A Litany of Common Graces

Let me tell you all the things I love

Hey friend,

I love sitting outside around a firepit at night, listening to the crackles, and stopping to really look at the stars. 

I love pink sunrises and getting to see them now that I wake up at 5.00 a.m. I missed out on this most of my life. I love seeing dark eucalyptus trees framed against a dawning sky. I love the quiet rustling of trees, like they’re sharing secrets. I love the quiet of being up before everyone else wakes up. Time feels different, sacred. There are no pinging notifications. No noise. 

I love brisk walks on bright, cold winter mornings. 

I love hot summer evenings. 

I love playing chicken with the waves, throwing myself into the water, and later enveloping myself in a towel, sitting on the shore and watching the waves. I love feeling small near the vastness of the ocean. 

I love the view of the mountains from my in-laws farm. I love blue wrens. I love a strong cup of tea with a generous dollop of honey (especially red gum honey). 

I love proteas and white Walpole Wax and roses and hardenbergia and baby’s breath. I love yellow wattle and yellow eucalyptus blossoms and pink eucalyptus blossoms. I love silver leaf eucalyptus. I love getting over my perfectionism and need-for-everything-to-be-purposeful and arranging flowers badly on my dinner table. 

I love friends who love my kids. I love practising vulnerability. Admitting when things are hard and receiving help from friends, even when it makes me terribly uncomfortable, because I’m learning that it deepens friendships. I love when a friend knows you well enough to say “no,” and also the true joy when they say “yes,” knowing it is a free gift, and not something they feel they have to do. 

I love spontaneous catch ups, like, “what are you doing today? Everyone is healthy and mostly happy! Come now!!” I love family dinners during the summer when families descend on the park with a dish to share and getting to chat while the kids are contained. I love sitting around with friends, sharing dinner and a few drinks, especially if it is around a fire. I love camping and the delight in the depth of friendships built to be able to go away together. I love the question, “How are you really doing?” and the rawness when there is enough trust forged to share and know that confidence will be safe. I love the “Can you pray for me?” text on both sides. Praying and being prayed for. 

Photo by Roya Ann Miller on Unsplash

I love the distinctly analogue work of sitting quietly with someone, connecting, sifting through emotions and thoughts, bearing witness to battles fought that no one else knows. Therapy feels like one of the only places left that a phone is not allowed. I love interviewing for the podcast, learning how God has designed women, their joys and struggles, and how he has grown their trust in Him through hard times. I marvel at the work God does quietly every day. 

I love geeking out and learning new things with hyperfocus. I love a good deep dive into a topic. I love connecting dots for a big picture solution. I love the excitement of a new scheme. 

I love teaching. I love teaching the Bible to women. I love running groups. I love coordinating playgroup. I love discovering other people's gifts and finding ways for them to use it.

I love charcuterie boards. I love handmade Sicilian olives that my old colleague used to pass on to me on a random Saturday. I love baking bread, and the fresh baked sourdough bread from Blue Sky Bakery. I love Cadbury’s milk chocolate. I love fried chicken. I love Chinese food. Five spice and Schezuan pepper and chilli and the breath of the wok and banging stir fries. I love when my Thai neighbour brings over sticky rice and mango. I love Mexican food, especially pork chilli con carne. I love Vietnamese food, especially beef pho and pork banh mi and roast pork noodle vermicelli salad. I love Italian food. I can’t even list the ways I love it. It is infinitely adaptable. I love pasta. It’s a whole category of deliciousness. I love Middle Eastern food. Hummus and baba ganoush and shawarma and tabouli. Nom. I love cider. I love gin and tonic with frozen berries. I love going out to dinner with my husband. I love ice cream and gelato and tiramisu. I love hot chips. I love my Nanny’s zucchini croquettes and potato croquettes and tolta. I love a Bacon and Egg McMuffin when a work morning has gone haywire and getting to eat it quietly in the car by myself on the drive to work.

Photo by Komang Gita Krishna Murti on Unsplash

I love cooking quietly in the kitchen with a podcast. I love cooking something new, like let’s try kimchi jjigae (a spicy Korean soup with pork, tofu, and kimchi) just because. I love cooking a meal for a friend. I love our cast-iron skillet, wok burner, and stainless steel frying pans. And super sharp Global knives.

I love gardening and getting to cook fresh from the garden. I love farmers markets. I love learning about what fruit and vegetables are in season and what to do with a whole box of apricots or tomatoes. 

