A Simple Pleasure for Busy Season Readers

It’s getting real in my part of the world this week.

In just a few more days, my first baby, the one who’s traveled everywhere with me and been with us in all of our various houses (& campers) for all 18 years of his life, will move to a new city in a new home with new people a few hours’ drive away. He’ll be going to meetings and getting himself up on time for classes and doing his assignments with no reminders from me. He’ll be finding his own food, washing his own clothes, and doing all the adulting things with his college people for a while.

It’s a great thing. It’s exciting. It’s natural. It’s the whole goal of parenting, right? But that doesn’t mean it’s not difficult.

We haven’t bought everything he needs yet (not even close) and the packing hasn’t even begun. I’m dropping all kinds of balls that I normally juggle just fine, breaking all kinds of plans with friends, and eating way too much pizza. My body is doing weird things. And somehow, I’m also supposed to be finishing up a query letter and manuscript preview for my literary agent pitch that’s due, and wouldn’t you know it, my regular work just went from super-easy to mega-busy, too.

So yeah, it’s getting pretty real.

Which means I have just one little thing for you today, dear reader—something that only takes a minute to bring a smile to my face, something that always brings me joy. I hope it will bring you joy this morning, too.

It’s this ➳

Underlined & marked-up passages in books from friends, strangers, family members, & myself.

I love them.

I just love picking up a book and flipping through it to find a bright pink mark someone left, a penciled star, a squiggly line, or big, bold double black lines. I leave these marks in almost every book I read and look for my marks when I pick up my favorite books. I look for the marks of other readers whenever someone gives me a used book and every time I go used-book shopping. I like to think reading a book of my friend’s and hovering over the pages she marked up helps me get to know her better.

Here are some good ones I found this week ⤵

Books features, in order of appearance: Top Five Regrets of the Dying • Big Magic • On Writing • Untamed • Simple Abundance • A Gift from the Sea • Untamed • A Gift from the Sea

What about you?

Are you a marked-up book lover? Or do you only go for the clean pages? Either way, I hope you find something in this email today that brings a smile to your face. And if I cross your mind this week, I hope you’ll send a smile my way.

Putting on my big girl pants now—with a little smile for good luck.