Welcome to autumn! I share a list of things I learned once a quarter. As we welcome fall, I’m also reflecting on what I learned during our three-month sabbatical this summer.

If you're new to my writing or my public blog space, welcome!

Throughout the past three months, I’ve learned a lot about the nature of deep rest, and hopefully, I’ll be able to put some of it into words here and in the book I’m writing. Some of it, I imagine, will be kept quietly between Brian and me, and a few things will be kept only in that center space of belovedness with my friend Jesus. There’s no way I could synthesize all that we’re holding in our hearts from the past 13 weeks, so I’m sharing 13 journal entries, one for each week of the sabbatical. In the words of Emily P. Freeman, I’m sharing “in-process considerations, not necessarily fully worked out narratives.”

Thanks for reading!

Best of... lists, Things I LearnedTamara Hill MurphyOctober 7, 2022family, Sabbatical

7 Things I Learned This Autumn

Welcome, Winter! I share a list of things I learned once a quarter. As we welcome winter I’m also reflecting on what I learned this fall.

If you're new to me or my public blog space, welcome!

I’m joining Emily Freeman, a writer and podcaster I admire, in her invitation to reflect on the past quarter with a What We Learned reflection. As Emily says, I’m sharing “in-process considerations, not necessarily fully worked out narratives.”

Here are 7 things I’m learning in varying degrees of gravitas and in no particular order.

Best of... lists, Things I LearnedTamara Hill MurphyDecember 13, 2021family, Neighborhood, Friendship, autumn, Grandparenting

14 Things I Learned This Summer

Welcome to autumn! I share a list of things I learned once a quarter. As we welcome fall I’m also reflecting on what I learned this summer.

If you're new to me or my public blog space, welcome!

I’m joining Emily Freeman, a writer and podcaster I admire, in her invitation to reflect on the past quarter with a What We Learned reflection. As Emily says, I’m sharing “in-process considerations, not necessarily fully worked out narratives.”

Here are 14 things I’m learning in varying degrees of gravitas and in no particular order.

11 Things I Learned This Spring

I’m joining Emily Freeman, a writer and podcaster I admire, in her invitation to reflect on the past quarter with a What We Learned reflection. As Emily says, I’m sharing “in-process considerations, not necessarily fully worked out narratives.” Here are 11 things I’m learning in varying degrees of gravitas and in no particular order.

9 Things I Learned Hosting A Wedding in 2020 (which turns out to be the things I might have learned any other year only extra)

“It’s not the experience that brings transformation; it’s our reflection upon our experience.”
— Jan Johnson

All that I learned this autumn falls into one of two categories: Wedding Things, Everything Else. Honestly, what I learned this fall would fill a couple of books. Since neither you nor I have time for that mid-December, I’m sharing a handful of the Things I Learned Hosting A Wedding in 2020. Pardon the extra long post and know it won’t probably be my final wedding-related post!

I’m struck that as I reflected on our experience of hosting the wedding and all the ways that felt especially disorienting during a pandemic, the lessons that bubble up to the surface are probably always true. Maybe heightened now, but timeless in value. This seems about right and, I suspect, something we’ll discover about 2020 in general. The truest true things - both the beautiful and the ugly - are being exposed in ways almost impossible to ignore. This will form our stories of grief, but also, I think, our joy.

About mid-October - while we were recovering from the massive emotional and physical energy we’d lavished on Kendra and Jordan’s wedding - I began to feel the warm whisper of anticipation for Advent. It said, "Good prayer time is ahead”. I hope that you’ve found space for prayer this Advent. Whether you’re able to form words that are profound or barely articulate, know that you are not alone in needing God-with-Us to be, tangibly, undeniably With-Us now.

Take heart, friend. Our best days are ahead. When we remember the beauty of Christ's arrival, that is really saying something.

Tidings of comfort and joy,

Tamara