Et Al

About Sarah Jo
Lectio Obscura
Christian Obscurity
Spiritual Formation

A Life Obscured

Living an inconspicuous life while also living fully known to God.

The Stone & the Stonecutter

The Stone & the Stonecutter

2022-11-12

Went to the Bricks & Minifigs store yesterday. Bou

Went to the Bricks & Minifigs store yesterday. Bought some art supplies. 😜

Wrapped @pdxseminary BridgeWeek tonight!! We survi

Wrapped @pdxseminary BridgeWeek tonight!! We survived a record-breaking winter storm and two full days of online/hotel room classes. But we rallied. We made lemonade out of lemons. And we laughed. Oh, we laughed!! I am so grateful for this community God dropped me into. (Today is 2/28, the seventh anniversary of the last time I ever saw Dad. The week ahead always proves to be a bit heavy. But I think God is redeeming it a little more every year.)

HEADS UP!! (at)austinsarahjo is not me!! Please ke

HEADS UP!! (at)austinsarahjo is not me!! Please keep following here, and if you get a request from the other, report it!! Thanks!

Morning Pages, Day 17 done!! I haven’t posted MP

Morning Pages, Day 17 done!! I haven’t posted MP updates because I started leaving my phone in the other room because, you know, focus and all that. I’ve also added a nearly daily routine of a Daily Quota… 25 minutes of writing or work on the next thing (which was my newsletter this week). All together, these two things take up over an hour of my morning, but I am so focused the rest of the day. After all, I have other projects for school that need my attention! This week I have three major writing projects due, but Morning Pages are building my confidence that the words and ideas will come and I can make them make sense! #morningpages #artistsway #dailyquota contemplativephotography

My deep winter newsletter drops tomorrow! This tim

My deep winter newsletter drops tomorrow! This time around I’ve included my spring semester classes and book lists, a spiritual formation suggestion, and a few fun things for you to listen to or read!! Link to subscribe is in my bio!

Morning Pages, Day 7 done and dusted. (I am not wo

Morning Pages, Day 7 done and dusted. (I am not working on a streak but I am working toward 200 days this year.) Wrote at my bedroom writing station, in our leather chair with @zeldathescottie tucked in with me. #morningpages #artistsway #contemplativephotography

Morning (afternoon) pages day six done. And intere

Morning (afternoon) pages day six done. And interestingly enough, my documentation here on Instagram is also spurring on my contemplative photography practice. How about that?! #morningpages #artistsway #contemplativephotography

@zeldathescottie loves the snow!! And I finished A

@zeldathescottie loves the snow!! And I finished Afternoon Pages after our walk today. That’s day five in the bag! #morningpages #artistsway

Morning Pages Day 4 done! Today included a pep tal

Morning Pages Day 4 done! Today included a pep talk: Don’t write plastic. Write natural. Authentic. #morningpages #artistsway #writersofinstagram

Sharona, our Japanese maple, has stubbornly held o

Sharona, our Japanese maple, has stubbornly held on to all her leaves this fall. And now she looks like me when asked to hold dumbbells with outstretched arms in a workout. Hang in there, girl. Snow will melt soon enough!

Morning Pages Day 3 done! Mostly. Had to log into

Morning Pages Day 3 done! Mostly. Had to log into class so only wrote 2.5 pages today. #morningpages #artistsway

Bought “Write for Life” by Julia Cameron this

Bought “Write for Life” by Julia Cameron this weekend. She’s the “Artist’s Way” guru. She prescribes three handwritten pages every single morning. Today is Day Two of my Morning Pages. I won’t show you my pages because the Internet doesn’t need any more neuroticisms, but rest assured they are done. Also, my hand hurts. #morningpages #artistsway

She literally has an internal alarm for “time to $She literally has an internal alarm for “time to snuggle with mom.” And if I am not on the couch with her, she will make herself comfortable on my lap. This is why I get only a fraction of my work done every day. 🙄$

Both in our happy place this afternoon.

Both in our happy place this afternoon.

Student of the Month!! Pretty proud of this kid!!

Student of the Month!! Pretty proud of this kid!!

Introduced E to the neighborhood labyrinth. He lov

Introduced E to the neighborhood labyrinth. He loves the fast walking component. We’ll get to the prayer component eventually! 😂

Who doesn’t love a giant box? And perplexing @ze

Who doesn’t love a giant box? And perplexing @zeldathescottie at the same time? #scottiesofinstagram

Better late than never? I didn’t have time to ge

Better late than never? I didn’t have time to get tulip bulbs in the ground this fall, so I’m planting them on New Year’s Eve. Either they’ll jump on board this accelerated program or they won’t. 🥴🤷‍♀️

The Austins need your help! What do we do with an

The Austins need your help! What do we do with an anonymous, passive-aggressive neighbor who moves our trash bins every week?

We prefer to set our trash bins on the closest thing we have to a curb, up against the railing on the street side of our drainage ditch. We have checked city ordinances and trash hauler’s recommendations and restrictions, and this is the best place. Prior to our street being repaved and restriped last year, the bins were on the outside of the street lane, but now they straddle the stripe. We always pull our bins in within the 24 hour allotment specified by the city.

We are able to leave one bin inside our driveway, which is what all of our other neighbors do. We do this on non-recycling weeks. Due to the narrowness of our driveway, the pickup truck next door that blocks our view of the street, the curves of Sunset a few blocks down both ways, and the general speed of cars, it’s tricky to back out with one bin. I tried backing out with both bins in the driveway, and while it’s technically possible, I was concentrating so hard on not hitting the bins that I couldn’t pay attention to oncoming traffic.

Our neighbor started moving our bin this fall after we left for church on Wednesday evenings. But sometimes they wait until the daytime (like today in broad daylight) to move the bins. We get the message; they don’t like what we are doing with our bins. But we don’t have great alternatives! And also, why do they care so much? What do we do?

For those of you who read my newsletter this week,

For those of you who read my newsletter this week, I did indeed receive the Rae Dunn salt and pepper cellars for Christmas. But in this very specific case, a little bossiness is allowed. I am in no need of other bossy ceramic home goods. 😜

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