The November Collection
: a dose of courage, two dentists on wheels, and a guest is baking :
56 of you weren’t here for last month’s collection, so you may be wondering what this is about. Some of my favorite posts from other writers are collections of what they’re discovering, so I’ve curated a few of my own for you. Check out past collections for more:
THE AUGUST COLLECTION - a book giveaway, reminders to chill, and a plant named Loretta
THE SEPTEMBER COLLECTION - another book giveaway, lofty babka goals, and hospital art (it’s not what you think)
THE OCTOBER COLLECTION - a dinner fail, everyday people, and one really gorgeous notebook
Feel free to jump around to different sections:
WHAT I’M PUNIT’S COOKING (don’t miss what our guest author is cooking!)
What I’m Punit’s Cooking
We’re shaking things up a bit this month with a guest writer—Punit Thakkar, who writes Hello Universe. Each week, Punit shares fun, thought-provoking poems as well as “Some Fun Stuff,” which includes playlists, podcast episodes, and YouTube videos that are…well, just fun! I especially enjoyed his post on Diwali last month. I hope you enjoy what Punit is cooking!
A happy hello to you, dear reader. I am Punit, and I write fun poems every week at Hello Universe. Every month, Holly shares with you a collection of her experiences, observations, and actions. This month, she has very graciously invited me to be a part of this collection. I'm sharing with you a wholesome bread recipe that is easy to bake often at home. In fact, it's so close to my heart that I used it as a stress reliever on the eve of my 30th birthday, and then wrote a poem about it! So here's that poem, followed by the recipe and some pictures!
Alright, poem starts in 3... 2... 1!
----------------
Sugar, yeast,
salt, water, flour.
Mix them, put aside for hours.
Let it sit till
nicely risen.
Put it in a baking prison.
After baking
forty minutes.
Put a thermometer in it.
Once it's at the
right temperature.
Put it out to cool in nature.
When it's cooled
just slice it open.
Add some melted butter golden.
Or maybe just add some veggies
Add some cheese - the kind that's stretchy.
Eat it up and feel content.
And that's A Weekend Wisely Spent.
-----------------
It really is the easiest thing in the world if you have two things going for you:
1) Patience - If you're in a rush and start prepping this with a 1-2 hour window, you're out of luck. That dough needs to rise, so give it enough time!
2) Yeast - Make sure your yeast is active and not out of date - check beforehand if it bubbles!
Here are some pictures of this delightful delicacy being brought to life:
Baking:
Baked:
The sandwiches:
And here's a link to the specific recipe that I followed:
https://www.priyamvadatmakuri.com/post/eggless-brioche-bread-loaf
As I sign off, I want to share my delight at being a part of this wonderful community that Holly has built. I feel super optimistic and inspired every time I read a post by Holly and it feels so cool to be writing as a part of this super optimistic newsletter. I hope my words and my poem were a good fit for Release and Gather. If yes, please don't forget to subscribe to Hello Universe, where I share my poems every week!
What I’m Reading
Printed Pages
When my kids were small, I’d take them to the children’s section at Barnes and Noble, sit in those tiny wooden chairs, and read books to them. One of my favorite memories is laughing myself out of breath and into tears while reading the newly discovered Walter the Farting Dog to my boys. But I also remember finding Courage, a beautiful picture book written and illustrated by Bernard Waber, famed author of the 1960s Lyle series, which was the inspiration for the now-in-theaters Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.
Shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, 80-year-old Waber wrote Courage.1 I knew none of this when I picked up the book and read it to my children that day. My youngest, Jonah, was a shy child who struggled with anxiety, and this book was a perfect way for us to talk about many situations that require bravery—like tasting a vegetable before making a face, having to say goodbye, and breaking bad habits. Only in researching the title for this post have I learned what a treasure the author was. He died in 2013 at 91 years of age.2
Through the years, I’ve gifted copies of Courage to many children and adults who needed help braving tough situations, hard decisions, or rough spots in their lives. Our family copy (now read by grandchildren when they visit) lives on the shelf in our living room, and a couple of weeks ago I read it again because I needed a reminder that there are all kinds of courage—“Awesome kinds. And everyday kinds.”
