Lisa notes

What’s Holding Me Together Right Now
—Share Four Somethings May 2026

By LisaNotes May 29, 2026 Life updates 3 Comments

Here’s what I’ve been noticing this month: the support systems that help hold me together.

Sometimes that support is a device. Sometimes it is words, both written and spoken. And sometimes it is direct experiences with other human beings. I’m thankful for them all.

Each month I share favorite somethings from Jenn’s four categories. I also share my previous month’s One Second Everyday video.

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1. Something I Love

SIMPLE TIMER TO KEEP ME ON TRACK

I use the timer on my phone a lot. It helps free my brain from always having to keep up with time.

For the past few years, I’ve also found it extremely helpful to have a timer on my laptop as well. This one has proven to be perfect for me: Horo Timer.

It sits easily accessible in the menu bar and does one thing only: counts down time. I set the minutes I want and hit return. It dings when the time is up.

It’s basic, which may be why it works so well. I appreciate how it keeps me on track.

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2. Something Sustaining Me

FINDING PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND

In addition to our regular trusted friends, it’s also comforting to find a niche set of friends for a specific life stage or situation. Over the past year, I’ve found that in refreshing ways, mostly online, although some in person, too.

Most recently, I attended a retreat a few weeks ago with other moms where we heard keynotes from some of my favorite experts in their fields. It was informative and encouraging.

But what’s sustaining me most are the friendships that came out of that weekend and the ways we’re continuing to stay connected.

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3. Something Carrying Me Forward

LIBRARY BOOKS WAITING FOR ME

Books, books, and more books!

For a few years, I’ve been able to pay a small fee to access ebooks through the Nashville, TN, library system even though I live in Alabama. However, due to recent budget cuts, they ended that option for non-Davidson County residents. I understand why; ebooks are expensive for libraries to provide. Still, I’ll greatly miss having access to their much larger collection compared to my local library system.

Before my access ended this week, I loaded my Kindle with ebooks from Nashville, then switched it to airplane mode so the books would stay on my device until I finish reading them. So for now I’m still stocked with books I really want to read but couldn’t get anywhere else (for free, anyway).

I can’t imagine what I’d do without my Kindle and public libraries.

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4. Something I’m Making Space For

LEARNING FROM AND ALONGSIDE OTHERS

Almost a year ago, I signed up through a program to connect with an incarcerated pen pal. Since then, my pen pal and I have exchanged several letters and become friends.

It’s outside my comfort zone, but it’s important to me—not as an act of charity, but as a way of sharing common humanity with someone different from me for our mutual growth.

Recently, I’ve begun meeting in a Zoom group with other people on the outside who also have an incarcerated pen pal. I have much to learn from these more experienced writers because I’m still figuring things out as I go.

I’ve also been reading The Deliverance of Hope: The Spiritual Discipline of Writing People on Death Row by Jeff Hood and Wendy Ramage, who are facilitating the Zoom group. The book has already been so helpful.

Our care and support can come from the most unexpected places: a timer app, new friendships, a library full of books, and a Zoom room full of strangers writing letters.

Taken together—and along with many other things and friends—they help me keep going.

Who or what is supporting you this month? Share in the comments.

I’m linking at these blog parties

Is Your One Word Trying to Get Your Attention? Try This Photo Challenge
{One Word 2026 May Linkup}

What if your One Word has been trying to get your attention?

This month, you’re invited into a simple kind of noticing: become a One Word detective in your everyday life.

Instead of forcing anything, just pay attention to what’s already here—how your word might be showing up in ordinary moments, places, and interactions. Then, capture those glimpses as a photo, when possible.

You might start to see your word appear through:

people who cross your path
ordinary, everyday objects
small but meaningful moments
places you find yourself
unexpected little details

As you take photos, try to include yourself in at least one image—as a reminder that you are part of your word’s unfolding story, too.

My One Word Photos

Here are some beachy places I saw my word SHIFT last week.

It started Thursday night at a pretend beach for my grandson’s Pre-K graduation. He’s shifting from Pre-K to Kindergarten in the fall. (Too soon—I’m not ready for this shift.)

The next day, I shifted to the real beach with my husband.

On our daily walks on the beach, we had to shift our path several times to protect sea turtle nests and flightless chicks. (The “Bird Crossing” sign was a new one for me!)

I shifted from one book to the next all week. This quote below stood out to me. It’s a useful one now that I’m back home and might get jealous when I see others at the beach.

“The next time you find yourself envying those vacationers on social media, pause. Instead of following your gut reaction, take a moment to mentally wish them well. Observe how this small shift replaces the tightness of envy in your heart with warmth.”

