Presenting, road-trip-with-Wesley essentials.
Water, some books, a project, snacks, always a way to charge your phone, deodorant for warm weather, and lip balm for dry.
Because if three years has taught me anything, it’s to be prepared and enjoy the ride.
5. This book deserves a whole post on its own. For now, I’ll share my favourite quote:
“God is not captivated by our attempts to please him; he is riveted by the obedience of his Son and delighted by the goodness of Jesus Christ. God loves it when we are dazzled by the brilliant glory of his Son as well, and so he will not let us be overly impressed with our own performance for long. In love he shatters the Disney myth, in order to point us to greater joy than we could ever imagine.
What have you been enjoying lately?
While I was supposed to be prepping for an online class I remembered an old blog I used to read.
It’s been long abandoned, but the words still there inspired me to write more than I do. It took me back to a time when I was obsessed with everything vintage and yellow tinted photo editing.
It reminded me of a time when I was coming into my own with cooking and kindness, when I was pushing myself to live the life I had – instead of waiting for something better to come along.
How timely, since I find myself in the same kind of inner dialog nowadays. Do I make excuses about waiting for a bigger place – or do I make the best of company in camp chairs and visiting children cooped up on the first step?
Do I save my creative energies for when they can spread a bit wider? For when they touch my own children – or do I pour what I have now into a testing, curious whirlwind. Trying my hand at the same kind of things I did back then….
When I was reading blogs and didn’t have Instagram. When I took pictures of flowers from the garden. When I wrote and shared my thoughts online in more open (and cringier) ways then I do now.
They weren’t the ‘good old days’, but they were good indeed. Something about tapping into that world through a blog has made me nostalgic, but also inspired to be more productive. Here’s to that!
I remember picking him up at the airport that first time. We didn’t speak for awhile and then stumbling, trying to look for what we knew so well about each other.
There were so many things in that first hour or two that would prove completely consistent. He called around to coffee shops. He held and held my hands. We got lost. Very lost, in fact and when we finally were headed in the right direction we drove past the Old Town canoe factory and he screeched to a halt.
He backed up and took pictures. Got out and took more. Then we sat for twenty minutes while he figured out how to send them to that certain friend. I sighed and shifted and kept checking my watch.
Who would have thought? In the middle of Maine at night, with the man I would eventually marry – getting a complete crash course in life together.
I think of it every time I see the branding and when someone sent me this picture I thought, how perfect. From Bangor to Holmes Creek, Alabama, changing but not changing. Just us and Old Town canoes.
My most favourite person was born 34 years ago today.
He’s a thinker, an adventurer, truthful and kind.
And although mushy is my default. And despite the fact that I could be mushy about him all day long, I think it’s worth sharing the pictures behind those words. This is the uncut highlight reel of pictures that make me smile.
I call it: The Real Reason Why I Love Him.
This is Wesley being Wesley (as his family would say) and I love him very much.
Happy birthday!
An Irish Country Doctor is a James Herriot re-mix. Set in Ireland rather than England, the main character comes to us at the beginning of his doctoring career. And instead of animals he takes a job with the small town, eccentric GP.
Friendless, quiet and proper, Barry Laverty must find his way among the odd people of Ballybucklebo. Along the way he meets a romantic interest (of course), the heard-hearted hypocrite (inevitably) and a lovable, hapless drunk (naturally).
When I realized that the author actually was from Ireland, I must say the story gained some credibility. This novel is also the first installment in a series and the ending did leave me curious to read #2, so I’ll also whole heartedly give it that.
Otherwise, I still couldn’t quite shake the visual of James Herriot as I read. I kept expecting Barry Laverty to encounter a horse with bloat, or be expected to vaccinate a cow.
We woke up at 6:00 and looked out the front door. The cars were covered in a skim of snow and Wesley also claimed he could feel the flakes hitting his hand.
Our news feeds were filled with cautions and slippery road warnings. There were pictures of children, grumpy from bed and standing by nearly invisible piles. Other people bemoaning the lack of more.
And I love it. No matter how old, the promise of snow is so exciting. A snow day, the very best kind of day off from work.
I used to love the first snow fall in New Brunswick, and in Alabama it’s not different.
Snow means a clean slate, a new promise, a reason to smile. I’ll take what I can get.
I have a weekly Wednesday date with a friend to chat via Gmail while we work on writing projects.
All this to say – I should be writing something inspirational, when really I just want to stew about a name change.
You think it would be something simple like a trip to some friendly government branch. There’s a grandmother behind the counter with glasses and a national flag hanging behind her. You exchange pleasantries, recipes for peach pie, perhaps… sign your name and that’s it.
Instead, for the last 8 months I’ve been playing the adult version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. One thing effects another, which effects another, until I finally realize that for the next two years – the only thing that acknowledges me a Howell will be my library card.
And so tomorrow I head to the Social Security office for my fourth visit (not counting the times they weren’t open) and perhaps after that, a little jaunt to the DMV.
Until then, perhaps I’ll simply write my name as it suits my fancy. Mind your own business government offices!
Signed,
Olivia Grace Flewelling Howell Pearl Natalia McDonnelly III
And.
9. A company makes personal essential oil diffusers. Oh my. Oh dear.
Scribbles 