Living and Giving (Up)

Sometimes you get to live the dream... 

sometimes you give up the dream and pass it on to another...

Today, when I transport my friend to the beauty salon,

I will pack these two books

to give to her hairdresser

who I've come to learn lives in an old house in the country.

As much as I have enjoyed the "dream",

I realize it is not realistic at this stage of my life.

And so, I pass on the "fuel" to another.

***

This is a HUGE life lesson for me.

Something that I am slowly learning

and beginning to put into motion

in quiet, simple ways.

Lest I Forget...

 It was just a little over a 24-hour getaway,

but oh, the delight!

 Three friends at a lake cottage!

(This was the sunrise...)

We played Qwirkle...

we talked.

We visited a thrift store where I found these two treasure...

The book is a Bible study I wrote years ago.

 One of the friends gave me the Sister Wendy book. 

 At home, it now sits next to my recliner with an older book of saints.

I even returned home with two dozen farm fresh eggs!

Simple, delicious meals,

a surprise meetup with friends from long ago,

and personal quiet time from 4:00-7:30 in the morning

were all parts of a wonderful, much-needed respite.

Thanks, Betty!

"My Genesee"

 

A dear friend died recently.

He was a poet.

It was my privilege to type out a bookful of his handwritten poems.

A few days after he died, I promised myself to honor him by honing my own, feeble poetic inclinations.

Below is today's attempt to respond to the book that lies at my bedside.  The writings of Henri Nouwen continue to be a source of spiritual challenge and inspiration to me...

from my journal page

Before any fence is removed....

 These beautiful walls and fences

I see around me this week

at the Abbey of Gethsemani

 came to mind as I was reading

Ravi Zacharias' book this afternoon.

 I interrupted my reading

to take a walk...

 God HAS provided fences,

boundaries and walls for

our well-being!

I Still Can--#5

#5

I still can sing!

Well, sing along anyway...

So thankful for a heritage of music.

And I still can read (#6)!

Where would I be without books?

What I Didn't Photograph this Week

• Myself at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo (but then again, I was behind the camera...)

• Crowded table at Tuesday morning coffee
• Beautiful countryside seen during evening drives
• The impressive Kendallville Public Library
• McClish Lake on a quiet wwekday
• My friend's remodeled lake cottage
• Scenes from Hidden Figures, a movie I really enjoyed
• The cover of Middlemarch, the lengthy but entertaining book I'm reading
• The corn on the cob a friend just gave us

Life is good!

 Following a lead in another book,

I ordered this through interlibrary loan.

 Today I read a bit more and

suspect I've read it before...

at least THIS prayer.
God has taught me WAY more
than two times that He is love!
When will I ever learn,
"miserable ingrate" that I am?

At This Late Stage

The book I might have written

if I was 50 or so.....

For now, I'm reading all I can

of lives of early church

 fathers and mothers

and asking the Lord

to use me as He can and will

at this late stage.

Senior Days

Our Senior Days go something like this...

 Jigsaw puzzles usually in some stage of progress...

 Saying "Good-by" to a sweet niece (and granddaughter)

ready to set out for new career in Atlanta...

 Reading - Warriors of God currently.

 Paragraphs like the ones above keep me plowing through this challenging book.

A stroll through the local County Extension Gardens.

Always a delight...currently wearing a wide variety of blooms.

And...

 drives through our beautiful Amish countryside.

Here we watched a hard-working threshing crew in motion.
Oh!

How I enjoy these Senior Days!

Gleaning

These we're a few of the sentences

that captured my attention

of this autobiography of sorts

by an author whose travels

I've followed with interest over the years.

Summer reading.

Oh, so fine!

Warriors of God

I'm sure our fine library had to send someone

deep into the stacks to find this book for me--

but what a treasure!

After reading an essay (also by Walter Nigg) about St. Francis of Assisi,

I began reading THIS book.

I wish I owned it!  

I would be underlining and making other comments and marks

in its margins.

Quotes such as these challenge me from the chapter about the first "warrior"--St. Anthony.

"A pandering to the crowd spells mortal danger to Christianity;

Anthony pointed to the remedy.  I a Christianity of the crowd there ceases to be

any genuine relationship between God and the soul,

which, if it is to be real, must be personal."

And..

"The flight of the hermits in the age of Constantine was a movement

from the outward to the inward, a preserving of the content of religion

from the canker of superficiality, 

a withdrawal from futility into the center of being." 

What book(s) do YOU wish you owned?

And why?

Thankful

We drove through beautiful countryside

ignoring the dismal, cold weather conditions

and arrived at our destination an hour or so before lunch.  

Here in a rather secluded corner

we settled in to read our books.

Instrumental music played softly in the background.

I believe "The Lord's Prayer" was the first I noticed,

and I jotted its title in my journal.

After reading my through-the-Bible-in-a-Year portion,

I turned to essays in this interesting book.

Ms. Kingsolver is an EXCELLENT writer.

Intelligent, humorous, but a bit jaded in perspective, I believe.

We took a break from our reading to enjoy the buffet.

Das Essenhaus (Middlebury, IN) never disappoints.

We returned to the corner to read awhile before

braving the snow flurries to search out treasures at a thrift store.

$8 afforded us a pair of jeans (Gary), 4 shirts , a jacket and a skirt (me), 

and a jigsaw puzzle (us).   Oh!  And a pillow!

With time to spare, we found ANOTHER niche in which to read some more!

(At one of our local hospitals, no less!)

We returned home to a table set 

and family waiting for a chili supper followed by a game of dominoes.

