Jesus and John Wayne

I thought this was going to be more about patriarchy in the church and less about politics. It was mostly politics, and something that I don't get involved with.

As a biblical feminist for my whole adult life, I did not see all that she said as evident in all iterations of evangelical Christianity. That is simply hyperbole.  

It is a man's world. That is evident in both the secular and sacred. Mainline Protestantism and evangelicalism. The MeToo movement and all the sex scandals in the secular and sacred world shows us this. Patriarchy is a problem. I do not doubt this. But she just wanted to shoot down one segment of the population while making another segment seem like they are perfect and wonderful. (You do know that Bill Clinton has his own history of sexual assault and his abuse of power when it comes to women, right?). 

It happens on both sides of the aisle, and it is equally disgusting. 

She went through a ton of history that I already knew. So, I was pretty bored. 

There were some things that I laughed at because they were factually inaccurate, and someone who does not know history is going to assume that it is history rather than just the author's interpretation of history. We are all entitled to our opinion though, but it should be stated as so rather than saying it is a fact. I wouldn't want my kid in one of her classes. I would want a balanced view of things. 

So now I know what all the fuss is about, and for that reason, I am glad I read it! 

A Year in Provence

After struggling through Adventures on the Wine Route a few books back, one of the people who also slogged through it said that this book would be much better. I heartily agree. It is delightful. 

A British couple moves to Provence. It is about cross-cultural communication, country life, and good food and wine. Delightful.

I liked the series by the same name too. It is a bit dated, but it followed the book really well! 

We want to go now and try a Patis!

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

James Mustich

This charming narrative, in which former advertising executive Peter Mayle chronicles his inaugural year as a British expatriate in Provence, offers a refreshing respite from one’s own routine. In pursuit of a long-savored dream of the sweet life in the South of France, Mayle and his wife purchased a two-hundred-year-old stone farmhouse between the medieval hill villages of Ménerbes and Bonnieux in the Luberon, set to work on its restoration, and settled—sometimes with élan, sometimes with awkward Englishness—into the rhythms and rituals of Provençal life.

Women Talking

All I can say is WOW! I highly recommend this book. I saw the movie. So I had to read the book. It is written in the voice of the only male in the room because he is the only one who knows how to write. 

It is based on the story here: 

https://time.com/6250526/women-talking-mennonite-bolivia-real-story/ 

It might be my favorite book this year. It is so important to discuss this. Patriarchy is real and not biblical, people. This is an extreme example, but it happens in milder forms. 

Freewrite: GLORY!

One of my directees yesterday is going to be speaking on glory. After our session, I took a walk (typical of what I do to digest the time and process it with the Lord). I walked up near the "Wildrose Loop" and saw the clouds parting, giving way to the sun. I entitled it "Pathway to Glory" and sent it to my directee. There was something glorious about that sun that had just come through after the clouds parted. 

It has been a good week. I have eaten too much, but I had a good talk with God about this this morning and am back on track.

My back is a little wonky too. I have not had back wonkiness since maybe last Spring when I was teaching my last classes in May. I think not wearing a lift in my shoe to church did it. That is all I can say that I possibly could have done. So strange. 

We went to see Jesus Revolution at the Regal. Who knew I had an account for the Regal Club and was able to get our tickets for $5 Tuesday! It was such a beautiful movie. (See my review of the book a few days ago). I cried through the whole movie. So beautiful, and I LIVED IT! I was part of the Jesus Movement (we didn't call it a Revolution back then). My heart is warmed. I highly recommend watching it. Talked to my spiritual director today, and she knew one of the people in the movie because she was part of the beginnings of the Vineyard. So fun to hear her perspective on things. 

One Way - JESUS!

Speaking of my director, I just love her! She is a great lady. She challenged me to talk to someone about something. Usually, she does not tell me what to do, and she pretty much said at the end, "Just talk to ________." So, I will. I am really not that afraid, and I know that it will be received well. I just have a lot going on right now. 

