well,

I sold a book on Amazon and had an email asking why I charged
more for the postage than what it costs to send it. 
Well,I got an attitude. 
You know how that goes. Something else to do and deal with. 
 Well, I had to find where Amazon suggests the 3.00 plus 99 cents. 
I sent an email and she responded. We went back and forth for about
5 emails, turning into conversation! A wonderful one.  
Well, now I am smiling. I had sold her an Anne Graham
Lotz's  Bible Study book. 
 Ended up blessing each other at the very end.

Heading out at the end of the week for Thanksgiving week. 
The days are marching towards our suitcases very fast.

Have a very good time with family and friends and turkey. 

This event is now fully subscribed.

This event 
and this event
and this event,
then this event.

Those Brits have a way of saying "Sold out!"

Friday with my sister

Talking
on 
the 
phone
for 
2 
hours.

Oh, so very thankful for this dear sister of mine!

All ending with -ness

Words from THE LIVING PAGE:

 Playfulness: an awareness of the formative power of the local environment,
 human and natural, and stability.
 Wendell Berry's idea of the importance of "knowing where ( we are ) , and the
 pleasures and pains of being there."

 Timefulness: Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Vanier, Living Gently in a Violent
 World,  the sense of having all the time one needs, unhurried,
 the cadence of Glory.

 Nuancefulness: coined by Calvin Seerveld, the awareness that there is a
 stratum of truth beyond fact. Beauty.

Words to live in. 

blue sky

Crystal blue sky as I look out the kitchen window.
My heart is lighter. 
All hotel rooms booked for the trip plus to my daughter in law's graduation
in December from Grad School. 
Now to plan our days. Any tips for jet lag?

We saw Macbeth yesterday. It was filmed at the Manchester International
Festival and took place in a desconsecrated church. The setting added to 
the performance. The performances by Kenneth Branagh and Alex 
Kingston ( Macbeth and Lady Macbeth) brought a record sell out 
in July in 9 minutes. Watch a trailer here. 

In the opening scene,  the battle scenes are in the wide center aisle
which is covered with dirt. It rains so now it is covered with mud for the
rest of the play. You are in everything from mud to daggers to sleep walking 
to witches and the high ambition of Macbeth. 

Tremendous acting for the famous scenes: 
Lady Macbeth's "Out damn spot" as guilt devours her. She is sleepwalking and 
still washing blood off her arms and hands. Kingston plays it with torment. 
Macbeth hears her howl then the news of her death. He starts out with 
"Tomorrow, tomorrow..." and the camera fixes on his face. His composure
breaks down to such pain that he barely whispers the last words:  signifying nothing.

There is a beauty beyond words in  their performances of  the beautiful poetry
of their lines. We see Macbeth lay hold of his own glory and ransack Scotland
to  a culture of evil. I couldn't help thinking of our current days with the violence 
in our land. Very good well written review here. 

Dreams do come true

Once upon a time............

A son spends a semester in London, southwest on the Thames,
and of course, we want to visit him.
So we book a flight and a hotel and plan the days.
Then an idea pops into our minds.
The girls' hearts.
Paris.
So we book the train through the Chunnel and plan our days.
Then, where do we stay?
Working on where to stay  and how to get around under ground or above ground.

Any help with the City of Lights?
Need to book a hotel for 2 nights. Seems like a FB request that you see
all the time but I won't go there!

funny how an hour makes a difference

Doesn't it?
We all commented on how dark it was at dinner last night. 
Then it is nice to get up in the light. 
I live with a rooster and he likes to get up in the dark. 
I just don't understand. 

Somehow in October the holidays seemed far away. 
We turned the page of the calendar and here are the 
holidays. There seems to be much responsiblity with 
Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So here are words from a friend who sent them 
to me for a good night's sleep:

Sleep in peace tonight. Narrate all the goodnesses of the Lord to you
today and "He giveth his beloved sleep."

the hardest letter to write

You don't send an email for a sympathy note. 

No, ma'am.

You put pen to paper.

You sit and think.

Open your Bible.

Find any journals to pull from for quotes or even prayers for the family.

This morning I sent  6 sympathy cards in the mail.

This had weighed heavy on my heart. Three funerals  and I wasn't able

to go to any.  Crafting comfort words is hard. I watched my daughter

and husband stop with pen in hand and think. Each had short full sentences

right to the heart of the person we were writing. These words are to comfort. 

Next hardest is Thank You notes. You have to reach in again to 

find words , not common ones, to present a  bouquet of gratitude before the 

person you are writing. This writing is to bless.

Least hardest is Birthday cards. I wrote one of those this morning, also.

It can be hard but the card was great from Trader Joe's. This cousin
always makes me laugh so I had to find a funny one.  You know you
must make a birthday card signficant. You are paying almost 50 cents
now!

My mailbox was full as the mailman came by this morning.
I did have one letter in the stack of my mail.
From the birthday cousin!