Wednesday, February 28, 2007

A Quiet Walk

I had a wonderful walk today. It was beautiful, sunny, blue sky, light jacket weather. I set out at the behest of the dogs and kept going. I realized that I hadn't walked around the whole block since Simba's operation and since he seemed willing, we did.

My Epiphany Star
(prayer life/spirtitual direction watchword given each year on Epiphany at my church)
this year said Silence. I have been trying to make room for this in my life. I have a joyfully noisy life. I am so uncomfortable with silence that my first attempts to have a deliberate silent time were difficult. I started by turning off the radio in the car, only to find myself singing or talking to myself aloud. Sometimes praying too.
The trick is maintaining the quiet though...
an internal coversation versus talking to myself in the car.

My walk today was silent, prayerful and relaxing.
Not thinking, not worrying, not planning.
Relaxing.
Been a long time since I had that.

Someone has suggested the book
Prayerwalk: Becoming a Woman of Prayer, Strength & Discipline
by Janet Holm McHenry. I'll keep it in mind.

But for now I don't want to break the spell, with thinking too much.
Shhhhhhhh.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Friday5: Companions along the way

Dante had Virgil as a guide. Betsy had Tacy.
Laura Ingalls depended on her brindle bulldog, Jack.
All of them were companions on the way.
As we take the beginning steps of our journey through Lent,
who would we take as a companion?

Name five people, real or imaginary,
you might like to have with you as guide or guardian or simply good friend.

1. Hubby -An excellent travel companion, if you can get him to go someplace. He'll drive most of the way, without complaint, doesn't mind stopping to see the sights, or get some munchies, but he does insist that the car be cold. I take a blanket with me on long trips. I'll include Flash here although he's not the best traveller, thank goodness I travel with a DVD player.

2. Simba - My dog companion. We have two dogs but Simba is friendlier with strangers and always willing to go for a car ride. He has a favorite place staked out in the minivan- last row, drivers side. Also he's up for a walk, at all times...although not very far since his operation.

3. Several people fall into the " I bet we'd have a great time on a road trip" category. Mostly they are friends from school. Ted, Morgans, my jetsetting/workaholic friend, Katy and several others -I 'll just give them all #3.

4. Then there's the mentor category: Elaine, Lois, Magda, Molly, Dr. G. These people are more like guides than traveling companions... The sort of people you call when planning your next move (esp. professionally). Not road-trippers.

5. But for Lent? I guess my fantastic Bible Study ladies, past, present and future.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Slippers...

My son has become very fond of slippers.
His best little friend has two pairs
so he asks to wear her extra pair when at her house.
He loves to wear his (they are Clifford after all)
and he likes for me to wear mine when he wears his.
Mine are pink scuffs and very comfortable.
It doesn't take much arm twisting to make me slip them on.

Yesterday, or the day before
we were discussing how pleased we are with our slippers.
Dad was asked if he liked our slippers and invited to wear his too,
a kind of slipper party.
But Dad doesn't have slippers.
Flash was shocked,
and apparently we will buy him some at the grocery store
the next time we go,
as a present.

Those who know Hubby, know that he wears his Tevas under most circumstances.
Church and work call for brown shoes.
Snow in amounts over 3 inches require snow boots.
Football, sneakers.
He tried to tell Flash that his Tevas were like slippers.
Flash isn't having that.
If they go outside, they aren't slippers.
So, slippers for Hubby. Its a mission!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Book Meme..

I have to say that lists like this scare me.

Look at the list of books below.
Bold the ones you’ve read,
italicize the ones you want to read,
cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole,
put a cross(†) infront of the ones on your book shelf,
and asterisk(*) the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. †Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. †Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. †Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald) ??????
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. †The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) - Never finished...
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. †The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. †The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) - Never finished
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay) - ?????
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. †Bible - Never finished
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) - Never finished
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence) - ???
57. †Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) - Never finished
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) - in French class!
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay) - ???
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) - Never finished
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) - Never finished
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

If you think there is one I should really, really read... suggest it.
I promise to read one of the suggested books before Pentecost.

Lent is coming...

It seems like we just had Advent
and Christmas ...and New Years...and Epiphany.
Is it really time for Lent? Already?

Ash Wednesday has never settled into my mind quite right.
We get ashes on our foreheads...
in my memory we kept them on until we washed up for bed,
but I don't usually get my ashes until Wednesday evening now.
Is it remembrance, atonement, symbolic?

