7 Quick Takes: serendipity, a Susanna Childress poem, celebration kickoff and more!

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I love this little spontaneous gathering on our front room table: a pretty $4 bouquet of flowers in a thrifted vase, Kendra's current crochet project, Brian's seminary reading with some handmade Hebrew flashcards.

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Sunday kicks off a whirlwind of celebrations: our twenty-third wedding anniversary, Thanksgiving, Alex's twentieth birthday, the beginning of Advent, and Natalie's sixteenth birthday. Some of our dear friends celebrate Hannukah in there, too.

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I don't think I had a chance to mention here the article I published in Think Christian a couple of week's ago. It didn't garner many comments so I'm not too sure what people thought, but it's one of my favorite pieces I've written. I care deeply about the topic: the daily decisions we humans make to either deem or diminish dignity in one another.

Hannah Price and responding to catcalls with grace

If I could, I would have included this poem from Susanna Childress: Expiation

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Another thing I forgot to mention here? My new thrifted furniture. Maybe you remember the fantastic turquoise loveseat my kids helped me pick up from the curb? We discovered that some neighborhood cat loved that loveseat a little too well before it came to live in our house. So back to the curb it went. It took several tries to find just the right pieces to take its place.

Aren't they lovely?

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Serendipity is remembering that the church across the street from my work place holds weekly lunch concerts, for free. This week: Dreams of Debussy with violin, cello, and piano.

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Some good words online this week:

Portraits of Grandmas and Their Cuisines From Around the World at Demilked: I loved these pictures. Especially on a week we think so much about grandmothers and feasts.

In Defense of Her Majesties at First Things: As a mom of girls I found this argument compelling. "The problem is that the only princess available to little girls is Marie Antoinette—instead of, say, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Catherine de Medici, Boudica, Grace O’Malley, Rani Lakshmi-Bai, Elizabeth of Hungary, Jadwiga of Poland, or Elizabeth of Portugal."

Dozens of Covers Later 'Hallelujah' Endures at NPR: I really should have written this book. I started talking about this song and it's appeal to so many of us. I didn't really know what I was doing at the time, but it was kind of a turning point for me here at the blog: