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!
The Green Ember Book II: Ember Falls – Kickstarter Begins Monday!
The Kickstarter for S.D. Smith’s new novel, Ember Falls, book 2 of the Green Ember series, begins on Monday! If you don’t yet, make sure to like Sam’s page on Facebook and follow him on Twitter so that you can hop on board right away. The Kickstarter supporters will be the first ones to receive the book! Use the hashtags #TheGreenEmber and #RabbitsWithSwords when you share on social media about the book!
Around the Web
The Secret of Our Hope Lies in the Imagination of Children
Our friend Jennifer Trafton writes about the spirituality of children for Patheos
- As a children’s book author and a creative writing teacher for kids, I have the honor — and challenge — of spending my days both digging for the submerged sunrise in myself and basking in the blazing sun of others. It is a perilous adventure at times, fraught with ninja-kicking dei ex machina and discombobulated spelling. Even as I write this, in fact, I am also faced with the daunting task of drawing an imaginary creature that is the composite of strange body part descriptions by twenty kids — including sixty-five multicolored ears, fifteen moldy toes, elbow-macaroni-and-cheese spines, and a tail that has a fair chance of being ranked among the world’s seven wonders.
Let Love Set the Table
Maria Goff writes at IF:Gathering about hospitality and the idea of being with.
- I have a friend whose favorite word is “with”. I bet that’s one of God’s favorite words too, and I can see why. God wanted to be with us, so He sent Jesus. He even named him Immanuel, God with us, so that we would know He meant it. When Jesus left for heaven, He told his friends the Holy Spirit would be with them.
With. With. With.
The Bible is like a manual in that way, teaching us how to be with each other in the same way Jesus was with us: fully, completely, sacrificially.
How To Teach Children That Failure Is The Secret To Success
Tara Haelle has a story at NPR about the impact of parent responses to their children’s failure.
- “The takeaway is that when your child is struggling on something or has setbacks, don’t focus on their abilities, focus on what they can learn from it,” Haimovitz says. One way, she says, is to ask a child: “How can you use this as a jumping-off point?”
“The messages we get from our parents, whether explicitly or symbolically or subconsciously, stay with us and are very hard to unlearn and to overcome” if they’re not helpful, she says. “Sometimes we have internalized faulty beliefs or beliefs that don’t serve us.”
A Word Behind Us
Lore Wilbert writes at Sayable about being lost–lost in transition and change–and the opportunities to find ourselves there.
- I’ve been lost for almost a year.
It has its perks, of course. I never would have known, for instance, the left turn I thought would take me in the general direction of home, would actually take me past a local gardening center I hadn’t found yet. Or the right turn I thought would head me toward the Super Target would actually end me up on a dead-end street. You win some, you lose some. Or get lost some.
They say moving is one of the most stressful things your body can do and they probably say moving cross-country twice in one year is like throwing yourself into a spin cycle and then tumble dry on high. “How do people do this well?” I ask myself almost daily. I have to look on the bright side, otherwise every wrong turn ends me up in tears.
Around the Warren
Spaghetti Mondays and the Glory of Routine
Kelly Keller writes about the loveliness of the patterns in our lives.
- I am a creature of habit. I used to pride myself on my spontaneity; however, having four small children has made me reliably unspontaneous. As a result, Monday is one of my favorite days of the week. Why? Because it’s a day that is filled with routine.
On Monday morning, the boys pull the sheets off their beds and bring them to the washer. They drag their laundry out of all the corners of their rooms (mostly the hamper corner) and bring it to my room. Then the laundry sorting begins. Or should I say…the laundry sorting/wrestling match begins. If I am in the room, it’s laundry sorting. If I leave the room, it quickly descends into chaotic clothes-pile wrestling.
Then, all day long, amidst meals and school and all the other routine tasks that make up my day, I am summoned by the buzzer to the laundry room. More to dry. More to wash. More to fold and hang. More to iron (hmmm….that’s supposed to happen today too, but funny how it never does).
I remember a friend ruminating one day on all the women through the centuries who have done laundry on Mondays. She joked that she felt like she was part of a grand sisterhood as she toted, sorted, washed, dried, and folded clothes. And at least, we agreed, we had modern appliances to make the job attainable. Laundry day used to be the day that children were expected to stay home from school because the household wash was such a backbreaking task.
The Wishes of the Fish King
Jamin Still introduces us to his next illustration project, currently an active Kickstarter with Douglas McKelvey.
- The Wishes of the Fish King is my latest illustration project, and I couldn’t be more excited to tell you about it! I’ve teamed up with author Douglas Kaine McKelvey to bring this tale to life. Douglas describes the story this way: “The Wishes of the Fish King is a poignant, poetic reflection on a bright and fleeting season, expressed in the voice of a parent but seen through the innocent eyes and fantastic imagination of a child. The story conjures fairy tale elements, blending them seamlessly with the natural world and making one bright weave of the two.
Something to Do with Your Kids
The folks over at Family Education have a list of the ten best science experiments to try in your backyard this summer.
And Something to Watch
I mean, who wouldn’t want to line the halls as the ducklings go by?
Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.
Carolyn Clare Givens is a displaced Northerner exploring the foreign ways of the South. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her literary cat, Lord Peter Wimsey. She's the author of The King's Messenger and Rosefire and in her free time helps run Bandersnatch Books.
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
Latest posts by Carolyn Clare Givens (see all)
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 1 - January 11, 2025
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- The Warren & The World Vol 12, Issue 44 - December 14, 2024
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