in the gunfire as her dad, the police hostage negotiator, works outside. This novel forces you to look at emotions from all angles, not necessarily to change your stand, but to help you be more understanding.

“This is what it means to be human. We are all just canvases for our scars.”

Reading Now

Write Better
A Lifelong Editor on Craft, Art, and Spirituality
by Andrew T. Le Peau
Upstream
The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen
by Dan Heath
I’ve Seen the End of You
A Neurosurgeon’s Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know
by W. Lee Warren
You’re a Miracle (and a Pain in the A**)
Understanding the Hidden Forces That Make You You
by Mike McHargue (Science Mike)
The Truth about Us
The Very Good News about How Very Bad We Are
by Brant Hansen

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What good book are YOU reading this month? Please share in the comments.

My books on Goodreads
More books I recommend

Will Life Go Back to Normal?—Grace & Truth Link-Up

By LisaNotes April 24, 2020 Encouragement, Grace & Truth Link-Up 13 Comments

Back in January, could you have possibly pictured all that has happened in 2020, even in your wildest imagination?

Watch this comedian go back in time to visit her younger self, four months earlier:

It’s also hard to imagine what things will look like four months from now.

As different areas of the country open back up, even as of today, we all wonder: Will things ever go back to normal?

And we fear the answer: Probably not.

We will live in a new normal now. And we have another new normal still to come.

Some things we won’t like.

But hopefully, some things will be better, if we learn our lessons right.

Our Featured Post

In our featured post this week, Jerralea points out one main lesson we’re learning: we all now know life can change in an instant.

In her post “Even when it looks scary…” Jerralea reminds us about the momentous life-changing event of Jesus’s followers at the empty tomb. (And we think WE have been through a range of emotions! Imagine all they went through in a week.)

Read Jerralea’s post here and be encouraged about our new normal.

Thanks for sharing, Jerralea! Here’s a button for your blog.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

HEATHER HART & VALERIE RIESE – Candidly Christian
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

We pray that Grace & Truth will point you to Jesus. Add your post to encourage others in the Christian blogging community.

1. Follow your hosts on their blogs and/or social media channels, if you’d like.

2. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.)

3. Visit and comment on 1 or 2 other links. Be an encourager. Please don’t link and run.

4. All links are randomly sorted. Link early or late. The playing field is even.

To Be Featured:

5. Post the button or link back to one of our hosts. It encourages new participants. (Not mandatory to participate, but required to be featured.)

6. Every host will feature and promote one blog every week.

Now Let’s Link Up!

Do you think life will go back to normal? How will the new normal look for you? Please share your thoughts in the comments.