What I’m Into: September 2013

I’m interrupting our regularly scheduled One Good Phrase to bring you my Sometimes-Monthly-Wrap-Up of all (not really all, thank goodness. More like some) that I wrote/thought/ watched/ read in the month of September.

I know. BORING. Self-obsess much, Micha? I hear you. Feel free to move on to another blog ASAP.

Okay. You’re still here? Wow. Thank you so much. Like, seriously. You are a really nice person.

Here’s what I was into this month:

I finished writing a book and then jumped on my couch with crazy eyes.

Then I went to Guatemala and met the little girl I sponsor with World Vision.

Then I came home and wore leggings every day for two weeks and thought about Guatemala while trying to figure out what to name my book.

The great thing about September in San Francisco is that the fog suddenly disappears and the sun shines bright and we all pull out our shorts and play outside. The seasons are a little off from the rest of the country and the leaves don’t change color. But it’s still lovely and we’re all so happy to feel the sunshine on our faces.

During the first half of the month, I didn’t read much. I just wrote and revised and slept a few hours and revised some more. And, sometimes, I cried about my kid being old enough to go to Kindergarten. And then I turned in my book and read other books that weren’t from my own brain! Ahhhh, reading! I heart you.

Here’s what I read:

• Addie Zierman’s soon to be released book: When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over. Actually, if I’m being honest here, I read this while I was still working on the book. I couldn’t stop, even though I needed to sleep, not read. Y’all, this book is phenomenal. So beautifully written. And Addie is just telling my story, maybe yours too. I can’t wait to give you a real review. But, trust me. Her book releases in two weeks. Go to Amazon now and pre-order. I promise it’s worth it.

• I’m almost finished with Karen Swallow Prior’s little gem of a book Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me. It’s part memoir, part Lit professor talking lovingly about all the classics that have shaped her life. And for book nerds like me, it’s pretty fantastic.
• Also I’m working through Dave Harrity’s book, Making Manifest. It’s a beautiful devotional/daily writing prompt. For all you writers of faith out there, this is something special too.
• I’m starting Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing and Dan Allender’s The Healing Path for the counseling course I’m taking at my church.