Thursday, October 28, 2010

Hosanna: Prayer to the Trinity

For Melissa and Steven's baby.

Hosanna: Prayer to the Trinity

Giver of glory and victory,
granter of gratias, father God,
Hosanna.

Creator of caelum et terram,
covenant cutter and cross't Christ,
Hosanna.

Paraclete of peace and spes,
promised solace, poured out Spirit,
Hosanna.

Make your mercy to be remembered.
Hosanna: Salva, Deus.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Strong enough for monotony

"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.

But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

G. K. Chesterton

losing

after knowing the sun

all of the stars would not be enough

for all of the sky

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Kitchens more Cozy

So I think the huge French kitchen was a little unreal. These two are a little more warm and comfortable, places sisters might gather around you as you cook and there might be some folksy music playing and you wouldn't feel weird going around sock-footed and with your hair a mess on a normal Saturday.


(In Everything) Dans Gratias

Pastor Wilson preached on Psalm 57 this morning, and once again I have been convicted and encouraged.

I want to better know how to give thanks. I want to know how to awaken my glory in praising God, and how to awaken the dawn of His mercy. How to see the shadows I am in as not only the cave of my trials but also as the covering of His care. How to give thanks in all things, not only when things are kind of going as I would prefer.

We'd really prefer life without trials. We'd rather not face pain, hunger, cold and loss; I'd rather not know what it feels like to have the stomach flu, get an exam back with red marks all over it, stub my toe on the doorjamb, or have a disagreement with someone that I can't resolve; I'd rather not have broken bones or broke dreams or a broken pocketbook. Knowing troubles isn't easy. It isn't pleasant.

But this is what I was born to, like every other human being on the face of the planet and like every spark that bursts from the wood in the fire. Our task is not to avoid all pain and problems in life, but to give thanks when they come to us, and to expect the coming of the dawn.

Can I give thanks for the good and the rough? Beautiful leaves, hot chai, and having to buy another tank of gas soon. Bread and wine, visit from friends, and being mostly uncertain about the future. Bacon breakfast, Kansas in the afternoon, and nightmares. Emails from little sisters, Taboo, and all those words I need to memorize for tomorrow's class. Finding my bag of winter clothes, keeping up on classes last week, and falling behind in sleep.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Amazing French Kitchen

I'll take this, thank you very much. I'll just walk down to the market every day for my fresh meats and bundles of veggies and cook all day long.
http://www.irlhomedecor.com/images/french_castle_kitchen2.jpg

Friday, October 22, 2010

George sounds like David

Bitter-Sweet
Ah my dear angry Lord,
Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.
I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve:
And all my soul-sweet days
I will lament, and love.
-George Herbert

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Go West

Beautiful fall afternoon back in ye olde stomping grounds with my sister Vicki and her horses. 10/16/10

Comfy saddle I used. I sold mine a few months ago.

My mom's White's Boots (boot company my grandpa used to president, and where Mom and her brothers used to worked).

Language

Today I used an adverb I hadn't used in probably 6 or 7 years. And it came out so easily that I sat and admired it for a minute and wondered why I'd neglected it for so long. It was French, the language I studied for about a year in high school.

Three days ago I started taking Latin again. It's a good year and a half since I took Aesop's with Mr. Griffith, and it's obvious I haven't done a whole lot since then. It has been sneaking away, one little verb ending at a time, and I find that I need to start scouring the countryside to re-collect everything I once owned.

Tonight I need to translate Numbers 1:1-21 from the Greek. It sounds fabulous to be doing both Latin Vulgate and Greek Septuagint - reading and translating Scripture for homework. This is a beautiful kind of work, and I just want every word that I note and look up to be written in my mind with an iron pen and lead forever.

I want to know all of these languages well. I want to keep a journal like Gerard Manley Hopkins of words and their origins and even make up a few of my own; I want to choose the word I say because little strings connecting it to other words tug and ease and twist and tease it to mean exactly the right thing. I want to savor their long vowels and roll their R's and dwell on the silent letters hanging off the ends of the French words. I want to eat these words and let their shapes change me as they enter me. I want language, like food, to not be merely fuel for energy and efficiency but something that alters, shapes and remains with me, and those I share my words with. I want words for the Eschaton.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Ben Alexander: GOD'S HOSPITALITY

Benjamin's Tribe: GOD'S HOSPITALITY: "The hospitality of the Lord Jesus for us is a home filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread and a feast for all senses. He makes a fuss..."

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Linoleum is nice

Of course I don’t mean it’s nice in the same way polished hardwood is nice, or even in the way rock tile is nice. But it earns a bit of appreciation, maybe even respect, in the course of a long afternoon including 30 children, a handful of grownups and a small but very excited dog, a sliding glass door left standing open and another door turning on its hinges like a lazy man or an insomniac turning on his bed.