(My Chicago-area sister and brother-in-law were in town.

She spent the day with Dad, and Brother-in-law joined us for the evening.)

A good day for all at so many levels! 

Thankful.

Takeaways

 

It's been awhile since I read a novel as good as I judge this one to be!

A historical novel in sense of time, setting, and some actual personnel,

it certainly held my interest.

Here are a few "takeaways":

"Love more. Not Less.

"Then let us be among those who hope that the future will be less cruel than the past." 

"My tears  brought me back to life."

And

"Old women are the fiercest of all."

What's the latest best novel YOU'VE read lately?

Simple Stuff

 Simple stuff is what makes up our days...

I've been reading.  While the men in the house watch some basketball,

I have been enjoying this book (recommended by SOMEone).

I look forward to finding and watching an old British television production

about this remarkable woman living a most solitary and hard life in a remote place.

 This is the most recent puzzle that we completed.

Dad helps find the border pieces; husband works at the bulk of it.

I work best when alone - so finished the last 25-30 pieces while the men

were away.

 I said good-by to this sweet pair.

I'd listed them long ago on a Facebook page and actually had forgotten I'd done so!

Someone saw them and asked if they were still available.

They were.  Now I've decluttered two more pieces.

And we celebrated my sister's birthday!

Her husband was in Africa, and her daughter had to work.

She (my niece) asked us if we'd take Suzie out to eat,

and of course we complied.

Suzie didn't know WHO was coming to pick her up at noon,

so we shouted, "Surprise!" when she opened the door.

...Simple stuff make me happy...

 'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free
'Tis a gift to come down where I ought to be
And when I am in the place just right
I will be in the valley of love and delight
When true simplicity is gained
To bow and to bend I will not be ashamed
To turn, to turn will be my delight
'Til by turning, turning, I come 'round right.
(An old Shaker song)

Book Phase

 

BOOKS ARE TO READ, but that is by no means the end of it. 

The way they are bound, the paper they are printed on, the smell of them (especially if they are either very new or very old), the way the words are fitted to the page, the look of them in the bookcase—sometimes lined up straight as West Point cadets, sometimes leaning against each other for support or lying flat so you have to tip your head sideways to see them properly. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, the Pléiade edition of Saint Simon, Chesterfield's letters, the Qur'an. Even though you suspect you will probably never get around to them, it is an honor just to have them on your shelves. 

Something of what they contain gets into the air you breathe. They are like money in the bank, which is a comfort even though you never spend it. They are prepared to give you all they've got at a moment's notice, but are in no special hurry about it. In the meanwhile they are holding their tongues, even the most loquacious of them, even the most passionate. 

They are giving you their eloquent and inexhaustible silence. They are giving you time to find your way to them. Maybe they are giving you time, with or without them, just to find your way.   (Frederick Buechner, HERE)

 

 Not so long ago, I said "music is my home".

Today I realize that books are my SECOND home...

And I'm definitely in a book phase right now!

Nothing but Aspiration

She sat in our living room.  Poised and serene.

This photo doesn't begin to capture the twinkle in her eye;

the peaceful countenance; the demure smile;
the confidence of an unshakeable faith in Jesus.

Her ninety-nine years had given her composure I can only hope for!

Sixty years ago, she was my first piano teacher.

I owe her BIG time.

I admire her with a capacity I didn't know I possess.

Today, I read these lines in a book I hesitate to identify

without a disclaimer.

It so accurately expresses my experience
AND my aspiration.

Not about Christmas

I can't remember if it was free or cost only a dime or so...

but it came home with us amid a stack of books a few months ago.

I only recently picked it up and began to read.

Today I reluctantly finished it--

maybe the best book I've read in a l-o-n-g time!

In my opinion, the writing is superb.  

There is humor, suspense, information, and details

written so descriptively that they were simply delicious to my mind.

Whether your interest is whetted by the period in history (1930's), Africa,

horses, flying or remarkable women,

I believe you'd find this book totally intriguing.

A Person Like Otis

After several hours spent on the road, delivering the bookshelf my husband made, dropping off and waiting on my father as he called on several friends in his hometown, and finishing off with lunch at Bob Evans, we returned home.  Wet and cold.  Perfect conditions for covering up in my recliner with this book.  I'd read to chapter 11 before it was due back at the library a few weeks ago.  Then I had to go to the end of the waiting list and wait until my notice to pick it up again.  Happy to have had reading time while riding, waiting, and relaxing today.

I believe my favorite line was this:  "Otis rarely had to be asked to do something; he was on the lookout for a need before it actually became one."

How I'd love to become a person like Otis!

What IS It About Books?

My husband is fashioning a WONDERFUL bookshelf!

I dream; he creates.

And this one is absolutely charming.

The legs are a very classy addition, in my opinion.

Its size makes it very versatile and extremely tempting to keep for myself.

Of my several acknowledged vices,

books are one of them!  

However, realistically speaking,

one house can only have so many bookshelves.

I finished a wonderful book:  Dorothy Day:  The World Will Be Saved By Beauty.

The author, her granddaughter, describes Dorothy's only daughter's house

in this passage that I could identify with only too well...

What IS it about books?

Reading is Fundamental

I carried this book upstairs to one of my stashes of children's books.

(Looks like it could use a little organization!)

The Babar books are among my favorites.

I found it in the Little Library I may have blogged about another time

(not sure).

 I believe it is the only one in our small town.

 Well landscaped and maintained, the only thing it lacks is SHADE.

Since we lost our library branch several years ago, 

I'm particularly pleased to have this placed in our community.

Reading really IS fundamental!