A lot going on but not too much. I just love the balance of input and output I have going on, and God just seems to give me that balance as I have asked him to do it. I was willing to make time for a couple this morning even though it would be meant two days in a row of more activity, but they canceled, and I think this was just what I needed to do. I was able to process what my director said to me rather than going on to the "next thing" with this couple. So, it is good. Now all there is left is leading Silent/Centering Prayer at 12:15 today, and I think I am going to do what I have already done with a directee from last Thursday, Friday, and twice yesterday. It is so good. I have not really meditated on this poem in a while. So soaking in it before going into Centering Prayer has been so good. So good. My director did something she had done with me before (maybe two or three years ago?), but it was great. 

So I am going to go ahead and repeat what I did with this group last September. The probability is that most of them were not there for it anyway!

I just finished two books today and am looking to read a new one, but Libby app seems to not be working right now. Thus, why I am writing this Freewrite.

The rest of the week is just prepping for the Instinct class tomorrow and leading it on Saturday. So the week peeked yesterday and is going downhill now! It culminates in a dinner with the Wrobs on Saturday night since we had to cancel two weeks ago due to her sickness. 

I am looking forward to it. Well, off to maybe take a little walk and do some stretching and hoping my back loosens up! 

Learning Humility

I loved this book. It might be the final one by Richard Foster. It is winsome and wise and HUMBLE. It is Richard's musings about humilty over the course of a year. He follows the different moons of the Lakota Indians. It is lovely. I have especially loved having the podcasts and journaling prompts that are provided by the Renovare Book Club. 

Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France

This book took me ages to read. This isn't a subject I would have ever dreamed of pursuing, and I had to spend time looking up word after word. But oddly enough, I ended up learning so much! 

This guy could probably learn a little bit about cross-cultural communication though. He seems to offend a lot of French winemakers along the way! 

I feel like it was a feat to have finally "finis"! 

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

In 1972, a young man named Kermit Lynch opened a little wine shop in Berkeley, California, hoping to introduce neighborhood customers to the sort of artisanal wines he was passionate about. A year later, invited to accompany an importer on a buying trip to France, he discovered his true calling. In the decades between then and now, Lynch has sniffed, swirled, and tasted his way to prominence as one of America’s most renowned importers of wines of character made the old-fashioned way—especially those that won’t break the bank. Part memoir and part travelogue, Adventures on the Wine Route is also a manifesto about the wine business and the ways in which conglomeration, trends, and market demands can threaten the very things that make the fruit of the vine worth savoring. Peppered with gorgeous (and often amusing) black-and-white photos by Gail Skoff, the book is suffused with the qualities the author seeks in casks and bottles—nuance, surprise, subtlety, expression, authenticity. By turns wise and very funny, Lynch—to say nothing of the many quirky vignerons he introduces us to—is good company indeed on this delightfully readable tour of the wine regions of France.

The Ascent of Rum Doodle

This is absurd. The fact that Bill Bryson loved it intrigued me (you have to read his Note from a Small Island), but I think Bryson is much funnier. It does make fun of mountaineering, and I think anyone who would want to climb Everest is a little crazy.

I would not have put it on the list, but...

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

Originally published in Britain in the 1950s at the peak of mountaineering’s prominence in the public eye—Everest, after all, had just been conquered in 1953—The Ascent of Rum Doodle is an inspired send-up of expedition books in general, and of climbing and its literature in particular. Imagine Three Men in a Boat Go Mountaineering or Monty Python Climbs the Matterhorn, and you’ll get some idea of the hilarity Bowman provokes in this small gem of literary comedy.

Lost Illusions

I LOVED this book. This is my second Balzac novel. This was much better written, and it was a page turner. This man could write. I was transported back to a time where class and geography (provincial city versus Paris) meant everything (maybe it still does?) in France.

