sarah anne connects: vol. 9
sarah anne connects: vol. 9
holding onto slowness & a question for you.
a couple weeks ago, my brother-in-law and soon-to-be sister-in-law came over for an evening of food and spades (our go-to card game and ongoing competition).
they’re getting married in just a few weeks and preparing to merge two lives — hers, relatively stripped down and simple after living in china for a couple of years, and his, where stuff has slowly accumulated after living in the same house for seven years.
our whole family knows at this point that my husband and i identify as minimalists, and my brother-in-law commented that our home was quite clean, which he guessed had a lot to do with our minimal lifestyle.
my husband quipped that it was also because we cleaned up right before they came over, but i pointed out that “cleaning up” meant folding two blankets and returning them to their basket and putting my husband’s laptop in its designated place.
this lead to questions about some of my recommended books to get started simplifying, and general tactics and approaches i’ve found helpful.
though i’ve been on this journey myself for over six years now, this summer i’ve been thinking a lot about where and how clutter has snuck back into my life. like my brother-in-law in his home, it’s easy for things (physical and otherwise) to accumulate when you stay in one place for a while and don’t have a regular practice of assessing what’s there and why.
in my commitments, i’ve stripped down to the essentials this summer, focusing on time with the Lord, time with my husband, time with friends and family, and time reading. outside of the obvious things like work, those are the things getting my focus and priority and, as emily p. freeman says, i’m intentionally choosing my absence from everything else.
in our home, i’m once again going through that process of decluttering, simplifying, and organizing what’s left. this is partially because we’re in a new home, so some things simply haven’t been organized yet. and partially because, even after six years, i still find there are things that i no longer want or need in my home. what you loved and cherished one year ago may be clutter today.
there are a variety of reasons i’ve felt this pull to strip things down again, to simplify, and to make space, and i know part of it is because life is going (mostly) back to “normal.”
as the pandemic has calmed down and restrictions have eased here in the US, it suddenly seems like everything has ramped back up. people are desperate for the connection they missed last year, so it feels like everyone everywhere is trying to do just about everything.
while i get it to a point, i also feel the strain of the rush pretty deep. though my extroverted self definitely missed people last year (just ask my husband), what i didn’t miss was the pressure (however much unspoken) to be everywhere and do everything all the time.
it shows up in different ways depending on where you might live, but even in small towns, there’s the internet and the relentless hum of social media and all the things the people online are saying and doing.
i said way back in the early days of the pandemic that when life returned to normal, i hoped we wouldn’t lose the things we’ve reconnected with that are simple, slow, and require time.
this summer, even as life picks back up in pace, i encourage you to fight for the simple and fight for the slow. fight to hold onto the things you found and loved when you suddenly had the time for them, because those things are beautiful and worth holding onto.
🙋🏼♀️ a question for you
the website is getting a little refresh and i’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how to show up and what to share in the various spaces we connect online, so here’s what i’d love to know…
if we could sit down and have coffee (or tea, in my case), what is the one thing you’d ask me about? how can i serve you, help you, and speak life to you?
i’m not kidding when i say i would love if every single one of you answered. sure, it’ll be a lot of emails, but i genuinely want to get to know you and how i can serve you best.
📚 recently read
i’m definitely not ready to say i’ve totally gotten my reading mojo back, but i’m slowly getting there. this is what’s currently on my nightstand!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
liturgy of the ordinary by tish harrison warren
i finished this one up early on in the month and so enjoyed it. tish’s thoughtful encouragement that the sacred is enmeshed in even the most mundane aspects of our life was so refreshing to the message we so often hear to go big.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
the paper magician by charlie n. holmberg
i think i first about this one from my friend, emily hornburg, and picked it up last year at a used bookstore. it took a bit to get started, but once it takes off, it takes off. it was an inventive fantasy approaching magic in a way i hadn’t seen before, and the story as a whole was fun, fast-paced, and a delight to read.
💕 recent delights
here’s a few things i’ve read or discovered lately i’m totally loving and i think you might too!
this piece from the aesthetics of joy about 10 ways to start the day on a joyful note. i’m so not a morning person (and can for sure be grumpy), so i’m looking forward to adding one or two or these into my routine!
this piece about madeleine l’engle and the lovely way she approached both motherhood and writing — as an act of co-creation — and her intentional choice to make space for both, recognizing each was an important part of her life.
the next right thing guided journal from emily p. freeman. i shared at the beginning of the year that, after several years, i was shifting how i approached my regular planning and reflection. though it’s taken some time to get into a good rhythm (after all, most change takes time), i’ve been loving the simple space this journal offers for reflection each week, month, and quarter.
my favorite planner of all time (not to mention the entire shop) is 30% off right now! that’s right, from now until july 3, everything at simplified is on sale. if you’ve contemplated checking out the simplified planner (or just want to stock up on some accessories), now is the time to do it!
as we walk further into this summer of life coming back to life again, may you feel the freedom to truly embrace the things that make you come alive, friend.
until next time!