Share Your One Word Update

Share your own One Word updates in the comments or add a One Word blog post in the linkup below. It will remain open until midnight, Tuesday, June 9.

You’re also welcome to share your photos in the One Word Facebook group throughout the month.

Looking ahead, the June linkup opens Friday, June 26.

The more we pay attention, the more our words seem to surface in ordinary and surprising places alike.

I’m looking forward to seeing where your word shows up this month—and where mine continues to show up, too.

Question for you:
Where have you seen your word lately (literally or metaphorically)? Share in the comments.

If you’d like to receive our monthly One Word emails and ideas for 2026, join here.

- Get more One Word ideas here

Link Up About Your One Word

Sometimes Courage Looks Very Small: A Small Shift at the Airport

By LisaNotes May 23, 2026 My stories, Shift: One Word 2026 21 Comments

Is She the Same Woman?

I’m at the airport in Reno on a Monday morning after a conference weekend at Lake Tahoe.

I think the woman at the next table eating breakfast before her flight is someone I met at the conference.

If it is her, we sat together Sunday morning on the short bus ride from our resort to watch the sunrise over Lake Tahoe with the other women attending.

I remember we had a lovely conversation sharing our circumstances and hopes for the future.

But I can’t remember her name. It had still been dark on the bus. And our conversation had only lasted about ten minutes.

Is this even her?

Maybe, maybe not.

I decide to let it go. I stay quiet. Because even if it is her, I don’t have to speak. We only met once, after all.

I eat a few more bites of my biscuit.

But the feeling keeps gnawing at me.

The Smallest Shift

Finally, I stand up. I walk over. I ask, “Were you at the conference last weekend at Lake Tahoe? I think we chatted together.”

And amazingly, she says yes!

It is the same woman.

She doesn’t remember my name either. (And honestly, I’m not sure she remembered much from our earlier conversation.)

But it doesn’t matter. We’re connecting now.

We spend a few minutes talking about our takeaways from the weekend, and before long, she asks if we can exchange contact information.

She tells me she’ll have very little support when she returns home.

I gladly give her my information and take hers.

This stranger now feels like a new friend.

Brave Doesn’t Always Look Big

I’m so glad I spoke up.

Ten minutes earlier, the decision had felt huge before I acted on it. My overthinking made it complicated. Awkward. Risky.

But it really only required a small shift: from sitting to walking. From silence to a question.

And because of that small shift, a new connection was formed. We’ve since emailed each other and will set up up a video chat soon.

More often than we realize, life offers us moments like these. Tiny invitations to move a little closer instead of pulling away. To risk being vulnerable instead of choosing safety.

Not every brave moment changes your life.

But sometimes it changes your day. And someone else’s too.

And sometimes, that’s all it takes to make a new friend.

My One Word of the Year is Shift. And my focus this month is on shifting relationships.

Who’s the newest friend who’ve made? Have any other relationships shifted lately?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

I Wonder If His Mama Still Wonders About Him

By LisaNotes May 19, 2026 My stories, Relationships 21 Comments

You see all kinds of people at the beach.

Families hauling coolers and umbrellas and babies. Teenagers tossing footballs. Retirees slowly walking at the edge of the water.

All kinds of humanity. Every age. Every energy level.

But one person I don’t normally see. And now I have.

He’s a man, maybe in his early thirties, strolling along with a guitar.

Not performing. Not singing. Just strumming. Sort of.

I’m not sure he knows how to play. He brushes the strings with confidence for a few moments, but the sounds aren’t quite harmonious.

Then he stops and stares at the water for a minute. Sometimes he steps toward the waves, then back away again, as if he’s negotiating with them.

I saw him again the next day.

Same clothes. Same wandering. Same guitar.

At one point I watched him point toward the ocean, almost like he was daring the waves to come closer. Then he lifted his hand as if to say, “Here and no farther.”

I don’t know his story. I don’t know whether he has people who check on him or wait for him to come home at night or worry when he doesn’t.

But I do know this: at one point, he had a mama.

Someone once carried him, fed him, watched him sleep, wondered who he would become.

And if she’s still alive—whether she’s still in his life or not—I imagine she still wonders sometimes where her boy is and how he’s doing.

Watching him on the beach, I’m wondering too.

And also aching in my heart, not only for him, but also for her.

I hope they’re both okay.

Have you ever seen a stranger and wondered about the people who love them?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

A scroll of compassion

By LisaNotes May 14, 2026 Compassion 3 Comments

We still had an hour before we could hear the Dalai Lama speak, so we entered the white tent outside Regions Field in Birmingham, Alabama, to kill some time.

It turned out to be a bazaar of Tibetan artwork.

