Two Questions I Am Holding

time, transitions, and what is mine to tend

Last week, I finished James K.A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time. It’s one of those books that my mind and soul will be chewing on for a while—meaty and lyrical and hurting my head in the best kind of way.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes:

“Time is a frame for things to flower. It’s not merely a question of everything finding its slot in the calendar, but creation brought to fruition in time, unfurling and unfolding all its possibilities to attain the beauty always latent there.”

“Being mortal is the art of living with loss, knowing when to say thank you and when to curse the darkness.”

PHEW. See what I mean? Stunning AND substantial.

And I am grateful. This book found me in a needed moment. (Isn’t it lovely when that happens?!) As I come up out of the deep waters of book-writing and the kids are four days away from being home for summer, I’m beginning to scan the horizon and ask, “Okay, what next?” Transition is all around me, and time feels a bit wonky and wild. I sense the shifting of seasons, based both on the almanac and the calendar as well as an underlying stirring of the soul.