Its the start of Lent,
a time of charity, prayers and "fasting"
commemorating Jesus' journey to the cross,
leading us up to Easter.
He is almost risen, indeed!

I am tempted this year to give up or take on
something significant and meaningful,
not knowing what that would be.
Does it matter ?
Jesus gave up everything, sacrificed everything
...so how does forsaking caffeine or chocolate help anything.
Is it just spiritual discipline?
or something more.

Does God care about this?

Monday, February 19, 2007

Wild Day

Flash turned 3 and we had a big party.
No clowns, or pony rides, no magicians or funny restaurants.
We had about 10-15 kids with their parents in a big room,
with music and cake and tons of streamers,
some for the ceiling
and some to run around with at top speed!
Ok, there were some collisions and tears,
but lots of happy faces
and lots of energy expended.
And everyone slept well at our house!

Saturday, February 17, 2007

U.S. version of Vicar of Dibley?

The Minister of Divine
on FOX (next year)
with Kirstie Alley.
I got the info from www.spoilerbuzz.com

Some British shows have transferred well to American versions.
But, this one?
I'm worried.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Travel Friday5

This meme gave me a BIG SIGH. All our travel is to visit family out-of-state, although occaisionally at the beach. We've been here almost 3 years and have yet to see the BIG APPLE.
ARGH! A vacation is in order...but it will have to wait, because our next trip is to preach in the hinterlands.

1. What is one place you make sure to take out-of-town guests when they visit? (you can be vague to preserve your anonymity if you like).
Not many folks have visited us here, but we've taken visitors to...um... OK, when we lived in Atlanta we'd... oh dear... We usually just take them to our haunts, you know? Apparently we are terrible hosts. Perhaps we need practice.

2. When visiting another city or town, do you try to cram as much in as possible, or take it slow and easy?
Slow and Easy. When I visit a place on business or just to visit I pick one or two things I want to do. Our lives are busy, so any time away is for relaxing...this is probably why we haven't made it to NYC. It seems like work.

3. When traveling, where are we most likely to find you: strolling through a museum, checking out the local shopping, or _________________?
Museum perhaps, tasting the local dish, or doing "the thing" in the city. Not clubs, not shopping.

4. Do you like organized tours and/or carefully planned itineraries, or would you rather strike out and just see what happens?
I don't know much about this, I guess. I usually go somewhere with things in mind, I suppose. I always get a travel book out from the library, for wherever I'm going.

5. After an extended trip, what do you find yourself craving most about home?
Family, I usually travel alone. If with family, then I miss our routines and the normalcy of home. I'm mostly a homebody.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

A Poem and a recipe

A poem
Snow Day
Hip Hip Hooray!
Drifts of Snow,
Nose to Blow
Why not Prose?
God knows!

Cake Mix Cookies
1 box of cake mix
1/2 cup soft butter
2 eggs
350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

resumes and resuming

Ords are over.
So, resume writing, CIF-surfing and such begin! Or continue but with more focus.
Two early efforts seem interested... one- fantastic and one- seems hinky.
In the next few days we'll hash out a list of churches
to paper with resumes and then,
God knows.
Don't you love how fitting that "God knows" is.
And once again I am working on my yearly resolution to TRUST.

My Bible Study met for the first time in a while last night.
I can't tell you how fantastic it was to meet with these ladies again
and dive into some frivolous and mostly meaningful discussion.
We started Hebrews last night, 12 chapters left.
And I think we'll be able to finish it together.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

1. Share, if you wish, the biggest change you experienced this past year.
Ummm... Flash gave up the pacifier!
Friends moved away.
We are now the family of a seminary senior. Big changes are coming.

2. Talk about a time you changed your mind about something, important or not.
I was chosen to be the exchange student to France my junior year of high school,
and I backed out a couple of months before I was supposed to go.
And, also the Peace Corps.

3. Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote a controversial book called "Why Christianity Must Change or Die." Setting aside his ideas--what kind of changes would you like to see in the Church?
Something other than lemonade at Fellowship Hour, just kidding!
More younger-than-seniors,
more friendship, more fun,
but only in our outside-church interaction.
I like church just the way it is,
except the pews are a touch too high, so my feet swing.

4. Have you changed your hairstyle/hair color in the last five years? If so, how many times?
A month ago I did, first time. I like it. Hubby's still deciding.

5. What WERE they thinking with that New Coke thing?
Thinking? I think it was panic induced by Pepsi-envy.