tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30099302024-03-06T22:46:47.384-05:00ladyduskdawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.comBlogger2248125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-50574156913688265912021-01-30T10:36:00.001-05:002021-01-30T10:36:31.840-05:00I've moved!<p> Hi Everyone!</p><p>After nearly 20 years here on Blogger, I've moved!</p><p>You can now find my blog at <a href="http://ladydusk.com">https://ladydusk.com/</a></p><p>All of my content has moved. If you subscribe via email, I'm trying to figure out the best way to make that happen.</p><p>Thanks so much for following me over the past years, it means a lot.</p><p>Blessings,</p><p>Dawn</p>dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-78870226254147197082020-12-15T12:46:00.001-05:002020-12-15T12:46:05.622-05:00Book Review: Working it Out: Growing Spiritually with the Poetry of George Herbert by Joseph Womack<p> </p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37645939-working-it-out" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Working it Out: Growing Spiritually with the Poetry of George Herbert" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1513857147l/37645939._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37645939-working-it-out">Working it Out: Growing Spiritually with the Poetry of George Herbert</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17522594.Joseph_Womack">Joseph Womack</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3696695834">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I wanted to read more George Herbert. Check<br /><br />I wanted to understand it. Check (mostly)<br /><br />I wanted to learn about reading poetry. Solid start.<br /><br />I didn't answer a single one of the devotional questions.<br /><br />Definitely worth my time.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-27363222995917210912020-12-15T11:57:00.001-05:002020-12-15T11:57:23.942-05:00Book Review: The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman<p> </p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42943300-the-guns-of-august" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Guns of August" src="https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/111x148-bcc042a9c91a29c1d680899eff700a03.png" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42943300-the-guns-of-august">The Guns of August</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/137261.Barbara_W_Tuchman">Barbara W. Tuchman</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3570793579">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
A Phenomenal Slog<br /><br />It took me months to push my way through this 440 pages detailing the first, pivotal month of the First World War. While Tuchman's prose drew me through and, in places, was utterly delightful, the military detail - what's a corps vs an army and how can there be so many armies? - and military philosophy were sometimes beyond my ability to comprehend. Clearly, the issue is the reader and not the book itself and there were days when this reader had only the prose to go on because the battles were outside my scope.<br /><br />I suspect a better working knowledge of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and the Battle of Sedan in particular would have been a great aid to the thematic trends reaching forward into this war. Without them, the Germans are portrayed (because they were?) as the sole provokers of all the events - warmongering using the excuse of envelopment. I'm afraid that learning about the Franco-Prussian War would only require going back further and further, though. <br /><br />The Germans were also portrayed here in horrific light - killing townsfolk, burning cities and libraries, invading neutral countries. Tuchman doesn't pull any punches in her description of their wartime activities. It makes one think that the Treaty of Versailles was almost deserved.<br /><br />The personalities of the generals - and there were so.many.generals and aides-de-camp to keep track of - became more important to the story: decisions base in hubris or fear, power grabs, decisions to appease or favor one general or front over another. Few saw clearly or completely and if they did so, like Old Testament prophets, were disbelieved, removed, or replaced. Not one comes out looking like they had any idea what they were doing, and that many lives were lost because of it.<br /><br />Careful planning and execution of that plan were seen as losses here. Optimism was disillusioned for people and nations. Tuchman shows the backdrop to all of the decisions in the game of chess and how small decisions here led to huge results there, and how those either won or lost battles, and battles won in the moment were long-term losses. The style of war, a clear precursor to Blitzkrieg, yet relying on a marching, exhausted infantry - the military philosophy outran its technology and machine ability in many ways.<br /><br />I can see why, in 1962, this would have been a bestseller and won the Pulitzer. West Germany and East Germany were separate, the Berlin wall under construction. The Cold War raging. The President of the US was a war veteran - most of the government, as well, indeed. It was a time when many of these issues were still at the fore of foreign policy and the Second War a close memory. <br /><br />Nearly six decades later, we're less conversant with the characters, actions, events, and ways of thought of the combatants; the Guns of August began to change the tenor of society as known. My own grandfather was scheduled to be shipped to France in 1918 as a donkey cart driver, but Armistice kept him home. Can you even imagine 20 years later a donkey cart in the Second War? War changed here and Tuchman gives some glimpses of that change.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-64573254652971454372020-12-03T17:52:00.003-05:002020-12-03T17:54:48.800-05:00Book Review: Phantastes by George MacDonald<p> </p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43062134-phantastes" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Phantastes" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543609133l/43062134._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43062134-phantastes">Phantastes</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2413.George_MacDonald">George MacDonald</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3605272247">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I listened to this on Audible, but the Glen Reed narration which isn't here on GoodReads.<br /><br />I read some of it on Kindle as well, but I mostly listened.<br /><br />I'm afraid the narrator wasn't as delightful as I would have preferred. I made it through and I think I followed most of the story but his voice was a little of a drone and easy to begin to tune out from time to time. <br /><br />That said, I was tracking until the last two chapters and then I was like "what did I just listen to?" I'm looking forward to hearing what Angelina and Cindy on <a href="https://www.theliterary.life/" rel="nofollow noopener">The Literary Life podcast</a> have to say. Perhaps they can detangle the end for me a little? Fairy Land seemed delightful, I hope home life became so because of it. <br /><br />I *liked* the book but the end was not what I expected ... at all. And I'm a little thrown off by that.
