A good conversation

            " A good conversation can't be hurried; it needs time in which to meander
                                 its way to revelation and insight."


                                " A thoughtful life is not rushed." 

 
Thoughts for the weekend from The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison. 

This girl ( related to me) got me thinking. Read here :
Peripateo: hebrew meaning:” to walk about” the same word Paul commands Christians to “Live” in Christ.  The Australian right of passage was to do a ” walk about” to go through their land alone.They were to walk a journey into adulthood. 



Heading towards this July 4th week ahead. It is a short work week and 
a long weekend on the other end!

Eric Metaxas: new book

I finished Eric Metaxas' book Amazing Grace last fall and have Bonhoeffer  in a summer reading stack.I read Socrates in the City last year.  When I saw this book for BOOKSNEEZE review, I knew I wanted to read it. I have readother books on great men in history , but I wanted to read Metaxas' analysis of who and why he choose the men:

 George Washington: our 1st President , see what is new to learn in the book
William Wilberforce: fought against slave trade in England, plus lived among a community that 
worked towards reformation : Clapham
 Eric Liddell:  Olympian runner and missionary
Dietrich Bonhoeffer:; pastor and theologian who stood up against Hitler
Jackie Robinson: broke the color code in Major League baseball
 Pope John Paul II: fought against abortion and homosexuality
 Chuck Colson: transformed life from Watergate to prison ministry ( Metaxas knew him personally)

 The author gives you permission to skip around in the book. Each chapter stand alone as well as together because each man had heart and courage to do what they were called to do which flowed out of their leadership and strength. " This is God's idea of strength, to have a heart like a lion." It is the courage to lead when it costs you to do so and to rise above your circumstances. We need to stand on the shoulders of great heroes. We need to build the vision  and relationship of the lessons of history into the next generation. Metaxas places these biographies in the tradition of Plutarch's Lives and Foxes Book of Martyrs. Thus, he writes intending to hold up the conduct and character including what not to emulate. We are to learn from the past , apply the lessons to today and the future. I could add many more men to the list. You will like to find the "secret of their greatness." Even if you know half of the men, you will learn more. Greatly researched by Metaxas!

I am a fan of Eric Metaxas. I would highly recommend this book to high school students and adults.
I have already given a copy as a gift. Invest in the next generation by doing the same.
I highly recommend this book and any by Eric Metaxas.

If you are a blogger, you can get free books via Book Sneeze by Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Lilias Trotter

A friend posted on Facebook this site about Lilias Trotter.
It is by Miriam Rockness who wrote her biography, A Passion for the Impossible:  The Life of LiliasTrotter. 

Lilias  was an artist who gave her life to missions and sketched & painted 
much of the landscape.


John Ruskin, in his 1883 Oxford lecture, “The Art of England,” tells of meeting a young woman, Lilias Trotter, who challenged his prejudice about artists.  “For a long time I used to say, in all my elementary books, that except in a graceful and minor way, women could not draw or paint.  I’m beginning to bow myself to the much more delightful conviction that no one else can.”  Exhibiting a half-dozen framed pages from her Norwegian sketchbook for his students to copy, Ruskin advised, “You will in examing them, beyond all telling, feel that they are exactly what we should like to be able to do, and in the plainest and frankest manner shew us how to do it – more modestly speaking , how, if heaven help us, it can be done.”. 

"There is a wonderful sense of expansion – endless expansion – about our love for those who are gone, as if it had escaped earthly fettering.  The pain of the parting is just the rending of the sheath, as it were, to let the flower have its way.  And their love for us will have grown in the same way, only in fuller measure, into something pure and fathomless and boundless and inexhaustible because it is “in God.”     26 May 1918

The Exact Place

My dear Book Club friends  finally got together Sunday. Here are the photos from 
Podso . It was a Sunday Afternoon Tea with one recipe from Margie Haack's book:
The Exact Place. I found the book richer after being with these dear friends, especially
one who is here from Germany. Here is the lemon pie with meringue as the crust that 
I made from the book. There's Margie below! Check her out at Ransom Fellowship.


Grandma Frolander’s Angel Pie

Meringue Crust:
4 egg whites
1/4 t. cream of tartar
1 cup sugar

Beat egg whites and until foamy. Gradually add cream of tartar and sugar, beating until meringue stands in stiff peaks. Spread in a buttered 9 inch pie plate. Or shape into 9 small meringues on a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet. Bake at 275 for one hour or until crust is dry all the way through. Turn oven off. Allow crust to cool in the oven for several hours.

Lemon filling:
4 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 lemon, juice and zest

In a saucepan beat yolks until thick. Add sugar and lemon. Stirring constantly, thicken over medium heat. Add 1 cup cream, whipped, no sugar added.

Spread ½ the whipped cream on top of cooled meringue. Carefully spread lemon filling as the next layer. Spread remaining whipped cream on top of filling. Refrigerate until served. 

 

and the next week....

Last week , we went to help #3 son and his wife move just down the major highway that 
crosses from the East Coast to the West Coast but this was just in Knoxville to Oak Ridge.
Wonderful new place to live and make into a home. Temporary as an apt but the time there
is not temporary but real and concrete and life. It will be a place of many memories. 
I say that because it has a view over a lake or part of a river. I just couldn't figure out what 
the body of water was! It will bring contemplation. 