I had a copy shipped to Jonah at his residential treatment house where he continues to work on his recovery.3 He’ll soon turn 21, but we’re never too old for a refresher of the lessons we learned from our favorite childhood books.
Check out this interview about Courage with Bernard Waber, and watch Waber’s granddaughter, Anna Waber Cash, read Courage.
I Am a Great Work in Progress: Learning to Ride a Unicycle by Kredenna Beverly
We ducked into a local Barnes & Noble the other day and met Dr. Kredenna Beverly and her daughter Daphnie just as they were finishing a book signing event. I quickly purchased two copies of Beverly’s children’s book, I Am a Great Work in Progress after chatting for a few minutes. We had our 3-year-old grandson with us, so the first copy was for him, but the second copy was for our Little Free Library.4
Our community's racial makeup includes over 70% Black residents, so I’m always on the lookout for books that represent the skin color of the children who most frequent the library—books that go beyond the historic heroes of Black history and feature Black characters in everyday life. I Am a Great Work in Progress checked that box and another important one—the characters are based on real children who live just an hour's drive from our community.
The author and characters may be local, but the book introduces a subject that is anything but familiar to the average reader—unicycling. Beverly and her twin sister, who both happen to be pediatric dentists, began unicycling at eight years old and passed along their passion for the sport to their own daughters. They then went on to found the Unicycling Society of Louisiana in 2018.
“[The society’s] mission is to foster social and athletic interest and promote the healthy, wholesome sport of unicycling among children in Lousiana. The society teaches people to embrace their differences and unique personal attributes to be productive citizens in the world.”5
Beautifully illustrated by Chiara Civati, the book’s message is to “always focus on doing your very best, never forgetting that you are a great work in progress.” And that’s a message I can get behind!
Dr. Beverly told me to reach out to her to set up a unicycle workshop in our community—she’s more than happy to travel here to introduce something new to local kids. Exciting!
Read this article about the Beverly sisters’ workshops, and watch them in action here.
Start with Hello: (And Other Simple Ways to Live as Neighbors) by Shannan Martin
In 2016, Shannan Martin’s Falling Free landed in my hands at just the right time in my life and helped change the course of what I thought my fifth decade would look like.6 Four years ago, Mike and I left suburbia and moved to a tiny town of 1,000, where we are culturally very different from most of our neighbors.
Start with Hello feels like a continuation of what Shannan taught me through Falling Free, but offers a practical guide for deeper connections with those in your community.
Open Door > Perfect Decor. We invite others in, seeking to connect, not impress.
Familiar > Fussy. We serve tacos and pizza like the feasts they are because fancy is overrated.
Tender > Tough. We greet the world with our hearts exposed and our guards down.
“Yard conversations” with people I never would have dreamed of are my everyday joy. Attending church with people of a different race enriches my life. And discussing differences with fellow community members—something I once would have found highly uncomfortable—grows me into a better person. But most of all, and this is the part that has made my life so much richer, our hearts almost can’t hold the love we have for those around us—love that began with “Hello.”
Martin says of her third book:
“I intentionally wrote Start with Hello in a way that is not faith-based (though absolutely faith-informed). Because it’s a book about connecting with people who we might see as ‘different’ from us in some way, it felt important to make it accessible to a variety of people from a variety of places and perspectives. Living as neighbors is a dream built for everyone.”7
If you’re longing for community or simply want more camaraderie and joy, dive into Start with Hello.
On the Web
Since I’ve given you two children’s books this month, I’d be remiss not to share with you this wonderful list of Thanksgiving book recommendations by
at I read a couple of weeks ago. I plan to bring a couple of these to our Thanksgiving gathering where there will be lots of little people!
POEMS! I’ve run across so many poems lately in my reading and thought I’d share them with you. Now, before the I’m-not-into-poetry people skip this section, I highly recommend you check them out because…well, I don’t recommend something unless it resonates. Give these a chance!
