Zoom Away and Zoom Upstream (1000 Books to Read)

Mustich has the whole Zoom Trilogy on the list, but my library only bought the first book (at my request) back in 2019. I didn't want to invest the money, but I certainly wanted to FINISH all the children's books on the 1000 Books to Read Before You Die List. The other day, I got this bright idea: why not see if it is read on YouTube, and it was!

So, I have closure! It is a sweet trilogy. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

Tucked away deep in the folds of a reader’s earliest memories, the imaginative magic of beloved picture books can shape and color all that he or she will come to learn—especially when the books in question are as wonderful as the three Zoom tales of Tim Wynne-Jones and Eric Beddows, which relate the adventures of a cat in search of his mysterious, seafaring Uncle Roy. Zoom’s search leads him to his uncle’s friend Maria, a woman whose house holds not only the ocean (as we discover in Zoom at Sea), but also—up near the attic—the North Pole (Zoom Away), and—behind the books in the library—Egypt and the Nile (Zoom Upstream). With a gentle mix of wisdom and whimsy, the author and the illustrator take us by the hand and lead us, easily and gracefully, into the heady atmosphere of imagination’s chamber. If you ever find better picture books to share— and share again, and again—with your children, you’re a lucky family indeed.

Kon-Tiki (1000 Books to Read)

What an adventure. I found this story so engaging and fascinating. I ended up watching the documentary on the expedition and a movie made about it. The movie changed quite a few things, but it was still interesting. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

Part of this book’s immediate and enduring appeal, no doubt, can be traced to its romantic portrayal of scientific investigation: A maverick thinker conceives a theory at odds with accepted wisdom and sets out on a task demanding enormous courage to prove it. Was Polynesia in fact settled by voyagers from the east, as Heyerdahl contended? Heyerdahl himself was always careful to claim no proof for his larger theory in the wake of the Kon-Tiki expedition; what his journey across the Pacific sought to establish, rather, was the possibility that balsa rafts constructed by Stone Age seafarers could have weathered the trip. In dramatizing that possibility through 101 days of difficult, dangerous, and exhilarating journeying, the author and his colleagues won the hearts and minds of countless readers.

2024 Reading Wrap Up

I have participated in reading 52 Books in 52 Weeks again. Here are answers to the Wrap Up questions:

How was your reading year? 

I liked it. I didn't like some of the 1000 Books to Read List books. Mustich is scraping the bottom of the barrel on some of these books. Why did he include them on the list?

I read 8,000 fewer pages than last year! I was busy. I finished some certifications: Restorative Pilates, EMDR, and Spiritual Accompaniment of Children. There was a lot of online reading with all three, but those don't count as "books"!

Did you follow a plan or go with the flow?

I am continuing to work through the 1000 Books to Read Before You Die List (read 21, about 1/2 of last year). I also had Renovare Book Club Books, and spiritual direction books that I am reading to decide if I would include them in the curriculum I am writing for the training I am starting in the fall of 2025.

Did you stick to tried and true authors or genres or explore outside your comfort zone?

Many books on the 1000 Book to Read List are outside of my comfort zone. So, I tend to read new authors all the time! I read one Science Fiction this year. It still isn't my favorite, but it is on the list. 

Where did your adventure take you? Outside of time and into space? 

I went to England (The French Lieutenant's Woman, Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman),  India (Midnight's Children), Michigan (The Virgin Suicides), Birmingham (Why We Can't Wait), the Sahara desert (The Sheltering Sky) Swiss Alps (The Magic Mountain), New York (The Bell Jar), Chicago (Sister Carrie),  France (The Day of the Jackal, Germinal), Space (Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey), 

There are more places, but that is enough.

Which stories made your heart sing or cry or laugh or fly. Do you want to hug the author or country or city or state?

CRY:  

A Well-Trained Wife

I know the author, and I have hugged her. To read all the details was devasting for me. I was a wreck for a week. I highly recommend the reading of this book. 

I loved Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. I think everyone should read this book. It shows how far Black Lives Matter has strayed from this man's amazing vision. 

I liked every single memoir/autobiography I read. It is one of my favorite genres (because I am a people person and love to see what makes people tick). 

I also loved the books I read on "neurotheology" and the influence of brain science on spirituality: Practice the Pause. 

Which stories made you want to throw it across the room in disgust?

I didn't have any ones that disgusted me this year. Some I couldn't wait to finish, but none that disgusted. 

Which authors did you add to your "I want to read more or again pile"?

Practice the Pause (I learned so much from it.) 

This was my favorite cover:

Next year, I plan to read Jean-Pierre de Caussade's Abandonment to Divine Providence, the last Renovare Book Club book, and continue on my journey with the 1000 Books to Read Before You Die List (I am 35 books away from first on the List Challenge List and 43 away from 500 books. I will stop after that because I do not like the remaining books and sometimes really question why they are on the list in the first place. Sometimes, I find a gem on the list though.)

