19 hours ago
The first day of Spring was yesterday, and we celebrated by going outside to play in several inches of snow. For a couple weeks I have been trying to fill out the prompts for this linkup about Spring, but literally every time I planned to work on it, it would snow and put me out of my springtime mood. But today I'm going to just ignore the weather, spray some lilac-scented room freshener to get in the spirit, and share some spring musings!
- List your favorite thing about spring. Which season do you like best?
My favorite thing about spring the last couple years has been the moment when the birds return to our house. Sometime between March and May, the trees around our house fill with songbirds, and the noise is loud enough to actually wake me up in the morning. You would think that would be annoying, but it's not at all - I love waking up to birdsong. I do not love waking up to woodpeckers, however, and unfortunately they tend to return with the rest of our winged friends.
Aside from my love for the birds, springtime is actually not particularly pleasant at high elevation - our "spring" according to nature typically doesn't occur until May, and then it happens all at once a week before summer. In the meantime, it's just an endless cycle of mud, which freezes when it snows, then melts the next week and gets tracked all over my house. I would love to visit a state that actually has magical (or at least pleasant) springs - which states are those? Please comment and tell me.
My favorite season in the mountains is most certainly fall. That's when the magic happens.
- What puts spring in your step? What does your favorite pair of shoes look like? When do you wear them?
The scattered days of warm weather put a spring in my step, along with the fact that this is the first spring in the last two years that is normal! No lockdowns (ugh, 2020), no masks (ugh, 2021). I feel free and light as a feather!
Unfortunately I can't tell you what my spring-y steps look like these days, because I don't currently have a favorite pair of shoes. Even though I've updated many things in my wardrobe over the last five years, shoes is not one of those things, and it's starting to show. My winter/spring shoes are all grungy looking or literally falling apart, but I'm limping them along. I do have some nice summer shoes though, so I'll probably continue to not buy new winter footwear for as long as I can get away with it. Eventually I'm going to have to shell out.
- Around St. Patrick’s Day we see invitations to ‘kiss me, I’m Irish’ on graphic tees and images everywhere. Are you Irish? If not, what would your graphic tee read? ‘Kiss me, I’m…”
I actually do have some Irish way back there somewhere, along with German (a quarter), English (probably a sizable fraction since it's coming from all sides of my family), and Polish. I'd like to get one of those DNA tests sometime, because apparently even siblings can have a different mix of ethnicities in their DNA. Have any of you had your DNA tested?
- What flowers would make up your perfect spring bouquet? What is your favorite floral fragrance?
Oh, I love the scent of lilac, and then probably honeysuckle, roses, or jasmine. I'm not sure how all that would smell together though. My ideal floral fragrance would certainly have to include a hint of woodiness. I like to feel like I'm walking through the woods while smelling my odd flower bouquet.
- Spring cleaning? A necessary evil or overrated? What’s your favorite cleaning tip? Cleaning product?
I tend to do some cleaning out whenever I switch out the kids' clothes for the seasons, which is in the early summer and early fall - I'll get rid of old clothes and toys at that time. As far as deep cleaning the rest of the house, I don't do that in the spring necessarily, but whenever I have time to do it over the course of the year! Since we homeschool, deep cleaning happens alot in the summer when we don't have school work. My favorite cleaning products are Mrs. Meyers, and don't say anything to me about their toxicity or whatever - I like the way they smell, and I'm going to keep using them!
- Slinkies are coiled spring toys. Did you ever have a Slinky? Silly Putty? What was your favorite toy as a child?
I did have a Slinky and Silly Putty, and a bunch of other toys! I particularly remember Pogs in elementary school. Does anyone know how to actually play the Pogs game? We just collected them when I was a kid, but I know there was supposed to be some way to play with them. I also went through a Crazy Bones collecting phase in middle school, and once again there was a "game" you were supposed to do with them, but I strongly suspect the games were just a pretense for both of those toys.
My favorite toy as a child was certainly my teddy bear though. I still have it in my baby box.
- When we ‘spring forward’ on March 13, what do you hope to do in that extra daylight?
Okay, against my better judgement...let's talk about what they are currently trying to do with Daylight Savings Time. Have you heard that the Senate passed a bill to put the country permanently on Daylight Savings Time?
I am strongly against this.
Where I live, staying permanently on DST will mean that sunrise won't happen until 8:21 AM in the winter. That is absurd to me. We try to start school at 8 AM, so now you're telling me that I may have to wake my kids up and get them started on school before the sun even rises? NO!! Why are they doing this to us?
