Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Liver Long Day
It has been a very fun, eventful, and prosperous day. From The Liver Life Walk early this morning to dinner just a few minutes ago and every diverse thing in between, I certainly feel both a sense of accomplishment and a pleasant little weariness. Here is my lovely day in pictures:
Dad, Jenny, and I volunteering at the Liver Life Walk
Jenny and I got to walk the 5k at Percy Warner
Afterwards I went to run errands, one of which was picking up gel packs at REI
Then I planted some new additions...
...and replaced all the handles, broken or not, on my dresser...
...and cleaned out the bottom of my closet...
...and started a filing system for myself...
...and washed dishes...
...and cleaned off my table, and made french toast with sausage...
THE END (of a very lovely day!)
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Spring Time Planting
There are a few plants I've babied from infancy to toddler-hood and a few I have just picked up at my local plant store. My avocado and oak trees are the ones I've babied. They've been anticipating spring for a while now and have been antsy for a bigger pot to grow up in. The avocado tree was an experiment that Joanna and I tinkered with last spring by simply buying an avocado from Kroger, taking out the seed, helping it sprout, and then planting it. Talk about fascinating! I had no idea it was that simple. Now, if it ever lives to bear fruit that'll be a miracle, but I certainly have enjoyed the process even if it doesn't. The oak tree came from a small newly sprouted acorn in the Wilbur's back yard about two years ago. It was all but dead several months ago yet I couldn't bear to get rid of it. Then one day I looked down to discover the smallest speck of green that was ever visible to the naked eye--not even the beginnings of a leaf mind you, just a speck--and I said, "Ha, I knew you'd make it!" And so it has. Whether or not it will ever grow grand and stately enough to be considered as a candidate to replace an oaken beam in some parish church or school of learning, well, that too would be a miracle, but I certainly have enjoyed the process.
And then there are my new additions, not nurtured by my own hand until this point. I have no idea where they initially came from, but they have come to rest in my keeping. They have provided me with a bit of instant gratification, something I have not earned but nevertheless get to be the beneficiary of. These newcomers--Celosia, Verbena, Bacopa, Petunia, and Dusty Miller--will require just as much attention as those toddler trees that have been with me so long. But isn't that just like spring to be both a continual reminder of the old and yet be a provision of hope with all things new. Who knows what will become of this newness, but I certainly am enjoying the process.
And then there are my new additions, not nurtured by my own hand until this point. I have no idea where they initially came from, but they have come to rest in my keeping. They have provided me with a bit of instant gratification, something I have not earned but nevertheless get to be the beneficiary of. These newcomers--Celosia, Verbena, Bacopa, Petunia, and Dusty Miller--will require just as much attention as those toddler trees that have been with me so long. But isn't that just like spring to be both a continual reminder of the old and yet be a provision of hope with all things new. Who knows what will become of this newness, but I certainly am enjoying the process.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Quotes from The Mind of the Maker
"...if the M.C.C. (Marylebone Cricket Club) were to agree, in a thoughtless moment, that the ball must be hit by the batsman so that it should never come down to earth again, cricket would become an impossibility. A vivid sense of reality usually restrains sports committees from promulgating laws of this kind; other legislators occasionally lack this salutary realism."
" To complain that man measures God by his own experience is a waste of time; man measures everything by his own experience; he has no other yardstick."
"The poet is not obliged, as it were, to destroy the material of Hamlet in order to create a Falstaff, as a carpenter must destroy a tree-form to create a table-form."
"Our minds are not infinite; and as the volume of the world's knowledge increases, we tend more and more to confine ourselves, each to his special sphere of interest and to the specialized metaphor belonging to it. The analytic bias of the last three centuries has immensely encouraged this tendency, and it is now very difficult for the artist to speak the language of the theologian, or the scientist the language of either. But the attempt must be made; and there are signs everywhere that the human mind is once more beginning to move towards a synthesis of experience."
Dorothy Sayers
" To complain that man measures God by his own experience is a waste of time; man measures everything by his own experience; he has no other yardstick."
"The poet is not obliged, as it were, to destroy the material of Hamlet in order to create a Falstaff, as a carpenter must destroy a tree-form to create a table-form."