3 - Freewrite: FACE

So much for thinking I would freewrite here every day in 2025. I have been doing it in my Kindle Scribe though. 

Here is my FACE Report:

My report for the Week of January January 5-11

F: Future/Flying - I completed the Certified Journal Therapy Coach course. It was easy to get through, and I enjoyed it. I will incorporate it into my Spiritual Direction practice (I am not a coach). I had a good "flying" time with my directees, especially my 19th Annotation Group of the Spiritual Exercises. One directee is new and awkward about sharing. All the rest love to talk. I also updated my spiritual direction training overview and sent it to S. We will see who comes.

A: Avocations (used to be "Academic" but this means: " An activity taken up in addition to one's regular work or profession, usually for enjoyment; a hobby.") I did a bit of reading of Wicked and Kon-Tiki, but I primarily finished my certification.

C: Centering - Two sits a couple of time and one sit about four times. Wanting to be consistent with two sits of twenty minutes a day.

E: Eating/Exercise - SO GOOD! I lost three pounds. We went out to eat with a staff candidate for Suburban and our head pastor and his wife, (so life-giving), but I ordered a cheap thing and rode my bike, taught Pilates and walked. So, I didn't go over even eating sourdough and soup with Sydney! LOL!

GOOD WEEK all the way around. Next week I want to...

F: Send Overviews to more people considering the Body and Soul Companion Spiritual Direction Training.

A: Read Kon-Tiki, Something Happened, 1000 books reading list that I cannot remember.

C: Two Twenty Minute Sits EVERY DAY!

E: 1300 calories a day. Pilates 3x. Bike 2x. Walk 5x. 

2 - Freewrite

I was going have a freewrite last night, but I fell asleep. So even though I am posting this on January 3rd, it is about January 2nd.

Yesterday went really well. We had Retreat 2 of the 2nd Half Collaborative, and it was unusual this time because it is the first time I was not able to bring an issue for discernment to the group because one of our members was gone. So, there were not enough of us to make two groups of three. So, my partner and I were just there to observe. It worked out well, but I do have an issue, and I have seen such fruit from "Listening in Community." Thankfully, I have a community here to do it with.  My issue for discernment is:

Should I commit myself to a year of training spiritual directors from September 2025-October 2026 through another organization?

I am already going to be doing a local training and possibly an online one from September 2025-May 2026 and September 2026-May 2027 out of Body and Soul Companion. And I would like to have another 19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius group too. 

I will doing "Discernment through Remembering" and "Discernment through the Body" today and another one tomorrow. 

I will be sad to leave doing these retreats, but if I am going to start training directors, I don't think I can fit this in, and I would love to have more input about who is in my group in the future. 

Back to yesterday, after the time at the Retreat, I put on all my rain gear and went for a long walk. I rested the remainder of the day. I am always tired after these Retreat times. They start very early. 

Sydney gave us ticket to the basketball game, and it was so great to see them win! (See picture above.) They are improving little by little. I wasn't that nervous even though it was a close game. 

Then I came back and watched some news. I am tired of Netflix. I get it for a month every year to watch over vacation, but I really only need two weeks to do that. Gone are the times when Netflix would send you DVDs of rare movies that you couldn't find anywhere else. It is mostly their content. I was going to watch about the Menendez brothers, but I didn't want to watch something so gruesome during Advent and Christmas!

Oh yes, I was going to talk about the song "Defying Gravity," but I forgot to do it. I will postpone it until Day 3 Freewrite because my time is almost up. 

(Just as I typed "up," my 15 minute timer rang!)

1 - Freewrite

This is the actual field that RS Thomas was talking about. Click on this to get full size.

I am doing Freewrites for 2025 and taking a journaling course that will give me certification as a journaling coach. I am only on Module 2 of 7 modules, but I already like it. 

One thing that is said is that for people who journal every day for 15-20 minutes, there is an improvement in mental health. Since this is a freewrite, I will not give the reference for the study.

I have been freewriting off and on since about 1998 or so. I have been journaling since I was about 10. Well, it was called "keeping a diary." So it was a little bit different. 

All that to say, I did the "Morning Pages" by Julia Cameron for a good part of last year. I think I stopped when I started doing the Spiritual Exercises with the wonderful group of A, J, L, and T. I enjoy them so much. 

The certification course mentions "Morning Pages," but it is six notebook-sized pages, and it is required to do it FIRST THING in the morning before you do anything else, and sometimes it would take me up to 40 minutes, and I really love to spend time in the word and prayer with my morning cuppa' Chai. So, it was a little too laborious for me. 

