Welcome to Litsy!

This is intended to be read over the course of 100 days, but I listened to this as a straight audiobook and found it motivating to keep myself in check so that finding fun and enjoying fun is easier. I loved listening to Annie F. Downstairs podcast so letting her narrate her own book was just like a big ol' hug. I especially loved her parts about book club and reading being a source of enjoyment, learning, and community.

But if your heart flourishes, if the enemy is silenced from telling you that your life doesn‘t matter, you know that even the tiniest steps toward something your gut says you were made to do are worth it.

I love smiling, smiling‘s my favorite. 😉

Living a life that seeks restoration makes us strong so that we can carry joy and hope everywhere we go. And with our eyes and hearts open, we can see how God has restored in the past, which builds our faith in the now, so that the way we look toward the future is entirely covered with joyful hope.

Shared experiences, memories and laughs, inside jokes and stories…they all provide this amazing foundation to build friendships and relationships on. And when you build on something that‘s firm (like joy and connection), what you‘re creating lasts. It‘s a way of putting your little corner of the world back together.

Hands up if you love you some Brené Brown!! ??‍♀️ ??

We pick our hobbies because of how they‘re simultaneously a gift to us AND a gift to the world. Because that‘s how the broken things get put back together piece by piece, when we‘re being fully ourselves and making space in all the busyness to protect enjoyment and wonder and whimsy.

When we create for others, we‘re doing some of the work of putting the world back together again, even if it‘s in a small way. It‘s a way we get to partner with the Lord in all that Eden-bringing redemption work He‘s doing.

But hobbies don‘t just teach us skills. They also teach us about ourselves and the kind of people we want to be. Because our hobbies invite us into new disciplines and perseverance and victories and reboots, they deepen our character. The joy and peace and connection we find through our hobbies enlighten us to ways our hearts can be formed and can invite others into flourishing.

What are some specific ways your hobbies have helped you grow?

Grief is one of the most sacred, profound experiences we share as humans…if we let it be. It tells us that something or someone mattered to us deeply. And hobbies can help us walk through grief and receive all it has to teach us.

There‘s peace that comes from spending time doing something that fills us up. There‘s peace that comes from assigning sections of our calendar to enjoyment and connection and community and rest.

The world tells us a lot of things that aren‘t exactly true about what really matters and what boxes to check that add up to success. It tells us to hustle. It tells us that we must show up early and stay late and sacrifice our health and our sanity. We‘ve got to be the best and the most put together and the most accomplished.

What do you do that helps you process and heal from tough situations?

We don‘t use our hobbies to stuff or numb or escape tough things.
Instead, we let them provide space and time for us to process, to feel, to lament, and to find moments of levity so we can keep moving forward.
Hobbies are such powerful tools for healing.

Any time we spend on something that reminds us who we are and the type of person we want to be is time well spent. That‘s how we heal from the broken things in the world and the hard parts of our lives—by staying tethered to who God created us to be, trusting that He‘s still putting us back together.

Find a list of classics and read your way through them. Read a poem a day. Read a book a month, alternating between fiction and nonfiction. Choose an author and read through their entire body of work. Join a book club, which has a bonus: variety, conversation, and connection!

Hobbies teach you what makes you smile, what makes you frustrated, what makes you motivated to try again.

Curiosity is hungry. And when you feed it good things, it grows. It wants more, it asks new questions, follows rabbit trails, leads to new wonderings and wanderings. As it grows, it changes and eventually transforms into something beautiful.

That‘s why hobbies matter. Because everything in our lives can‘t be only about producing, hustling, and striving. We need activities in our lives that exist for the pure enjoyment of doing them. Bit by bit, the things we do that bring us joy and God glory begin to draw a map back to Eden. To the wonder and peace, the deep sigh of rest, that come from allowing ourselves to simply exist with God.

Hobbies make space. They remind us of something beautiful and that good can come from nothing. That seeds become flowers and ingredients become soup and yarn becomes mittens. And when the whole world is broken, it‘s just nice to know we have the tiniest ability to put some pieces—even if they are actual, literal puzzle pieces—together where they belong.

Falling in love with failure is about acknowledging that failure always has something to show us and always serves to grow us.

Failure may not be the ONLY way to learn, but it is definitely a GREAT way to learn. It‘s what rewires our brains to do something a different way, to take a new approach next time. It helps us stay humble, reminding us that we don‘t know everything (nor should we). That humility helps us stay curious and ask things like, “What would make this better?” and “Who could I invite into this with me?”

