Author: Lily

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 21: Temples and Robots in Tokyo

Usually, Korean holidays don’t coincide with American ones, but this past weekend (Memorial Day in the US) happened to be the holiday celebrating Buddha’s Birthday in Asia. Buddha’s birthday is celebrated according to the Lunar Calendar which means it’s on a different day each year, so it really was a happy coincidence that it fell on a Monday, creating a long weekend for us government employees.

This is our final holiday/day off before the end of our contract in August and was therefore our last opportunity to travel, so even though it was only a few days, we headed to Tokyo to take advantage of them. We’ve been to Osaka and Kyoto in the past, but we’d never been further than the airport in Tokyo. It seemed a shame to live so nearby (less than a 2-hr flight) for two years and never make it to the biggest city in the world.

We arrived in the city around noon on Saturday and immediately set out to see the Sensoji Temple which was within walking distance of our hostel.

The temple area was packed with people, many lighting incense sticks or tossing coins into a big trough in front of the Buddha statue. Outside of the temple there were long streets of stalls selling all kinds of souvenirs. We wandered around for a while an eventually stopped at a little ramen shop for lunch.

The ramen shop was a super narrow hole-in-the-wall with just one long counter where you sit and eat what these guys cook up for you.

So much deliciousness.

After lunch we had to go back to our hostel to check into our room and put our bags away. From there we took a long subway ride to the Shinjuku district looking for the famed Robot Restaurant. We’d heard about this place from friends who went in the past and we were intrigued. Restaurant is a bit of a misnomer since food isn’t central to the experience. In fact, we didn’t eat anything while we were there. It’s more of a show at which you can have food and drinks if you want. We weren’t exactly sure where it was, so we wandered around for a while before we found it, but the area was interesting so we didn’t mind the stroll. We were intending to buy tickets and come back later that evening for the show, but when we arrived around 3:45 the evening shows were sold out, but there was a show starting in 15 minutes, so we just went for it.

Area near the Robot Restaurant complete with Godzilla head attached to one of the buildings.

The tickets were pricey, but this was one of the weirdest and most unique experiences of my life. It was everything you imagine when you hear stories about how strange Japanese culture is. There were robots and dancing girls in weird and revealing costumes and huge radio-controlled animals and lots of drums. It was like a super geeky 13-year-old boy had been given unlimited resources to create the world of his dreams.

The show itself was incredibly corny. The best (and by best I mean most ridiculous) part was a story where there was a peaceful planet that gets invaded by robots and the forest and sea creatures must band together to fight the robots. The robots literally came out and said things like, “This planet is so peaceful. Let’s trash it!”

The part where Kung Fu Panda came out on a cow to save the forest from the robots.

After the show we decided to look for Yoyogi Park which has a shrine in it. Unfortunately, we had some trouble finding the entrance, and as we wandered around looking for a way in, I started to get very tired and very hungry and very cranky. Eventually we abandoned our plan and resolved to come back the next day. Instead we found a tasty dinner of donkatsu and Japanese curry.

Fortified with dinner we went down to Shibuya Station, famous for being the busiest intersection in the world. We walked back and forth across the intersection a few times taking pictures of the crowds and then went up to the second floor of the department store to look out the windows. This was a great place for people-watching.

By the time we’d finished with all of that it was after 10 pm and we’d been going non-stop since 5:30 that morning. We headed back to our hostel to shower and sleep, but not before picking up a few local snacks to try. One of our favorite things when traveling is to try out all the special varietals of regular snack foods. Japan is especially famous for their green tea (matcha) flavored treats. I happen to like green tea, so I enjoyed a lot of these.

Green tea mini oreo. Loved these.

Raspberry Kit Kats. These have such a strong fake raspberry flavor and it is so artificial tasting that we weren’t big fans.

Green Tea Kit Kat bites stuffed with red bean paste. I really like the regular green tea Kit Kats, but I’m not that into the red bean paste.

Check back next week for more Tokyo adventures! If you have an adventure to share, add your link to the link-up by clicking the button below. You can participate in all of the adventures or you can just do a few – no pressure. If you missed last week’s adventure you can find it here. And if you are new to my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure project you can find out more about it here.

Friday Book Chats: Searching for Sunday Book Review

I had been eagerly waiting for Rachel Held Evans’ new book Searching for Sunday to hit the shelves ever since I heard that it was in the works. While I’m only an occasional reader of her blog, which is more issue-focused and, frankly, sometimes too abrasive for me read consistently, I was deeply impacted by her first book Faith Unraveled, which told the story of her transition from an utterly confident (sometimes judgmental) completely sure-of-her-own-rightness Christian to one who wanted to wrestle with hard questions rather than write them off. So many of her stories and experiences and reflections were uncannily similar to my own and that book was like water in the desert to my soul.

