This is the Year I Embrace Being a Maker
making is the simple, down-home version of creating, I think. // Issue I
It was January when I attempted a cathartic written reflection on my hopes and dreams for 2023, a year of anticipated change. Change back to Spain, change home, city and province. Change ministries. Change from temporary to permanent resident of Spain. Now it’s June, but June of the following year.
The unfinished drafts (of this essay and others) tell the story: every year I disappoint myself with my lack of growth.
Healthful eating, exercise, creative writing goals, spiritual disciplines… all the ways I can (and do) fail. I don’t have great habits, and the best way to get me to accomplish something is for it to be an obligation to someone else. I meet deadlines, I fulfill promises to others, but I am rarely faithful to me.
So, when I turned 40 this year, I expected to be the same scattered, undisciplined, disappointed Rose whose only real daily habit is a cup of coffee.1 This is impossible, though. I’m simply not the same person I was, and I have developed some good habits, spiritual and otherwise. The edits required on those unfinished drafts tell the story: I am always growing.
making much of others
:: I am still savoring the book Create Anyway by Ashlee Gadd, and I am hooked. She and the team at Exhale Creativity are the hype girls every woman needs.
:: “No Longer Mine” is a poignant short story I really enjoyed. Recommended for fans of Marilynne Robinson, I think.
:: This Collection over at Taking Route is so good. I am loving this new format that enables the reader to either binge read posts like a magazine, or spread them out over the month without ignoring emails.
:: For the past couple years, I have thoroughly enjoyed the journalistic approach of Elizabeth Holmes’ Instagram coverage and newsletter about the British Royal Family. In So Many Thoughts, she thoughtfully analyzes style, choices, and history. I really enjoyed her coverage of the coronation and when she follows the royals on their travels. Now a lot of her content is behind a paywall, but I still recommend her commentary.
making much of myself (an appropriate amount)
:: This is my essay in the most recent collection over at Taking Route.
:: I never shared my essay “Where Do I Belong” from the previous collection.
making memories
Although we’ve lived in Cabanillas for about a year, we are still enjoying a new set of firsts in our new town. For five years we lived without a dryer, a home office, and any outdoor space—even a balcony. So far we’ve honored things like “first time drinking coffee on the balcony” (on Instagram) and “first newsletter written from a desk” (with a high five). This spring I hung six flower boxes on our railings. It took almost the entire year, but we furnished and decorated our very first guest room, just in time for my grandma to visit for Christmas. We’ve also hosted a team from Cedarville and had a few parties and get togethers.
This week is the anniversary of Dick’s passing. There is a famous tapas bar in Madrid called La Casa del Abuelo and we’re going to make a new tradition out of eating shrimp there to…definitely not celebrate…but to honor, and maybe redeem, this terrible day. I wrote about God’s faithfulness to me a year ago.
making food
Grab a thick slice of the seediest bread you can tolerate. You know the kind, with sunflower, poppy and sesame seeds all over the crust. If you don’t have that, use sourdough (which I don’t have). Toast it lightly, and smear with cream cheese. Top with sliced roasted red pepper and pickled red onions. Season with salt and ground black pepper or your favorite multipurpose seasoning.
This links to a microessay I wrote in November 2020 about this very thing. It is one my most liked and commented Instagram posts. I reference it all the time, but even rereading it now, it’s not true anymore. Some of that is that it’s no longer “pandemic times,” of course.