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This is the version I listened to:
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyb-tIi_7tbd7TG6vKyE22pSFkNSQrwjr8V0xOmhKf5I1FXqjxO7tmBeD5SOaS9cvNf2HB3hD3uSzNXkz4lYpOK2T-F6gR62I3qjPUaeA0bcylgSyiTSSWJUaXQdIHY_FljaHvkA/s294/phantastes.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="200" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyb-tIi_7tbd7TG6vKyE22pSFkNSQrwjr8V0xOmhKf5I1FXqjxO7tmBeD5SOaS9cvNf2HB3hD3uSzNXkz4lYpOK2T-F6gR62I3qjPUaeA0bcylgSyiTSSWJUaXQdIHY_FljaHvkA/s200/phantastes.png"/></a></div>dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-4417746686749205812020-12-03T15:23:00.004-05:002020-12-03T17:53:04.306-05:00Book Review: Minds More Awake by Anne White<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26054944-minds-more-awake" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Minds More Awake: The Vision of Charlotte Mason" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1438920369l/26054944._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26054944-minds-more-awake">Minds More Awake: The Vision of Charlotte Mason</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14204755.Anne_E_White">Anne E. White</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1360894685">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Wow! <br /><br />I really loved this. I've had it for years and kept putting it off - a decision I now regret. <br /><br />It was great for a cursory read, but I'm going to start it again because I know there are depths to be plumbed. <br /><br />Anne has written a lovely, thought provoking introduction to Charlotte Mason's ideas using PNEU materials, her own experience, and her own wide reading to bind ideas and practices together to give moms a view of what can be, of how to awaken minds - ours and our children('s). <br /><br />She starts with what is generally considered the end of Mason's principles - the Way of the Will and the Way of Reason, then she goes back and introduces us to the wide room of treasures she introduces as Aladdin's Cave and slowly unfolds some of the treasures therein clearly showing how they fit in a CM paradigm. <br /><br />The end goes back to the beginning and shows how those treasures have given the born person an awakened mind and a magnanimous character. She gives us CM from a different perspective than the traditional and it really works to help me see a fuller, more robust version. By modeling ideas as instruction, she not only preaches but practices as well. <br /><br />This book is firmly, gently beautiful. White knows and presents what she knows in that authoritative through experience way, but not aggressively. Matter of fact, but lovely and lovingly. <br /><br />Like I said ... I'm going to read it again right now. I commend it to you, too.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-25563712748957031862020-11-30T10:23:00.003-05:002020-11-30T10:23:20.191-05:00Book Review: In Tune with the World by Josef Pieper<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472142.In_Tune_With_The_World" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="In Tune With The World" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348827441l/472142._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472142.In_Tune_With_The_World">In Tune With The World</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/885.Josef_Pieper">Josef Pieper</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3415003173">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
3.5-3.75 rounded to 4.<br /><br />I loved the beginning of this book, the end ... less so? It didn't go where I expected it to and I was kind of frustrated by that. It isn't that I disagree with Pieper's diagnosis, but that I 1) was less conversant with the topics so probably need to read something about the French Revolution and 2) wanted more of the ideas from the beginning and less a diatribe against modern "festivals" which aren't.<br /><br />I will take the idea of acknowledging the very goodness of creations and the Creator Himself with me for a long time.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-71757896329167304412020-11-18T11:28:00.002-05:002020-11-18T11:30:31.034-05:00Book Review: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie<p> </p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54403341-death-on-the-nile" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #17)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1593980377l/54403341._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54403341-death-on-the-nile">Death on the Nile</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/123715.Agatha_Christie">Agatha Christie</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3562004848">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I'm a little shocked that this says I began to listen in September. I think I restarted a couple of times since then. I had a nice long drive to and from Kentucky over the weekend which gave me sustained listening time and I powered through.<br /><br />I've almost certainly read this before - but I was probably 12 as I read all of the Poirot mysteries the Westerville Public Library had in the YA section. I didn't care for Miss Marple, but Poirot, for some reason, I loved. I've also seen the David Suchet version of this story, although I don't really keep details of shows in my head that way. Almost certainly, these past experiences are why I figured out the whodunit on this read. <br /><br />I'm a touch disappointed in Poirot for one of his actions whilst -at the same time - being pleased with him for said action. I think that shows a flaw in both of us. The reader will understand. No Spoilers.<br /><br />I enjoyed most of Brannaugh's voices, although my 16yo came in for the last few chapters and expressed disdain for British actors doing American voices. Some of his female voices weren't particularly feminine, either. <br /><br />I think Christie liked a few of the characters too well and allowed them to escape punishment for their crimes in, perhaps, unjust ways. She didn't seem to like one particularly well, but no direct punishment within the parameters of the story was due - comeuppance will come. I find it interesting how she resolved myriad plot points. <br /><br />The book was well crafted with specific introductions to characters, their interactions, and, then, late in the book when you have a sense of who's who and what they're about, the lurking danger becomes murder. Then the unraveling. Masterfully done. Poirot noticing details and inconsistencies always shocks me - how he can find one little thread and unravel the whole from there. I think that's why I like him so much.