Each Tuesday Punit Thakkar (who coincidentally wrote today’s cooking section) drops a new poem at
. Recently I’ve been sorting through boxes of sentimental items leftover from my childhood and wondering why I “saved all this crap.” This poem is a great reminder of why it’s okay to hold onto some things.Julie at
gifts her subscribers with a new poem nearly every weekday. I enjoyed this reminder to keep my thoughts in check so they don’t cause me to miss the beauty of the everyday.Watching Myself in a Video / Only My Head
Rizwan at
recently posted a conversation he had with Hilary Cluett on overcoming self-doubt, shining the light on areas we have long ignored, and tackling our limiting beliefs. Posting that video produced this poetic, relatable response from him.The last thing I expected to find in a newsletter about food and meals was a poem, but what a gift of a poem it is! Jenny at
shared (with permission) a poem from Kate Baer’s newly published collection And Yet and asked, “Aren’t you now tempted to write your own version of it?” Totally!
What I’m Noticing
Have you ever heard of Chatbooks?
"We started Chatbooks in 2014 as a small family affair. I didn’t have time to make scrapbooks—or even print photos!—of my seven kids. But I was reminded of how much children love photos of their everyday lives when a preschool teacher gave my youngest son an album of the year. Each night, when I went to tuck him in, he was looking at the photos. I didn’t have time for another project, but I did post photos on Instagram for my family and friends to see. Could I turn those into photo books—automatically? And that’s why my husband, Nate, and I started Chatbooks." - Vanessa Quigley, Co-Founder of Chatbooks
I don’t remember how I discovered the site, but I bought into the concept nearly as soon as it launched. When our granddaughter Chloe began talking, she kept us laughing at the things she would come up with.8 I began posting some of them on Instagram, and my followers quickly became fans of #conversationswithchloe.
When her brother came along, I started a hashtag for posts about him as well. I then turned these hashtags into Chatbooks series for each of them. The process is simple—link your Instagram account, set up which hashtag you want to import, and Chatbooks makes a neat little book (or more) with the posts containing that hashtag.
Of course, as most kids get older they no longer want you posting “embarrassing” photos of them on social media, so those hashtags faded into the background (plus, I stepped away from social media earlier this year). But I still have those books, and their parents have copies as well.
Chloe and Chandler recently spent an impromptu 24 hours with me, and seven-year-old Chandler told me he was reading books about himself at his dad’s house. I showed him my own collection of the same series, and he immediately dove in. He’s really begun to enjoy reading in the last year, and I couldn’t help but snap this photo of him reading “his stories” aloud to me.
When I created those books all those years ago, I never dreamed that one day Chandler would pour over the pages chronicling the baby and toddler versions of himself. Sometimes I wonder why I’m such a sentimental sap who saves so many tokens of years gone by. But they bring me joy, and clearly they’re bringing someone else joy, too. And I guess that’s all that matters.
Tell me…
How do you capture special memories that your loved ones can enjoy for years to come?
https://web.archive.org/web/20100504173954/http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Waber__Bernard.html
https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-passings-20130522-story.html
https://unicyclela.org/
“Martin’s practical, sweetly subversive book invites us to rethink assumptions about faith and the good life, push past insecurity and fear, and look beyond comfortable, middle-class Christianity toward a deeper, richer, and ultimately more fulfilling life.”
 | A guest post by
|
Thank you so much Holly! It was a joy to collaborate with you.
I loved the "chatbooks" concept. I often relive old memories by browsing photos on my TV. It's the kind of nostalgia brings a big smile on the face 😀
I simply do not know where you find the time and energy to put together these collections...but I appreciate every one of them - they are a joy to read on a lazy Sunday morning while sipping a coffee.
1. Lovely bread poem
2. I'm inspired to read Courage
3. This quote, “always focus on doing your very best, never forgetting that you are a great work in progress.” - it's the word hug I needed this morning. It seems to be a great way to battle another theme and quote I identified with this morning. - "the tormenting weight of comparison" (from Jonathan Isbill at ZigZag Nutrition https://open.substack.com/pub/jonathanisbillrd/p/pain-to-purpose-withbooklaunch?r=ojqe7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web)
4. Start with Hello - what a difference maker - a simple hello is often the greatest tool to disarm any kind of negative vibe...
5. I'm a big fan of Children's books...even though I didn't read them when I was a child. My favorite has always been "A Wrinkle in Time"
6. Capturing special moments - as much as I enjoy photography, I still believe in the power of the pen...so I write a note or a poem to honor a moment!
Peace to you on this glorious Sunday - I think I will go outside and say hello to as many people as possible today...and that, my friend, guarantees I will have a day filled with smiles.