Rewilding Summer: Garbage out, Beauty in
On toxic rainbows, bringing back beauty, and poolside book list
REWILDING SUMMER
When I was a child, there was a large painting of a rainbow in my kitchen. I loved it because it was pretty. I made rainbows as often as I had a crayon or marker in my hand. So many rainbows! They were beautiful and I was innocent.
In the decades since, the rainbow has been politicized; taken out of its habitat of the ethereal and pristine and monetized, sexualized, and branded. Instead of whispering, it shouts. Instead of atmospheric and heavenly, it is made earthy and commercial.
Now there's been a theft of June. Even Christians perpetuate the lie that the identity of precious souls is reflected in a corporate-driven, agenda-branded, cash cow; a political behemoth that demands obeisance of every person...
And it's time to rewild summer.
The concept of “rewilding” means to restore something to its natural state. It is used by biologists to refer to the restoration of a habitat or ecosystem. It is also popular in the natural health sphere. Midwives speak of rewilding birth. Functional fitness professionals speak of rewilding the body. Anything that has been so far removed from its natural order as to cause harm is subject to this idea of rewilding.
The summers and rainbows of youth are crying out for a rewilding and a restoration to innocence.
The political “rainbow” is a mockery of the wildly gentle order of creation, stealing innocence and freedom of imagination. Reducing identity to sexual terms. Bullying. Taking over space. Doing violence to the spirit of innocence in the name of “love.”
Who has consented to this thievery of beauty? I haven’t. The children haven’t.
Every person involved in this manufactured hyper-sexualized drama is precious in the eyes of the perfect Father, who created every cell of our bodies with devotion and purpose. There is no place for hatred of people. Though it can be a temptation to slip from righteous anger into malice, it is not the way of Christ.
It must also be said…
Desire to reclaim wholesome space within our communities—in which souls can live, run, shop, eat, play, and learn—is not hateful. It asks only to have childhood latency respected, sacred intimacy appropriately veiled, and beautiful things restored to common use.
At the very least, restore summer for the children. Make it about innocence again… instead of sex. That doesn’t exclude the act of loving all people. It is simply setting free what ought to be free. All glory to God.
*Photo above taken by me after countless attempts to capture what cannot be captured
BRING BACK BEAUTY.
Rewilding means getting rid of things that are deadly. It also means restoring that which is good and beautiful. So let’s do a palate cleanse and start building…
I'm so pleased to introduce my dear friend, Kay, and her work at Cassia & Myrrh. Beauty is essential. And beautiful Catholic art requires funding. Please consider supporting her work on the Catholic audio rosary (Latin and English).
Visit the Cassia & Myrrh website to learn more about the project and to listen HERE.
WHAT I’M READING THIS SUMMER…
My summer book list is ambitious considering that I now have to wear reading glasses and I never can find them when I need them. The one perk to disrupted reading is that my phone scrolling has also decreased. One would think this means more dishes are getting washed, but there doesn’t seem to be a causal relationship between more reading and less dish washing. I just don’t like to wash dishes and it shows.
My vision decline has had the positive effect of fueling a little healthy curiosity. I’ve been asking: Is it possible to heal my vision? Or improve it? I’ll have to go down that rabbit hole soon (with my readers on of course). In the meantime, these are the books that will be in my backpack this summer...
The End of Woman: How Smashing the Patriarchy Has Destroyed Us
After hearing Carrie Gress give a talk about feminism in the spring, I have been eagerly awaiting the August release of her new book. (Preorder it here.) I was able to get an advance copy and will be diving in this week.
Is first wave feminism really a noble effort gone wrong? In a recent article, giving a taste of what is to come in her book, Carrie writes:
“The ideas underpinning our societal wreckage are much older than most of us realize. The blueprint for it was set centuries ago, going back to the earliest stages of the feminist movement...”
Built to Move: The Ten Essential Habits to Help You Move Freely and Live Fully
As I heal from a serious hip injury, I’ve been learning (and relearning) so much about movement, mobility, and fitness. Having to combat the effects of degenerative joint disease often makes this feel like a part time job.
In the last few months, I have completely revamped my strength training, participated in a local classes on foundations of movement, and picked up this book. Just when you think you know some things… the body changes and healing gets interesting again.
I’m only a few chapters in but have read enough to know that this is a book that I will refer back to and recommend to clients and friends often. Buy it here.
The Physics of Resistance Exercise
Strength training is an essential part of my health care. I simply cannot afford to leave my body sedentary, allow my muscles to atrophy, my bones to grow weak, or my joint support to fail, so I’m constantly seeking knowledge about how to help prevent injury while also increasing strength.
This book is not light poolside reading, but it is helping me to revamp my training so that I don’t have to be sidelined with injuries. I hope to stay as mobile and pain free as possible for as long as I can. From the publisher:
”There is a safe and productive alternative to high-volume resistance training, based on more appropriate exercise selection and more effective exercise performance…If you would like to enhance your muscle development with more productive exercises that offer lower injury risk and higher training effect, then you are reading the right book. You will definitely gain greater understanding of how your muscles work, how to work your muscles, and how to think critically about each exercise that you perform.”
It’s not a cheap book. I found it for $55 on sale at Amazon last month and it’s already up again to market price at $69. Every used copy I found was marked up from that, so I bit the bullet and made the purchase. If this should be part of your health care, move it from your book budget to your medical care budget. That’s not cheating. And no, I’m not joking. Buy it here.
IN OTHER NEWS…
For the first time since 2020 we don’t have a kid getting married in the summer. Though I love weddings, I also enjoy the pause.
Its also been nice easing into grandma life. My toddler-lifting muscles have been neglected for a while, but it’s fine because this is my view about 75% of the time with Miss Busy anyway. Less bicep work, more speed work.
Our oldest child in the home will be finished with her college degree in early fall with a double major in Theology and Philosophy. She’ll be just shy of 19. Our first experience with dual enrollment with Holy Apostles has been a good one, though every child has a different inclination and I don’t know if we will do it again. The next youngin’ up to bat is thinking of an entrepreneurial path and perhaps starting a bakery with a sibling. So if you have experience on that front, please send us your wisdom, resources, or inspiration!
Our youngest just turned seven and is busy with deep thoughts like:
“Can we eat wolf?” and “If I was Adam, I would have chopped down that tree.”
He also spent weeks planning his birthday cake and settled on dinosaurs and a volcano. Two batches of brownies and two batches of yellow cake later, we had enough prehistoric landscape to feed an army of cousins and siblings.
The big excitement in our easy summer is a family pie baking competition for Independence Day. I’m still mulling over my blue ribbon options I’m running out of time to decide. I have it narrowed down to… seven. I’ve never won a baking competition and I think my time has come. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
And how are you?
At whatever pace you find yourself this season, I trust that you are covered by the peace and grace of Jesus Christ. If you’re in a hard place, this will pass. It might be intense and it might be long… but it will pass. The path of a Christian is a victory lap. He has won. Stay faithful. Stay hopeful. Healing is coming.
In Christ,
Melody
“In him … we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
- Ephesians 1:11
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I love the tone that is gentle without sacrificing urgency in your comments on the coopting of the rainbow, and the need to "rewild" (wow, I love that word, and must use it myself somewhere!) summer.
Love this so much! I agree wholeheartedly on this: "Desire to reclaim wholesome space within our communities—in which souls can live, run, shop, eat, play, and learn—is not hateful. It asks only to have childhood latency respected, sacred intimacy appropriately veiled, and beautiful things restored to common use." Thank you for these encouraging words! I also need those books! (and a pool to read by, lol)