When I learned that her new book would be specifically about her loving, leaving, and finding church again, I couldn’t wait to read it. All I can say is that it was even better than I was expecting it to be. Once again, I felt like I was reading my own diary at so many moments. To the point that if someone wanted to know where I’m at with the church, I would probably just hand them this book and say, “She says it better than I could.”

For the past few years I’ve struggled with church. And even as I’ve tried to remind myself that church isn’t primarily about what I can get out of it and that not all churches are the same, I’ve felt an increased disinterest in participating in the church. This has become more of a concern recently as we prepare to move back to the US, a move which will necessitate our finding a new church. I’ve found myself reluctant to even try. By the time I finished this book, I felt understood, even validated. But I also felt hope.

In the introduction, Evans’ pinpoints the reasons for the dissatisfaction that so many of our generation are feeling with the church:

“We don’t want to choose between science and religion or between our intellectual integrity and our faith. Instead, we long for our churches to be safe places to doubt, to ask questions, and to tell the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. We want to talk about the tough stuff – biblical interpretation, religious pluralism, sexuality, racial reconciliation, and social justice – but without predetermined conclusions or simplistic answers. We want to bring our whole selves through the church doors, without leaving our hearts and minds behind, without wearing a mask….

We can’t be won back with hipper worship bands, fancy coffee shops, or pastors who wear skinny jeans. We Millennials have been advertised to our entire lives, so we can smell b.s. from a mile away. The church is the last place we want to be sold another product, the last place we want to be entertained.

Millenials aren’t looking for a hipper Christianity. We are looking for a truer Christianity, a more authentic Christianity. Like every generation before ours and every generation after, we’re looking for Jesus –the same Jesus who can be found in the strange places he’s always been found: in bread, in wine, in baptism, in the Word, in suffering, in community, and among the least of these.”

The rest of the book is structured around the seven sacraments – Baptism, Confession, Holy Orders, Communion, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, and Marriage – but if that sounds dull and dry, don’t be fooled. This isn’t a book of theology. This is a very vulnerable and personal story masterfully woven together with the story of the church and with some breathtaking theological truths. Take for example this profound reminder that

“…what makes the gospel offensive isn’t who it keeps out, but who it lets in….

Grace got out of hand the moment the God of the universe hung on a Roman cross with outstretched hands looked out upon those who had hung him there and declared ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’

Grace has been out of hand for more than two thousand years now. We best get used to it.”

Evans writes about stepping away from the church for a while as she wrestled with questions that no one seemed to want to discuss and becoming critical and cynical about the body as a whole. I saw myself in this, the way I began to feel when I went to my parents’ church or my in-laws’, or visited a new church with my husband.

“I expected the worst and smirked when I found it. So many of our sins begin with fear—fear of disappointment, fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of death, fear of obscurity. Cynicism may seem a mild transgression, but it is a patient predator that suffocates hope…”

For years I found myself growing more and more cynical about the church to the point that it was sometimes a struggle for me to admit that it could ever do any good at all, and this cynicism made it very difficult for me to accept that God is still using the church today. That, as Evans’ says,

“Church is a moment in tie when the kingdom of God draws near, when a meal, a story, a song , an apology, and even a failure is made holy by the presence of Jesus among us and within us.”

I can’t claim that I agreed 100% with every single word and idea in this book, but that really doesn’t matter to me because I agreed wholeheartedly with the spirit of this book which was like an empathetic companion in my grief, an understanding friend, and sustenance for my sometimes starving faith.

To me, the most beautiful thing about this book is that while it fully acknowledges the many problems with the church, particularly the evangelical church, it also leaves the reader with hope that maybe church can still be worth it. Maybe there is still value in this broken body. Maybe there is something so essential about the church that it’s worth investing in, in spite of all her failures.

Evans concludes, “God surprises us by showing up in ordinary things: in bread, in wine, in water, in words, in sickness, in healing, in death, in a manger of hay, in a mother’s womb, in an empty tomb. Church isn’t some community you join or some place you arrive. Church is what happens when someone taps you on the shoulder and whispers in your ear, Pay attention, this is holy ground; God is here. Even here, in the dark, God is busy making all things new.”