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-34843866294201865262020-11-18T11:05:00.001-05:002020-11-18T11:05:02.174-05:00Book Review: Know and Tell by Karen Glass<p> </p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38217209-know-and-tell" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Know and Tell: The Art of Narration" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517267094l/38217209._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38217209-know-and-tell">Know and Tell: The Art of Narration</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12379173.Karen_Glass">Karen Glass</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3651254309">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Super helpful introduction to narration and how it can lead naturally into composition. We've always done narration in one form or another but had gotten stuck in written narration and not transitioning well to more formal writing. Chapter 7 is all about this, and will be a huge help when we start school again in January 2021. <br /><br />Glass includes many samples and some charts, I find the charts especially helpful for my needs and the samples, while a wonderful treasury of narrations for someone getting started, more distracting to the flow of the narrative for me. <br /><br />I plan to use the "To the student" readings in Morning Time as we begin a journey more deeply into composition and I hope to help, especially my now 10th grader, my students to grow in their ability to think deeply and communicate well regarding the ideas they're grasping hold of. <br /><br />"As teachers and parents, we want to open doors for the children, so that they have every chance to make connections to the things they are learning and to communicate what they know. With a little creativity, we can find ways to make it possible for almost every child to narrate." p 151<br /><br />All this said, <i>Know and Tell</i> can be a great resource for the educator who wants to use narration in her home or school setting with students of all sorts of capacities. I'm frustrated with myself for not prioritizing reading it as I should have sooner. Highly recommended.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-18774452674316365782020-10-13T19:49:00.002-04:002020-10-13T19:49:20.529-04:00Book Review: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne<p><br /></p><div><br /></div> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7120725-the-scarlet-letter" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Scarlet Letter " src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1402601561l/7120725._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7120725-the-scarlet-letter">The Scarlet Letter</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7799.Nathaniel_Hawthorne">Nathaniel Hawthorne</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3578563010">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I first read The Scarlet Letter as a Junior in high school: American Lit. <br /><br />No one had previously bothered to tell me that classics endure because they are so readable and have something to say that is worth listening to, so I procrastinated and read ... er ... skimmed it at the last minute and was shocked that I kind of liked it.<br /><br />I kept meaning to re-read it. 30 years later, I've now done so via audiobook.<br /><br />I still enjoyed it. <br /><br />I found that even though I remembered few of the particulars regarding the story, those that I did remember and/or had been reinforced in general other reading made this effort that much more interesting. Hawthorne's masterful use of foreshadowing and understatement, his turn of phrase, his reading of human nature all made this listening one that I wanted to continue on to completion. <br /><br />You may not agree with Hawthorne, you may find his narrative dark and uncharitable to the townsfolk, but the rewards of doing right (after having done wrong) vs the ravages of guilt vs the wages of revenge are clearly displayed in the story. It is classic American lit and ought to be read and revisited.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-72435433837825863392020-10-02T21:46:00.001-04:002020-10-02T21:46:05.197-04:00Book Review: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World<p> </p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40868770-genghis-khan-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531951915l/40868770._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40868770-genghis-khan-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world">Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2497.Jack_Weatherford">Jack Weatherford</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3465569423">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I really enjoyed listening to this. <br /><br />The reader was very good. The text was enthusiastic and interesting. The production was generally well done (but occasionally annoying - music from nowhere and a reminder that this was from Audible -which wasn't a surprise as I was listening on the Audible app). The author himself reading the afterward was a personal touch. <br /><br />The title was perhaps more ambitious than could be proved. There were many ideas that the Mongols implemented in their society - from their means of warfare to paper money to near universal education. Trade, goods and commerce, transportation all expand the world. Ideas cross from country to country. The ideas of the herders vs farmers, rural vs urban, unsettled vs settled all the way back to Cain and Abel as pointed to by the author are interesting to consider. However, Weatherford asserts that these things are a direct line from Mongol culture to modernity ... and doesn't show us how, entirely. <br /><br />Just because another people did something ... doesn't mean that it is why we do so. Even within 2 generations Kublai did things very differently from Genghis. The trouble of rural vs city dwellers is that the transition from one to the other is very easy - within 2 generations Kublai is an urbane city dweller in a very different caste from Genghis as described here. The forbidden city of the Mongols may be like a city of Mongol Ger, and they may live like Mongols, but they're also becoming a very sophisticated urbane people with education, law, economics, international politics, and all the rest. <br /><br />The road is neither straight nor wide.<br /><br />It's a creative idea that the renaissance is more Mongol than Greek and Roman, and there may be some pieces that make that true. The destruction of the black plague - and it's continued existence today in Mongolia - were a fascinating exposition of a more global society than we might previously have considered. <br /><br />Weatherford's discussion of religious factors is fascinating. He comes across as very cynical and occasionally sarcastic related to religion - from Hindu, Islam, to Christianity. The comparisons sometimes are digressions specifically denigrating the practice of religions in other places without much nuance, IMO. We can all judge religious oppression from our modern lens, but I'm not sure all of the statements here are fair.