The Rhythm of Family: Discovering a Sense of Wonder through the Seasons is now available for pre-orders in my Shop!
It continues to be available for pre-orders through Shambhala, Amazon, and your local independent bookstore too. I expect it to start shipping in the coming weeks as we get closer to the official publication date of August 9th!
After a long hiatus from shipping things, I also have the shop stocked with copies of The Creative Family and Handmade Home. (Ordered through my shop, all books will arrived signed, and can be shipped internationally.)
A bit more about the book here.
Our advance author copies arrived last week. With a party to plan, house guests arriving, and a flurry of everyday family life happening all around us, we barely had time to open the package, give each other a high-five, and do a little jig before getting back to the reality of our day. But with a few of those things behind us, on our way out the door to the beach last night, I grabbed our copy. And there, I had a little glance. It felt fitting to be looking at the pages there - with five little ones in five different directions. Together, but on their own natural paths at the shore.
I'm so excited to share this book. We began the work on this project the very week that Harper was born. (Yes, Harper.) It's been such a large part of our lives since then - as we dreamed it, worked on it as a family, and wrote it (Steve and I) together over the course of more than a year (followed by an equal amount of editing and production time). I'll share more about the actual making of the book in a few weeks.
For now, I want to tell you simply that it's a collection of essays, projects, recipes and patterns from our family, through the course of a calendar year, as we traveled the seasons. Sprinkled throughout are more special seasonal traditions from some special families who so generously contributed to the book - Heather Bruggeman, Heather Fontenot, Amy Karol, Langdon Cook, and Maya Donenfeld. And of course, there's a whole lot of SoulePapa in here too.
A few words from Steve:
"As I began writing essays for Rhythm, I was drawn in by how much our lives change and shift through our cycle around the Sun. How our interactions with each other as a family and as a part of society are influenced by the pull of each season. In our particular corner of the world, the changes are distinct and when the weather patterns erupt and merge in unfamiliar ways, it can have a very real affect on us all. At times it became difficult to put thoughts into words when my own skills as a parent felt meager and our lives chaotic and disjointed. But, without fail, those storms always passed and the essence of who we really are would return. I learned that the rhythms aren't just in the positive, life affirming peaks. They are in the beauty of the everyday grind. They are in the determination of pulling yourself and those around you out of the most difficult of times. We persevere and look for those glimpses of absolute love. It was a wonderful challenge and great honor to contribute to this book."
Right. What he said. This magical mystical rhythm we're all so in search of isn't something you can tangibly hold and conquer, nor something that we always 'have'. Like the shifting seasons and passage of time, the flow of our family time together is just as dynamic and beautiful and intense and ever-changing. Slowing ourselves enough to notice our environment's earthly rhtyhmic changes - however subtle they may be where you live - brings us a greater awareness of not just the minute and beautiful natural world around us, but those rhythms and flows in our families too. And in that awereness and presence of mind, we find a deeper connection with each other, and the joy in family living. For there is so much joy to be found...
