What I’m Reading Now: Notes from a Blue Bike by Tsh Oxenreider
My intention is to start sharing more with you about what I’m reading, especially the books I find enjoyable, growth-inducing, or life-changing. This book is all three.
I should probably begin with a disclaimer of some kind, because Notes from a Blue Bike is being published by my company’s sister division, Thomas Nelson. But the truth is that no one at my job asked me to promote Notes. I’ve been reading Tsh’s blog, The Art of Simple, longer than we’ve been partners with Thomas Nelson, so I firmly feel my readership status precedes – and supersedes – any kind of company loyalty I might feel. I honestly feel shameless about sharing this book with you – in fact, I think I’d feel like a poseur if I didn’t, because it’s a fantastic book, and I’m putting it on my list of books to give as gifts this year. If that’s some kind of bias, I’m okay with it. I went into the Christian publishing industry because I really believe in what my company does. This is a great book that has the potential to help me – and you – do life differently. More slowly. More deeply. More deliberately.
Part memoir, part handbook, Notes from a Blue Bike is about Tsh’s family and their search for a simpler, more intentional way of living in the midst of our fast-paced, overstimulating, technology-driven culture. Former expats who neither wanted nor expected to move back to the States, Tsh and her husband found themselves forced to reconcile what they loved about living overseas with the reality of day-to-day life in America. How do you live slowly and deliberately when everyone around you is working 60 hours a week, eating convenience foods, and Facebooking at breakneck speed? Tsh was determined to find a way that worked for her family, and she shares her journey as a way to encourage you to do the same.
Tsh covers everything from food and education to work and entertainment – how to manage all of these pieces in a way that’s intentional rather than succumbing to the status quo. She illustrates that we don’t have to be sucked into the “have more, do more” mindset of American consumerism, but can choose to prioritize our days using a different standard. Undergirding all of her stories and snippets of encouragement is the assertion that we don’t have to do it exactly the way her family has – her stories are merely meant to be a jumping-off point, a catalyst to encourage others to assess their lives and ask, “Am I really living the way I want to?”
Notes from a Blue Bike has caused me to think more deeply about what I want our life to look like as a family – what I want our priorities to be, how I want to spend my time, what kind of education I want L to receive, what kind of home I want to have. Thanks to Tsh and all that she generously shares, I have a deeper hope that no matter where E and I land after he finishes graduate school, we can find a way to live meaningfully and intentionally outside the crowded lanes of the American rat race.
Notes from a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World is available for pre-order, and will be in stores Feb. 4, 2014.