<br /><br />Clearly, Weatherford has a great love for his subject and is very knowledgeable. I appreciate his disdain for the 19th and 20th Century excesses regarding the alien: use of the term Mongol in really inappropriate ways; the oppressive regimes which tormented and culture-cancelled, de-linking a people from their history; and a general disregard for and destruction of history.<br /><br />Some bad, mostly good, and definitely an engaging read.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-55318117926692892862020-09-25T22:57:00.003-04:002020-09-25T22:57:19.535-04:00Book Review: World War One by Norman Stone<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6763612-world-war-one" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="World War One: A Short History" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328841719l/6763612._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6763612-world-war-one">World War One: A Short History</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/334382.Norman_Stone">Norman Stone</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3200308930">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I finished this as part of my Schole Sisters 5x5 challenge topic of World War I.<br /><br />There are absolutely flashes of brilliance in this book, including the entire final chapter "Aftermath."<br /><br />I think part of my problem with this book is that I'm less intrigued by the battles and military specifics than I am by the thinking and thematic trends that lead to the war and the decision making and how it affects the battles. Stone tries to give us that, but I often found myself mired in artillery numbers and passages that probably well explicated specific maneuvers and derring-do, without greater military understanding, went over my head - and his writing style, here, didn't help me find firm footing.<br /><br />Following individuals in such a mire was tricky at best and remembering which commander did what became more convoluted. I think next WWI book, I'll have to make myself a chart.<br /><br />That said, I have a much greater understanding of just what went on from this short (190 pgs!) book covering the before, beginning, war, and after. I think I can move on to something with greater depth after this particular reading. I see he also has a World War Two book, a topic which I'm significantly more conversant in and I wonder if I would like it better simply because I have better background. I suspect that is the case. I'm tempted to have a matched pair.<br /><br />Stone does a good job showing the transition from a 19th Century war into a 20th Century one and the growing pains that both sides went through as they struggled to figure out how to use the technology and mechanization. Not just utilize, but develop and manufacture such.<br /><br />He also does a good job of showing the disenchantment both sides began to feel - along all of the fronts - for the war and glories of war itself. The disillusionment of all parties is mentioned from time to time but really developed in the Aftermath chapter when dealing with Armistice, Retributions, the German people, and Hitler's reflections thereon.<br /><br />I enjoyed his writing style, the occasional sly remark, except when it left me confused. This is really worth 3.5 stars, but I'm not sure I could give it 4, so 3 it is in the GoodReads economy.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-73858725309579248652020-09-08T11:32:00.000-04:002020-09-08T11:32:23.906-04:00Book Review: Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7024567-cry-the-beloved-country" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Cry, the Beloved Country" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1256165780l/7024567._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7024567-cry-the-beloved-country">Cry, the Beloved Country</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3527.Alan_Paton">Alan Paton</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3473611526">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
This book is one that will stay with me.<br /><br />It defies the descriptors - beautiful, yes, but spare; evocative, yes, but universal; finely wrought, yes, but poured out in one extended cry for justice. <br /><br />Paton weaves together parallel lives; an odyssey or two (physical and spiritual); lost sheep and prodigals to teach us of place and identity and cultures in a way that haunts and convicts and leads us to do more. <br /><br />Paton explores ideas of justice, politics, economics, religion, and culture. Sometimes, they seem like expositional asides - mines, stock market, etc -, but always they tie back into the story and the choices the characters make. <br /><br />Paton's structure was perfectly executed. From following Kumalo in Book I and Jarvis in Book II; their own paths to discovery how best to serve their beloved South Africa and their people. Book III the drawing them together. Yes. When Kumalo's and Jarvis' paths cross in Johannesburg, yet not in their common home region, the reader feels the weight of the separation of communities. Separation and non-interaction is the problem. The two strands are woven.<br /><br />It isn't a long book, each chapter is easy to approach, but it is a feeling book. I ended with 50 pages to go and tears streaming down my face. There are ends and there is hope. There is despair and there is a sun. <br /><br />This is a book that leaves one aching for reconciliation and believing that it is possible. <br /><br />5000 stars.<br /><br />
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-42895421189628785682020-08-27T13:15:00.002-04:002020-08-27T13:17:12.307-04:00Review: Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34272476-devotions" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1494874103l/34272476._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34272476-devotions">Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23988.Mary_Oliver">Mary Oliver</a><br/>
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I finished this today.<br /><br />I understand that these are Oliver's personal selections for anthology from a lifetime of writing poetry. Presented in reverse chronological order (newer poems first), I definitely preferred the newer, beginning poems to the older ones at the end. In fact, my favorite was the very first in the book. I've returned to it a number of times over the last year. <br /><br />I'm sure there's a great deal here that a re-read would improve, but I think I'll save that for another time. I just read a poem or four for most of the last year (there were days, even weeks that I did skip). I'd like to get more in the habit of reading one poem a day and this was a good way to ease into the practice. Very approachable in general.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-51263293085663261732020-08-10T12:07:00.000-04:002020-08-10T12:07:11.553-04:00Fighting Gravity<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ib0gT7IGV-WmRsvIEAZ9HmyB5naF0UPxtQAA13wKgafS3NIVcuRRiOvrLEyCWbVjFq383Zz9NvU-9od9J5A5qq838ZW1B57njQ06FxvkuVyTURHhsVbDGuuNITnJGENMrC2tQA/s2048/Reader%252C+Walking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ib0gT7IGV-WmRsvIEAZ9HmyB5naF0UPxtQAA13wKgafS3NIVcuRRiOvrLEyCWbVjFq383Zz9NvU-9od9J5A5qq838ZW1B57njQ06FxvkuVyTURHhsVbDGuuNITnJGENMrC2tQA/s640/Reader%252C+Walking.