Saving lives in-flight; Can we love God and hate our bodies?; Train your dragons

3 Things this week and the poem "Look to the sky"

Well, we have a graduate. Yesterday Toby, our seven-month-old cockapoo, graduated from puppy school. He can sit, look, touch, and leave it. And boy is he cute doing it all.

Puppy school is an absolute gong show. It was fun, though, the last few weeks to attend these classes (sometimes as a full family) and to see other dog owners in the thick of it with little pups.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with Things I Wrote Down. Let’s jump right to the link round up and a poem.

In-flight live saver

I stumbled upon this post on X this week about an emergency room doctor who was travelling to Europe for a vacation and was called to help someone who was having a medical emergency.

A surgeon, a nurse, and this doctor were on the flight. Together they helped save the man’s life and saved the passengers from returning to their place of departure.

The comments, questions, and details that follow in the comments are so fascinating. If you’re a doc and you travel, it’s worth a read. And who knew an Apple Watch could get an EKG. So cool!

Can we love God and hate our bodies?

Food Network host Aarti Sequeira and physical therapist Keewani Vallejo Cook get real about body image, identity, and what it means to worship God with our whole selves in the latest episode of Nuance.

The episode lit up social media this week as Aarti Sequeira made some bold statements about aging and owning the lines, scars, and silver streaks. It was cool to see people talk about and engage the content, which we created to encourage honest conversations about living out faith in these times.

From disordered eating to fitness culture, aging, and beauty standards, nothing is off the table as they share deeply personal stories and raw reflections on how we see ourselves—and how God sees us.

If gravity is pulling at your skin or you feel the limits and challenges of the embodied life, you’ll be encouraged by this conversation.

Train your dragons

Are there any original ideas anymore?

Looking at the theatrical line ups these days one wonders. Disney reboots animated classics as live action films to churn out hundred million dollar profits like clockwork now. Barbie and the Mario Bros movies have birthed an entire industry of bringing games to life on film (the Minecraft film was this summer’s best example).

Who can blame them? Original ideas aren’t needed if you want to make a profit or entertain. Some films are reimagined in a much more delightful way than others, true expressions of craft. Others are clearly just money-grabs. I’m not complaining: families need things to do on those rainy afternoons, frequent PD days, and summer nights when the parents have run out of steam.

I’ve heard great things about the upcoming live action version of the popular How To Train Your Dragon film from Dreamworks) and Universal. I’ll certainly take the family to see it.

As an indie filmmaker and author it sometimes feels daunting or discouraging to think about how your ideas will ever break through, especially when screens are booked up with recycled content that continues to dominate the bookshelves and box offices. And yet, whenever I sit for a film or buy a book, I can’t help but marvel at the fact that somehow, some creative somewhere found a way to tell their story and get me into a seat or get their document into my hands.

Being an audience member is a marvel of marketing and creativity in and of itself. There’s a love for story, adventure, and creativity that’s built into all this consumption. I’ll continue to show up as a movie-loving, story-hungry fan. And I’ll enjoy it.

And I’ll be grateful for every word of mine that’s read, scanned, shared in the world too.

What’s a story you love that you marvel at and are grateful is in the world? I’d love to know. Share it in the comments below!