There are no rules here. Read as many or as few books as you want. But don‘t give up on reading books. We need them. We learn from them in many ways.

What book made you fall in love with reading?
What about reading and books makes you fall in love over and over and over again?

I think you should definitely fall in love with books. You can read a book made of paper, you can read it on your E-reader, you can listen to an audiobook. All are totally fine.

Couldn‘t fit this one in a text caption, that must mean it‘s a good one!

What‘s the story you would tell in therapy today?
And furthermore, how can a stranger on the internet like me who has an insatiable love of books and reading just like you, support you as you live out and move through that story?

Learn about yourself. Listen to yourself. Trust yourself. And share your story with others.

Remember that the goal is not to reach a certain body size or shape but to have fun for your whole life. Stay as healthy as possible, try many new things as you learn and grow, and celebrate all the things your body CAN do today.

Learning is worth making time for. Learning comes in a lot of shapes and sizes and categories. Keep choosing it, over and over, in your spiritual, mental, and physical life.

We need people who give their lives to understanding more than we know today so their knowledge can help shape how we live.

Every time you provide a smile amid tears, every time you have cookies delivered to a teenager at the hospital just because you know she loves warm cookies, every time you think of that one little fun thing that may make someone else‘s day better, the people you are serving with your fun are getting a glimpse of the hope and the peace and the joy and the promise of Eden.

But we also know the release of a laugh and the freedom of a smile in a heartbreaking moment. We know that there can be joy in grief. That‘s the magic trick here; that‘s the piece you have to search for and find and give to your people.

There are losses and endings no one else sees, grieving that is so deeply private that, while the rest of your life could look right in space and place, you know something profound is missing.

Forgiveness isn‘t excusing the hurtful thing they‘ve done. It‘s not even saying that you want to be reconciled and for your relationship to go back to how it was before. It‘s simply saying that you won‘t hold them hostage to the worst version of themselves.

When you slow down and notice people, you can‘t help but also begin to understand their story. To see what might make them choose to do things differently than you would. To have some empathy for why they may have hurt you. And maybe open some doors for forgiveness.

See, that‘s what you do when you‘re an amateur at something. You acknowledge that it isn‘t a skill you‘re great at yet. You give yourself some grace, and ask for some grace and extend some grace to others.

And just like all your yeses don‘t have to become successes, all of your no‘s don‘t have to be forever….when you have reaped the rewards of saying no—the rest, the perspective, the margin you‘ve gained—you‘ll have new space and time and energy to revisit those opportunities.

It‘s not unloving to kindly decline, and you don‘t owe anyone an explanation. You don‘t have to defend your no.

If you are tired, no is a complete sentence. It will allow you the rest you need.
If you are feeling burned out, no is a complete sentence. It will allow you a chance to refuel.
If you are feeling too busy, no is a complete sentence. It will open up space for what matters most.
If you just don‘t want to, no is a complete sentence. It will help you be a good friend to yourself.

You don‘t owe anyone time, energy, or effort that you don‘t have to give. So even if you don‘t have a lot of practice at it, and even if it makes you worry that you‘ll disappoint someone you care about, you can say no. Saying no may not seem fun at the time, and you may feel like an amateur at it, but it CAN be soul-level good for you.

Not every invitation is meant to be accepted.
Not every opportunity is meant to be explored.
Even good opportunities and invitations deserve to be told no sometimes.

It‘s a pressure that we can release. That unfair and unrealistic expectation has got to go. It‘s not just okay to ask for help; it‘s a great way to learn. The added bonus is that you give someone else a chance to share something that they love and have practiced, to showcase their strengths and invest those into you. Asking for help is a pathway to making great connections with others and discovering fun along the way.

Somewhere along the way, we‘ve internalized that it‘s weak to ask for help. That it‘s too vulnerable to need someone to show us the way. That we have to just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and be amazing with no training and practice.

Everyone needs a coach from time to time. Everyone needs a teacher. Everyone needs a guide. Especially when we‘re amateurs at something. When we want to learn or grow or get better at a skill or hobby, we need to ask someone for help who knows what they‘re doing.

“Ask for help. Not because you are weak. But because you want to remain strong.”

~Les Brown~

Do not feel the pressure from culture to play it cool, to town down your feelings or to hold back when something brings you joy. Open up your heart and let yourself love.

We show what we prioritize by what we make time for, by what we actually add to our calendar, our week, our plans.

Knowing your history helps you shape your present and your future.