the roundedness of things

At the end of the summer A. and I made a guide to filling our days, something we did a long time ago to fill those pockets of time together with good things. Our list for September included: more porch dinners, visiting friends in Asheville, biking the downtown trail, singing on the kitchen floor, church vacation and finding spike ball friends. There were plenty of things we didn't get to (going to the swimming hole, picnicking in the gardens, etc.)—we'll have to carry those over to October, which is now, somehow, just around the corner.

After a three-week hiatus, I really am just in the mood to cook, cook everything! Tonight we made these sorrel pesto rice bowls, and I want to make this banana bread with muscovado and chocolate. I also want to get some chard from the market to make chard with chickpeas, lemon, and tomatoes.

I have just started working with a 4x5 view camera, and it is everything. There is just something extraordinary about throwing a dark cloth over your head and staring at a reversed, upside-down image on the ground glass—something I have never felt with a digital camera, or even a 35mm camera.

A poem out in the world, and Frank Ocean's Blonde all the time.

These words, which A. sent my way:

"When Jesus warned, 'everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted,' he spoke, apparently, of two alternative mistakes and not only one, a false self-promotion and a false self-humiliation, both in need of correction. The reality that exposes false pretensions catches up with us, not only to throw us down from heights of importance we have arrogated to ourselves, but also to dig us up from bunkers of insignificance we have hollowed out for ourselves. Hiding like Saul among the baggage, we shall be dragged uncomfortably before those who expect something of us. Perhaps, after all, there is truth in the suggestion that the two failings join hands behind the curtain, that modest invisibility is not very different from boastful self-promotion. Whether publicizing oneself or shrinking from publicity, one hopes to avoid the candid gaze that sees through one's self-image. What is required is that we know ourselves as we are known. To refuse self-knowledge is to refuse to find ourselves in the world God loves, to refuse to love ourselves." 

(Oliver O'Donovan, Finding and Seeking: Ethics as Theology, Volume II, 54-55)

[singing on the kitchen floor, a favorite activity, 35mm]

the bests of the summer

biking in denver // honey stingers // getting a tattoo with reb // beach day with kira // birthday sheep's milk ricotta bruschetta // boulted bread dates with a. // curating my first exhibit // meeting susan worsham // summiting mount democrat // prayers from father martin in my inbox // elena ferrante // ellie running to greet me at all souls // chicago with shannon // josé gonzalez in millennium park // emma and heather in the same room again // biking to locopops // FLORIST in chapel hill // riley and maggie // moxie koigns // sam walking down the aisle // thump coffee mornings // eldarado canyon state park // sweet corn ravioli from potager // RICHMOND // tacos with janine and zech // gordon parks exhibit at the virginia museum of fine arts // biking the american tobacco trail // hannah praying with her lips // "and the Lord remembered her" // quirk hotel // austin's farming hat // remembering why i love annie dillard // asheville weekend // "the impeded stream is the one that sings" // cardamom buns // spike ball with jeff and reb at the gardens // string lights on our front porch // walking around cheeseman park with a. // using our tent for the first time // waving at mr. b every single morning

[view of Kite Lake from a climb up Mount Democrat, CO]