Once after attending a service at my in-laws (genuinely lovely) church I turned to my husband and said, “I just can’t do it. If that’s what it has to look like for me to be a Christian, then I don’t want to be one. I don’t fit with the floral clad church ladies making small talk, I’m not moved by the choir, and I refuse to laugh at jokes that aren’t funny just because the pastor said them. I’m sorry, but I can’t ever do church like this.”

But this church that Evans writes about, this is a church I just might want to be a part of.

Thankful Thursdays Guest Post: I’m Thankful for My Body

You guys. This post. I just can’t even. When Karissa first sent it to me I immediately responded with this mondo email chronicling my own constant battles with my body, my weight, and my eating. For me, they all started at summer camp the year I was ten when I was playing soccer and a boy behind me said to his friend, “Hey look! That girl’s butt jiggles when she runs.” I don’t think there’s been a day of my life since then that I haven’t been self-conscious about my body. So many of us have those stories. So many of us need this post. There are so many things I admire about Karissa as a writer and as a woman, and her ability and willingness to tell these truths here today is one of them. Soak this in, friends, and then be sure to head over and subscribe to her blog. She’s doing some great and beautiful work there that you won’t want to miss.

I’m Thankful for My Body

You might think this is an inappropriate thing to be thankful for. But as a woman, I believe I’ve been taught to despise my body. The magazines at the grocery checkout teach me I need to diet, the photos of movie stars teach me I need to be a smaller size, and even my coworkers’ chatter in the teacher’s lounge teaches me I need to exercise more. We live in a world where only certain body types are praised, and mine is not one of them.

My husband and I were talking before bed the other night. “It makes me unhappy when I tell you you’re beautiful and you don’t believe it,” he told me. I tried to hold them back, but the tears came anyway.

Seventh grade: I have been living in Bangkok for a year and am applying to a new school. When I arrive at the uniform store, a Thai woman takes her yellow measuring tape and winds it around my hips. “So fat!” she exclaims. It doesn’t matter that as an American I am simply taller and bigger than most Thais (even the men). Her words scar. My body disappoints.

High school senior trip: My friend Denny and I stand shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the hotel room mirror in our bathing suits. We compare our bodies, inspecting the curves of our hips, turning sideways to see how far our stomachs stick out. “Who’s bigger?” I ask. “I think we’re the same,” she says. She’s Bulgarian; I’m American. We are the biggest girls in our grade.

My wedding day, 15 years ago: 128 pounds. Skinny arms that boast a bit of a farmer’s tan. I never considered trying to fix that. Hair: short, streaked with highlights, impossible curls. Size 8. I wear a fitted, straight wedding dress with a mandarin collar. The pearl-covered dress fits beautifully over my hips.

Today: I step on the scale before getting into the shower. 156.5. At the doctor’s office a couple of weeks ago, his scale said 158. “Losing ten pounds might help your heartburn issues,” he told me. I sigh and turn the water on. After showering and drying off, I inspect myself in the mirror.

Stretch lines stripe my hips. They look pink head-on, but silver if I turn sideways. Mom arms that jiggle. A waistline that pushes out of last year’s size 10 capris. Thighs riddled with cellulite. Size 12. Surely I won’t edge to 14.

Face: Round. Full cheeks, a double chin when I look down. Crows feet around my eyes when I smile, permanent shadows beneath my eyes, oily skin, makeup that rubs off by noon.

The problem is that I like food, and I don’t like to exercise much. If I stick to diets, I lose weight. But I have a hard time following through. One week I get up early every morning and lift weights. The next week I drink wine and eat Oreos every night.

When attempts to lose weight don’t work, I try to make my body seem more acceptable. I feel the need to apologize for how large my body has become, the need to soften the blow of thirty pounds gained. I get tattoos and dye my hair and layer on make-up. I research body types and try to dress for my shape: belts, flared skirts, empire waist dresses, fitted jackets.

Underneath it all, this one truth haunts me: I won’t be happy until I accept my body. My attempt to make my body more presentable to others is really just a way to combat my disappointment with myself.

So here I am, declaring it: I am thankful for my body.

My body is a gift, a vessel that brought two babies into the world and carried three into the afterlife. It is a source of pleasure, of help, of kindness, of love. My body is a gift, even to me, the gift of being present in the world in a physical way.

My son gave me this little questionnaire for Mothers Day:

“My mother looks prettiest when she is here.” Not when she’s got make-up on, not when she’s wearing a dress or after she’s lost ten pounds. When she’s here. My presence is beauty.

Observe: Arms that wrap around my children every morning. Round, full lips that give goodbye kisses. Hands that brush out long tangles in hair and wrap bandaids around toes. Feet that carry me with confidence into my workplace, where my face smiles at coworkers. Legs that take me up hiking paths and around playground walking tracks. Lungs that take in oxygen, skin that renews itself constantly, ears that notice the sounds of a world discovered.

