Newsletter, What Newsletter?
Issue #22, May 28th, 2023
Whether you are new or you have been around for a while, thanks for reading Good and Beautiful Things.
This past Saturday morning I woke up with the singular intention of writing my weekly newsletter.
Composing and compiling this newsletter takes up the good part of a day. First I try out different writing topics that have been circulating in my head throughout the week and then I decide which direction has the most “oomph”. Or, as Ashlee Gadd recently described it, I “go where the most energy is”.
Sometimes this involves multiple first drafts until I land on the right one for that particular week. Once I’ve chosen the direction, I still have to shape that draft until it’s fully developed. After that’s done, I choose art that I’ve made the same week or possibly from past sketchbooks, and add it to the newsletter.
When the bones are all in place, it’s time to add in relevant links to the body of the newsletter, find a quote and include favorite books, podcasts, or movies from the past week. At this point, the draft is fully loaded but it’s not ready to publish.
Next, I send it to my husband, otherwise known as my editor. (He also moonlights as my hairdresser. What can I say, he’s a talented guy.) After he shares his edits, I run through the short essay section several more times, catching little typos and changing a word or phrase to create a better flow.
As I said, it takes a significant part of the day.
When I woke up Saturday Morning, I knew we had dinner plans at a friend’s house and I really didn’t have any ideas lined up for this newsletter. I opened a blank Google Doc to begin my draft.
“You’re not going with us?” said my newly graduated, handsome son as he came into my room.
“I want to go but I’ve got to write my newsletter. And we’ll get to go together on Monday. Plus, I’ve been out on the water more than your Dad this week so you guys can go with him,” I said.
“But you have to go,” he said and stretched out beside me on my bed like a lanky, determined cat and looked up at me with his bright blue eyes.
“But I have to write my newsletter,” I said.
“But you have to go with us,” he answered.
He knew he had the power to sway me in this situation. In about two and half months he will leave our home and move into his college dorm. How could I resist the same blue eyes that used to follow me around when he was a baby. When he was little and my eyes met his, he would break into an enormous Gerber baby smile.
“You have to go,” he said again, aiming those blue eyes directly at me.
I pretended to protest a little longer but inside I’d already redirected the course of my day.
Newsletter, what newsletter?
In a few months, there will still be another newsletter to write but my only son will not be sitting beside me, begging me to go kayaking.
Once we got on the water, my son was more interested in floating beside me than speed-paddling across the lake like his Dad and younger sister.
“This reminds me of when we were all a lot younger and you would do these kinds of things with us. And then there was a long period of time that you couldn’t do them with us.”
He was referring to my chronic pain that started almost six years ago. And even though it took a few pills to get me on the water that morning, he was right, I couldn’t have done it a few years ago. (See last week’s newsletter.)
“And I’m really glad you can now,” he said.
“Me, too, buddy.” Me, too.
Side by side, we headed toward another cove, listening to the birds singing as our paddles moved in tandem through the water.
Later in the car: “Well, I guess I’m writing a newsletter about our trip to the lake.”
“That’s perfect,” he said.
This week there was only one draft, one right short story to tell. And one momma who knew she made the right choice on Saturday morning.
From the Sketchbook
Favorite Finds
Movies
The King’s Speech
This one came out on 2010, but we enjoyed revisiting it with our kids. Both of them appreciate a compelling true story and this is a great one about King George the IV, his speech impediment, and an unlikely friendship.
Podcast
The Russell Moore Show/Bonus Episode: Timothy Keller’s Heavenly Hope
I took away quite a bit from the stories Moore told from his personal relationship with Keller along with excerpts of earlier interviews between the two of them.
Books
It. Goes. So. Fast. by Mary Louise Kelly
What could be more timely reading in my life right now than a mom capturing her son’s last year at home. I’m just a few chapters in but it resonates so far.
Fable by Adrienne Young
I love a good story to escape into for a few hours and this book did that for me. Waiting for the sequel to come in at the library. A good, summer adventure read.
Words to Consider
“If Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead—if he really got up, walked out, was seen by hundreds of people, talked to them … If he was raised from the dead, then you know what? Everything is going to be all right. Whatever you’re worried about right now, whatever you’re afraid of, everything is actually going to be okay.”
—Timothy Keller
Blessings from the Guest Nest,
-Aimee
Aimee ... this is beautiful. I so look forward to reading your newsletters, but I agree, son over letter every time!!!!
You definitely made the right choice! Lake over newsletter every time... summer is here.