I know that alot of people hate changing the clocks in the Spring and Fall with a passion (I cannot relate to this, I don't understand why it's such a big huge deal). But in the end, there is a reason we've been doing it this way for a hundred years - to avoid 8:21 sunrises in the winter (way too late), and 4:30 sunrises in the summer (way too early). So I personally think we should just stick with the current system, because it is more convenient. However, if we are going to eliminate the switch in the spring and fall, at least put us back on Standard Time! Why should we permanently go onto artificial time (which is what DST is) - why not go back to the time that more closely aligns with the natural clock, ie. the time that brings the sun closest to straight up at noon? That would be Standard Time. There are also apparently studies that suggest more sunlight in the morning is much better for your circadian rhythms than more sun in the evening (you have to look up the studies yourself, I need to finish this post).
Bottom line - just say no to permanent Daylight Savings Time! Write your senator.
What was the original question? Oh, nothing. I woke up with the sun, and adjusted my kids' bedtime and did nothing with the extra hour of daylight, because in reality, we had the exact same amount of daylight we would have had if we didn't switch the clocks!
- The following colors will be trending for spring soft lilac, canary yellow, hot pink, salted caramel, scarlet, sky blue. Will you be styling any of these? Is there a color you will avoid?
It's so funny to me that there are colors that are on trend for different seasons - I want to know who decides these things! I will say that I have loved all the sky blue in the stores lately. I did purchase a soft lilac top at Target, but I'm on the fence on whether I want to keep it or not. I'm also on board for the scarlet, I don't hate the salted caramel, and the other two I probably won't buy because they won't fit in nicely with my wardrobe (though I do love those colors in theory)!
- What will you be reading this spring? Do you have a favorite devotional or quiet time routine?
I am deep into rereading The Return Of The King right now. It's been a bit of a stressful month for our family, and I needed to go back to something comforting, and the Lord Of The Rings is that for me right now. I also plan to read Perelandra by C. S. Lewis in the next couple weeks. As for quiet time reading, after my Bible, I am reading The Gospel Comes With A Housekey by Rosaria Butterfield, and I just started Far Above Rubies: The Life Of Bethan Lloyd-Jones by Lynette Clark. Bethan is the wife of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and if you don't know who that is, go fix that right now.
- Share an inspirational thought or spring quote. Why does this speak to you?
Speaking of Lord Of The Rings:
"Other evils there are that may come...Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule."-J. R. R. Tolkien, Gandalf in The Return Of The King
I highlighted this paragraph when I was reading the book the other day, because it reminded me that I can't worry about what the future will be like for my kids. I can shield them while they are young, till the soil of their hearts for the gospel, uproot the evil around me where I can, and trust the Lord to take care of what conditions they'll find in the future. The future is God's. It's not mine to rule, and worrying about it won't change anything.
It's also rather a springtime-y quote, don't you think? And succor means "assistance or support in times of hardship and distress" in case that vocabulary word never cemented itself into your brain (I had to look it up).
How has your springtime been, friends?
I read Out Of The Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis over the last couple days, and I have so many things swirling in my brain I thought I better get them typed out into a post before I lose them. I decided my thoughts on this book were going to be long enough to justify their own post, but I do hope to do a full reading update soon!
I tried reading Lewis's space trilogy a couple years ago, and was so confused by it that I quickly lost steam. When I decided to give it another try recently, I did a little research first and read the first few chapters of Deeper Heaven by Christiana Hale. She explains that what Lewis was trying to do in this series is to recover some of the beauty of the medieval idea of the structure of the universe, through the way he structures the universe of the Ransom Trilogy. C. S. Lewis was, as I was reminded in Deeper Heaven, a professor of medieval and Renaissance English after all! So while some of the details of space in these books do not fit with the cold, hard facts of what we know space to be materially, he is trying to create a merging of the old medieval understanding of the universe with a physical journey through space and spiritual truths from Christianity. The result is a really interesting combination of medieval cosmology/mythology and Christian principles in this fantastical version of space.
An interesting aspect to me is how Lewis brings back the medieval idea of a "personality" assigned to the planets, but rather than in the form of false gods from mythology, in this book the personalities are angels that are given charge over the planets. Ransom gets to meet one as he travels to Mars, along with other intelligent beings who have souls and all worship the one true God (named Meleldil in their terminology).
In medieval cosmological structure, which Lewis is incorporating into this book, the Fall only affected the area beneath the moon, so the planet Ransom visits is "unfallen", not affected in the same way by the sin of mankind. This is one example of how this series does NOT fit well into the reality of what we see in Scripture - Romans 8 tells us that creation itself is subjected to the corruption of our sin, and I don't see anyplace in Scripture where certain realms of the physical creation are exempt from this. However, in the Ransom series, a certain element of "corruption" on these other planets may come in the form of the death of these other souled beings that Ransom meets - another questionable idea when compared with the Bible, because Scripture tells us that death entered the world through our sin.