I am learning to be thankful for my own skin: even its round softness, even its scars, even its imperfections. I am learning to be thankful for this gift that my husband calls beautiful, and to actually believe that myself.

About the Author: Karissa Knox Sorrell is a mother, ESL educator, and writer from Nashville, Tennessee. Read more of her writing at her blog or follow her on Twitter @KKSorrell.

If you’re enjoying this series, be sure to go back and check out other guest posts I’ve shared so far in the Thankful Thursdays series, here, here, and here!

PS- Sorry about the placement of these ads. Haven’t figured out how to move them yet!

Life in the In-Between

I’m living an in-between life.

The days grow longer and hotter, the mercury already rising near 90 some afternoons, and I remember what it is to live coated with a constant sheen of sweat. But even as I dread the oppressive heat and the thick cloak of humidity beginning to descend, I remember that the cool kiss of the air in the mornings and the smell of the jasmine in the park and the dozens little voices screaming, “Hello, Lily Teacher!” from across the school yard will only be memories sooner than I know.

I measure my days in lasts – last cherry blossom season, last hikes, last baseball games, last weekend trips, last nights hopping in cabs and speeding home through the city with its crazy drivers and its flashing neon signs. Last few months of stability before this life disappears and I’m trying to find my place all over again.

Soon we’ll have our last home church meeting as the family who hosts us returns to the US for the summer. And then we will have last meals with our friends as one-by-one we leave this place and return to our Before lives. But we are not our Before selves.

For months I’ve dreamed of home – of a place where no one stares at me while I try to run errands or pushes me out of the way on the bus. I’ve dreamed of my mother who hugs fiercely and breathes deeply every time she sees me, so she can remember the smell of me when I’m gone again. Of a grocery store full of foods whose names I know, where cheese doesn’t go on cookies and where a watermelon never costs $16. And I’ve dreamed of my friends, the ones whose lives I’ve missed little by little as we’ve each taken two years of steps in different directions. But the closer I get to home, the more I understand that this home doesn’t exist anymore. At least not in the way I remember it.

I see it most clearly when I talk to my friends in America. Sometimes it feels like I’m playing the role of Before self in our conversations, unsure if this New self still fits. And as each day brings us closer to our return I find myself clinging to this life we’ve built – to all the strange and difficult things that have become oddly familiar, and to the adventure of it all, something I’ve nearly forgotten in my months of homesickness.

“What if this is it?” I wail to my husband. “What if this is all the adventure we are ever going to get and I spent so many months ready to move on?”

He says adventure is only over when we choose to see it that way. He says adventure is a gift that comes in different shapes and sizes – we only miss it if we reject the gift entirely.

I try to pray about all of this. About being torn between home and this strange place that has crept its way into my heart and about the fear of no longer belonging. I try to pray and I find myself reading Mary Oliver instead. She writes at the end of “The Summer’s Day”.

“I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

And the words come to me like a grace.

You are already living your one wild and precious life, Love. Pay attention. Today may be all the adventures you will ever live. What are you going to do with it?

And I catch my breath. Because in the midst of all of it – the fear, the uncertainty, the longing for things that don’t exist anymore, the warring desires to stand still and to run forward–isn’t this still the question that matters?

We are all living in the in-between, caught somewhere between who we’ve been and who we are becoming. But we are all also living in the very center of our one dazzling life. Pay attention. What is it you plan to do with that today?

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 20: A Visit to the Madhouse

You may remember that a few months ago we went to see our friend, Josh, and the rest of the Daegu Theatre Troupe perform Almost, Maine in a little theater in downtown Daegu. This past weekend, the same theater group performed an original musical entitled Madhouse. The story and script were written by two of the cast members (with ideas and input from other cast members) but the songs were adapted from other musicals or pop songs.

The set-up was that the audience members were all doctors visiting a psychiatric hospital to witness a clinical trial for a new psychiatric drug created by Dr. Moss. Each patient had a unique psychiatric condition that ranged from a man who thought he was Jesus to a pathologically mute woman to a nymphomaniac. The drug was administered topically through a spray bottle and seemed to have some effect on each patient, but not always the desired one. The drug also had the curious side effect of making users express themselves in song.

Photo Credit: Laura Rhoades

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from an original amateur musical production, so I admit that my expectations weren’t all that high, but I actually enjoyed myself a lot, even with the raunchy bits. There were some really funny parts and I was impressed with how well they were able to make the music match their story line. I was also really impressed with how good everyone’s singing voices were. There were some genuinely talented singers and that made it even more fun to watch. Also, my friend Josh rapped and wore this great outfit with a giant bedazzled banana on a chain for a necklace.