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> We don't actually have a lot of real hills in Central Ohio. I took an hour long walk in the neighborhood this morning and <a href="https://www.strava.com/dashboard" target="_blank">Strava</a> tells me I had a 39 foot elevation gain.<p></p><p>The local state park where we do most of our hiking has slightly more varied terrain. It's around a reservoir and there are ravines and water inlets where we have to walk down and then up, but still an hour and twenty minute hike on Saturday had only a 323 foot gain.</p><p>That isn't to say that I look forward to the uphills, slight though they may be. I don't.</p><p>I've found that going uphill, fighting gravity, the best thing I can do is focus on my feet and the steps right in front of them, looking down and power through. I've learned that momentum will carry me uphill and to the top, but if I stop I have to rebuild the momentum and willpower to carry on. At the top, I can look back to see what I missed, but stopping mid climb is always a bad idea for me. My legs will hurt, my breathing will be heavier, but still there's an accomplishment to making it up the hill.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLoFeN-022JPYw02z_RDd4cntr7J4dZHJgG-t16ZXYQcYAXRnlGy6hSTuQTEYC3gAXSltzMM0HN_bLT2OQ3_vqOoLO2CJNlYjO3y2dDniV2XDqj1inCcfB2Va4RIq9iJQQFI_fSw/s3264/IMG_20200509_141637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLoFeN-022JPYw02z_RDd4cntr7J4dZHJgG-t16ZXYQcYAXRnlGy6hSTuQTEYC3gAXSltzMM0HN_bLT2OQ3_vqOoLO2CJNlYjO3y2dDniV2XDqj1inCcfB2Va4RIq9iJQQFI_fSw/s640/IMG_20200509_141637.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I was "uphill" here, Promise.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;">What surprises me is that I have to fight gravity going <i>downhill </i>too. In some ways walking downhill is more treacherous than climbing the hill. I don't want to put my head down and lean into it, I want to lean back and that requires different muscles and a different kind of footing to make sure I don't gain momentum and end up barreling downhill in an uncontrolled manner. My legs will still hurt, my concern will be foot placement, but I can see the context a little better going downhill.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">A hard book often works like going uphill. Sometimes you need to just watch the step ahead of you and power through. Sometimes you need to let the momentum carry you through the sentence, paragraph, section, or chapter. Sometimes even through the book. Sometimes you need to just get one idea from the first read of a challenging book. The surrounding context, the allusions, the figuring out of each sentence and nuance will bog you down so you stop and can't move forward. </p><p>That has happened to me more times than I can count. I think of <i>The Abolition of Man </i>and how it took me 4 readings of the first essay to understand it. The first time, all I heard was irrigating deserts - which is, admittedly, a worthwhile idea to ponder. This past winter, I read <i>Paradise Lost </i>for the first time. That said, I read along while I listened to Steven Vance read it via Audible. The narration kept me moving and not looking up all the details constantly, but the book before my eyes kept the narration from becoming an ignorable drone in my ears. When we read Plutarch, we sometimes go sentence by sentence, but other times we have more success reading a paragraph or section in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anne-E-White/e/B013KC05MC?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1597074197&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Anne White's </a>guides and getting the "bigger picture" sense of that part of the story. Momentum and follow through help when the book is a challenge.</p><p>And, just like the hills, every time we practice, we gain more stamina for the next big hill book. We can fight the gravity because we have success and practice behind us.</p><p>The same is true of those runaway downhill books. Where the ideas are coming fast and furious and easily and my mind becomes a jumble and there I go cartwheeling through and have no idea what I've read at the end. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimBsniYS8lyfGPUnQlyUvU_3WfIsW40rMdiqbAb9WPy32Rwe7zKklVsjqpzf8_lJn9g0-VE-FCFzulU9Ea1HjxsX49lpHZB2zO93p4kz3HV9Xx2600-NS_vsQNzpJbRfLnP-DRvg/s4032/IMG_20200613_144233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimBsniYS8lyfGPUnQlyUvU_3WfIsW40rMdiqbAb9WPy32Rwe7zKklVsjqpzf8_lJn9g0-VE-FCFzulU9Ea1HjxsX49lpHZB2zO93p4kz3HV9Xx2600-NS_vsQNzpJbRfLnP-DRvg/s640/IMG_20200613_144233.jpg" /></a></div><p>If I would take my time to plant my feet and take in the ideas carefully as they come. When I take a moment to think about the context and allusions, to interact with the ideas, those books can take on a whole new sort of meaning in my life. I can exercise less used muscles to practice skill and not allow myself to be just run ragged. Here, too, I fight the gravity that is more harmful to my thought life than I might first believe.</p><p>I've read a lot of Madeleine L'Engle in the past two years and she often talks about similar ideas in different ways. Those well worn paths are becoming a bit more and more downhill with each book. I have to be careful to not think to myself, "there she goes again" and to really make sure I understand all that she is saying each time she revisits identity or naming or ontology or ... </p><p><a href="https://afterthoughtsblog.net/">Brandy</a> recommends having different kinds of books going at the same time. Her recommendation, based on a <a href="https://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR03p092MotherCulture.shtml" target="_blank">Parent's Review article</a>, is to have a <a href="https://afterthoughtsblog.net/mchabittracker/">stiff book and a moderately easy book</a> and a novel going at once so you can always pick up what is appropriate for the current time. This is because even a moderately easy book - whatever that is for you - has something to say and is worth reading. Just don't let yourself run downhill so quickly with it that you have no idea what you just finished reading.</p><p>Fight Gravity. </p>dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-2654392199333176062020-08-05T12:22:00.001-04:002020-08-05T12:22:18.581-04:00Book Review: S*x and the City of God by Carolyn Weber<br /><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52012595-sex-and-the-city-of-god" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Sex and the City of God: A Memoir of Love and Longing" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1586905070l/52012595._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52012595-sex-and-the-city-of-god">Sex and the City of God: A Memoir of Love and Longing</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1246660.Carolyn_Weber">Carolyn Weber</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3476950298">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
