Might I Suggest

I’m headed out this afternoon to Florida with some girlfriends from high school. This is our second annual trip—and we’re thrilled to be able to go again. Last year, I posted on Instagram about my trip, and I got a million responses—mostly women who are sad they don’t have friends like this. I am here today to dispel any rumors or feelings of discouragement.

Links from Episode 9:

1. From the Lakers' Plane Ride Home
2. 10 Days Lost at Sea
3. 4 Things People Regret Wasting Time On
4. Time in Friendships According to Science

How do we live in a world where our physical and mental tasks keep getting easier (but also somehow more complicated?). What does it mean when our domestic tasks take less effort? Can we have a bigger imagination conquering other human problems with human ways and godly strength?

Links from EPISODE 8:

1. I retweeted this.
2. Also about home-life and being a family kind of lady (NYT)
3. My favorite package of the month (this link saves you $5!).
4. Preach to Yourself is $8 today on Amazon!
5. Shannan Martin and her books Falling Free and The Ministry of Ordinary Places
6. Ashley Hales and her book Finding Holy in the Suburbs
7. Fighting Feminism with Potatoes video

Don't forget you can save $5 with the code MIGHT at http://www.nellietaft.com

This episode is about where we come from and what lingers in us from those we give life to. As I’ve been holed up this winter, I’ve been thumbing through pictures of my grandmothers when they were young girls and then young women. These boxes of family artifacts they tell a story that involves me, but isn’t about me. This story stretches back long before I was on the scene, and now I’m in the middle of my part in the show. What will come after me is something I get to play a small part in, too. This is true for all of us.

Check out another project of mine Nellie Taft, where I design t-shirts so you can wear what you need to hear. Use the code "MIGHTI" to get $5 off your purchase!

LINKS FROM EPISODE 7:

1. Nellie Taft
2. About Microchimerism (from The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, and Wired)
3. The Visual Timer recommended by The Strategist
4. The Girl in the Huddle
5. The Stolen Painting with the Rightful Ending

Follow Hayley: 

Website // Instagram // Books

CONTACT THE SHOW:
EMAIL AT [email protected]
LEAVE A VOICEMAIL AT: 317-763-0077

Today, we’re going to talk about what happens when we tell ourselves stories to fill in the gaps that are unknown. Our mind is a powerful organ…the most powerful organ in our body arguably. In 2018, I wrote a book called Preach to Yourself that looks at the power of our mind and the disconnect between what our heads know to be true and what our hearts believe anyway. It’s half manifesto and half tool-box…and this episode is brought to you by that book —Preach to Yourself.

This week my second son Cooper came home from school and told me that his classmates are all a flutter about an epidemic called the coronavirus. Probably connected to the 5th grade hallway alarm—the headlines about the coronavirus are bolded and in all-caps in the news growing more strident by the day. This coronavirus sprang up in the Wuhan province of China—and it’s since infected 9800 people in China alone and allegedly caused  213 deaths so far. It’s since spread to Australia, Cambodia, Canada, France, Finland, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK and US, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. As of today, Friday January 31, Delta and American airlines have grounded flights to and from China. It’s all a big, heightened deal in the news.

How we tell ourselves a less fearful, truer, and more compassionate story?

LINKS IN EPISODE:

1 . Preach to Yourself -- My book about how to fight the lies we believe. ($7.99 right now!)
2. Whose Shopping Recommendations Do You Actually Trust?
3. Why Can't More Than 4 People Converse at Once?
4. The First 997 Young Women at Auschwitz (WaPo)
5. Kent Brantly on NPR and where he is now

As the world learned yesterday of Kobe Bryant’s unexpected death along with his 13 year old daughter and 7 others—and as even today we await more from the Senate impeachment trial—our personal and public worlds seem unwell and awry. These are our days. This is the time God saw fit for us to follow Him during. These are the days our lives and our ministries and our waking and walking and loving and doing. This is what we have.

When things feel out of control, I’m learning that it makes me feel angry. Anger is not my default emotion, but it’s one I’ve been feeling lately when I look at the state of the world and even the state of the American church. Maybe it’s all no worse than it’s ever been, maybe I’m just at that age of realization where you see with clear if sometimes cynical eyes. I’m not sure, but regardless, I’ve been feeling like just a teensy itty bitty tiny cog in a very big wheel inside a very powerful machine. 

The Links:

Pickled Onion Recipe -  so you don't have to listen to the podcast again. ;)

How To Raise a Gracious Kid - Maybe not the valedictorian, maybe not the prom queen, maybe not the quarterback...but the kid who rolls out the red carpet for someone in need.

The Subversive Joy of Cold-Water Swimming - Nearly all people living in the UK live less than 70 miles from some area of the coast, but the water is preternaturally cold (at the warmest 68 degrees and down to the 50s by the end of the swimming season!).

Mary Oliver on Rhythm - "Rhythm is one of the most powerful of pleasures, and when we feel a pleasurable rhythm we hope it will continue. When it does, it grows sweeter. When it becomes reliable, we are in a kind of body-heaven."

