Love and flautas.

Small Affairs, an origin story.

I’m imagining breaking a bottle of champagne against the hull of a ship because this is the maiden voyage of Small Affairs and you’re aboard! Well that’s lucky for you because you, and you alone, get the back story.

The name I chose for this new online rag, Small Affairs, is sort of an inside joke I have with myself. You’re going to think it’s cheesy. Love is always a bit eye-roll worthy. Years ago, when I felt the most abandoned, the most rejected, the most alone I’ve ever felt, God came near. That is to say the part of his character that shows up to embrace and adore us in our darkest hours materialized one night while I was on the floor fresh out of tears. I felt his kindness, for a moment. It was his bid for connection, intimacy. I barely noticed, amid my own despair, but ever since, we keep having these small affairs.

I can’t call my relationship with God a practice or a discipline. Those words sound terribly uninteresting. It’s much closer to a love affair.

Living as someone who knows she is not only loved, but the beloved to someone else is a world view, an elixir, and a calling all at once.

Everything I write flows from that place.

Everything I need brings me back to it.

Small Affairs will be about how we live as beloved ones, and how this name we have been given provokes us to love others with the embrace we ourselves experience. It’s impossible not to. It’s what Jesus meant when he said, “Love others as I have loved you.” We have no blueprint for this kind of love until we have been imprinted by the loving compression of his own arms.

We offer redemptive love to others only through knowing our own belovedness.

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And as I’m sure you guessed, the name Small Affairs holds double meaning. I’m inspired by lots of things — little things — that I will want to tell you about in these bi-monthly blurbs. It is the long aggregation of small affairs that form our messy, glorious existence. For our first issue, I’ll start with some surefire favorites I enjoyed this week.

make this.

Baked Chicken Flautas

I threw some chicken breasts in the slow-cooker in the morning with some lime juice and seasonings below so they were ready to shred later. This dinner was so easy, so delish, and flexible if you wanted to add avocado as a topping, throw some diced jalapeno inside, whatevs.

STEP 1

Combine in bowl: 

4 oz cream cheese, at room temp

⅓ C green salsa

Juice from ½ lime

½ t cumin

½ t onion powder

½ t garlic powder

1 t chili powder

3 T chopped cilantro

3 C shredded chicken

1 C grated pepperjack cheese

Salt

STEP 2

Prep and fill one dozen flour tortillas (the normal taco-sized ones):

Brush each tortilla with vegetable oil, flip over, then fill with 2 T chicken mixture. Roll and lay seam down on a foil-lined pan. Repeat 12 times. Arrange so flautas are not touching. Sprinkle with salt or Tajin. 

STEP 3

Bake at 425* for 20 minutes or until flautas become lightly browned and crispy. 

Serve with salsa, sour cream, guacamole, or whisk up a crema with lime juice, sour cream, cilantro, and seasonings. Makes 1 dozen flautas, which feeds about 4 people. And they will be so happy. This recipe was adapted from this one.

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read this.

Prayer in the Night will be one of those books I read over and over. As someone who has been through a lot of dark nights the past couple years, this book was a surprising salve. I thought it would be more about prayer, but instead the chapters are based on lines of an ancient prayer. The book is more about walking through the hardest stuff of life and how God meets us in those valleys. It is for those of us who lie awake while the anxiety swirls, for those of us who start to feel a tension as the sun sets and the night descends. That’s been me, and reading a bit of Warren’s words each night has been a nightly vitamin of peace. I’ve been helped by it tremendously. Definitely 5 stars.

You can order it here or ask your local bookstore to order one (shop local!). Think of any friends who could use it too, as they walk through long-term illness, grief, or loneliness.

I read a lot of books, and I keep track of them all on GoodReads. If you’re on it, friend me so I can see what you’re reading too. This app has helped me remember and organize everything I want to read, stay on top of the great books my friends are reading, and feel rewarded when I finish something new.

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It’s a holiday weekend, but what with the world as it is, I’ll be home, finding tea to steep, food to prepare, and books to read. I’ll be praying for peace to rule our lives. I’ll be snapping at the dogs to get off the couch. And I’ll be resting in the fact that I am not alone. You are not alone.

You are the beloved,

Leslie