Where has the time gone?

My two oldest, a lifetime ago.

Another goodbye

Family bookends saying goodbye

The phone jangled us awake in the middle of the night, stopping our hearts and starting our minds spinning. The automated message, detailing flight changes for our daughter's morning departure to Idaho, reassured us that all was well in the world, even if the airlines did have the indecency to send their message at three in the morning.

The pounding of our hearts made sleep difficult, and the reality of middle-of-the-night phone call possibilities made our goodbyes today that much more tender.

As the college days approach this September, goodbyes will become part of the routine rather than the exception. The truth is I am excited for the days ahead, and I am thrilled with all the reasons we are having to say goodbye. But I also know that life is fragile and tragedy happens. I must remind myself that fear is a thief, stealing joy and excitement from ordinary and extraordinary days alike. I have no desire to give in to the thief; I know that God can be trusted. Truly. With all things. I will walk in that truth.

And so we say goodbye and say hello to all that pulls us apart. Time will fly, and we will hug in another airport, share our stories, and I will feel sweet arms wrapped around my neck once again.

I love you, dear girl.

Hot summer evenings

And it goes on and on, oh,
watching the river run,
Further and further from things that we've done,
Leaving them one by one.
And we have just begun watching the river run.
Listening and learning and yearning.
Run, river, run.

~Watching the River Run~
Loggins and Messina

A New Knitting Book

Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting: Celebrating the Gift of Knitting with Twenty-Four Beautiful Patterns

A lovely book by a woman from my community. Great patterns, interesting stories.

From Amazon.com:

Lorna knits virtually everywhere she goes—but it isn’t about using her time productively. Knitting gives her something far more precious than anything she can make with yarn and needles: a way to express her faith and love for others, and the blessings that have come from the priceless connections she’s made with people. Each person has been at the right place at the right time, for a reason—and Lorna has been there, knitting, with a story to tell or an ear to lend, also for a reason. In this book Lorna shares twenty-four of her most memorable stories,each inspiring a beautiful knitting project.

There is a sock pattern that is inspiring me to finally give footwear a try. I better get started before my knitting master leaves for college.

Half Dome pics

It was an unforgettable father-daughter experience.

Summer reading challenge update

(The complete summer reading list is here.)

I am done with my Wendell Berry list, but I just keep reading. The copies I have of Nathan Coulter and A World Lost are together with the short novel Remembering in this volume. It seemed right to finish all three, and I am doing just that.

My favorite Berry novel of the summer, though, is The Memory of Old Jack.

"He knows now that, do what he may, his history is about to wash over his mind again, like water over a field under a hard rain...he will have to consider once more the way things might have been, and the way they were. Too old to work and get around, he can do nothing but let it come."

"He had become a man whose presence changed other men; when he came among them his influence was discernible in the way they looked or stood or spoke."

"....therefore he would not acquire more land, but instead turn his effort with redoubled care in upon the land that was rightfully his, not because it belonged to him so much as because, by the expenditure of history and work, he belonged to it, and because he could properly attend to it by himself."

"That silence is the most demanding thing he knows right now, and he has come out to sit alone in it, to let his thoughts come to rest in it, if they will."

I have also finished my foodie list of books, although The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater is not the type of book one finishes; it is a food diary inspired by the fresh ingredients available at the markets.

One of the bakers at this morning's farmers' market had some soft white rolls, their pale crust freckled with sesame seeds. Few breads would be nicer with the roast lamb, the spongy dough soaking up the lamb's herb-enriched juices. So what was going to be a semi-formal Sunday roast for four suddenly becomes an informal lunch, eaten outdoors, with me carving somewhat badly and everyone piling wafer-thin slices of rose-pink meat into flat, fluffy rolls.

Warning: this book will make you hungry and may increase your trips to your local farmers' market. Ask me how I know.


Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

I didn't intend for so many of my book choices to discuss death, but they do. It is not inappropriate for this summer and I appreciate prose that awakens me when I am tempted to stuff my feelings and head straight to denial.

