My Summer Occupations…
Some things bringing forth my joy.
It’s summer 2024 and in this height of Midsummer, I’m soaking in the stupor of northeastern heat mixed with mountain lake swims. Every morning we’re seeing bluebirds, hummingbirds, and dragonflies cruising by, loitering about, bringing the eternal cheer of summer living.
Yesterday a copy of The Sovereign Way arrived. I’ve had a friend telling me about the author for months and having finally met her in person, I looked up her book on Amazon. When I find the terms thought-experiment, sovereignty, Christ, and love all gathered together, I feel a quickening of my heartbeat that indicates I’ve found a trail of bread crumbs to follow. “Yet, though we are a coordinated network of world servers who intend to prove Love Wins, each one of us must go a uniquely Sovereign Way. The Sovereign Way is your path of healing, freedom, mastery and service.” I’m loving finding examples of the merging of freedom and sovereignty with spiritual presence. Her telling of the story of Queen Esther, the Old Testament outsider who married the King and saved her people from annihilation, is particularly moving.
“Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
I’ve been reading Donald Miller’s Marketing Made Simple, about bringing your story to the marketplace. It’s nice to think of how to attract people who are looking for what we have to offer, rather than shouting and hammering away at people’s attention span. Gary Vaynerchuk keeps talking about how the 40+ crowd is missing out if we don’t participate in the dialogue and put ourselves out there to be found. It's why I’m urging my friends with something to say to start saying it, regardless of who’s ready to listen. We’re making ourselves ready to solve problems.
Last night I finally took some time to watch The Bear on Hulu. My husband (who hardly ever watches anything, ever) had told me about it as it’s got Matty Matheson in a key supporting role. Matty is one of the current talked about celebrity chefs with a restaurant just across the border from us in Fort Erie. The man makes familiar food horrifically decadent. Depending on what interpretation of self-punishment or self-indulgence you lean to. We’d spent a cold February Saturday afternoon drooling over his Instagram cooking reels. You have to embrace an unashamed carnivore diet with a generous helping of processed cheese products, but it makes real the mesmerizing call of Bacchus. Matty is definitely a modern expression of the Greek-Roman god of wine and ecstasy. “Unabashed” is a great descriptor of his personality. In the show, Matty plays handyman with a droll sense of personality. It’s fun to see a real life chef bring a larger-than-life personality to a “nobody" supporting role to the star chef in the show. The show is so good for reasons beyond the food porn shots…. it’s about the terror of what it takes to create something spectacular despite the difficulties of life. It’s spot on in showing the struggle to craft greatness from ordinary circumstances. It makes me happy to see such a storyline resonating in popular culture.
Scattered through the day I’m working with agents to troubleshoot questions about applications and working with clients. Every day I feel it makes no sense, I get a spirit-lift with some small glimmering glow of sparkle. We’re all growing and finding ourselves learning to hold the reigns of our life. That’s immense.
I hope you’re finding something interesting to occupy your waking hours in this sleepy time of abundant growth. Whatever you collect in your consciousness over these weeks will support your spirit come winter time. Keep soaking it in.