The Warren & the World is Story Warren’s weekly newsletter, providing a round-up of our favorite things from around the web as well as a review of what was on our site over the past week. We’re glad you’re here!
Around the Web
Building a Wall
- The longer we are married — we celebrate sixteen years later this summer — the more I realize how counter-cultural it’s becoming to do what my husband does. He goes to work every day, comes home to us each evening, reads aloud to the children, and sleeps here every night. He is present. He is active. He is building a wall around our home as well — one of faithfulness and self-sacrifice.
The Social Media Pause We All Have
- I’ve noticed something about social media.In some ways it’s as if this layer of kindness was stripped away and the fact that we’re answering on the computer or on our phones has given permission for responses to made without as much tact or kindness or understanding. There’s this icky form of judgment, in way.
I know. I understand.
I write about motherhood and because I put myself out there I’m also out there for the world to comment on. I make mistakes, my kids aren’t perfect and at no point am I going to put the cloak of perfection over my life because that, well that adds to the layers of angst that so many moms face today.
So there’s this dichotomy in the social world as moms.
Do we really risk being real? Do we risk stating how we feel?
What if we’re bashed for being us?
10 Reasons Why Kids Need to Read Non-Disney Fairy Tales
Melissa Taylor has a piece at Brightly looking at the reasons we should expose our kids to the fairy tales behind the Disney movies.
- Say “fairy tales” and your mind likely flashes to Disney and its animated versions of children’s classics. But old-school fairy tales — stories by authors such as Hans Christian Andersen, Oscar Wilde, Sophie, Comtesse de Ségur, or Andrew Lang — are filled with a richness and complexity that is often missing from their big-screen renderings.
Storm on the Mountain
Our friend Sarah Clarkson has a piece up at The Rabbit Room about the day she sat under some pines in storm on a mountain and asked God for an easier life. That might sound “out there,” but as Sarah notes, it’s something we all do.
- So I jogged. Up and up and up, gasping for breath at the ten-thousand-foot altitude, sweating first, then soaked and chilled as the rain came pelting down. Finally, drenched to my skin, with the constant threat of electrocution just behind and the trail ever, always, mind-bogglingly up, I got furious. My anger wasn’t so much at the fact of my predicament as it was that I felt this wild, dirty climbing was a metaphor of my life. More than a metaphor, my heart felt that my past year had been a literal lung taxing, foot bruising scramble after God—his presence in my workaday life, his love amidst my fallenness, his will for me in a world of unlimited options and frightening isolation.
Around the Warren
Take this Chance to Miss an Opportunity
James Witmer reminds us to miss opportunities because grace is sufficient.
- Someone told me the hardest part of her move to New York City was adjusting to the endless smorgasbord of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Every night was a chance to see an amazing play, an exotic band, a peerless exhibition. In order to grocery shop, to pay bills, to sleep, wonderful things had to be foregone. Staying sane required walking past things she might previously have traveled to see.In one way, this reminds me of parenting.
“…tell the truth as you see it…”
Words from C.S. Lewis. Graphic by Paul Boekell.
Books for Boys – Why it Matters
In his editor’s note for this repost of one of our favorites, Sam Smith writes, “In the aftermath of our family conference, Inkwell, we have some new folks here at our site. I thought it would be a good idea to share Julie Silander’s post on a subject so many of us as parents find challenging. If you have no worries in this area, then great. But many folks are seeking wisdom and I don’t know anyone more qualified to speak on the subject in a wise, but practical way, than Julie.”
- Boys. Wow. They’re different. Having grown up in an estrogen-rich home with only one sister, I had a limited understanding of just how diverse the differences between boys and girls were. As a college student, I was stunned to see one of our male neighbors (we’ll call him “Hamilton”) drink directly from a carton of milk. Who ever thought of doing such a thing? I was shocked not only by the action, but also by my naiveté. At the wise old age of twenty, I apparently had a few things left to learn about the opposite sex.
The Selfish Giant
Glenn McCarty shares with us Oscar Wilde’s tale, “The Selfish Giant,” from his 1888 collection for children entitled The Happy Prince and Other Tales.
Something to Do with Your Kids
We’ve been sweating out a long heatwave here in Charlotte and that has meant a lot of time indoors. While we’re glad for the AC, it does make for a bit of stir-craziness. Perhaps a batch of homemade kinetic sand is just the ticket to undo the craze.
And Something to Watch
What happens when you put a mirror in the jungle? This:
Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 2 - January 18, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 1 - January 11, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 12, Issue 45 - December 21, 2024
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