I cannot wait to get the 2021 movie from the library, but I have to wait for 9 more people to watch it before me. Maybe the summer?

What a tale. I don't want to spoil it. 

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

Lost Illusions is a massive novel—more than six hundred pages. Written in three parts between 1837 and 1843, its several story lines conspire to display most of the author’s abiding concerns: the claustrophobic dullness of provincial society and the ruthless snobbery of its Parisian counterpart; the wounds inflicted by every class distinction; the corruption of love and art by money and intrigue; the tawdry expediencies of the literary world; the cynicism of the press; the energies of commerce and industry; youth’s endless capacity for delusion. Balzac no doubt poured his own youthful disenchantments into Lost Illusions. But he filters these disappointments through an intelligence so alert to every nuance of physical, social, and commercial experience that his novel exudes a loyalty to life that no amount of disillusion can diminish.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

I am doing this post and realize I read the WRONG book! LOL! It has the same title as the one that Mustich says you should read. 

It was a very good book, and the title comes from the book that is referred to in this book.

This one is about an Australian in a POW camp. It is exquisitely written but has some parts that made me physically ill! 

I am still laughing that I didn't read the one on the list! 

Here is the summary by Amazon:

A novel of the cruelty of war, and tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love.

Richard Flanagan's story — of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle's wife — journeys from the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel, from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival, from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

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

The Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How We Can Do It Again Today

I am going to see the movie today. When I reserved this book a while back, I didn't even know they were making a movie out of it. 

This book sent me back to a memory of being in the First Baptist Church of El Segundo, CA (a beach city in Southern California) sometime in the early 70s, on a Sunday night. There were hippies and congregants, young and old, gathered in the center aisle between the pews, holding hands and singing a modern Christian song (was it "We are One in the Spirit" or "It Only Takes a Spark"? - I cannot remember.). All I know is that it is a warm memory of people coming together from different backgrounds: non-churched and churched, in worship to our uniting Lord. It still gives me chills: GOD WAS IN OUR MIDST.

Who knew it was a revolution? I just saw it as a taste of heaven. 

I am in tears right now. Loved reading this book and being one of those non-churched people who came to Jesus in the process.

Praise be to our wonderful LORD.

Come, Lord Jesus.

(Going to see the movie in a few hours.)

Lenten Reflections: Friday Freewrite Fifteen

It was a sort of a holy moment just now. So I thought I would freewrite my Lenten reflections. 

How to you explain those encounters with God? I guess I cannot, but I could just talk about things that I loved about this morning. 

Meditating in the Sermon on the Mount was rich. I am still going through The Reservoir by Renovare.

What I liked most from this morning was going to the Ignatian Spirituality Center Friday Prayer. Many times I am not able to go because I meet with directees on Friday mornings, but I decided that I would not schedule anyone until 7:30 am (usually only one directee on a Friday). Their Lent retreat is on "Lives to Inspire," and this morning was a summary of the first few days. They just happened to be my three favorites: Ignatius, Benedict, Teresa of Avila. It was delightful, and I just listened to John Michael Talbot sing the famous quote by Teresa of Avila:

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

I really love this rendition of this quote:

I loved this:

Thought for the Day

Teresa describes prayer as being initially hard work, akin to going back and forth watering a garden from the well. If we persevere prayer becomes a little easier, more like watering the garden with a watering wheel. As we continue to deepen our prayer, the experience flows more easily like a stream providing irrigation. Finally, prayer is understood as God’s gift, it falls freely like rain to water the garden. The initiative is entirely with God. The period when Teresa describes experiencing prayer in this fourth way was the busiest period in her life, founding Carmelite monasteries all over Spain. There is a real link between this prayer and action.

How would you describe your own experience of growing in prayer?

Perhaps you would like today to take a walk with God around your own “well-watered garden” and have a conversation about what you notice there.