I would have taken more pictures, but we weren’t really supposed to take any at all, so I just have a few sneaky ones plus the ones that Laura took during rehearsals (credited above).

This weekend we are headed to Tokyo for a quick 2-day trip where we will try to cram in as much as possible. This is our last trip before we head home in August (we don’t have any more vacation time) so it’s a little bittersweet. Check in next week for some pictures and reflections on our whirlwind trip.

If you have an adventure to share, add your link to the link-up by clicking the button below. You can participate in all of the adventures or you can just do a few – no pressure. If you missed last week’s adventure you can find it here. And if you are new to my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure project you can find out more about it here.

Friday Book Chats: What’s on My Kindle

I have a problem. I am addicted to buying books. This has been a problem for a long time now, but it’s gotten especially out of hand lately. Living abroad in a country where it’s difficult to find English books and living in a state of transience where it’s impractical to accumulate possessions has made my kindle a necessity. But reading primarily on my kindle means I have instant access to thousands and thousands of books with just one click.

Admittedly, I almost never buy anything at full price and when I finish a book I always choose my next book from what’s already on my kindle. I have an enormous Amazon wish list which I check every day to see if anything’s gone on sale, and I’m always hunting for deals to share with you. This results in lots of split-second purchases, sometimes on books I’ve been wanting to read for a long time, and sometimes on books I was suddenly seized with the desire to read once I realized it was only $2.99.

Today I want to share what’s on my kindle. This will serve to tell you about books I’m interested in, but also to provide some public accountability when I admit to all of the books I’ve impulsively purchased and not read. Maybe. Also, I’m included a list of current kindle sales at the end of this post…which might be counterproductive, but there are some really good books on there right now!

Books I’m Currently Reading

1. Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church, Rachel Held Evans. I am about 65% through this book and it is a book I have desperately needed for a long, long time. I’m sure I’ll be writing more about it soon.

2. Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, Shane Claiborne. I read this book devotionally in the mornings (and sometimes evenings). It’s a book of common prayer that integrates many Christian traditions worldwide into its liturgy. I highly recommend it.

3. Listening to your Life: Daily Meditations, Frederick Buechner. I also read this devotionally off and on. It’s short passages from various parts of Buechner’s work (fiction and non-fiction) that reflect on spiritual truths.

Books I Haven’t Started Yet

4. STORY STORY: How I Found Ways to Make a Difference and Do Work I Love, Kola Olaosebikan. Kola is a blogging/internet friend who recently published this book and was kind enough to send it to me to read and review. This is what I will read as soon as I finish my current book and I am really looking forward to it!

5. Siege and Storm (The Grisha Book 2), Leigh Bardugo. Read book 1 in this YA series a few weeks ago and would have moved straight to this one, but I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t like to read series’ straight through. I love to have a wide variety of genres in my reading, so after finishing a YA fantasy, I want to switch genres for a book or two.

6. Ruin and Rising (The Grisha, Book 3), Leigh Bardugo. Same as above.

7. Mariana, Susanna Kearsley. A historical fiction book/time travel book set in present and 17th century England.

8. The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd. There is absolutely no good reason I haven’t read this yet. A highly-praised historical fiction book by a favorite author. It’s about slavery and struggle, but also about liberation and empowerment.

9. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro. Bought this in a sale. Not sure if I’m going to like, but it’s on of those I want to have read.

10. The Middle Place, Kelly Corrigan. A memoir of a daughter and a father who bond for the first time when they are both diagnosed with cancer.

11. Interrupted: When God Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity, Jen Hatmaker. Hatmaker asks (and answers) hard questions about the purpose of the church and what the Christian life is really meant to be.

12. Cress (The Lunar Chronicles Book 3), Marissa Meyer. Read the first book in this series (Cinder) and loved it. Bought book 3 because it was on sale, but haven’t read book 2 yet because it’s not on sale. But I’ve got my eye on it…

13. How to Make Money Blogging: How I Replaced My Day-Job With My Blog, Bob Lotich. Because I’d like to know how to do that. But not enough to read it, apparently. Also got this for free.

14. Learning to Walk in the Dark, Barbara Brown Taylor. Love BBT. I actually read the first 7% of this and then realized that An Altar in the World sort of came first and went back and read that one instead.The 7% I read was already great.

