Fired Up and Holy Underachieving

Hello my friends,

Happy Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying some slow days of summer, even as you are inevitably getting the work done.

I’m definitely feeling both of these things in the middle of July with a baby coming (my daughter and son-in-law’s!1), a manuscript due, family reunions, and so many house projects. But I’ve also been out paddle boarding, having late dinners in the sunroom, and sleeping in.

I found inspiration for both of these things - the getting fired up and needing to slow down - by two of my favorite speakers and storytellers.

If you need to get FIRED UP, listen to this story. It’s one of my absolute favorite Barack speeches (in NEW HAMPSHIRE!!!)

FIRED UP and READY TO GO (bless you, Edith Childs in the back of the room).

And if you need to move into slow down mode, bless you. It’s summer, the middle of July. Rest, rest. Be still. Do what calls Holy Underachieving (my new favorite phrase?!), here is what she writes:

“God's version of rest? It’s not productivity in disguise. It’s not something you earn.

God’s rest says: You are loved before you’ve done anything at all. You can stop. You are allowed to stop.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if rest weren’t simply optional but mandatory? That’s what the Christian tradition has always understood. After creating the entire universe, God took a break.

God. Took. A. Break.

God called it the Sabbath and declared it holy, set apart, necessary.”

Read “The Summer of Too Much” here and may you have a beautiful, terrible day :)

FROM LITERATURE:

As I was thinking about this resting to get up and fight another day, I was reminded of something Gaysie Cutter said in The Unforgettable Guinevere St Clair. An excerpt from the book, page 320-321, hard copy:

“You’re a child who needs answers, so let me tell you. I knew your mother. Vienna couldn’t possibly have known what was going to happen to her, but I do know this: She loved Jed St. Clair from the moment she met him. You are part of the greatest love story I have ever witnessed - then and now. That story is not over. And you take after her; you’re both fighters.

I considered this.

Gaysie nodded, the matter settled. “But now it’s time to rest awhile. Rest, rest. Soon it’ll be time to get up and fight some more.”

Jimmy punched the air like he was already thinking of more ways to annoy me.

Was this, I wondered, what it felt like to close a case?”

Where are you today? Getting fired up and ready to go? Or holy unachieving?

Amen.

Amy 💖

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The Last Part:

Waiting: Kaden and Cope’s due date (my oldest daughter) is THIS THURSDAY!

Eating: Watermelon, nectarines, cherries…summer produce is the bomb diggity

Listening: To a lot of Brandi Carlile. This song…! (thx for the introduction).

Finishing: A picture book and just typed THE END on a new manuscript

If you’d like to support my work with a paid yearly subscription, I will gratefully send you a signed copy of any one of my books 🙏 and then I will do cartwheels because you have made MY YEAR of writing possible <3