Two-Part Invention is a beautiful combination of the story of marriage and of the illness and death of L'Engle's husband Hugh Franklin. It is honest, affectionate, and heart-breaking. Highly recommended.

They did it!!!

Yesterday afternoon my husband and oldest daughter took off for a father-daughter adventure to Yosemite. They've been training to climb Half Dome, and today they did it! Thanks to the kindness of a stranger with a blackberry, I even have a picture to prove that Madelaine was there:

The hike is 16.4 miles from the valley floor and back, and the cables at the end that head up the side of the mountain are...shall we say...daunting... if you have any feelings about heights at all.

Here is a picture from the same hike, taken by my sons earlier this summer:

Those look like ants, but they are full-sized people climbing the cables to the top of the dome. Wowza.

The hikers get home tomorrow, and a celebration is in order.

Gratitude for the crew

Gratitude numbers 96-100, better known as my beautiful children. They have been an exceptional blessing of late. They have cleaned my mother's home, built a deck to my mother's door, dug (and dug and dug) post holes for a new fence, and been generally terrific.

Even though our lives have been so intensely focused on my mother's illness, children provide a reason to keep looking forward, to keep on the bright side of life. College financing is getting worked out, an Eagle Scout project has begun, and the last few school bits are getting worked out each day. It's not a summer of leisurely walks and sips of tea on the deck, but it sure is sweet thanks to these five vunderbar offspring. I am one blessed mama.

A keeper of a quote

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time. ~John Lubbock

HT: Miz Booshay

Soundtrack of gratitude

Nineteen more bits of gratitude, songs collected by a friend to keep me company during these tenuous days. Perfectly timed, perfectly chosen. I am blessed to have such thoughtful friends.


77. All Will Be Well Gabe Dixon Band
78. The Book of Love Peter Gabriel
79. Bring on the Wonder Susan Enan
80. The Captain Guster
81. Each Coming Night Iron and Wine
82. Lord of Eternity Fernando Ortega

Lord of Eternity,
Father
of mercy,
Look on my fainting soul.
Keeper of all the stars,
Friend of the poorest heart
Touch me and make me whole.

83. Nature and Grace John Michael Talbot
84. Old and Wise The Alan Parsons Project
85. Overcome Live
86. Perfect Day Miriam Stockley
87. Run Collective Soul
88. Until the Day is Done R.E.M.
89. Walk and Follow Jesus John Michael Talbot
90. Pig Dave Matthews Band

From the dark side we can see a glow of something bright
Oh, there's much more than we see here
Don't burn the day away

Is this not enough?
This blessed sip of life,
Is it not enough?

With the addition of these songs (just couldn't find links for them):

91. Deora Ar Mo Chroi -- Enya
92. Monoplain -- Susan Enan
93. Serenity -- David Newman
94. Dante's Song -- Loreena McKennit
95. Love -- David Newman

Here are the flowers, Shar

Beautiful flowers, sent by my husband's sister, truly MY sister, for my mother. They are beautiful, Shar. Thank you.

They are resting on the shelf at the hospital tonight, as Mom has had to be readmitted. They are the picture of grace and beauty, and they fill her little corner with beauty and the reminder of love. Again, thank you.

Basil and Lime Refresher

We've just begun getting our box of CSA fruits and vegetables for this season, and I am determined to make use of everything this year. Well, everything except the eggplant. I cannot promise that.

One of my favorite bundles in the box is fresh basil. It makes a fragrant bouquet, and I love adding it to pasta and salads. I always seem to have a handful leftover, though, so I got curious about recipes that use basil leaves. While I was at it, I looked around to see what foods might go bad if I didn't get creative, and I saw seven or eight limes. A few minutes on the internet and a few more in the kitchen resulted in the Basil and Lime Refresher, my new favorite summer beverage.


