![what I’m into [june 2018]](https://i0.wp.com/beautyinthemargins.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/what-im-into-june.png?fit=828%2C315&ssl=1)
First off, Happy Canada Day!
The day we became a country (albeit still a British colony but with a greater degree of autonomy) 😛
It is blistering hot due to the heatwave that Montreal got hit with over the week-end (feels like 42 degrees C). The sticky necks plastered with hair, stagnant heavy car-air that makes you feel like you’re being smothered by a quilt, the burning sensation on your skin as you walk in the sun making you question if you put on sunscreen in the morning. Yes, the whole works.
But, here I am, sequestered in a little air-conditioned cafe near the new apartment I moved into (WiFi has yet to be installed), determined to complete my “what I’m into” for June despite it being a day too late.
Articles:
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In praise of small kindnesses from On Being
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How to build a better PhD from Nature (yes, that all famous publication journal…maybe they have some good advice)
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Atul Gawande’s commencement speech to UCLA
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My institutional relationship with Jesus by Tish Harrison Warren (one of my new fav authors!)
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Staying for the exhale by Krysti Wilkinson
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Tongue-in-cheek editorial in Science on “how to read a scientific paper” – made me LOL
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The tail end by Wait but Why – on why we need to value each day once we realize how few are left (especially those left with our parents)
Videos:
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Recently discovered these MIT public education flash mobs (organized by the Koch Cancer Center) to teach the community about cancer and new treatments
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And another little video that is quite similar to the research I’m doing (using near-infrared light to trigger drug release targeted to cancer cells)
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Watch if you want to understand what I do in a quicker way (than me trying to explain)
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Books:
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Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren
Read this for a book club and cannot begin to describe how simple, yet poignant this book is in relating basic human activities (checking email, waiting in traffic) to the deep truths of the gospel.
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A year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans
Funny account by Rachel as she lives a year trying to literally follow the commands given to women in the Bible, with interesting insights on biblical interpretation, women’s roles etc. I was sad for her when she had to sleep in the backyard in a tent when she had her period due to Levitical purity laws.
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Searching for Sunday by Rachel (see above)
So, as you can see, once I start one author, I get on a roll. I found this one a much better read, though (at least for me). The biblical womanhood one was light-hearted, while this was a soul-searching account of Rachel’s walking away then reconciliation with the church, which got me thinking about deeper ways of how we understand the purpose of church.
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All the money in the world by Laura Vanderkam
The best financial advising book I have read thus far. Not that it says that much as I am not a big finance person, but as far as I can tell, a lot of personal finance books say the same thing – don’t spend above your means, save and invest.
But Laura goes further by asking what the purpose of money is, how we should buy things that are of value to us (instead of just scrimping on everything, which I realized I was doing by refusing to buy avocados because they were WAY expensive), and how to teach our children about money
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Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
It’s a novel. The only one I’m reading right now.
But it’s a good one, tracking the narratives of a poor Indian birth mother living in the slums and the child she gives up for adoption who is living the American dream at an Ivy League. Not done with it quite yet, but at the part where the girl is going to search for her birth mother. It’s about to get interesting.
Little highlights of the month:
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Faith-themed Dinner Parties
Due to my sister being over, we decided to host dinner parties during which we would invite people from (hopefully) different church and faith backgrounds to gather around a meal and talk theology/personal faith. A sort of guided/themed dinner party. The first one was a huge success and I plan to continue to have them because what’s better than talking theology, exchanging recipes and giving book recommendations over a good meal!
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Finishing Friends AND my sweater
So, the two are pretty inter-linked, because I knit while watching Friends as a bedtime ritual. It has been my annual goal to knit a sweater. I just never had enough grit to stick through with it, or something unfortunate happened to parts of the sweater (like the car getting broken into and my backpack with the sweater sleeve being stolen).
This time, however, I managed to finish knitting all the separate parts and sewed them together, as I finished the last episode of Friends. *sniff* But I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Rachel and Ross tension and eventual resolution at the end, cheesiness and all.
It was therapeutic for me, seeing months (it has been almost a year since I started the series!) of hoping finally come to this:
Need I say more?
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Song writing sessions
Our worship team has been trying to use the summer productively by organizing weekly song writing sessions. Writing a worship song together is a lot harder than you’d think, not just because of the vulnerability aspect (literally putting your heart cry to God out there for others to pick apart), but also because of the technical aspects of knowing which chord progressions go well together.
We wrote a half a chorus yesterday, and I woke up this morning at 4a.m. with potential song lyrics for the other half of the chorus running through my mind, such that I had to wake up and write them down (as you can see, my brain is hard at work trying to piece together the unfinished parts of my life even in the dead of night!)
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Fireworks
I wrote about the magic of them at Princeton reunions – the way they transport you back in time, make you feel weirdly connected with the people you’re watching them with.
I am grateful for them, though, especially as I leave for the night to watch our very own Canada Day fireworks show at Jacques Cartier Bridge! Till next time, y’all.
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Such a fantastic read. Thanks for sharing what you’re into for June. I always find it so inspiring that you spend time outside of your grad studies to enrich your life in meaningful ways.