Thursday Morning Thirteen

I have had a pretty free week. We were wondering why, but I think it was because we were gone this week last month for traveling to Anne's wedding. So, when I have been scheduling my directees four weeks out from their last sessions, there was no one being scheduled out from this week last month. 

I enjoyed it. I did lead a small group for the 2HC, which makes sense because I met with them while I was on the road last month because that was a set thing I had committed to leading every month. We stopped in Chowchilla at a good hotel, with good wi-fi so that I could lead the group.

Leading that group was the highlight of my week, really. One, I love this group. They are a really neat group of people, and they are committed to doing the work throughout the month and coming to the group sharing time. There was a lot that came out of that group sharing too, and I think the pot is being stirred for many of them in all the right ways. It is stirring things in my soul. 

One of the things we did was to evaluate our spiritual community in terms of Henri Nouwen's talk on Communion with God, Community with others, and Ministry (Commission) to others. We were supposed to draw a picture of how that looked for us, and I could not think of a picture. I drew one last time, and I wanted to have a fresh one for this year, but nothing was coming - even after my drawing time during our community worship on Sunday.

But then George brought me my malt-o-meal breakfast, and it said, "I did it in circles," not knowing that Nouwen talks about the above in terms of circles! 

He had done a big tablespoon lump of brown sugar in the middle and cut my string cheese in little circles spread throughout the Malt-O-Meal. Then there was the circle of the Malt-O-Meal. So, God and communion are the brown sugar, the little string cheese circles are the community, and the circle of Malt-O-Meal is the world. 

When it all gets stirred up, God permeates the world, and the people melt into the cereal too. There is unity and oneness in it all.

(Then on top of all that, my time with God the next day was on COMMUNITY - and Pray as You Go also had a theme that went along with it.) 

Then I put a couple of pictures with our community actually discussing the article around our fire table (I am reading about Hygge too - so I was trying to create a cozy time for everyone.) and all of us at the annual prayer event as we pray for the world. 

I know it probably only makes sense to ME!

There is the timer.

A Bullet in the Ballet

I liked this story! It was funny and a mystery at the same time. Not much more to say!

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

This distinctively funny British novel—the first in a series of four centering on the fortunes of impresario Vladimir Stroganoff and his rambunctious ballet troupe—delivers comedy in high style. As readers will soon gather, Stroganoff and his dancers are remarkable largely for their off-stage antics and their unbridled eccentricities. Lovers of ballet will find the work of Brahms and Simon doubly delightful; the former was a dance critic in the London press, the latter a journalist who was also a master bridge player (which taught him, evidently, exactly when to hold and when to play his jokes). Yet there is more than enough wit, hilarity, and abandon to bring great pleasure to any reader, even a confirmed balletophobe. While A Bullet in the Ballet is a murder mystery replete with corpses, suspects, interrogations, and revelations, suspense plays second fiddle to the decidedly screwball melody. This reader would have it no other way.

Friday Morning Freewrite

Here I am with a fifteen minute timer. I am listening to a book called The Narrow Road to the Deep North. It is about Australians in a POW Camp during World War II. I need a break, and the sun is shining for the last time today at 10:13 because the clouds are coming in. I really "should" be out walking, but I have not gotten myself out of my chair. 

We had a pastoral coach stay here for a couple of days while she and another coach debriefed an international worker. She was delightful, and we had much in common. I liked her. 

I am tired. I didn't have a ton of directees this week. So I am not sure why I am. Maybe just having a guest makes you always on your toes? I don't know.

I also finished the audiobook A Bullet at the Ballet. It was a pretty good read. 

I have been consistently having Two 20 minute sits for Centering Prayer this week, and it really has been good and transformative! I don't know the mechanism behind all this, but after that coordinators meeting, I read on their website:

One time a day for maintenance

Two times a day for transformation

I had never read that before. I usually will have a time in the middle of the day anywhere from 20-30 minutes. Then I will do another one at another time, but it might be shorter. But the website quote intrigued me. Why not try this for a week?

