This episode is brought to you by Lily Endowment as part of our series on Christian spirituality,

a chance to have a moment to reflect on life and faith in the service of knowing and loving God.

Hey, friends, I'm Kate Bowler. Welcome to Everything Happens, where we talk about life when it's just too much.

Too much beauty, too much terrible, sometimes both

before 9 a.m. And it's July, which feels genuinely impossible because wasn't it March about a second

ago? I just spent the last month in my hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and for my American listeners,

the province of Manitoba is above North Dakota and Minnesota, and yes, there will be a quiz later.

My son was born in the United States, but my husband and I really, really want him to understand

that his home is also in Canada. So I kind of did the like hyper-nostalgia

tour where I was like, here is pemmican. It is made of bison meat. Here are the prairies. Behold the

river. Meet every person I've ever known. Yes, we're walking through the halls of my high school.

No, it's not too much. So as we do, we packed a lot in.

Like we celebrated my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, which was so lovely. But then there was also

time with both sets of grandparents and then also cousins and then remembering that your parents are

people and everyone is basically exactly

the same as before you left, except that my mom has decided to start taking tango lessons,

which is effectively the most precious thing I've ever heard. But it meant that by the time we made

at home last week, I felt decidedly less rested than I had hoped.

And maybe that's kind of how it always goes.

Like last summer, I decided it would be an amazing idea to take a massive road trip across the Midwest in our airstream.

And I had many work things that I thought, oh, it's okay.

I'll just pack it in.

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