Lingering Letters [counter-culture]

lingering letters It's been lovely to see how themes of one sort or another seep into these collections. This time, it feels like it's about culture, or really, counter-culturalism. I hope that you will find these words thought-provoking, meaningful and challenging.

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There are No Trophies Here by Micha Boyett on Deeper Church.

This is a lovely post about enoughness, and learning about how God does the amazing things that we cannot do, but try to.

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Hospitality for Shy People by LaVonne Neff on Lively Dust (isn't this a lovely blog title?)

A marvelous post which I haven't been able to stop thinking about regarding hospitality, counter-culturalism and shyness.

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11 Untranslatable Words From Other Cultures by Ella Frances Sanders with Maptia.

I've always been fascinated by language. This is a collection of beautifully illustrated words that cannot be translated exactly, but, just perhaps, I can feel the meanings. Perhaps you will be able to as well.

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This quote by Jennie Allen (from her book Anything) has been staying with me:

“You have to thank God for the seemingly good and the seemingly bad because really, you don't know the difference [until we get to heaven].”

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encounters with chinese writers

Our book of the week is an extremely little known work of Annie Dillard, hopelessly out of print, called Encounters with Chinese Writers. This is my favorite book of Annie's. It is a piece of creative non-fiction about a group of American writers who got to interact with a group of Chinese writers both in America and China. Annie observes human nature wonderfully, with humor and with an eye for similarities, as well as differences in culture. Force your library to track it down.

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My own most read post this week was 10 Things I Learned in September, which is part of a monthly exercise I do with Emily Freeman at Chatting at the Sky. In some ways, this post has become a monument for me, once a month, I reflect on what the Lord has done that month. It's been a place of awe for me.

I also wrote about why I was nervous about writing Single Minded Mondays (in Trust and Transition) and shared three of my favorite bookshops in Bookshops in my Mind.

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