Well, again, I don't know the mechanism, but focusing my gaze on God twice a day HAS been transformative. Letting go at other times have been so much easier. I dropped a mug on a crystal salad bowl we were given as a wedding present. It was beautiful. but I said, "Oh well." (Come to think of it, I think it was a regifted wedding gift from a couple that divorced within five years. Then she passed away in her 20s. You ask me how I know that it was regifted? They left the card they received from the original gift giver IN THE BOX! Uh-oh!).

Back to the salad bowl. It wasn't a big deal. I didn't have to convince myself it was a big deal. I just let it go instantaneously with the shattering of the bowl. 

Is this the result of Centering Prayer? I don't know, but there were other things that happened this week. Little things, but there was this baseline peace that was always there and is here as I type.

I love this Friday because we had this guest. So I didn't schedule anything for today. It was great. 

I like meeting new people. 

I was asked by someone on our field leadership team to be their "overseer" but really it is more like spiritual direction, and I am honored. I think I will do it. 

I also think I will be an intern to become a trainer of spiritual directors. They really are my people more than any other people I have ever met. So, training people who want to become directors will be really lovely. 

Well, I am getting the itch to go out and walk a bit. I think I will take a flat route and just walk with no destination in mind (which might be to go get a gift for George's 61st birthday). 

Bye. 

February 14 Freewrite 14!

I had a nice morning. I got up early and started meditating in John 17 and Jesus' prayer. I was struck by the JOY reference. Jesus wants us to live in JOY. It doesn't mean we don't have trials, but there is a "calm delight" in Jesus. He mentioned joy in John. That was fun.

I was going to sit down and do this freewrite fourteen on the 14th of February (because Lord knows, I LOVE alliterations), but there was fresh snow that was probably going to melt away in a few hours. So, George and I went for a nice little walk. 

It is the 33rd anniversary of George's proposal on another snowy day. We were supposed to go to the Buzzsaw in Albany, which was right along the river, but it snowed that night. George had planned to propose during an evening walk along the river, but we went to The Class Reunion on 9th Street in town and he proposed in my bedroom! LOL!

It was a lovely walk. The kids are out on a snow day. So, they are playing in the snow. 

I have been answering questions for the book I am reading by Richard Foster, Learning Humility. I have always enjoyed his style of writing. I don't think he has written one dud of a book! He has contributed so much to people growing closer to God. I think I picked up his book at a bookstore in Eugene when I stayed there in the summer of 1980. I am not sure. I have an original copy of the book, Celebration of Discipline. Then Beth and I did the Devotional Classics. I think I read The Practice of the Presence of God because it was on Rusty Rustenbach's shelf? I am not sure. But whenever it happened, I think I have always been a mystic at heart, and there is nothing wrong (or evil) about that. I don't know why there are all these websites against it. I see nothing but FRUIT. Whereas on those websites, I read nothing but hatred. 

And today is a day about love. 

After I am done with this freewrite, I will journal with the journal prompt based on the quote by St. Benedict above. Journaling through this book has been fun.

Even though I am not entirely sure the people in the cohort I am leading have followed through and done the journaling that we were practicing, I have, and it has been beneficial. Whenever I lead something, I am probably the person that benefits the most from it. LOL! I would say that when I would disciple women, it just always kept me on my toes. When I am in direction with another person, I am in the presence of God, and that is a very good, good thing.

I don't know how much more time I have but I read a quote about Centering Prayer the other day (I went to a coordinators webinar that was excellent and edifying), and it was, "Centering Prayer once for maintenance and twice for transformation." So, I decided to be faithful to TWO TWENTY-minute sits every day. I am good about at least one 20 minute one, but I usually do a shorter second one or not another one at all. I do not want to be legalistic about it (just like journaling), but I wanted to see if that statement is true for me, and YES, IT IS! I am only on my fourth day of TWO TWENTIES, but I think it really is true. 