"The course of true love never did run smooth."<br /><br />Nothing I can articulate about this book is as witty or well considered as Weber's own words. Her ability to look at life and - whether in the moment or at a later date - consider it in light of what others have written before is awe-inspiring to me. Weber's wide-reaching reading and knowledge and thought and references always pierce me with wonder. To see ideas, to take ideas, to make connections and then to apply them seamlessly into the narrative ... I'm certain was painstaking and challenging work, and yet so beautiful to me, a reader.<br /><br />A good memoir will cause the reader to consider her own life and choices. Whether similar lives or dissimilar, a conversation begins and a friendship is created as we share our tales together - even if the author never hears our side. We feel when the going gets tough, a massive windstorm and a stormy marriage, no electricity or connection adds to the cutting off. If it weren't a memoir, one would wonder if it wasn't all metaphor - but we feel it in the marrow. We feel the joy of the first kiss, the first mention of TDH's name (in two books!), the frustration of the welcoming neighbors to the honeymoon condo, and the struggles in the wind. <br /><br />Evocative is an overused book review word, but Weber evokes for us emotion, thought, and memory - sharing hers, we consider our own. She challenges us to know our own lives as Christians - married or singular - with Christ. She made me want to talk more with my teenagers about what it is to love, to marry, to be co-workers in the kingdom, why and how s*x is important at many stages. Connection, remembrance, joy, love.<br /><br />I have less to say to sum up. I'm thankful that I was given a chance to read this ahead of release in exchange for an honest review. The ideas are Weber's with my own take explained. I rarely accept assigned reading opportunities because I'm bad at doing what someone else tells me to do, but I jumped at this one because I couldn't stop reading her <i>Surprised by Oxford</i> or <i>Holy is the Day</i> ... and I suspected I wouldn't be able to stop reading this either. I wasn't wrong. Check the dates.<br /><br />There were a few places where I thought the editing could be tighter and where I suspect sections were moved around - with an explanation in a section in pages following the first introduction of the idea, and there were a few places with explanatory asides that I thought unnecessary, a few sentences that took an extra read to get the flow, but this slight (slight!) criticism doesn't detract from my overall edification, enjoyment, or high star rating. <br /><br />Holding this one for when my teens are nearly out of my home (which will be sooner than I'd like, I think). I've never wanted to read <i>City of God</i> before (intimidating much?), but I think my friend Caro just put Augustine on my TBR. <br /><br />I received an advanced pdf copy of this book from Intervarsity Press in exchange for an honest review.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-37607637285052643322020-08-04T10:45:00.003-04:002020-08-04T10:45:56.550-04:00Reversing Course for New Perspective<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXOkSGV_Nm_uV5fIcohsmkDIHQs76RPY7IIqXEjmjFdJeytaaAPgL00ReLCtWUkCc61iay0xUOgfi2vdxSUFdts4Rw-79gDBlurW9i-Nc1R9nE5VQ5ECowPQLG5T43LNT9mVbz3Q/s2048/Reader%252C+Walking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXOkSGV_Nm_uV5fIcohsmkDIHQs76RPY7IIqXEjmjFdJeytaaAPgL00ReLCtWUkCc61iay0xUOgfi2vdxSUFdts4Rw-79gDBlurW9i-Nc1R9nE5VQ5ECowPQLG5T43LNT9mVbz3Q/s640/Reader%252C+Walking.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Most of the trails we follow are "in and out." We walk in, there may be a loop, but then we follow the initial trail back out. It isn't unusual that we follow the trail in and then turn around and follow the same back out. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Have you ever read a book that was ... a bit of a slog, but as you glanced back you kept finding gems? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In and out trails can be like that.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A number of years ago I read <i><a href="http://ladydusk.blogspot.com/2013/08/book-review-pilgrim-at-tinker-creek-by.html" target="_blank">The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</a></i> by Annie Dillard. I really struggled with it, I found it a challenging, to say the least, read and never truly enjoyed actively reading it. I was thrilled to finish it, and, I think, glad to <i>have read </i>it. What I found I was constantly flipping back in the book to recapture an idea or a thought, and, there, I found the gems. It was never on the first time that they really struck me, but when I had context from further on and turned back to them that I really saw what was there.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Walking an in and out trail is like that. The perspective switch opens our eyes to seeing better even things we noticed before. On Saturday - and I wish I had taken pictures, now - We saw some mushrooms in a median type section. One side was super muddy so another way around was forged and the area between remained wild. Jason saw the mushrooms on our way in and pointed to them, but they were significantly more clearly seen going in the other direction. It wasn't just that I knew they were there, rather they were clearer and more obvious.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But, it also opens our eyes to see things we didn't see at all before. Either they were hidden behind a tree or rock or some barrier and now are revealed by going the other direction, or the familiarity of the obvious can be seen past to more hidden glories. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sometimes going forward is aided, strengthened, better enjoyed by reversing course and gaining new perspective. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-81429423454798503512020-07-31T20:44:00.001-04:002020-07-31T20:44:27.614-04:00Review: I'd Rather Be Reading<br /><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38502471-i-d-rather-be-reading" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522239360l/38502471._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38502471-i-d-rather-be-reading">I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6537850.Anne_Bogel">Anne Bogel</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3437114318">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Truly this is a 3.5-3.75 star. I did enjoy this read. I laughed often, I felt a kinship often. Anne talks of the idea of the reader and how the reader lives her life; how we live books. It's light and easy and short, quick essays but for some reason I always felt like I would rather be reading ... but maybe something else. A bit of a guilty pleasure, a bit of candied apple - enjoyable, some substance, a lot of sugar.
