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
Feast + Fallow
Abigail Murrish has a long form essay at Grace Table on the seasons of feast and fallow in our lives.
- It’s cliche but it’s true: there’s beauty in the ordinary. I stare out the window as the pinks, purples and oranges dance across the sky, signaling the day’s impending end. Mike shifts gears and I’m pulled out of my trance. “Are you going to tell me again how beautiful Indiana is?” he asks with a smile on his face and his eyes on the road.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” I assert. “But it is so beautiful I could start crying.”
Growing Up: Six Basic Steps toward Maturity
David Gunderson’s piece on six steps we all take as we grow toward maturity is helpful as we think of helping the kids in our lives walk through the process.
- How can young people move toward maturity? How can adolescents grow into young adults? How can college students move through the college years with increasing integrity, character, maturity, skill, and productivity?
Here are six basic steps to help the saplings of the next generation add rings as they reach for the light.
Kentucky Derby Book List: A Bakers Dozen
At the Redeemed Reader blog, Betsy has a list of horsey books just in time for the Kentucky Derby this weekend.
- Calling all horse lovers!
The Kentucky Derby runs this Saturday like it does every first Saturday of May. Will there be another Triple Crown winner this year? Will an underdog horse come from nowhere to win? Or, perhaps we will discover new hat fashions for women?
My family watches the Kentucky Derby on TV every year with festive food and drink in hand (we love us some Kentucky Hot Browns and Derby Pie!). But I credit the books I read about horses as a child with stoking that initial desire; even when the horse in the book didn’t actually go to the Derby, the Derby still seemed to encapsulate the mark of true horse greatness.
6 Very Good Reasons to Consider Your Short Little Life
Tim Challies has rewritten a Puritan message that explores the blessings of our short little lives.
- Our lives are short. They are, in the words of the author of Ecclesiastes, little more than vapor, dust blow by the wind. Yet the very thought that could dismay or depress you, can also motivate you. Here are some blessings that will be yours when you pause to consider your short little life.
Around the Warren
Environmental Factors Influencing Metamorphosis (of Teenagers): A Case Study
Julie Silander walks us through a case study of teenager metamorphosis–and a book review.
- Don’t believe the rumors. Teenagers are remarkable people. We are currently parenting teenagers numbered three, four and five. It’s an honor and a privilege to watch a child transition into an adult. Messy at times, yes. In a thousand different ways. But the change that takes place is no less a miracle than the butterfly sleepily emerging from its cocoon or the tadpole sprouting legs and lungs while transitioning into a frog. Metamorphosis is marked by rapid growth and a substantial change in physical appearance. Hormones are the guiding force, but the environment plays a significant role in development. True for butterflies. True for frogs. True for human beings.
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
Liz Cottrill has a recommendation of a classic children’s book about space travel.
- What do you do when spring’s precocious mood throws winter back in your face? You take a trip to another planet!
Well, you do if you are me – You pick up a children’s book you’ve never read and go away for a few hours. In this case, my destination was The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron (1954).
Today, it’s hard to imagine how obsessed the children of the 1950-1960’s were with space travel. Those were the pioneering days in venturing off Planet Earth into the unknown.
Something to Do with Your Kids
It’s the perfect time of year for playing with explosives outdoors: it’s warm enough, but in most of the US, at least, the spring rains mean you don’t have to worry about starting a wildfire. Still be careful, but I highly recommend building matchstick rockets.
And Something to Watch
You likely know Helen Keller’s story, but you may not have heard it in her own words, through the mouth of Annie Sullivan Macy.
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 21 - June 14, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 20 - June 7, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 19 - May 31, 2025
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