There is my 14 minutes on the 14th of February! BYE!

The 12 Hour Walk

I liked it and am going to do it. Augustine said, Solvitur ambulando - "it is solved by walking." I have some exciting opportunities and just want to not shrink back (Hebrew 10:38). So, this book is well timed. I was going to wait until the weather is better though. We will see. I would like it if I didn't have to take a lot of extra clothing. So, I am thinking June would be a good time. We will see if May would work too as my allergies will be better by then. 

Here is a blurb about the book (and I have no idea where I heard about it and why I put it on hold - I always think I will remember, but I rarely do):

A master class in athleticism, resilience, and human potential.” —Hoda Kotb, Today

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Impossible First, an inspiring blend of riveting adventure stories and life-changing wisdom that teaches us how to embark on a transformative one-day journey that will unlock our best lives.

Millions of people dream of living a more fulfilling life, yet many settle for a life of comfortable complacency, allowing excuses and negative thoughts to invade their minds. I don’t have enough time…I don’t have enough money…I’m afraid to fail...I don’t have what it takes—we allow these limiting beliefs to control us.

Now, The 12-Hour Walk provides the inspiration—and catalyst—for getting unstuck and realizing your full potential. Featuring life lessons from explorer, endurance athlete, and entrepreneur Colin O’Brady—whose adventures in such extreme places as Antarctica and the perilous Drake Passage and on the peaks of Mount Everest and K2 have seen him establish ten world records—this book’s vivid narrative and powerful insight will show you how you can embark on your own life-changing journey.

With Colin as your guide, The 12-Hour Walk asks you to invest one day in yourself. By walking alone, unplugging, listening to the voice within, and rewriting the limiting beliefs etched into your psyche, you can break free of the patterns holding you back and learn how to cultivate a “Possible Mindset”—an empowered way of thinking that unlocks a life of limitless possibilities. The reward: being the hero of your own destiny.

Aubrey's Brief Lives: Volume 2

It was a herculean effort to get through both volumes, but I did it!! WOOHOO!

It was helpful to find this version of it so I could follow along while I listened to the audiobook on Librivox. 
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47791/47791-0.txt
Aubrey is so funny. He throws in little quips about them being fat or poked-mark, etc. It was an interesting book. 
There are very few women in these illustrious people of the 1500-1600s, but here is one poem about Dame Dorothy Selby that I found interesting (spelling as in the book):
She was a DorcasWhose curious needle turn'd the abused stageOf this lewd world into a golden age:Whose pen of steele, and silken inke, enroll'dThe acts of Jona in records of gold;Whose art disclos'd that plott, which had it taken,Rome had triumph't and Britaine's walls had shaken.Shee wasIn heart a Lydia, and in tongue a Hanna,In zeale a Ruth, in wedlock a Susanna.Prudently simple, providently wary,To the world a Martha, and to heaven a Mary.
I was so looking forward to hearing what he said about William Shakespeare, but maybe he wasn't as famous back then as he is now because they entry was much shorter than other "illustrious" men of the period! 
Here is an excerpt (again, exact spelling) 

I have heard Sir William Davenant and Mr. Thomas Shadwell (who is counted the best comoedian we have now) say that he had a most prodigious witt, and did admire his naturall parts beyond all other dramaticall writers. He was wont to say (B. Johnson's Underwoods) that he 'never blotted out a line in his life'; sayd Ben: Johnson, 'I wish he had blotted-out a thousand.'

His comoedies will remaine witt as long as the English tongue is understood, for that he handles mores hominum. Now our present writers reflect so much upon particular persons and coxcombeities, that twenty yeares hence they will not be understood.

Though, as Ben: Johnson sayes of him, that he had but little Latine and lesse Greek, he understood Latine pretty well, for he had been in his younger yeares a schoolmaster in the countrey.—from Mr. ... Beeston[964].

