Things of Beauty #26

Collaborations, cats, beans on toast, & a reminder about joy as resistance

When I put out the last installment of Things of Beauty two weeks ago, it was in the wake of yet another school shooting, this one at a high school graduation in my city. I debated whether to send it out, delay it, or address the situation somehow. Ultimately, I decided to go ahead and hit send on the post as is. I realized that my work is not tied to location, as I have readers well beyond the bounds of Richmond, Virginia. For those who are more local, my post could hopefully provide a tiny bit of brightness or momentary escape from the dark news.

But I still thought about it and vacillated on my decision. This idea of sending a silly list about fun facts and nostalgic TV show love stories seemed trivial. To be honest, it is. No one is going to argue that my musings about the Ted Lasso finale are world-changing, least of all me.

Amidst all this, I remembered posting something here in the past about joy as a form of resistance. A quick scroll back to June 29, 2022 (twenty-three installments of Things of Beauty ago) and I found this:

If we relinquish our joy, we not only lose a profound source of unity, strength, and resilience, we also lose the point of it all. And so “we must risk delight.” And we must know that to do so is not a distraction from resistance, but one of its greatest sources of power.

- Ingrid Fetell Lee, Joy is an Act of Resistance: How Celebration Sustains Activism

This was true then, and it is true now.

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Here’s what I’m risking delight on this week:

🎶 I Almost Woke You Up has always been one of my favorite Stephen Kellogg songs. Seeing it re-released as a collaboration with the Counting Crows (another long-time favorite) is a definite thing of beauty for me. Here’s Stephen’s description of the origin of the song:

My career has been one filled with grand adventures, but along the way there have been some humbling moments. Times when I was not at all sure whether or not I was on the right path. I would return from a tour and feel like I was missing the mark with both my family and professional life. If you juggle too many eggs you might drop them all.

At night though, when everyone was asleep I would walk around the house and feel so overcome with love that I considered waking everyone up to tell them about it. I almost did…almost. Instead, I wrote this song. It comes from the bones and blood of who I am and what I believe.

🧊 Cold water all day, no condensation on the outside, and stays closed in my bag on the walk to work— thoroughly enjoying the Yeti Rambler (which I think was a recommendation months ago from

Kelton Wright

). Now to recycle some of those freebie water bottles I’m hanging on to for no reason. One in, one (or several, in this case) out. Going for less but better here.

🐈 Unfortunately, I have an allergy issue that prevents me from adopting Will the cat. Perhaps you can though? Check out his full bio here.

Just look at that face! Those eyes!

🍞 These beans on toast! I substituted sun-dried tomatoes (because that’s what I had) and kale for spinach (ditto). If you go for the kale sub, definitely put it in earlier than called for to let it cook down a bit more. I went for the option to serve it over toast— delicious!

✒️ This poem by Joy Sullivan, but also everyone’s personal additions in the comments. Lovely tiny moments of joy.

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I would love to hear your when contributions in the comments below! As well as all the ways in which you have risked delight this week. (And if you adopt Will, give him extra pets for me, okay?!)

Be well, find tiny joy-

Mary Chris

PS- In my last post, I shared part of the Ted Lasso finale I liked the most, but I missed the best parts of the quote about not being perfect but moving toward better. I was having trouble finding it at the time of posting, and then of course it was everywhere a day later. Here’s the full thing:

Human beings are never perfect or going to be perfect. The best we can do is to keep asking for help and accepting it, when you can, and if you keep doing that, you will always be moving toward better.

Here’s to moving toward better, alongside risking delight.