15. The Bible Tells Me So:Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It, Peter Enns. The title and premise of this book intrigues me. I know that Enns is considered a controversial biblical scholar so I really have no idea if I’ll agree with his conclusions or not, but I’m interested to read his perspective.

16. The Mistborn Trilogy, Brandon Sanderson. I read (and enjoyed) the first book in this trilogy a few months ago and need to move on to the next two books, but as I said above, I’m weird about series and take breaks sometimes.

17. The Secret History, Donna Tartt. Not a fan of The Goldfinch, so hoping this one is better!

18. The Year of Living Biblically:One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, A.J. Jacobs. This is supposed to be an entertaining, interesting read akin to Rachel Held Evan’s similar book A Year of Biblical Womanhood.

19. Courageous Compassion:Confronting Social Injustice God’s Way, Beth Grant. Something I want to spend more time and energy thinking about and working towards.

20. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers. Because I WILL FINISH THIS SOMEDAY!

21. Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastards Book 2), Scott Lynch. I read the first book in this series, The Lies of Locke Lamora, a while ago. It was like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Oceans Eleven. Then hubby borrowed my kindle to read this series and while he was using it I got distracted and started reading other things and haven’t come back to it yet.

22. The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastards Book 3), Scott Lynch. Same as above.

Books I’ve Read That Are Still on my Kindle

23. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading, Nina Sankovitch. I mostly enjoyed this, but I totally forgot to write about it in last month’s What I’m Into Post so it stays until I can do a review.

24. Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-control and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life, Gretchen Rubin. Read this month. Will review at the end of the month.

25. Shadow and Bone (The Grisha, Book 1), Leigh Badusco. Read this month (really enjoyed it!) and will review at the end of the month.

26. One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, Ann Voskamp. I keep this one around cause you never know when you need a little reminder.

27. The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad #5) Tana French. I’m a huge fan of French’s. I’m keeping this one around because hubsters hasn’t read it yet and would like to.

So, yeah….told you I have a problem!

Are you a book hoarder like me? What are you reading right now?

Current Kindle Deals

*As of May 14th. I use the US Amazon site. Prices may vary on other sites.

New On Sale:

Case Histories, Kate Atkinson($2.99). Fabulous mystery. One of my faves. (First in a series).

Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson ($3.99) This one’s not a mystery and is a little trippy since it experiments a bit with time, but I really think she’s a masterful writer.

The Magicians, Lev Grossman ($2.99) This is like a more adult version of Harry Potter plus Narnia. Oddly enoough, not my favorite, but a lot of people really like it.

Still on Sale:

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life, Donald Miller ($3.99)

The Good Luck of Right Now, Matthew Quick (author of Silver Linings Playbook) ($1.99). I read this last year and wrote about it here.

The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart ($2.99)

Me Before You, JoJo Moyes ($2.99) Read with Kleenex!

Divergent, Veronica Roth ($2.99)

The Getaway Car: A Memoir About Writing and Life, Ann Patchett ($2.51)

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to make a purchase a small percentage of your purchase will go towards supporting this site. This does not affect the price of the items in any way.

Thankful Thursdays Guest Post: Gratefulness – The Journey

It’s that time for Thankful Thursdays again! I created this guest series partly as a way to help new writers gain experience as well as a way to appreciate the diversity of my readers and to learn from their different perspectives. Today’s post comes from Jackie, a young aspiring writer in NYC. I really appreciated this post for showing that we can be thankful not only for things we have and gifts we’ve been given, but also for the blessing of our own ability to change and to grow.

Gratefulness: The Journey

I was incredibly honored to be considered for a guest post on someone else’s blog. “Thankful Thursdays” is a concept I am excited to be a part of and I was very anxious to share my point of view. My first interaction with Lily was through another post about a similar idea so I was excited to share my thoughts with her and with the followers on her blog.

As I do with any good news I receive I told my girlfriend. She is usually the person I celebrate victories with so I informed her of the good news and arrogantly stated how suited I would be for this guest post because I practice being grateful so often.

“Let’s not get crazy, I think you’re about 50% of the way,” my girlfriend stated honestly. I was annoyed by her response. How could she put in a pinhole in my excitement about blogging and working with other bloggers? I immediately went on the defense.

Going on the defense made me reflect on the role that gratitude and joy had in my life. Was I doing enough? Was I really digging deeper into the experiences and gestures around me and truly appreciating what I have been given? I found myself incredibly lost in thought.

I have always found direction in writing about what I know. Writing provides structure for my thought process. I started writing about my current transition into financial and personal independence. I am taking over the rent and utility bills for my parents’ apartment while they make their transition into their first time as home owners. Independence is a lot of new territory for me to explore and I quickly realized that I may not be practicing being grateful as much as I thought I was.