Avebury Stones, July 25, 2016

Since we have been to Avebury and LOVED our time there, my ears perked up when I heard this entry in the Appendix:

_Avebury._ Between pages 1 and 2[1334] insert the scheme of
Avebury.--... miles westwards from Marleborough (not far from
Bristowe-roade) is a village called Avebury which stands within one
of the most remarkeable monuments of its kind in England. It seemes
strange to me that so little notice hath been taken of it by writers.
Mr. Camden only touches on it and no more.--MS. Aubr 9, fol. 50ᵛ.

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

Thanks to the jumbled manuscripts that are now known as Brief Lives, John Aubrey deserves to be considered Britain’s first genuine biographer. He is also one of the liveliest, most colorful, and most likable presences in all of English literature. Hopeless with his tangled finances, incorrigibly convivial, interested in everything and everyone, Aubrey led a rackety life as an “antiquary,” which might be defined as a cross between historian, archaeologist, and gossip columnist. The Lives, like his other writings, were composed haphazardly: Hodgepodges of picturesque anecdote and deftly concise portraiture, they were “tumultuarily stitched up” by Aubrey for the benefit of a fellow scholar. For centuries, the chaos of Aubrey’s papers awaited an inspired editor. He finally arrived in 1949: Oliver Lawson Dick selected, or, more accurately, assembled, 134 Lives, and introduced them along with a superb ninety-page essay on Aubrey’s own life and times. The result was published as Aubrey’s Brief Lives, and it opened both a new window on the past and a perspective on human nature nonetheless fresh for being timeless.

Ender's Game

Another science fiction book that I loved. This is a "bildungsroman" which is "a novel whose principal subject is the moral, psychological, and intellectual development of a usually youthful main character." It was so well-written that I could not put it down. 

The character development of Ender Wiggins is masterful. It makes a statement about war too. 

I liked the movie with Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield too. 

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

The Wiggin children are unusual, even for the unusual world in which Ender’s Game unfolds. There’s the oldest, Peter, a power-mad sociopath; Valentine, the sister who turns her eloquence to Peter’s service; and then there’s Ender, their little brother, who is singled out by the authorities as the military genius who just might prove to be Earth’s savior in its epic conflict with an alien enemy. Set at some indeterminate time in the planet’s future, when humanity has been at war with the Formics, an insect-like alien race (familiarly dubbed “buggers”) for a hundred years, Ender’s Game might appear at first blush to be the most formulaic of science fiction novels. But just try to put it down. 

Sunday Morning Sixteen

Sunday morning sixteen counting down. Letting my finger do the talking.

It has been a very full weekend so far. Dinner and basketball game for the alumni weekend. A nailbiter of a finish for the OSU team, but they came up short in overtime. Heartbreaking.

Having 12 for breakfast. Lovely time of fun. Talking and laughing. Good memories. The women that sweat together stay together.

I wasn't planning on going to the practice, but I gave in to pressure, and I think that was a God thing because I had the loveliest talk with a more recent alum. I think we talked for almost an hour. I asked her a question about identity, and she lit up. It has been what she has been learning. She said something like, "Good question," and I said, "It is what I do." Then she asked what I do, and I said, "I am a spiritual director." 

She looked at me with the biggest smile, and then gave me a big hug. Turns out she has been seeing a spiritual director for a while. She has been one such a journey of discovery. It was fun to hear a little bit about her journey. 

Then, we went and saw our coach. She has COVID. So, she wasn't able to come to any of the activities for the weekend. So, she stood at her back porch, and we talked.

Then, I went back home to watch the end of Ender's Game with George. Then it was back for a dinner up at Reser Stadium. It was fun, and I laughed until I cried. Something about me not being able to put my new hoodies on, and them all saying it was hilarious to watch. 

One story told about me was not true, but I let it slide. George knew it wasn't true. Perception is reality for some people. I have learned that over the years and just let it slide. Not worth correcting the error. 

