Welcome to Volume 6 of the Tao Out Loud newsletter where we’re finding everyday magic, every day! If you’ve come here by chance, or a friend passed this on, I hope you’ve come to stay. Sign up below so you don’t miss a thing.
Magic Deconstructed (Part 6)
Imagination can take us out of drudgery and lead us into great adventure, if we let it.
Extract from Volume 5. Catch up on past volumes on the archive.
Curiosity
Mindfulness, Action, Gratitude, Imagination. Curiosity is the final element in our formula for finding everyday magic, every day. Curiosity—much like retrieving memories—is a cat and mouse game.
We think of memories as facts, or files, to access, but memory often lives partly [in] the dimension of imagination—the middle ground between light and shadow…
Natalie Singer, What To Do When You’re a Memoirist and Memory Fails
Curiosity paws after the elusive. It stalks with cocked ears into the grey and challenges the status quo; it keeps things interesting. The good things of life are out there just waiting to be discovered, sometimes hiding, sometimes darting, sometimes camouflaged or covered. Curiosity keeps us engaged, unlocks worlds we never expected. Curiosity never killed the cat. The exact opposite is true.
Speaking of cats and mice, here’s a great quote from the creator of a most famous mouse:
"Around here…we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
Walt Disney
Curiosity is looking for more beyond the locked door. Our God delights in hiding things from us. It’s His glory to give us value to discover and it’s our glory to seek it out. (Proverbs 25:2) We must remain curious: the more we seek, the more we will find.
Completed in August’s newsletter with a MAGIC roundup…
The Magic of Memory
Very recently I’ve been exploring the art and craft of memoir. It started as a project to record the life of a loved one. The more I learned of them, the more I learned of myself. Times I’d fully forgotten and some only half-remembered. Moments I’d framed and reframed into narratives—scraped and sandpapered and mod-podged and gilded. I discovered the useful danger of these writing prompts—fraternal twins: I remember, and I don’t remember. Try them yourself, if you dare to be curious. Write for ten minutes on each one, and see what turns up.
The Magic of Digression
A digression is most excellently executed when the detail that rendered you so transfixed, upon which your curiosity attentively hung, is eclipsed—not all at once but gradually and nonchalantly—by a supporting story so intriguingly entangled with the first that you find yourself caught neatly up in its own wonder, floating further away on this delectable distraction, until finally the ribbons that hold you gently unravel, setting you down upon a familiar phrase, and sweetly startled, you find yourself back where you began.
The Magic of Email Deep Dives
Occasionally I like to go fishing in my email account, the one I’ve had since before I was married. I’ll just cast a lure in, which is to say I’ll enter a random word or a name in the search field. I am either tickled or troubled by what I find. Sometimes, it’s an event or conversation, a secret or a buried resource, encouragement, dreams, prophetic words, aspirations. I see how I used to think and act, or how I still do. Sometimes it’s as simple as a reminder of what good friends God has put and kept around me. One of them will be guest writing on my blog soon. Stay tuned!
One of my goals for this year has been to read more. And also to read more widely. Over the years I’ve learnt I have very specific taste, and I like my reading to cater to it. Still, my palate can yet be persuaded; you’ll hear about that in a moment. It used to come naturally for me to disappear into a book with no regard for time and space. My hunger for words was so voracious that in his Dad of the Bride speech, my father revealed I would read even the back of the toothpaste tube. I pleaded with my mother to build a bay window into her new house so I could have a window seat to retire to. And my obsession with writing has not waned at all, so I have returned to a place of exploring. Old. New. New to me. You may have already had the pleasure of some of these, but I’m going to enjoy sharing them anyway.
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
It started with a memory—or the remnants of one. James was struck full force with a baseball bat as a child. The pattern of small, incremental adjustments on which he rebuilt his life forms a bedrock for the principles he proffers in Atomic Habits. One idea for me was novel and it lingered: “stop worrying about results and start worrying about your identity. Become the type of person who can achieve the things you want to achieve.” I must see myself as someone who would maintain a writing habit, or, who wouldn’t keep feeding a cookie habit…hypothetically. Either way, I quite liked the sudio book and want to get it in hand to read. It’s well-deserving of a place on my bookshelf.
Becoming Mrs. Lewis:
The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis
This marvelous work is delightful to me. I am still reading, but have no expectations of disappointment. Patti is gifted at character, scene, and story. Every word is a morsel. I am intrigued by this almost otherworldly, intimate look into otherwise visible figures, two writers nonetheless, as if there were anything more scrumptious. I already know I want to own it, just to sit and admire the craft, smell it, and touch it, and will it into my pores. I agree with the critic that it is exquisite—“At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story—a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.” Sigh. Is literary osmosis a thing? If so, please sign me up.
The Girl With the Louding Voice: A Novel
Despite the stunning, illustrative, purple cover it is such an unlikely development for me to be caught up in this book. Golda Lee Bruce recommended it on her IG at a point when I was helping a friend with some editing. I downloaded a very generous sample of the novel and was immediately a bit put off by the native-adjacent tongue of this young Nigerian woman. (Forgive me, I’m new here.) But glory be! I pushed past. And I’m so glad I did. With the full book in my e-reader, I’m captivated in uncomfortable ways by this tale of becoming, on the edge of my seat to see what happens next, rooting for moves I am sure she can make and fearful of what it will cost her. I’ve read that The Girl With The Louding Voice will “break [my] heart and then put it back together again”. Oh for endless days, toothpaste for glue, and a warm window seat!
I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.
Eleanor Roosevelt
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.
Albert Einstein, "Old Man's Advice to Youth: 'Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.'" LIFE Magazine (2 May 1955) p. 64”
Close as a brother, the way we used to be
I'll hold my breath and I'll wait for you to breatheEntertaining Angels, Newsboys circa 2008
Remember to welcome strangers, because some who have done this were entertaining angels without knowing it.
Hebrews 13:2
A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.
Charles H. Spurgeon
And yet, not too forlorn a memory: Oxford, autumn leaves, and you, and me.
Sonnet VI, Joy Davidman (Becoming Mrs. Lewis)
The incomparable power of music on memory. Thanks for the plug, Mom!
Look at these mini replicas y’all. Resasminiatures is so talented! Also, how long did you guys know Barbadiana does gift baskets, and didn’t tell me?
These two reminder systems for productivity.
Bublup is great for snagging random bits of info from most places online and on your phone. It’s like Pinterest without getting sucked into the cavernous vortex. It’s how I curated this month’s newsletter. Recommended for the hoarder of gorgeous internet fodder.
Things is a “personal task manager that helps you achieve your goals”. Yes, it does help with that. Not too subtle or too overbearing…it isn’t free—but it is a one-time payment, which I’m here for as apps go. But I think it’s just for Apple devices. Sorry Androids. You can try one of these, maybe?
This opportunity to experience Curiosity, NASA-style. Take this Mars Rover for a virtual spin. Who even knew this existed? Probably my husband.
This look back by Golda Lee, that encourages us to keep looking forward. Thanks again for the book referral, Golda! You don’t know me but that’s ok.
Yvonne. Making it, and telling us about it. If you can get it on HBO, do.
This Trini boutique always packing the style and service one-two punch.
And, last but not least for the Epicurious…this summery coconut lemonade smoothie recipe that I’m one supermarket outing away from trying myself.
Thanks so much for reading! See you all again on August 22 and please share with a few friends (or enemies, I’m not picky!) you think may like to receive it.
Why do we focus on what we’re not, forgetting whose we are?