Follow Hayley: 

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CONTACT THE SHOW:
EMAIL AT [email protected]
LEAVE A VOICEMAIL AT: 317-763-0077

My brain feels fizzly, kind of like water that’s waiting to boil. It has those tiny bubbles on the bottom of the pot that haven’t started to rise but are dancing and vibrating and shaking with pent-up energy.

This is what happens when I’ve taken too much in. When I’ve been scrolling a little often and for too long. When it’s the end of the week and I need to reset. When I’m doing my best to listen to varying viewpoints—but not considering my own. This not-quite-simmering state is how I find myself when the TVs been on more than books have been open, and when the kids are all talking at once.

When my mind starts to sizzle, I’ve learned it’s time for silence.

Visit THE FULL SHOWNOTES

Links From This Episode:

1. Your Brain On Silence
2. Worship God: Start a Hobby from Christianity Today
3. Clare V. Bag Straps (see full shownotes for all product links!)

It may be because I came to Jesus as a teenager, but I’ve always felt like my faith is sturdy precisely because I chose it after being exposed to so many other worldviews. All else was found wanting—and Jesus offered me everything. I am not afraid to allow my children to use their minds and discern, in fact, I think by reading and talking and wondering together, we can grow much closer to God in a way that is honest and not shallow.

I still hold this same view for myself. My faith is not in danger by challenging my mind. In fact, my faith is much more endangered by atrophy if I do not challenge myself. It cannot be our position to only interact with quote-unquote intellectually safe material—or we will lose our ability to discern at all. And, this lack of discernment is sorely missed when we need it.

Links From the Show:

1. The tweet about Little Women costumes!
2. On Flowers by Amy Merrick
3. Floret Flowers
4. Vogue 73 Questions

We are nearing the end of a decade, but before we go gung-ho into 2020, I propose we slow down for just a minute and look back. This episode features two prompts to reflect on 2019. 

I am forgetful. I am susceptible to laying down what God has prompted me to do in order to pick up the call someone else is putting out. And, I am guessing I am not alone.

It is human nature, I’m afraid, to lose sight of what is ours…because what is ours demands our attention, our energy, and our accountability. 

I think back to the Israelites, God’s people, and remember all the times they forgot. They forgot what God had done, they forgot who God said they were, and they forgot what God told them to go and do. I am like them in so many ways, and I think of all the ways I fall short—my biggest predisposition is to forget what God has already said and done.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL LOOK BACK REFLECTION GUIDE.

The Links:

Has the fast pace of society thrown our internal timer off balance? - Are you always reaching for your phone in a moment of downtime? Why are we impatient?

An expert’s guide to listening. - This helps with an age-old conversational need. Highlights are; listening to a child and listening to someone who is down.

Have you been paying attention to Reese Witherspoon? - OH MY GOSH. This is fascinating and you must read.

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CONTACT THE SHOW:
EMAIL AT [email protected]
LEAVE A VOICEMAIL AT: 317-763-0077

By June 2018, I was in the peak of what I now call my blah "gray phase". I had lost my verve, my voice, my confidence. I got weird and swirly and I let others have too much a say in what I thought about myself, my calling, and even my place in the Kingdom. I literally started wearing mostly gray and black. I called it “minimalism” and practically baptized it--but really, I was hiding.

So, this is the story of how God shook my shoulders with awe and helped me tip my face back to the light.  

It was the moment when I remembered some very important and core things about God and myself:

I love exploration. I am an explorer by nature.

I am a pioneer, someone out on the front-end, willing to “go first”. I admire pioneering.

I am creative. I work with God to make something wehre there once was nothing.

Humans have an astounding capacity. We’re SO INCREDIBLE and so filled with potential for good. 

I cannot live in a hell-in-a-hand-basket worldview. It just doesn’t work for me anymore. I cannot believe that even with the Lord we just have to sit tight and wait for Him to come back. I believe we have agency and are meant to be agents for His Goodness and His Kindness and His Justice and His Provision and His Creativity here on Earth. 

I believe we can embody what we’ve received as our birthright through the Spirit. The power of God to be a force in the world. I believe we can light up the dark edges of the world with this glittering beauty that’s only found in Jesus. But, God help me if I keep covering and dimming that light.

LINKS FROM THE SHOW:

About the Griffith -
NYT article after Griffith's restoration in 2006
History of Griffith at The Thrillist at Griffith Park's 120 Birthday (article is bonkers)

The Wild Ones - the article I suggested about the first two women to boat through the Grand Canyon

Charm Necklaces I'm Into -

Always an "open oval" chain:
Higher End - solid gold
Lower End - gold plated sterling silver
Bracelet

Some charms I love:
Every vintage charm you could hope for
My fave modern charm - Reminds me of Drew Holcomb and Johnny Swim's Ring the Bells

PS: if you find a Griffith Observatory charm promise you'll email me? [email protected] ;)

Follow Hayley:
Website // Instagram // Books

Contact the show:
Email at [email protected]
Leave a voicemail at: 317-763-0077