Basil and Lime Refresher
Put a favorite glass in the freezer until chilled.
Then fill glass halfway with club soda.
Squeeze one lime into soda, stir.
Add basil simple syrup (recipe below) until it is sweet enough for your taste; start with 2T. Add ice.
Garnish with a slice of lime and a sprig of fresh basil.
Grab a book, find some shade, and put your feet up. Ah....refreshing!

Basil simple syrup
3 cups granulated sugar
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups basil leaves, cut in half.
Put sugar and water in a small saucepan; heat over low heat until sugar is dissolved.
Remove from heat and add basil leaves, giving a quick stir.
Cover and set aside to cool for one hour.
Pour through sieve, bottle* and store in the refrigerator.

*I purchased the bottle above at IKEA. Perfect size.

(Next I will try lavender syrup and ginger syrup.)

Summer reading challenge change

It's confirmed: I am not up for The Idiot. I was already wondering, and then the two girls who have already read more and understood more than I could ever hope to said this: "That book takes forever to get through. I still haven't done it." This from girls who have read four years of Great Books with Wes Callihan (REALLY read them) and have read The Lord of the Rings more times than they will admit.

Even though this reading list is called a "challenge", I am not actually up for a fight. So, I decided that I'm staying with Dostoevsky but am switching to:



The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky. I loved the biographical introduction, and I have just begun to dive into the first story. It was the right decision.

Poetry in surprising places

May was the month of the Great Flooring Adventure. If you remember (some of us try to forget) we yanked out, pulled up, sawed into, and basically dragged out the former carpet and linoleum to make room for laminate and tile. We were the destruction side of the project, but we knew we had to hire someone more experienced to do the pretty part. And along came Doug, handy man extraordinaire, world traveler, man after God's own heart. He swooped down on our destruction site and made our floors a thing of beauty, becoming a friend while he was at it. Nothing like working in someone's home to get to know them; it was humbling, but he was gracious. That's a pretty good foundation for a friendship.

In the midst of the work, our son was researching and ordering an electric bass. And little did we know, Doug knows instruments as well as he knows floors. How? Well, his son plays the bass. In a band! Doug's coolness factor instantly rose in the realm of the upstairs musical den (aka: boys' room.) Band name: Sea Fever.

Just yesterday a CD with four of their songs found its way to my van and into my CD player. And, I really, really like it.

I also love this poem, found on the insert:

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

By John Masefield (1878-1967)

For more information about this new band from just outside Seattle:

A quote that keeps coming to mind

"My dear Sam. You cannot always be torn in
two. You have to be one and whole for many
years. You have so much to enjoy and to be and
to do. Because Sam, your part in the
journey goes on."

Samwise Gamgee is, once again, my inspiration.

Summer

Ken Myers interviewED...

not interviewing!

Featured in the July 2009 issue of byFaith Magazine, the online magazine for the Presbyterian Church of America.

What do eating habits, film noir, reptiles, human cloning, Facebook, economics, and poetry and have to do with the Christian life? “Everything,” Ken Myers would argue, and does, thoughtfully and audibly, at least every other month. For Myers—the living library behind the Mars Hill Audio Journal—what the church needs today is not more specialists, whether in theology or philosophy or church growth, but more “well-informed generalists” who are interested in understanding all of culture in order to live more faithfully in God’s world.

Click here to read The Well-Informed Generalist, an interview by Walter Henegar.

To subscribe to Mars Hill Audio Journal, click here. You won't regret it.

Gratitude by a hospital bedside

My mother is back in the hospital. She's recovering from a surgery that was necessary and scary and actually turned out far better than we had dared to hope. I have spent hours waiting by her bed and sitting in the surgical waiting room and standing in the hall outside her room. Waiting is hard work, but staying in the same spot for hours at a time has taught me a lot.

It has also increased my gratitude for:

66. Nurses. I am in awe of their job and the cheer with which they do it.

67. The friend who surprised me at the hospital as I waited during the surgery. I thought I was okay alone; I realized as she arrived that I wasn't. Talk about perfect timing!