While I am far from blind to the big blessings in my journey towards independence, I find myself realizing just how grateful I am for small things –from something as simple as a home cooked meal from my mother to something large like the luxury of not paying rent for a few more months. Reflecting on my personal growth into adulthood has opened my eyes to see that being thankful isn’t just about counting your blessings. I find that being grateful and appreciating the growth inside of me has become part of my journey.

The saying, “You never know what you have til it’s gone” has been truly appropriate for me. The slow losses of luxuries I’ve always known have opened my eyes to how precious they actually are and I see both the practice and concept of embracing life’s blessings as a part of the journey.

There is always room for improvement. There is always something that you might be missing. Counting your blessings might seem obvious, but feeling them deeply could take a lifetime with each life experience giving you more perspective. Maybe it’s my desire for perfection or to be a better version of myself each day, but this journey is what counts for me.

Image Credit: weheartit.com

About the Author:

My aspirations of becoming a writer seem to be never ending. I’m 26 trying to navigate my way through life using my blog as the outlet to tell my story and feed this dream that won’t seem to go away despite reality. Follow my journey at https://talesfromtheanxietyridden.wordpress.com/.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 19: Hot Springs and Chicken Feet

Although our Taiwan trip was short, it did technically span two different weeks which let me split it up between two weeks of adventure posts.

Our second day in Taiwan we looked at the forecast and were told there was 100% chance of rain with some severe thunderstorms. We spent a long time debating what we should do. Eventually we decided to head out to see some hot springs that were located near the end of a subway line. We didn’t want to go anywhere too far out in case of storms and we didn’t want to do something like the zoo or the mountain gondalas which would be ruined by a thunderstorm.

As it turned out, the forecast was completely wrong. It sprinkled once or twice, but there was certainly no heavy rain or severe thunderstorms. Thankfully, we enjoyed our trip to the hot springs anyway.

After checking out the hot springs we stopped for lunch at a small shop in the area where we had Taiwan’s most famous dish, beef noodle soup. It was delicious.

After our scrumptious lunch we headed on to another temple. This one is particularly well-known for being the place to go if you need matchmaking services. When we arrived there were lines of people waiting for their turn to receive some sort of blessing from what appeared to be some sort of lay people who were equipped to do blessings using incense.

After checking out this temple (but trying not to interrupt the locals who were there) we decided to head to Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taipei and the tallest building in the world until the Burj Khalifa was finished in 2010. It started to rain right as we arrived at the base of the building, but luckily the first few floors are a fancy shopping mall, so we popped inside and took a short break at the food court.

A lot of other people seemed to have the same idea because the food court was very crowded. We eventually found a table, but soon after we sat down an elderly Chinese couple came up and asked if we could share the table with them. (At least, I assume that’s what they asked. I only speak two words of Mandarin). Of course we said yes and then proceeded to have the most awkward snack of all time when the elderly couple pulled out a giant bag of chicken feet and started digging in. I hardcore stared at my seaweed chips to avoid looking.

Went back to our hostel a bit later to regroup before heading out to another, different night market. This night market had a really cool temple at the front of it that was all lit up for the evening and lots of fascinating foods inside of it.

Hey, more chicken feet! Just raw this time!

We also inadvertently stumbled upon something called the Rainbow Bridge which was kind of nice in the dark, though it’s possible that the water is all brown and murky in daylight.

Day Two in Taiwan concluded with another food success, the discovery of these Coconut Oreos at the local 7/11. If you like coconut, these are simply phenomenal. I can’t believe we don’t have these in America. Oh the things you learn by traveling!

Sacred Spaces: A Very Revealing Guest Post

One of the cool things about blogging is connecting with other people who “speak your language.” For me these are often people from different parts of the world who I would never have known existed if it wasn’t for blogging. Some of the people I feel most connected to are people I’ve never met in person. But a few of my good blogging friends are actually people I knew in the past as acquaintances and only truly connected with them years later through writing.

Sometimes these relationships make me feel a sense of loss over the missed opportunity to spend time with that person when we were in the same place, but they also makes me thankful that it’s not too late to know them now. Meredith is on of those people for me. Meredith and I went to Wheaton College together. We had a few classes together. We were even on the newspaper staff together for a while. But we never really got to know each other. Fast forward four years to Meredith starting her blog Very Revealing. As soon as I started reading her blog all I could think was, “Why were we not best friends in college? I adore her!”

