Reading List: That Sounds Fun

I spent almost a hundred dollars at the fabric store the other day - I’m making a skirt. And that was before I even read Annie F. Downs’ book, “That Sounds Fun.”

I spontaneously started this book while sitting in my rocking chair one night. Very fitting, I think. I finished it sitting in my new hammock watching the sun set at my favorite Tennessee mountain lake. Even more fitting.

Reading the words that Annie Downs writes feels like sitting on the back porch with a glass of iced tea and a friend you’ve known since elementary school, and I can’t begin to describe for you how much like home that is.

Which is ironic, because the whole point of what she writes is that we are in search of home. Here’s her words, much better than mine:

“I think when we go looking for fun what we are actually looking for is home. We are looking for peace. We are looking for simplicity, something to fill that spot that has been left by growing out or moving on. While we think we want fun, what we really want is Eden.”

I’ve read a lot of books recently about Eden, about what it means to really be alive. “That Sounds Fun” fit right into the framework of that discussion for me, and it added a helpful element of, well, fun. You see, all of these other books opened my mind to what it would look like to be really alive. But this book, it opened my heart.

Annie’s words make home a tangible reality, an experience that is unlocked when we allow ourselves to be human and alive by having fun. Listen to what Annie says about hobbies, one of the best ways to have fun:

“Hobbies make space. They remind us of something beautiful, and that good can come from nothing. That seeds become flowers and ingredients become soup and yarn becomes mittens. And when the whole world is broken, it’s just nice to know we have the tiniest ability to put pieces together.”

When we have fun, we remember what it is to be at home, to be safe, to be childlike. This is the reality of who we are as the redeemed of the Father, and fun is the key to remembering this reality.

I still haven’t finished my skirt, but it’s worth working on because it’s fun. I bought a longboard too. Why? It sounded fun. And I’m here, writing this, because it sounded fun to me. Thanks for being a part of one of my attempts to remember who I am and why I’m here.

If you want to join me, go buy this book and read it with an open mind. You will not regret it.