I love dancing west coast swing. I love blues rock, 90s R&B, hip hop, folk, acoustic, soul, and rap. I love dancing in my kitchen with Henry, seeing him throw himself completely, joyfully, into the music, with no hint of self-consciousness. I love live music. I love slow dancing with Zac. I love practising chords on the piano. I love Spotify Premium because I get to listen to music every day. I love singing in church. When I first started going to church, I thought it was so weird, but now I rejoice in everyone singing that they are sinners and rejoicing in God’s mercy together. I love saying the confessions and the creeds together as a church, and it is one of the things I miss now that we are a part of a Baptist church. 

Photo by Gio Bartlett on Unsplash

I love Brooklyn 99 and 30 Rock and The Simpsons and stand up comedy. I love the joy of a well-timed GIF. I love banter. 

I love yin yoga. I love the quiet in my mind when I am swimming laps that descends after the tenth lap. I love saunas. I love walking the dog when I have an hour to do it.

I love bullet journaling, morning pages, and writing out my prayers. I love the habit of scrawling out a few things I’m grateful for every day. I love writing The Sunday Morning Snuggle. I love learning to write poetry, giving myself permission to play, and permission to be bad at it. I love reading books to the boys all snuggled up on the couch together or my bed. 

I love browsing in the second hand bookshop and finding a gem. I love curling up with a book, an apple, a biscuit and a cup of tea in a quiet nook. I love being able to reserve books at the library. I love urban fantasy, fantasy, grip-lit, thrillers, mysteries, horror, paranormal, romance (but only Emily Henry vibes), sci-fi, and literary fiction. I love recommending a good book, but I also love receiving recommendations for good books and podcasts and shows. An absolute pleasure when someone shares your delight.

Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash

I love the Curly Girl Method. I love a statement lip. I love leopard print. I love deep autumn colours: mustard, merlot, teal, khaki, and burnt orange. I love tan and nude shoes. Pointy flats. Block heels. Ankle boots. Old Skool Vans. I love high-waisted leggings. I love a great op-shop find. 

I love naps. I love Sabbath. I love low-key Sundays and permission to rest. I love pottering around at home. I love our living room with full bookshelves and a piano and houseplants (even if the plants are all very good fakes because I forgot to water the real ones and they died), especially if I am snuggled on the couch near the window with the aforementioned book, apple, and cup of tea combo. 

I love the beautiful marri bed that Zac made us and our deep navy linen doona. I love it when it rains while I’m in bed. I love the daily morning coffee ritual: grinding beans, the sound of water filtering through coffee, the frothing of milk. I love the slowness of getting the day started (because waking up is hard) by returning to bed with two cups to wake Zac, and finding Henry and George have meandered in and snuggled in the bed too. 

I love watching my boys play together and wanting to live in the tree fort forever. I love it when Henry says George is his best friend, George wanting to do whatever Henry is doing, and George sleeping on a mattress on the floor in Henry’s room. I love going to the cafe with the boys after errands for babycinos and milkshakes and chips. I love walking to school with the boys, practising the catechism question with Henry, and praying for the day. I love walking home from school with Henry, with him carrying a big stick, and talking, telling me about what he learned and what happened that day. I love that we often walk home from school with a mob of kids, and the spurts of conversation in between with the Mums. 

I love our babysitters, how they have cared for us so generously, what an absolute gift they have been to us. I love how they have come to feel like family. 

I love Henry’s love of words, and how he has been telling his class about constellations and absorption and deciduous trees. I love seeing Henry’s love for building things and puzzles emerge, and seeing the personality God gave him. 

I love snuggles with George (his favourite thing). I love George waving from the pram, “Hi lady! George!” and then, “Look!” and either pointing to his top or waving his drawing. I love how everyone cracks and smiles at him because of his infectious joy. I love Georgie’s placid, peaceful nature, that is so much like Zac. 

I love Zac’s blue eyes, the crinkles around his eyes, the few streaks of grey in his dark hair, his strong shoulders, how he smiles at me, and how he closes his eyes and throws back his head to laugh when I crack an (actually funny) joke, like it’s too much and he can’t contain it. 

I love Zac’s kind nature. He does not criticise or tear down. I love that, without fail, Zac encourages me to do what I love or what I think is right, rather than telling me what to do. I love how humble my husband is, that he is the smartest person I know, but has nothing to prove. I love how contented Zac is, how much joy he gets out of his woodworking and garden, that I have never known him to worry. I love that Zac is a calm bubble for me, a balm to my restlessness and wild enthusiasm and anxiety, and that has always been true.

I love God’s mercy to me, a sinner, for all these good gifts from his hand that I do not deserve. 

This post was inspired by this original poem. Check out some other takes on this prompt by Alecia Rohrer, Courtney Martin, Ashlee Gadd, and Katie Blackburn.

Tell me in the comments, what do you love?