CPQ October Newsletter
It was one in the morning. I showed up at the ER to take Mom home when Mom had a seizure on the way to the truck. The nurse whipped her wheelchair around, and we headed right back into our little room where we had been most of the day. The team of doctors and nurses swiftly got Mom back into bed, set her up with a new IV, and gave her some medication. I exhaled and sat down in the still-warm chair from where I had spent the evening. I pulled out my notes app on my phone and typed out: I notice. I wonder. It reminds me of.
These are nature study prompts. They have been a part of my life for well over a decade. In our weekly nature walks, these scripts have helped us to notice the differences in prairie grasses and wonder at pinecones. They have guided us to make connections in nature and see glory in things that would otherwise go unnoticed. (I wrote a bit about some of this in The Science of Nature issue.) But what’s more, they help me in the same ways as I come alongside my mother. Curious and curiouser.
As my favorite picture book goes: “We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. We have to go through it.” But it seems to me, in all the going through, the point should never be to just make it through. There’s a reason I’m here, a reason I’m my mother’s caretaker, and there’s a reason you’re where you’re at, too. Whether you are surrounded by littles and wondering when your next shower can get squeezed in, deep in the throes of finding your footing as a homeschooler or navigating the teen years. One of my favorite quotes comes from John Muir Laws’ Nature Drawing and Journaling: “Fall in love with your life by paying attention.” (This book is where I learned these prompts as well.) What are we noticing? Even in hard or ugly things, there are treasures for us, in the going through it, if we have eyes to see them.
I notice how the nurse brought me coffee without me asking for it. I notice how my mom looks at me when she comes out of a seizure. I wonder at my mother’s soul strength. I wonder at the human body and how much it can go through. It reminds me of Sam and Frodo. It reminds me of countless quotes from L’Engle’s book The Summer of the Great-Grandmother—I commonplaced 32 quotes out of that book. It reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of Mary and Martha. It reminds me of the rest and peace I experience—even here—as I consider Jesus and pay attention.
Are you paying attention? Don’t be surprised if you find a skill you’ve taught your children ends up helping you someday. The Science of Relations is always faithful.
-Mariah
On The CPQ Blog
Behind the Scenes
Goodness is in layout
Books is in layout
Things articles are being turned in
Truth main article writers are being contacted
In the Personhood issue…
We were so sad to see the banners on page 64 missing in our current issue. While these banners were in the PDF file submitted to the printers and in the proofs, they somehow got lost in the printing process. The Keeping Story this quarter was from Wendy Bautista. We apologize for the error, yet hope you are inspired by Wendy’s nature notebook and her keeping story!
Blast from the Past
Charlotte Mason gives us a picture of Fortitude in Ourselves, her volume on improving character and conscience. She describes it not so much as a valiant virtue, but as a patient grace. It’s a delicate plant with no particular beauty or strength that grows up within us. Fortitude is ‘memorable more for what she suffers gladly than for what she does,’ and seems to always have an element of tenderness about her, too, enduring hardship out of love and compassion for others. ‘It is in the body we must endure hardness, and the training comes in the cheerful bearing of small matters not worth mentioning.’ I think that most of us tend not to choose the inconvenient and uncomfortable if we can help it, even in small matters. Life can be fickle and strange and we don’t always have control over what comes our way. We may feel invisible, set aside, or in a lonely place, but God sees and has not forgotten us. It’s encouraging to think that the things we didn’t choose for ourselves might matter the most to us later on. Perhaps something we considered to be inconvenient or hard at the time has been the stimulus for Fortitude to grow up within us. Patient grace is not a common commodity in our modern times with its worship of success and comfort; meekness and long-suffering are not qualities we rate highly. But the world is in need of tender hearts who create safe resting places for harried travelers—like those four rufous fantails that only stayed for a day.
Carol Hudson
*Lonely Places is sold out, but you can access all our magazines digitally with any subscription!
November’s Recitation Printable
Did you know we have free recitation printables on our website? We are working on our 2025 recitation printables behind the scenes! Grab the November printable below.
Get To Know The Editors
What’s Cara…
Reading: Just binge read The Green Ember series. Now reading Westward Ho! and Sunjata: New Prose edition
Drinking: water and coffee with cream
Listening to: Lark Rise to Candleford before bed
Eating: all the Crocktober recipes with Passionate Penny Pincher
Watching: the new Matlock
Making: lesson plans for term 2 for Deeply Rooted high school kids
Learning: to carry on.
Thinking about: grace and family
What’s Mariah…
Reading: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and a commentary on Hebrews
Refinishing: our kitchen cabinets
Listening to: Page CXVI
Eating: cajun chicken linguini
Watching: Snowflakes falling—alas, it’s here.
Drinking: Coffee
Thinking about: neuroplasticity—but also, I think I’ll make chocolate chip cookies today.
Learning: discomfort increases my faith
What’s Sarah…
Reading: The Diabetes Code by Jason Fung, Romeo and Juliet
Listening to: Paradise Lost with my high schoolers
Drinking: collagen hot-chocolate
Making: packing lists for our first family international trip
Eating: shrimp with lots of garlic and butter
Watching: way too many IG reels than is healthy
Learning: that I don’t need as many snacks as I think I need