Perhaps in the world that Lewis has created here, the death of these creatures is supposed to be connected with mankind's sin, the "groaning" and "corruption" they experience on other planets - but again, the Bible doesn't indicate that there are other intelligent beings who suffer physical death because of man's sin, so this is definitely an imaginative stretch.
Ransom also seems to think that animals lived on the earth for some extent of time prior to man, which would be another thing inconsistent with a reading of the creation in Genesis being six literal days. However, we also see Ransom having to reorient his thinking away from his conception of "science" and toward deeper truths, and his internal dialogue about his views on creation and creatures is changing throughout the story, so I'm not sure Lewis was making any sort of statement about his own view on how God created the world here.
Aside from a few inconsistencies and stretching of biblical concepts, I thought this book was really fascinating. What Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness did in speculating about the workings of demons, Out Of the Silent Planet does in imagining the world of angels and creating a system for how they could live in the medieval conception of the universe.
If I hadn't started reading Deeper Heaven at the same time as the Ransom series, I would have been thoroughly confused. But with the insights into Lewis from that book in the back of my mind, I could see what Lewis was trying to do in creating other "worlds" under the authority of angels, who are themselves under the authority of God.
Armed with a little more background information, I can look past some of the questionable theological aspects and see the beauty of the story he's trying to create here. I may not agree with everything that is said in the books, and I don't think everything is in line with the knowledge we are given in the Bible. But there is some value in various spiritual principles communicated through the book - I can pick out the good stuff, and recognize the rest as fantastical elements created for this story to work (sort of as you do with a fairytale, or with other Lewis books such as Narnia). I was particularly moved by considering man's fall into sin from the perspective of these fictional, unfallen cultures and personalities. It turns your mind to all we lost when Adam and Eve sinned, and all we will regain when God creates a new heavens and new earth for His redeemed people someday. I'm really curious to read the next book!
My year without an Instagram was 2021. In many ways it was the best year I have had in a while, without Instagram to distract me from my real life. We made memories, without the pressure of taking photos for social media. I learned new skills, because I had extra time. I didn’t stress about everything going on in the world, because it wasn’t constantly being pushed in my face from ten different angles. Derek even mentioned that I have seemed less anxious without Instagram.
Still, toward the end of last year I felt a pull to get back on Instagram for a minute, to see if I could find a better balance if I gave it one more try. So for the month of January (and very slightly in February) I’ve been using Instagram from my desktop, with an occasional foray into the iPad version of the app when I wanted to post a video or sporadic story. I started out thinking I would only post content that I had already published on my blog. I thought Instagram might be a nice way to reflect my blog in another space, and to interact with online friends who only have Instagram. These were done of my reasons for my little Instagram experiment.
It's been an extremely interesting experience being off Instagram for a solid year, and then getting back on. In so many ways I came back to the platform with fresh eyes. The first thing I thought is "Why am I following all these people?" and I cut my following list way down. I posted again for the first time in January with a great amount of suspicion and anxiety, and I think I realized a few things about Instagram that only this experience - being off for so long, and then briefly getting back on - could give me.
1. Instagram is built to keep you in the app as much as possible, mainly so they can collect data on you. Yes that personal data is not studied individually but is aggregated into a huge data sets, but they are still manipulating you with that information, and it's still creepy (read The Tyranny Of Big Tech by Josh Hawley for more on this). I knew all that before, but I noticed again how good they are at sucking you into the app for as much time as possible. I was surprised at how quickly the temptation to be on there way too much came back - and that without even having the app on my phone.
Unfortunately, my good intentions to limit my use are still no match for the addictive tricks the app plays on my brain. I think over the course of my year off Instagram, I got really used to NOT feeling the urge to check Instagram for feedback on my posts. It feels so good to NOT WANT to check Instagram, to not even have to think about it, but you don’t appreciate the absence of a bad habit until the temptation comes for you again. I was really surprised by how quickly that urge to check came back.
2. A lot of us end up changing our content (or even real-life choices and habits) in some way to optimize for Instagram. It was weird to feel anxious when I hit that "post" button, wondering if my post would even get shown to anyone because of that infuriating algorithm. Then I was alarmed to find myself strategizing how to help the next post do better, or share more of what was doing well. When did I agree to curate myself like that, to adjust the offering of my content to appease the Instagram "gods"? When I posted something on Instagram, especially at first, I ended up checking it every hour, just wondering if anybody commented or liked it. Then I started thinking about the next thing I should post, and it became this low hum of anxiety in the back of my mind, this pressure I put on myself to come up with something good for Instagram. And I found myself thinking often over the past couple months, do I really want this? Is this beneficial to my life? Am I doing any actual good on this platform? Is this platform doing any good for me?