"Our minds are not infinite; and as the volume of the world's knowledge increases, we tend more and more to confine ourselves, each to his special sphere of interest and to the specialized metaphor belonging to it. The analytic bias of the last three centuries has immensely encouraged this tendency, and it is now very difficult for the artist to speak the language of the theologian, or the scientist the language of either. But the attempt must be made; and there are signs everywhere that the human mind is once more beginning to move towards a synthesis of experience."
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Reminiscing Over Spring Break: The Foodo-Journal
Top 11 Things I've Been Thinking About
1. How can I translate the concept of endurance from running to the rest of my life?
2. Why haven't I read Dorothy Sayers' Mind of the Maker before now?
3. As a teacher, how can I be more discerning of the times when I should point my students in the right direction as opposed to giving them a right answer?
4. What was the origen of the Old Testament school of the prophets, and did it cease to exist before or after the temple was built?
5. Why am I so good at justifying whatever I feel needs to be justified?
6. Does the fact that I'm a better starter than finisher affect the relationships and interactions with those around me?
7. What is it about food that makes a person less grouchy?
8. Will my fledgling avacado tree survive if I transfer it to a bigger pot?
9. If Al Gore had not invented the internet would we still be afftected by global warming?
10. "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." —Augustine. Why is it that I tend to do one or the other and seldom both at the same time?
11. Why do I love questions so much?
2. Why haven't I read Dorothy Sayers' Mind of the Maker before now?
3. As a teacher, how can I be more discerning of the times when I should point my students in the right direction as opposed to giving them a right answer?
4. What was the origen of the Old Testament school of the prophets, and did it cease to exist before or after the temple was built?
5. Why am I so good at justifying whatever I feel needs to be justified?
6. Does the fact that I'm a better starter than finisher affect the relationships and interactions with those around me?
7. What is it about food that makes a person less grouchy?
8. Will my fledgling avacado tree survive if I transfer it to a bigger pot?
9. If Al Gore had not invented the internet would we still be afftected by global warming?
10. "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." —Augustine. Why is it that I tend to do one or the other and seldom both at the same time?
11. Why do I love questions so much?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Playing with Poetry
The veins of life are ne’er complete
Running ‘long a single course
There lacks purpose, there lacks feat
There no depth of combining force.
The veins that spread and twine and splay
Covering ‘er the breadth of time
There springs purpose, there springs play
There must route stretch to reach its prime.
The veins that pulse life-giving wealth
Thriving on some richer fare
There flows purpose, there flows health
There the inherent grace must share.
So too the poetry of sages lends their substance in our prime
There we reap the depth of ages coursing through a verse of rhyme.
Silence and Words
"Silence is indeed the friend and helpmeet of thought and invention; but, if one aims at readiness of speech and the beauty of discourse, he will get at them by no other discipline than the study of words, and their constant practice." Gregory Thaumaturgus
Friday, December 18, 2009
We See, We Dream, We Make Believe
Sometimes we feel that there are not enough worries to take on, not enough issues to deal with, not enough challenges to overcome, and so we conjure some up hoping that maybe, just maybe these we will be able to control since they are of our very own making.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Lessons from a Week, Questions for a Lifetime
I have long appreciated the nature of the question. I have studied it, asked questions of its essence, its purpose, its origin. I have asked them of other people who know more about them than I. I have asked them of my students who know less about them than I. I have gathered those same students together to help me count the number of questions there are in Scripture because I felt that some answers to my questions about questions would surface in that endeavor. So I now know that there are approximately 2,534 questions in Scripture. I know that Job has 262—the most of any book in the Bible. I know that Isaiah and Jeremiah come in behind with 168 and 169 respectively, followed in number by Psalms with 146, John with 145, and Luke with 135. The process of counting questions in Scripture caused me to love questions all the more. I had a hunch that questions played a vital role in the educations of the Hebrew nation, and I felt a bit of confirmation in the discovery of those 2,534 questions in Scripture.
This past week I greeted, stroked, and helped burry, I talked and cried with the parents and family of, I read to, gave gum to, and played with the siblings of a beautiful baby girl who was able to make more of an impact in the short time we got to see her than many have in their lifetime. Sweet Mary Genevieve raised so very many questions. Why? How? What if? What will we do? What should I do? One seems to question much when death visits a home. But one questions so much more when it is the death of a child. Why is this grief so different?
