Yesterday was so full of things.
I walked nearly 1 hour, briskly with lots of steps...
I wrapped gifts.
I made meals.
I prepared the dough for the fruit and nut bread.
I did dishes.
I loved the quiet and how beautiful dishes can look in the
white older dish tub.
Today we walked, not as much as yesterday.
I baked the bread and we enjoyed some for breakfast.
We had a real Trader Joe's lunch:
fish sticks + root veg frozen that I sprinkled vegan chicken-less spice mix on,
sprayed olive oil and and splashed white balsamic vinegar as well.
And then promptly ignored the instructions to flip them half way
and they got a bit on the burnt side but my Husband likes them that way
and they were just fine.
Tonight I had lentil soup from a restaurant near church.
Church I always find so very beautiful.
I feel like I am always trying to capture the beauty of it
and never fully doing so.
I've had Christmas songs in my head all day. Beautiful.
I've come to realize that while I don't have a lot of community like
I used to have, I have a few really good friends
and while we live in different cities now,
we still have a great bond and friendship.
***
I am really grateful.
I am reading this book for the first time
and it feels like such a deep gift.
I've had it a few years.
I am so grateful.
I heard them speak at about the time they were writing this book.
Madeleine just radiated love, the love of God, to us.
This is what had me reading her again, and by the next fall
(I heard them in the Spring of 1996),
I was reading Walking on Water which Madeleine wrote
and Luci edited. I read that book second to my Bible
and it was transformative; I read so much L'Engle after that.
I was really nourished and Mothered by L'Engle.
Now I know more of how to nourish and mother myself.
And that surely includes reading books!
***
I am still, while super thankful for my strong friendships
with friends who have known me 20+ and 14+ years & those who are
about 9 years or so in my newer NJ life,
I am still praying for friends for myself; people I can talk about
what matters with, which is Christ and then everything else.
Our world is so off kilter, so little space for dialogue.
Just a lot of people speaking their position and not at all
wanting to engage in the other's person's thoughts,
esp. if they are divergent from their thought.
***
Well. It's late.
Actually I had been nearing sleep when all of a sudden
we heard a BEEP BEEP BEEP and both of us
scrambled to figure out WHAT and WHERE.
I finally did, when asking my Husband if he had thrown away
a smoke detector (he had just changed them out
as they were old). BINGO.
***
So all week I feel like we have been weaving webs of
peace, re-balancing from a busy Thanksgiving time and
a lot of various stresses.
I want our home to be a haven of peace for ourselves,
even in the midst of a pandemic.
Living safely but without gut-wrenching fear.
***
May God bless, guide and have mercy on us!
May our Lord Christ help us and light our way!
Lord have mercy on us!
5 comments:
It looks like a lot of book gifting is going on! My favorite gift! Keep enjoying the little things. I find a few GOOD friends go a long way. :) God bless!
So glad to see you reading the book by Madeleine L'Engle and Luci Shaw. I met Madeleine many years ago, and Luci Shaw is a close friend out here in Bellingham, WA. Luci is a wonderful poet whom I think you would enjoy...her latest is "The Generosity". One of her reviewers says, "Autobiography once more merges with theology as these poems illuminate in splendored natural detail how the seasons of creation parallel and explain the seasons of her life as a poet. Again and again, these poems shower us with glorious epiphanies from the natural world as it reflects God's generosity at work such as "spring's impossible news of green."
What a shock to be suddenly woken by the smoke alarm!!
It isn't easy to find congenial friends at any age but I find it's harder as one gets older. I agree that one only needs a few close friends.
Have a good week.
I used to have a couple somewhat *close* friends, but as Jerry's medical issues took over our life, they drifted away be ause I had to focus my whole attention on him. Being a full-time caregiver can be lonely in that way, even when it's your spouse. Ah well, I have God. And Jerry IS my bestfriend anyway. Was/is it your birthday? Books make the best gifts!!
I have noticed the same thing about friendship, dialogue, etc. My strongest, lasting friendships are those where much of our conversation flows from our shared faith in Christ. And while I have struggled with some intense disagreement with friends this year, it is also that shared faith that holds us together--because we trust each other to put Christ first and so the disagreements are not so threatening/painful.
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