Over the past year or so we’ve gotten to know one another better and have been able to encourage one another with our respective writing goals. Meredith wrote a great piece for my Sex and the Church series in the fall and today I have the great honor of sharing a guest post about unexpected sacred spaces over at her blog.

If you know me, it probably won’t surprise you to know that I wrote about the most sacred place I know of- Disneyworld. Here’s a little excerpt for you:

“I’m not a runner. Actually, I’m not anything even remotely athletic. In fact, I don’t think I’d done any exercise whatspever for about a year when my best friend (also not a runner) asked me if I wanted to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon with her. None of that stopped me from immediately saying yes.”

Read the rest of this post here and check out some of Meredith’s work while you are there! I promise you won’t be disappointed!

PS – I will be skipping my usual Friday Book Chat this week since this post falls on a Friday. But I will be back with a new book-related post next week!

Thankful Thursdays Guest Post: Finding the Joy (Losing the Judgement)

It’s that time for Thankful Thursday again! Are you excited? Because I’m excited! I connected with Rox Nicholl through the wonderful world of blogging and I think she’s just a lovely soul. I really enjoyed this post, especially the connection she draws between more joy and less judgment. This post reminded me that being thankful for one small thing can be powerful in itself. What one small thing are you thankful for today?

It was going to be brilliant. Brilliant, I tell you. Sparkly, witty, thought-provoking and funny, and all wrapped up with a glittery bow that would leave a smile on your face. Brilliant. And by “it”, I am referring to this particular guest post. I had been thinking about it for two weeks, without the opportunity to put a thought down (Little Person was on holiday, so there simply was no space to do anything except look after her and make sure the house didn’t explode). Thankfulness. Find the joy, lose the judgement. It was going to be brilliant.

And then I fell ill. My throat turned into some red, raw monster of slime. Food turned to glass as soon as I tried to swallow. For a week, it was all I could do to fetch Little Person from school and hide under a blanket on the sofa while I watched her play. Thankfulness? What thankfulness? Joy? What joy?

But here’s the thing. I have been learning about thankfulness – specifically how true thankfulness comes from a place of joy. And joy cannot occupy the same space as judgement. I hadn’t been aiming to find joy, I had been aiming to lose the judgement. Specifically, I’d been trying to learn to stop myself from saying all sorts of nasty things about the people driving the cars I share the roads with on a regular basis. So instead of “look at that idiot driving so dangerously”, I was trying “that driver seems to be in a rush. I hope that he isn’t late for his meeting.” After a little effort, I began to notice people that were driving well, and I noticed I was a more relaxed driver too.

So I decided on a wider application. Finding the joy in the every day. Daffodils bobbing on the wind. Little Person’s smile when I picked her up from school. The Dude taking care of the entire bedtime routine, even though he had been at work the whole day. A freezer full of food that could just be slapped in the oven at a moment’s notice (got to love fish fingers and chips). A friend who dropped by with a portion of (homemade!) soup to soothe my throat and then skedaddled off so I could rest. Maybe not a thousand things to be grateful for, but sometimes, real appreciation for two or three small things means so much more.

So even though I wasn’t overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness as the germs were doing battle for my body (status report: the body has fought back and is currently launching an offensive that should see us to victory), I was more thankful than I had ever had reason to think I would be. So often, when I am ill and I am laid low, guilt follows on the heels of pain. I haven’t done the laundry. I’m not cooking good enough food. I’m leaving The Dude to do all the work, and abandoning Little Person in front of the television. Bad mother. Bad wife. Bad person. (Am I the only one to do this to myself, as though it’s not enough to feel bad physically, I have to feel bad mentally too?) But not this time. This time, it was alright for me to not do these things. I could just rest and trust The Dude to take care of it. Not brilliant, but good enough.

It’s so easy to think of thankfulness as this big, bright gem of a thing, something grand to aspire to. It’s so easy to think that we have to be thankful for everything, and find big profound lessons to be grateful for within every life experience. But maybe gratitude is just an attitude that says, I’m going to notice the smallest tiniest thing that can give me joy, and be thankful for that.

Maybe it’s the joy that makes it brilliant, after all.

About the Author:

I blog about the lessons I find in the every day – being a wife to The Dude, mother to Little Person, a stranger in a strange land (I’m a South African living in North East England, which is the bit you never hear about), pretending to own a cat. When I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing, or doing crochet. Or avoiding the laundry pile. My current Secret Project is a novel that addresses the question of what happens when faith and fear collide. You can find me at www.roxnicholl.wordpress.com or follow me @roxnicholl (Twitter/Instagram)

Lily Ellyn

Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

Author: Lily

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