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You know it's a good day when you finish 2 books and get 16000 steps.
dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-74640709064844376652020-07-31T14:42:00.001-04:002020-07-31T14:42:37.241-04:00Book Review: When in Rome by Ngaio Marsh<br /><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23301795-when-in-rome" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="When in Rome (Roderick Alleyn, #26)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1412349659l/23301795._SY160_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23301795-when-in-rome">When in Rome</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/68144.Ngaio_Marsh">Ngaio Marsh</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2470576850">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Two years and six days later, after at least 2 restarts, I've finished. <br /><br />It isn't that I didn't want to read it, or that I wasn't enjoying it, rather it wasn't a priority and I wasn't entirely engaged. It would fall down below other books and then I'd realize it had been months since I read any of it. Even this final re-start which began on June 30, or thereabout, took a while to get going and I read the final two chapters this afternoon.<br /><br />To some extent, the jargon is dated and some of the implied conversations that made sense in context in the 1970s did so less sense today. This made reading it more effort than I generally put to a mystery. I had to carefully read each word and do some deciphering to carry on with the story and the plot. But then, I read most of the end in a sitting because I had to know. It took a while for the plot to develop to that state.<br /><br />This is an improbable cast of characters thrown together on a tour of Rome. Why they registered for this tour is a question that matters to the outcome of the plot. Some have motive - some have none - for a crime against a fellow. <br /><br /><a class="jsShowSpoiler spoilerAction">(view spoiler)</a><span class="spoilerContainer" style="display: none">[It's also not obviously a murder for a long time. It takes a long time for the plot to come round to dead bodies. It's rather slow to develop. Haha. <a class="jsHideSpoiler spoilerAction">(hide spoiler)</a>]</span><br /><br />Perhaps not the best entree into reading Marsh, but the one I had at hand. I wouldn't discount another if it fell into my lap.
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dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-33019901581178632882020-07-30T10:57:00.000-04:002020-07-30T10:57:19.387-04:00Hide and Seek<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkxrm8JWKJqv21M4GmzPzYKZcMSMQcDX2s2XyBFv4xGwPIsMtHKOOFebKHkmChdTQdmsvhyphenhyphen1zGHWCnWsQ2Nx45amj4AT7W8AP7ZBItN623XonogajSa-TUVfJVxVInHSK2wiLEg/s4032/IMG_20200502_151141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUkxrm8JWKJqv21M4GmzPzYKZcMSMQcDX2s2XyBFv4xGwPIsMtHKOOFebKHkmChdTQdmsvhyphenhyphen1zGHWCnWsQ2Nx45amj4AT7W8AP7ZBItN623XonogajSa-TUVfJVxVInHSK2wiLEg/w500-h375/IMG_20200502_151141.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When we first started walking in the late winter, all was brown - except when it was white with snow. Variation on the theme of brown was cause for notice and celebration. When the harbinger of spring and ramps were out and noticeable, they were noticeable specifically because all else was sameness. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But as the green filled in, rising from the floor to eye level to canopy, the variations became harder to separate in sight. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We have a harder time seeing the trees for the forest.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Often, we find specific plants and flowers in patches. Here is a large group of trillium, there a bunch of Virginia Bluebells, yet a patch of goldenseal up here. But those patches are rarely an unadulterated grouping of one flower; there are other beauties to see mixed in: fungus, moss, lichen, another wildflower or more. Sometimes patches overlap patches.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's the thing. I can see, sort of, the expanse. I can see individual flowers, one, maybe two, at a time within the expanse of the patch. My ability to attend is limited.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">God's ability to attend is unlimited. As a part of his omnipresence and omniscience, he can see each and every flower individually as it sprouts, grows, matures, and even dies. He can glory in their beauty even when they are unseen by human eyes, hidden on a hill for just his own pleasure. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But. God doesn't have the joy of the <i>find</i>. We have been given a gift in our limitation, we can be going along and enjoying one Virginia Bluebell</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieIWQpj7TFch9k8vBpyIZwBsG3KaAlq229Jrd4usz9ifelWx3GnbT-CPrcNurUInW7-GScTuSSiD6klGt815AWUdhLvgYGUb2s8PtXCO324IhJASSmdRE6EAWabmtsLE6Ua2QqRA/s2048/IMG_20200509_120037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieIWQpj7TFch9k8vBpyIZwBsG3KaAlq229Jrd4usz9ifelWx3GnbT-CPrcNurUInW7-GScTuSSiD6klGt815AWUdhLvgYGUb2s8PtXCO324IhJASSmdRE6EAWabmtsLE6Ua2QqRA/w625-h469/IMG_20200509_120037.jpg" width="625" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">only to turn the corner and -surprise!- <i>find </i>a patch of them intermingled with trillium and may apples. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-_59tUYCNjY65ZWlD41OCES3CBpR17DmQ_bM7Vxu7kMs_M6Q2iBeux2w1EdaqltXqy1ijrxvMCSY2J31tbqRjJGc-tL4buxgh9QDFzMuxCRmTsToscUAcoivf6pkQHoILMIysQ/s2048/IMG_20200509_143706.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-_59tUYCNjY65ZWlD41OCES3CBpR17DmQ_bM7Vxu7kMs_M6Q2iBeux2w1EdaqltXqy1ijrxvMCSY2J31tbqRjJGc-tL4buxgh9QDFzMuxCRmTsToscUAcoivf6pkQHoILMIysQ/w625-h469/IMG_20200509_143706.jpg" width="625" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The camera struggles with "patches" more than my eyes.