George and I unpacked it this morning and went for a nice walk in the light rain. What a good choice I made with him. God's gift to me. He is all about love. Bottom line. Thankful. Very thankful. I could have gone down a different road. Meditating on Psalms 23 and 16 over the last few days helped really bring that into view. "Goodness and mercy" really have "followed me all the days of my life." and He really has made "known to me the path of life," and "in His presence really is fullness of joy." I am undone. Really undone to see your hand wash over me. I have a memory of making that decision to give Him everything on that late night on I-5 when the water came over my car, and I felt like I was going to die. In that instant, you had it all, and the person sleeping in the back seat was the person was not a good influence on me. I had to set a boundary and leave. BEST DECISION EVER! 

Memories are flooding, and my heart is overflowing in gratefulness to God from whom ALL BLESSINGS flow. I love living in Your light, God. Really love it.

This morning has been easy and free. We decided to go to the game and then group rather than try to do church, game, and group. Good call. I just had a 20-minute centering prayer time with Mercy Center. I have not been with them for quite some time. 

Now I will get ready for my small group for tomorrow. So happy about this group, and it will be a get-to-know-you time, for sure. I might get to some Contemplative Reflection Forms. It is a group of four brand-new Spiritual Directors. 

There is my timer. BYE BYE!

Thursday Thirteen Freewrite

From my walk to Jackson Frazier Wetland yesterday

Oh, I love my thirteen-minute Thursdays when I remember to do a freewrite.

I am journaling a lot more in my journal lately. I don't do as many freewrites on here. I like typing too though.

I am reading Richard Foster's new book on humility, and he suggests journaling through the book because the book really is more his journal than anything else. I think I will do that but not have a separate journal for this book because it would be too much to track down. So, I will just journal in the one I have been journaling in since the first of the year.

To prime us on journaling, there were some prompts for journaling, and one was, "What is your learning style?" I didn't really know. I think there are many types of learning styles, but I took one that was auditory, visual, and tactile. Mine was 45% tactile. I was a bit shocked, but when I think about it, I love to pray as I walk. God speaks to me in the shower as I am feeling the warm water wash over me. I usually listen to audiobooks while playing Spider Solitaire or taking a walk. I am always moving something while I am listening to the book. 

So there you go! Some of my best worship times in Malaysia were when I played Spider Solitaire and had the worship music cranked. 

Insightful and who knew?

I am leading Silent Prayer today because Jo is sick. Usually, I am all prepared by now, but I am doing this freewrite and God will tell me what I am to say. He always does.

I met with another person from my company who wants spiritual direction. It is another person that is high up there. I am excited about that! It is all going to that Divine Plan mapped out for me on November 3, 2018! I might make it an official holiday because it was so significant for me. More and more people are becoming seekers. They see the value of listening to people and helping them connect to Jesus. 

YIPPEE DIPPEE!

(I am feeling somewhat frisky and silly right now.)

Oh, I have been meditating on the Lord's Prayer all week, and on the "Our Father" part, I put the poem I wrote about my dad (and had written for the "Suffering Grief and Losses" station of the 2HC). I will share it here eventually. Boy, did I ever cry while writing it and reading it to my group, but I need to not feel bad about that. I just cry. And that is OK!

I need to write down everyone I am meeting with. There are a lot of new people, and old people have faded away somewhat. One that I was meeting temporarily about the Enneagram has gone to trauma therapy, and I think that is a very good thing! Another has totally ghosted me. I walked with her through a major transition, and now there is no word from her, but I think that is OK! I let her go. I never heard back from one of the spiritual directors in training when she had to suspend our time to meet with the prescribed Ignatian director from Sustainable Faith. I never heard back from her, even though I think that ended in the summer of 2022, but that is OK because I really am transitioning more and more to international workers and leaders who work with international workers (i.e. spiritual directors). So that is really more where my calling is going.

There is the thirteen-minute timer. BYE!