Occasion: Sunday. Date: mid-October, when standing in the shade is frigidus but keeping busy in the sun feels like summer again; the grass still green, and the mud minimal. Menu: a pig roasted in a pit in the ground. Expectations and Appetites: high and rising.

If you haven't noticed yet, things don’t always happen as they should. A pig shot and bled, relieved of its innards which are replaced by 20 pounds of vegetables, can come out of a fire pit only about ½ as raw as it was 24 hours ago. It might look disturbingly close to alive but with a large incision down its middle ready to spill potatoes and carrots, and with a shriveled apple in its mouth. It just might.

It is what we do with these moments that decides what kind of memorable our Sabbath feast is.

Large butcher knives came out. Big hunks of hams (still legged) were stuck in a hot oven. Long loin roasts were laid on the grill outside. Sizzling happened for an hour or more while the men continued to rid the carcass of meat. Children eventually stopped standing at elbow-distance and dispersed to play in the chicken yard and let about half of the hens out, hold babies, whack each other with shovels, and coax a bonfire into life. Everyone pressed cider. Snacks held off the grumpies. The door swung, and boot-, sandal- and converse-covered feet tread and re-tread the way from the patio to the snack table to the kitchen sink to the other door and out again.

By four PM lunch had happened. I'll skip over the fabulous salad generously studded with blue cheese and craisins, the stuffed potatoes, the fruit bowl, the hummus and crackers and cantaloupe, the three scrumptious desserts, and just mention the pork – hot and fresh, a bowl of cubes chopped for the toddlers, plates of thin slices just done, piles of it still there after the dessert platters were reduced to crumb-holders. The kids kept cycling through the kitchen (and the adults weren’t much better), snagging a slice with their fingers and tooling off to the bonfire or the slide or the hay shed again.

It wasn’t until the sweeping-up happened that I wondered if it was possible for what was brought into the house by the feet to equal the amount of meat consumed. During the mopping (somewhere around switching the mop-end out because it was no longer the correct color), I stopped and looked over at the living room, comfortably carpeted in greyish shag, then back at the mop. Linoleum is awesome. No question about it.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Lately Happening, & Sister Photoshoot

"fly, fly, fly
the leaves are leaving the branch
cold are the winds
winter is coming"
Abbi, Maria, Naomi and Emili by our neighbor's old barn.
Laura and I posing by the barn. Were we supposed to look dreamy?? I don't remember.


Some yarn for some special projects! :)

Friday, October 8, 2010

Reshaping the World

Reshaping the World

for mom

Those hands can bring cheese-curds from warm milk,

rocking horses out of straight pieces of birch-wood,

and strong yellow notes from a cold brass trumpet.

I have watched those hands

turn silver knitting needles through fine white thread

night by night until it became a lace table covering,

watched them swirl dark lead into smooth lines of cursive,

and fold over tiny fingers just learning to shape letters.

They have patted small backs and given comfort

with the rhythm of rocker and song and heartbeat,

and have brushed back the hair from flu-sticky faces,

administering water and clean rags and pepto-bismol.

I’ve seen those fingers curve around long screwdrivers

and heavy-headed hammers and sharp splitting-mauls

and cross-shaped tire wrenches, wielding them well;

seen them twist and form fishbone braids,

and loaves of dark wheat bread on the table,

and thick fir branches into a Christmas circle.

They’ve been splashed and spattered with blood,

I’ve seen those hands torn by barbed-wire,

seen her knuckles scraped helping Dad under the hood,

seen her skin crack in the dry, bitter cold of January.

I have watched those hands move to marvel and give again

when the newborn baby was set at her side

after a night-long labor, never flinching from the stain

of dark red that is life.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Despair Not

"No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us: it is the very sign of His presence."
-Lewis

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

my psalm of petition

Your eyes see further

and Your way is beyond me.


I stumble down my path

because I do not yet walk by sight

and fumble in the darkness.


When will You lead Me

and show me Your plans?

Monday, October 4, 2010

Sunday and Monday update






Sunday was full of family, worship and feasting, taking pictures in the park, having tasty drinks together, receiving prayer and losing stress. Late at night, sisters and a good friend to snack and laugh and look over thesis with.

Monday, God's goodness didn't go anywhere. Praise Him for bringing my thesis defense, for making the way (mostly) smooth, and for giving so much relaxing and coffee afterwards.

Now it's off to finals-prep, and I believe He will be there for each of those days as well, For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. (Ps. 84:11)

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Keeping Sabbath

"Sabbath keeping is a publicly enacted sign of our trust that God keeps the world, therefore we do not have to. God welcomes our labors, but our contributions to the world have their limits. If even God trusted creation enough to be confident that the world would continue while God rested, so should we." -William Willimon

Friday, October 1, 2010

My Muse

As Kingfishers Catch Fire

BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:

Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;

Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,

Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.


I say móre: the just man justices;

Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;

Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —

Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men's faces.