3. Instagram content is all so…disposable. I was surprised to notice for the first time how quickly whatever I just shared became irrelevant - within 24 hours, it was done and past, gone, worthless. In many ways, Instagram makes our thoughts themselves seem disposable. Throw your thoughts out there, only to be buried beneath a bunch of other stuff, before we move on to planning the next post.
4. When it comes down to it, Instagram is just a bunch of people trying to be noticed. I shouldn't have been surprised to find myself in the same old rat race, once again becoming a part of the online crowds shouting, "Look at me! Give your attention to me! Make me feel important by clicking the like button!" I don't think everyone consciously seeks virtual affirmation on Instagram, but when it comes down to it, practically, that's what we are all kind of doing, isn't it? Getting back on and browsing around, I was secondhand embarrassed for some users that were clearly craving that digital affirmation, and then I realized with horror that I was basically doing the same thing! I hate feeling like the worth of my thoughts are tied up in how many people liked them, and I was embarrassed at myself when I found myself participating in all of it.
5. It's very difficult to keep my eyes on Christ when I'm on Instagram. I noticed some things happening in my heart that I didn't like almost immediately after dipping my toes back into Instagram. This week I finally finished a book from my longstanding TBR, 10 Arguments To Delete Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, and the last chapter happened to be comparing Big Tech to a religion. This book was written by someone I don't agree with on political or religious matters, a liberal I have nothing in common with except this interest in the insidiousness of Big Tech, but even this man can recognize there is an odd spiritual element to social media/Big Tech.
We like to think social media is spiritually neutral, but the thing is, I'm not so sure it is. Something that takes so much of our time and attention and information and effort is going to inevitably affect us spiritually in some way. It's probably not the same for all of us - for all I know some people may be impacted positively by their social media use - but for a whole bunch of us, I think we recognize there are negative aspects. It takes alot of wisdom and honesty to weigh those things rightly for yourself, to see things clearly, and to make the tough decisions where necessary.
While struggling with all this I came across this verse in Colossians:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.Colossians 3:1-4
It struck me to the heart because I know, deep down, that Instagram does not help me focus on heavenly things. It makes me focus on all the most shallow aspects of earthly things. Things such as likes, and follower counts, and how my hair looks in that video I just posted. Vain and meaningless as the wind.
If I am getting into a more worldly mindset just by using the platform, is the rare occasion where I may actually, maybe, point someone to Jesus worth my own spiritual health taking a hit? I don't know the answer to that. I wish that I could just resist the way Instagram puts my focus on myself, and keep my mind only on Christ, to post with a pure heart for His glory and not mine. But it’s too easy to make everything about myself, and I feel the failure acutely when I realize that's what I've done.
6. Finally, I realized I really don’t need Instagram. With all this swirling in my mind, I haven't posted anything on Instagram for most of the month of February (or my blog either for that matter - I needed a mental break), but when I scheduled last week's blog post to be shared on Instagram, from my desktop, I felt mostly indifferent about checking how it did. I don't view this so much as progress in my "relationship" to Instagram as evidence that I don't need Instagram.
When I'm active on Instagram, I hate the way it makes me feel.
If I can get myself to the point where I don't care about it so much (a healthier state for me), then what's the point in putting my effort there at all?
I guess I'm saying that I'm giving up Instagram again? I may keep my account to check in with my blog friends who I have no other way to keep in touch with, but I don't know how much I'll be posting there. I may share sporadic verses or quotes that stand out to me, or perhaps an occasional thought that I specifically feel led to share on Instagram, but I think that will be rather rare. There aren't many things that would be better suited to Instagram than for my blog. I will continue, as I have for the last 13 years, to share on the blog instead, and all personal updates will be here, not on Instagram.
As a sidenote, I wish I could nudge (ie. wrestle into acquiescence) all those friends who are only on Instagram to come back into the friendly waters of the good ol' blog world. Whatever is shared on Instagram can be shared on a blog. Blog feed readers, like Feedly (my favorite), still make it easy to see new posts without checking each individual blog. The blog world is still active, much less noisy and time-consuming than Instagram, with the same potential for online connection. Come on in, friends, the water's fine. Blogging may take a little more work than Instagram, but it's slower, it's calmer, and in my opinion healthier than the firehose that Instagram has become.
So there's my little state-of-the-social-media statement, and I'll be here on this blog, as always, my little haven on the internet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
