Like me, my mom is a voracious reader—in fact, I attribute my love of reading to her. In addition to books, Mom spends time each day with the newspaper and favorite magazines, and she always saves articles she knows will interest me.
When I lived with my parents, I would often come home from school to find a carefully clipped newspaper article sitting on my desk. Mom continued to share articles with me when I got married and moved out of their home: each time we got together, Mom would bring a stack of interesting clippings for my reading pleasure. Even now, Mom regularly sends noteworthy stories to me in the mail. I love this—not just for the pieces themselves, but because it speaks to my sixth love language.
I seem to have inherited this love for sharing educational and insightful articles. Since I read very little in print, my own sharing most often takes the form an emailed link or a shared post on Facebook. And of course, I share some of my favorite posts here on my blog with all of you. I came across so many great articles this month that I’ve extended my list from five to eight (I guess that makes this Ocho de Wednesday). This month’s roundup is part inspiring, part informative, and 100% worthy of being shared.
1. Moments Like Water // By Brooke McAlary (for The Art of Simple)
“The truth is that trying to hold on to a moment that has passed is like holding on to water. The harder we try to grasp it in the palm of our hand, the faster the water trickles through our fingers. We can’t hold on to time, no matter how much we’d like to. And trying to hold on means we’re not living in the now.”
2. Why You Must Learn to Disappoint People // By Shauna Niequist (for Storyline)
“And it gets easier over time, the disappointing. What you need along the way: a sense of God’s deep, unconditional love, and a strong sense of your own purpose. Without those two, you’ll need from people what is only God’s to give, and you’ll give up on your larger purpose in order to fulfill smaller purposes or other people’s purposes.”
3. Learning to Love My Anxiety // By Laura Turner (for Pacific Standard)
“Anxiety serves many purposes, then, even good ones. It warns us when we are in danger, it reminds us to work harder when the stakes are high, and it can even make us lead better lives if we let it. Living with an awareness of death — not in a Hallmark movie way where the hero has one last day to live, but in possession of a clear mind about our mortality — can lead to a better quality of life.”
4. This Simple Change Will Instantly Make Your Family Healthier and Happier // By Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen
“[The] push for self esteem actually increases many of the things we don’t want: social comparisons, bullying, narcissism and being self critical when not doing well or making mistakes. Instead of trying to make a child feel good about themselves 24/7, it pays to help them develop self compassion. ‘Self-compassion involves being kind to ourselves when life goes awry or we notice something about ourselves we don’t like. . . . It recognizes that the human condition is imperfect, so that we feel connected to others when we fail or suffer rather than feeling separate or isolated.'”
5. Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person // By Alain de Botton (for The New York Times)
“The good news is that it doesn’t matter if we find we have married the wrong person. We mustn’t abandon him or her, only the founding Romantic idea upon which the Western understanding of marriage has been based the last 250 years: that a perfect being exists who can meet all our needs and satisfy our every yearning. We need to swap the Romantic view for a tragic (and at points comedic) awareness that every human will frustrate, anger, annoy, madden and disappoint us — and we will (without any malice) do the same to them.”
6. How Each Myers-Briggs® Type Reacts to Stress (and How to Help!) // By Susan Storm (for Psychology Junkie)Â
“Everyone reacts to stress differently and needs different things to calm them down. What works for you may not work for your spouse, your child, or your friends. This blog will hopefully give you some practical, easy ways to help you and the ones you care about handle stress more effectively and quickly.”
**This was the best article I read all month! The description for INFJs described me exactly; I cringed at the painfully accurate assessment of INFJs as being stressed by “Having to focus too much on the present.”**
7. 5 Things We Talk to Our Boys About Before School Starts // By Kilee Nickels
“We’ve explained in simplified terms what pornography is (naked people or people without very many clothes on) and what to do if or when you see it. At our house, we’re teaching them to call it out when they see it—say, ‘That’s pornography,’ and then to leave the situation and tell a grown-up. Soren has told the boys that pornography is poison for your brain and that it will make you sick. The ONLY way to get the poison out is to talk about it, meaning to tell us about it. Otherwise it will make you sicker, and you might even want more of it.”
8. You’re Not Meant To Do What You Love. You’re Meant To Do What You’re Good At. // By Brianna Wiest (for Medium)
“The real joy of daily work is in what we have to give. We are not fulfilled by what we can seek to please us, but what we can build and offer. It is not fame, or money, or recognition that makes for a thoroughly meaningful life, it is how we put our gifts to use. It is how we give.”
These articles have each given me a lot to think about. What articles or blog posts have you read recently that have stood out to you? Share with us by leaving a link in the Comments!