Julia also makes a big deal about writing. I agree that there is something about the physical act of writing letters (in cursive) that is really wonderful, but it means a LOT of pages to store after you are done. I did shift over to my Kindle Scribe which allowed me to write. 

I am modifying it and typing instead (sorry Julia) and doing it after my time with God. Sometimes, I love to write a bit about what my time with God was about. Thus the poem at the top of the page (that I will add after my freewrite) because it captures something we hit upon when we were talking last night with our small New Year's Eve dinner group.

The question in our Hygge Game time was something about describing the perfect day. Someone (I think it might have been Phil) was talking about living in the moment, and it made me think of this poem that I was given during the We Hope Advent Retreat with Pray as You Go. You can read it and decide.

Anywho, I realized I am 320 posts away from 3000 posts on this blog. So, I am going to try to freewrite more. I might do it every day in 2025. I will set my timer and promise to stop at 15 minutes of continuous writing. That is what freewrites are all about. I did them with my kids (one still does freewrites as a 30-year-old), and I have Julie Bogart of Bravewriter to thank for that. 

Another thing that I wanted to write about is the song "Defying Gravity." We saw Wicked yesterday, and I had heard the song, but I didn't know the story and where it landed in the musical. I don't know how it ends (the movie is only Part One), but there were words in the song that made me cry and related to my word of the year:

FLY.

My time is running out, so I will post the lyrics here tomorrow and discuss them for my Day 2 freewrite.

Flying with this freewrite. 

Signing off for today,

Carol Ann 

The French Lieutenant's Woman

I am just getting to this review of this book. I read it in October but forgot to review it. I have very little memory of it! So, here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

The story John Fowles tells in his third novel begins on the English seaside at Lyme Regis, Dorset, in 1867. Yet it is told by a wry, erudite narrator who lets readers know he is writing exactly one hundred years later. In a tour de force of storytelling that is transporting, intriguing, and breathtaking in its shifting perspectives, Fowles combines suspense, romance, and invention into an emotionally satisfying and intellectually engaging whole. A master of a storytelling resourcefulness that always has us asking, “What happens next?,” Fowles here recasts the pleasures of the Victorian novel into modern literary dress in a way that only enhances their allure. To cap it off, he offers two endings, challenging the reader’s own ideas of romance, of the rights and wrongs of society’s whims, even of the nature of fiction itself. 

Friday Freewrite Fifteen

My timer is set for fifteen minutes. It is actually a Friday. When I first started doing these freewrites (too many years ago to remember), I would always do them on Fridays. For a while, my Fridays were full with the Jesuits in Scotland meditation and leading the Order of the Mustard Seed Watch, but I have cleared my Fridays until I lead my class at OSU. It is about self-care and reflection. I still lead my class on Friday, but it has been moved from 11 to noon, and I consider that self-care because I do not spend as much time at the computer as I did when I led Physical Activity Courses (PAC). I just led the Faculty and Staff in 50 minutes of Pilates. I ride my bike there and back, and it is great. Then I come home and rest.

This week was a full week. Both of the groups of four that I lead were this week. Usually, they are staggered and not on the same week, but one was moved back a week into December because of Thanksgiving. They are both precious groups. This will be the last year I will lead one of them because I want to lead more of the 19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius. I will say goodbye to the groups I have led for the last four cycles. This will free me up to have a much more free Summer and Winter break. I will miss it.

This week was full. I sat in on some appointments with a friend in the hospital, and I also helped that person out of the hospital and back home yesterday. I had to cancel one of my spiritual direction sessions to do that, but it was the right thing to do. I was able to minister to two more people who are also helping with this friend. I pray it all works out. 

So, today is me and the Lord in the morning and teaching the class in the afternoon. Then, it is family time at the OSU-Corvallis Symphony Christmas Concert. Tomorrow we will get our tree. 

The highlight of my week was taking a break from all the stuff with this friend in the hospital to host the three girls I have been doing spiritual direction with to complete the requirements for my Spiritual Accompaniment with Children certification course. The class I attended on Tuesday night made me eligible for certification. I had to have at least 8 hours of sessions with the kids. I ended up having 11 hours and 40 minutes of delightful time. I listened to them describe times when they saw beauty, did prayer doodling, noticed nature (especially the clouds), walked the labyrinth. and blessed them with "Blessing Balm." It was delightful. 

So to sum up the time, I had them over to make "Christmas Morning Scones" and homemade chai with some egg nog flavor. Then we had a mini-examen prayer time, went through the first five days of the Jesse Tree, and practiced Centering Prayer in a circle full of God's presence. Then I took them home and sang Christmas Carols with them. 

It was the highlight of my week.

The Third Gilmore Girl

I read this in a day. It was a delightful read. If you are a Gilmore Girls fan, you will love it.