We watched the incredible patience of the sand artists as they worked.

We listened to another monk explain the meaning of the mandala.

We wandered around the tables and took in the beautiful pieces of art and the collection of words for sale.

It was a feast for the eyes.

And then I spotted this . . . something for my heart.

At the time, Compassion was my One Word of the Year. It was what brought us to Birmingham this day to listen to the Dalai Lama, one of the world’s passionate contenders for compassion.

So I knew I had to take this scroll home as a tangible reminder of the year.

And as a reminder that when we seek to give compassion, we are often given compassion.

I share the words from this scroll here with you.

My year with compassion was a wonderful journey that continues to stick with me, long after the calendar turned to a new year.

Thanks to all who leave comments. Your compassionate words teach me more than you know. May you in turn receive your own gifts of compassion, individually wrapped just for you.

What unexpected gift of compassion have you received lately? Please share.

Read more:

What the Dalai Lama Taught Me About Responsibility, Kindness, and Connection
In honor of the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday on July 5, 2025, a personal reflection on his timeless messages.
5 Things I Learned from the Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama’s name kept surfacing as I researched “compassion.” So when he came to Birmingham, I had to go. Here are 5 things I learned.

revised from the archives

6 Standout Books I Recommend This Month

By LisaNotes May 5, 2026 Books I Recommend 18 Comments

“A word after a word after a word is power.”
— Margaret Atwood

My books this month were great for both stretching my imagination (like, Remarkably Bright Creatures) and reflecting on our humanity (like, How to Feel Loved).

Here are the four nonfiction and two fiction books I just finished that I recommend.

[See previously recommended books here]

NONFICTION

1. Braving the Truth
Essential Essays for Reckoning with and Reimagining Faith
by Rachel Held Evans

Even though we lost Rachel too soon on May 4, 2019, her words and messages live on. Her friend Sarah Bessey compiled some of Rachel’s writings into this book, adding in several current essays from Rachel’s friends and family. It’s a powerful and beautiful collection of ideas about wrestling with faith and doubt and humanity.

2. The Unfolding: Poems
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Just wow. I’m not really a poetry reader (just a wannabe), but Rosemerry’s poems are short enough yet full to overflowing to keep me captivated. They remind me to notice more of the sacredness found in our ordinary moments.

3. How to Feel Loved
The Five Mindsets That Get You More of What Matters Most
by Sonja Lyubomirsky

This title caught my eye because we usually see books about how to be more loving, but this one was how to be more loved. Or to recognize and be aware of it anyway. Often we’re more loved than we even realize.

The five shifts to feel loved are adopting a sharing mindset, listening-to-learn mindset, radical-curiosity mindset, open-heart mindset, and multiplicity mindset.

4. Nations Apart
How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America
by Colin Woodard

This felt like a long book, but I think it’s because it was SO full of data. It was mind-blowing to me to see how America is divided so deeply along regional roots from the beginning of our country’s founding. We may intuitively know this, but to see it spelled out chapter after chapter through so many examples was quite startling.

If you care about this type of cultural analysis through history to better understand what’s going on in America now, this is a great book to sit with.

FICTION

5. Remarkably Bright Creatures
by Shelby Van Pelt

This novel is a breath of fresh air. It’s a tender (and surprising!) story about people finding their way in this world despite loneliness and life’s hardships. And it involves an octopus as a main character! A movie adaptation is set to release on Netflix this month.

6. Last Chance Live!
by Helena Haywoode Henry

On the other extreme, this novel shows a darker side of humanity. But also a tender side. I read it for a book club. And the author is going to join us when we meet this month! I’m so curious to hear why she wrote this book.

The premise: Ten death row inmates between the ages of 18-21 volunteer to compete for America’s votes in a reality TV show. The winner wins everything—total freedom and exoneration of all crimes. But the nine losers? They lose all rights to appeal their sentences and are executed within days of getting kicked off the show.

The contestants form bonds with each other, but still have to compete with each other to save their own lives. It’s a harrowing story that I hope would never happen in real life.

WHAT I’M READING NOW

A Thousand Ways to Die
The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America
by Trymaine Lee
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
Give and Take
A Revolutionary Approach to Success
by Adam M. Grant
I Belong to Me
A Survivor’s Guide to Recovery and Hope after Religious Trauma
by Tia Levings
Big Time
A Simple Path to Time Abundance
by Laura Vanderkam
That’s Not How You Wash a Squirrel
by David Thorne

A Closing Reflection

Taken together, books like these remind us to stay curious and to keep connecting with each other.

What’s a good book you’re recommending this month? I’d love to hear in the comments.

I’m sharing at these linkups

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