For years I kept a regular online journal of sorts, and I'm so glad I did. I can't tell you how often I get lost looking through old posts and exclaiming "look how little they were!" or how grateful I am for the friendships and connections I made because of it (you can still visit those olds posts, though I won't be active there anymore), but somewhere along the line I started to feel like it just wasn't the right place to write about the things I really wanted to write about. I'm not sure how those things always happen, other than that you start along a certain path, and when you decide it's not the exact one you want to be plodding along, it's just easier to go back to start that other path anew rather than trying to jump over by cutting through the woods. I may still share projects and personal posts on here sometimes, and I hope they'll serve to inspire you in your own real-life making. But what I'm really here for, the endeavor that I felt needed a new space of its own to begin, is to talk about how and why those things matter. How the home you create, the food you make, the books you read, and the way you plan your family, raise your children, run your days can all be governed and guided by a theology. Family is the bedrock of society, an ecclesiola (little church), the creator of its own culture and the greater culture. It matters! For whom? You! Are you married? You're a family! Engaged? This is on your doorstep! Single? Well we're all part of a family, aren't we? If not biological, made of the people around us who have stepped up to fill that void. You're never too young (or old for that matter) to think about these things and how they apply to you and the families around you. I wish I had started thinking along these lines long ago. I'm talking about the pursuit of beauty and Truth in everyday life.
I don't feel uniquely qualified to do this. I only know that a while ago a spark landed somewhere in my heart and it grows and glows, and it's gotten to the point that I can't say no to it! I kept wishing someone would start the conversation, so I'm starting it. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give me the words to say.
Join me! We can encourage each other to do better! We have so much to talk about!
Why It Matters by Sara Groves
Sit with me and tell me once again
Of the story that's been told us
Of the power that will hold us
Of the beauty, of the beauty
Why it matters
Speak to me until I understand
Why our thinking and creating
And our efforts of narrating
About the beauty, of the beauty
Why it matters
Like a statue in the park
Of this war torn town
And its protest of the darkness
And this chaos all around
With its beauty, how it matters
How it matters
Show me a love that never fails
Some compassion and attention
Midst confusion and dissension
Like small ramparts for the soul
How it matters
Like a single cup of water
How it matters