Now I am decluttering ( yeah from  those who live here or lived here, namely my children)
and getting ready for #4 son to get back on Sunday from a month on an internship to Hawaii.
He is mapping submarine groundwater discharge (SGD), aka the seeps. which today is with fancy devices but still he is outdoors with gorgeous nature. So glad we did so much Nature Study in his growing up years.
He's using a quad copter with a camera, a GPS receiver, and ground penetrating radab. It may get bigger if you click on it. It may stay this small. Proud and fascinated.

I started reading this book while Emma got her haircut and am halfway done. 
It cooled off to sit out on the porch as the day closed her lights out. 
The Gift of Ordinary Days by Katrina Kenison

 I just saw her two sons who she writes about in their 
teenage years. She captures a time I am past with just the youngest , a girl, after
4 sons. But it is good to reflect and have words to those days. 
I recommend it. 

Back & refreshed

Last night, I covered my kitchen table with papers, glue stick , and piles from 
being away this past week  to the Charlotte Mason conference.
 I did NOT do any handwork but did room with my dear friend Carla
 who was doing the Handwork workshops.
So I needed to work with my hands in quiet.

Loved seeing friends who go back every year.
Loved meeting new friends.
Loved being up in the Blue Ridge Mts. of Virginia. 
Came back refreshed and nourished. 
Loved learning more about Charlotte Mason. She is a deep well.

Here are some blogs I am reading tonight. 
Hmmm.....

It all started here: 
Sea Angels




Catherine Frere-Smith


Pia Jane Bijkerk: Enhance


Of course Jessie Chorley in London

From Australia:
Cathy Peyton: Dare to Dream

here in the States
Jeanne Oliver

Poetry:

Is This the Right Path

This was our conference painting: Jean Francoise Millet:
Feeding Her Birds 

“It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?” 
― L M Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables

The Farmer Wendell Berry and the artist Makoto Fujimura

                                                         
                                                         12th Night by Makoto Fujimura
                                                           ( painted the day after 9/11)

Emma and I are getting ready to drive 3 hours north of here into Virginia for 
the Charlotte Mason Institute Conference. It has a new name and a new location. 

I 've been working on one workshop in particular: Culture Care, featuring the ideas
and voices of Makoto Fujimura and Wendell Berry. It has been rich and nourishing 
to work on my own worldview of the subject. Be Generative. These are two words
Mako uses to explain the need for a transformation of culture. Not a war. 
A care and stewardship so desperately needed especially for the generations to come. 
Poetry Workshop too. Hope those who never have loved poetry will begin to 
rest inside some poems and find poets to listen to. 



Listen to Wendell Berry  read his poem:  HOW TO BE A POET.

How To Be a Poet

BY WENDELL BERRY

(to remind myself)

i   

Make a place to sit down.   

Sit down. Be quiet.   

You must depend upon   

affection, reading, knowledge,   

skill—more of each   

than you have—inspiration,   

work, growing older, patience,   

for patience joins time   

to eternity. Any readers   

who like your poems,   

doubt their judgment.   

ii   

Breathe with unconditional breath   

the unconditioned air.   

Shun electric wire.   

Communicate slowly. Live   

a three-dimensioned life;   

stay away from screens.   

Stay away from anything   

that obscures the place it is in.   

There are no unsacred places;   

there are only sacred places   

and desecrated places.   

iii   

Accept what comes from silence.   

Make the best you can of it.   

Of the little words that come   

out of the silence, like prayers   

prayed back to the one who prays,   

make a poem that does not disturb   

the silence from which it came.

Just started

I just started this book last night and made the first recipe this morning. It got good reviews

from the tasters so far: me and my husband.  I did put strawberry and blueberries together. 

Always use what you have.

                     Bread & Wine: A love letter to live around the table with recipes

Here is a link to the recipe and Shauna's photo.

.

another blog to follow

We None of Us Deserve Forgiveness

 I met this writer/teacher/friend of a friend/ Rabbit Room person last week. 
She is taking a leap of faith at 30 to write , edit, and see what happens. 
For one place , she will be helping with editing CURATOR MAGAZINE.

Met Carrie thought this friend Julie: GREENER TREES.


I am working on workshops for this conference next week.
New local and with that probably new attendees but there are 
so many dear friends who make the journey across miles upon miles to 
be there. It is more than a conference but a taste of truth, goodness , and beauty. 
There is a very good blog on the site if you are interested in Charlotte Mason 
and how to implement her methods. 

                                                 The Madonna di San Sisto by Raphael

Hand lettering

Lisa Congdon , an artist , has a website here.

~ a blog here. 

~ another blog here. This one is her hand lettering quotes for a year.

+++

Getting ready for the Sabbath

with Alison Kraus:

with words:

and Alison sings Living Prayer on Jay Leno ( way to go):

Come Saturday Morning

A friend sent this song title to the start of today. 
I have been humming the song every since I read the words.

Been doing errands: Saturday errands

~ farmer's market
~ library 
~ looking for a pair of light cotton pants for my son
~ need to go back with him this afternoon
~ Saturday Alg. 2 started with oldest teaching  youngest at the kitchen table
~ cat sleeping above me on the couch
~working on workshops for Childlight Conference this year
~ taco salad tonight before #4 son leaves in the morning for California for a month

Take your practiced strengths and stretch them

Until they reach between two contradictions....

For far inside you,

God wishes to consult.

~~ Ranier Marie  Rilke, mid-Feb. 1924