Selah Moments: Good Reading for a Quiet June

Links to Recommended Reading

Summer is finally here!

In the past two weeks, we’ve celebrated our son’s high school graduation, our wedding anniversary, and Father’s Day. We’ve also enjoyed a week-long visit with my husband’s aunt and uncle from SoCal and an overnight trip to Virginia Beach to pick up a kid who was working as a camp counselor.

After that whirlwind of family activity, I’m ready for some slow summer days filled with good reading, and I want to share with you some of the reading that has been shaping my thinking.

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Substack Newsletters…

• “Keep the Home Fires Burning” by Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule

• “The Case for Phone-Free Schools” by Jonathan Haidt at After Babel

• “TikTok — Time Is Running Out for Saving Our Children’s Brains” by Ruth Gaskovski at School of the Unconformed

I highly recommend subscribing to these newsletters.

Other Online Articles…

• “To the Older Woman in the Church: You Are Not Obsolete” by Michele Morin

• “Noise Could Take Years Off Your Life. Here’s How.” at The New York Times

• “‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall’ Is No Longer a Fairy Tale” at The Gospel Coalition

Books Currently on My Nightstand…

• That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

• The Need for Roots by Simone Weil

• The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry compiled and edited by Paul Kingsnorth

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You will undoubtedly notice a theme among these readings — a theme of home and roots and family and how these things are contending with modernity’s increasing intrusion of technology into every facet of life.

After 28 years as a mostly-stay-at-home mom and a part-of-the-time English teacher, my youngest leaves for college in a few weeks.

Twenty-eight years.

Of crying babies. Of homework around the table. Of drives to practices. Of people to feed. Of appointments to make. And of countless other details to attend.

I’d be lying if I said there weren’t moments when I fantasized about becoming empty nesters some day, when my husband and I could focus on spending time together. Just us.

But now, with this new season so soon upon us, I find myself wishing I could go back and do it all again. Not because I would do it all differently, but because I know things now I didn’t know 28 years ago. The world is a much different place than it was when I first became a mom. And, yeah, I would probably do a few things differently.

So, I’m reading about the idea of home and thinking about the new purpose our home shall have for our family. When it comes time for holidays and university breaks, my husband and I want our home to be a place our adult kids will want to come home to, a place that feels like a refuge — a sanctuary — from a loud and restless world.

Wherever you are today, whether you’re deep in the throes of fixing dinner for many tummies or you’re sitting in a suddenly-quiet house with kids all grown, I believe the importance of making a home is never outgrown.

Because we all need a place we can call home.

What are you reading this summer?

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“Selah” is a Hebrew word referring to a voluntary and intentional pause for reflection.