I have heard many propositions about questioning in the midst of difficult times of grief or trial. Many of those have taken the road of supposed least resistance and said that we should not question God and His purposes for our lives. But I have seen many who have taken that road crumble under the weight of guilt, go mad with the agony of loss, or work themselves into the grave trying to create a redemptive story from one of loss and pain when they themselves yet have no hope. Some of them end up ok. But they never move past the grief or trial to being more than just ok. Why is it not only fine to ask questions but good to ask questions at such times as these?
If in my search I had found one or two questions in Scripture—maybe even five—I would have questioned the importance of questions in human life. But knowing that there are at least 2,534 causes me to realize that God intended us to be a questioning people. But remembering that we as a questioning people are made in His image, we must also remember that He is a questioning God. The first recorded dialogue between God and man in Genesis 3 came at The Fall when God asked questions of both Adam and Eve. “Where are you?” “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” “What is this that you have done?” The first recorded dialogue between Jesus and man in Luke 2 came when Mary and Joseph were looking for Him during the Feast of Passover “Son, why have you treated us so?” To which Jesus replied, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” The first recorded encounter with the Holy Spirit and man in Acts 2 caused a flurry of questions. “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” “What does this mean?”
Though God’s questions are often different than our own questions, He is our ultimate standard since we are made in His image, which means that we should seek in all things to be more like Him—even in the asking of questions. His questions are never selfishly motivated. His questions are never a complaint. His questions are never vindictive or accusatory. His questions are, on the other hand, always probing, expectant, revealing, sincere, intentional, and full of hope. The question should not be, “Is it right to question God?” but rather “Am I asking the right question of God?” Is my act of questioning born of a victim mentality or out of a longing to be changed and truly comforted?
Father, we know that we do not grieve as those who have no hope. But we are feeble, weary, and worn. What does it look like? This grief we are to bear? Teach us to grieve, even as you teach us to love and question you as we ought.
This past week I greeted, stroked, and helped burry, I talked and cried with the parents and family of, I read to, gave gum to, and played with the siblings of a beautiful baby girl who was able to make more of an impact in the short time we got to see her than many have in their lifetime. Sweet Mary Genevieve raised so very many questions. Why? How? What if? What will we do? What should I do? One seems to question much when death visits a home. But one questions so much more when it is the death of a child. Why is this grief so different?
I have heard many propositions about questioning in the midst of difficult times of grief or trial. Many of those have taken the road of supposed least resistance and said that we should not question God and His purposes for our lives. But I have seen many who have taken that road crumble under the weight of guilt, go mad with the agony of loss, or work themselves into the grave trying to create a redemptive story from one of loss and pain when they themselves yet have no hope. Some of them end up ok. But they never move past the grief or trial to being more than just ok. Why is it not only fine to ask questions but good to ask questions at such times as these?
If in my search I had found one or two questions in Scripture—maybe even five—I would have questioned the importance of questions in human life. But knowing that there are at least 2,534 causes me to realize that God intended us to be a questioning people. But remembering that we as a questioning people are made in His image, we must also remember that He is a questioning God. The first recorded dialogue between God and man in Genesis 3 came at The Fall when God asked questions of both Adam and Eve. “Where are you?” “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” “What is this that you have done?” The first recorded dialogue between Jesus and man in Luke 2 came when Mary and Joseph were looking for Him during the Feast of Passover “Son, why have you treated us so?” To which Jesus replied, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” The first recorded encounter with the Holy Spirit and man in Acts 2 caused a flurry of questions. “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” “What does this mean?”
Though God’s questions are often different than our own questions, He is our ultimate standard since we are made in His image, which means that we should seek in all things to be more like Him—even in the asking of questions. His questions are never selfishly motivated. His questions are never a complaint. His questions are never vindictive or accusatory. His questions are, on the other hand, always probing, expectant, revealing, sincere, intentional, and full of hope. The question should not be, “Is it right to question God?” but rather “Am I asking the right question of God?” Is my act of questioning born of a victim mentality or out of a longing to be changed and truly comforted?
Father, we know that we do not grieve as those who have no hope. But we are feeble, weary, and worn. What does it look like? This grief we are to bear? Teach us to grieve, even as you teach us to love and question you as we ought.