68. Doctors who speak honestly. It saves a lot of worry and time to know the truth. I don't even mind cussing; cancer and cussing go together quite nicely.

69. The rector from Mom's Episcopal parish who visited despite his dislike of hospitals. Getting acquainted is important for us.

70. The friend who said, "When you need a dinner (note, she didn't say 'if"), just call and I will bring a lasagna over."

71. Flowers from the garden that my daughter picked for Mom. The herbs she chose for greenery smell heavenly, and the yellows and blues bring her cheer.

72. Flowers from my dear friend. She may live in Colorado, but her flowers on Mom's shelf are a constant reminder of her love and support.

73. Kindness in unexpected places. The friendly husband of Mom's hospital roommate, the gentle tech who took Mom down for an x-ray, the kind smile at the cafe counter by an overworked hospital employee, the promise of prayers from neighbors we hardly know.

74. The quiet moments in the car to and from the hospital. I don't have to hold myself together, I don't have to put a poker face on. It's the time for raw emotion and groaning prayers.

75. Mom's dear friends who brought her communion today and stayed for stories and laughs.

76. For my dear young friend who wrote a little story and dedicated it to my mom. He bound it with cardboard and gave it to me to deliver this afternoon. She fell asleep with it in her hand, smiling with joy. It was perfect.

Gratitude is not pie in the sky. It is not a denial of the hard stuff in life. It is not looking at things with rose colored glasses. It is a discipline, a choice, a matter of doing more than surviving. Right now the truth is that we are stretched and challenged and having a hard time. But amidst it all we have these gifts of grace, these wafts of heavenly perfume that sneak into our days and bring joy, yes JOY, even in the muck and mire of disease and dying. By faith I give thanks; by faith I am grateful.

Posted as a part of the Gratitude Community at Holy Experience

Summer Academy 2009

Schola Summer Academy is designed to provide the students and tutor of Schola Classical Tutorials the opportunity to meet and get to know face to face the people they've met online during the academic year, while studying together informally some of the subjects we all love: history, literature, and the natural world.

For three days in June we had Schola Summer Academy right here in Sacramento, right in the backyard of our dear friends (this one and this one and this one.)

The students studied church history:



poetry:



and astronomy:

Cycles: An Introduction to Astronomy and Time by Jay Ryan:

A 32 page comic book for introducing the three astronomical cycles -- The Day, The Month, and The Year -- upon which our modern system of timekeeping is based. Restore an awareness of these cycles, lost by modern man's dependence on clocks and calendars. Engaging illustrations graphically reveal the motion of the Sun and stars, phases of the Moon, and the reasons for the seasons.

(You might have better luck ordering Cycles here, and there are plenty of other things to find there as well. Jay Ryan is a man worth knowing.)

Oh, and there was just a little bit of fun. Okay, a LOT of fun. It was a bunch of great kids and we all just had a ball.

The mothers made meals and told stories and listened to some poetry. The dads participated as they could, listening in on reading time, talking poolside, and at least one daddy-o was doing a little samba dancing late one night. Ask me how I know! We all got to know each other better, laughed really hard (remember to swallow before you start laughing, especially before Sara's infamous cat joke) and tasted a slice of heaven on earth.

Wes Callihan is a major hoot, his family is FULL of great people, and we think they are all the bee's knees. And so, I will use this moment for my semi-annual

Schola Classical Tutorials Advertisement!
Join the Schola Magic.
It's worth every penny.

FYI: a little hint: his Great Books courses fill up FAST. If you are trying to break in to the Schola inner circle, I recommend you try for one of the less popular courses. To do that, go here, click on "online tutorials" on the sidebar, then scroll down to the 2009-2010 weekly schedule. If a course does not have an asterisk, there is a chance there is still room. What are you waiting for?

Friends, music, poolside...it was an evening to remember