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In many ways, the <i>finding </i>is the fun. The seeing, yes, but the finding is a joy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This <i>finding </i>isn't just in flowers, but even in our relationships with people. There is great joy in <i>finding </i>the right community, a good friend, a common interest. <br /><br />Better yet, God promises that when we seek Him, we will <i>find </i> him when we seek Him with our hearts. He will be <i>found </i>by us. He also tells us that he will go out to seek and save the lost sheep (cf the lost Adam?) ... but it isn't because <b>He </b>doesn't know where to <i>find </i>us. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And that is true, eternal joy for a finite people. </div>dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-11781416740302295002020-07-29T10:10:00.003-04:002020-07-29T10:13:52.262-04:00Review: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1583025.Walking_on_Water" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1223625220l/1583025._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1583025.Walking_on_Water">Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/106.Madeleine_L_Engle">Madeleine L'Engle</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3408621412">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Twenty years ago when I first read this book, I loved it. Admittedly I loved the feel, the atmosphere of it, but struggled more with the ideas and ideals. I didn't have the relational background for many of the ideas in it, so the style and general consciousness was enough.<br /><br />I've been intending to re-read it for a number of years and finally took the time. <br /><br />Perfect timing.<br /><br />The style and the ideas came into more overlap for me on this second reading. I could love both. Her insistence that Christians are artists and that Art - good art - is an expression of faith (even if not understood by the artist himself) is incredibly satisfying and strengthening. She insists that disciplined effort, that listening to the work, that revision, that vulnerability (even unto death) are all necessary for good art. <br /><br />I really loved the idea of finding "cosmos from the chaos" the artist sees, seeks, attends to what is not immediately obvious in the overwhelm. As the Spirit hovered over the chaos and brought forth creation, so artists look for the solid ground in a world that is ever washing over and around them to bring order. Yes.<br /><br />There are so many concepts here - naming, wholeness, trust, probabilities, paradox, love. It would be nearly impossible to collect them and share them. I can only share the book and say, "Read this. Take up your work." The best review would be to practice the discipline in some art.<br /><br />I don't plan on waiting another 20 years before a re-read.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3041038-ladydusk">View all my reviews</a>
dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-66255173534532947902020-07-25T22:53:00.003-04:002020-07-25T22:55:20.799-04:00Review: Fahrenheit 451<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23439967-fahrenheit-451" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Fahrenheit 451" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1414085614l/23439967._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23439967-fahrenheit-451">Fahrenheit 451</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1630.Ray_Bradbury">Ray Bradbury</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3453135401">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
The irony that I listened to this through shell-shaped ear buds is not lost on me. Nor is the fact that I listened mostly while walking in the out of doors (and some while cleaning). Nor that Tim Robbin's soothing tone could be compared to a constant drone that both numbs and distracts from the world around. In many ways, I could have wished for a different narrator.<br /><br />The numbing of a world through the drone of a screen, video, advertising, jingles, radio, constant noise our our F*R*I*E*N*D*S being on a TV screen and our identification with their struggles. Of our Facebook "walls" and Twitter "Feed" and our dependence on screens but not ideas are all ponderable offenses following a reading of this masterful book. Even in my earbuds by a reader I don't prefer.<br /><br />Books here, are carriers. Carriers of culture and ideas. Of danger because they make you think, ponder, consider, change - but not just be happy and entertained. <br /><br />I was shocked when searching for Faber's quote about what culture needs and is missing that so many questions or statements were about the quality of information as the first key. It wasn't the quality <i>of information</i> at all - or at least in the main. <b>It was quality</b>. Books, education, culture had <i>quality</i> - texture, nuance, ideas that could be informative but could also be formative. <br /><br />The second item on Faber's list was, I was shocked to hear, <i>leisure</i> time to be with ideas to rest, to receive them as C.S. Lewis and Josef Pieper might say. <br /><br />The third item was the <i>ability and freedom to act</i> on those ideas. The fire chief's misuse of ideas is one of the dangers of that freedom, but it is a freedom nonetheless.<br /><br />The culture at large in F-451 has none of those things. They have limited access to quality. They have all entertainment, no leisure. Bradbury regularly speaks of "circuses" which I suppose is to make you think of ancient Roman "bread and circuses" food and entertainment to sate and calm the public. Here, there is no respite from the constant din of words and action and the excitement of driving fast through billboards designed to be read at high speed and the total self surrounding, immersion in yelling, attention drawing antics in their parlor screens. Finally, there is no way to act on ideas at all. Everything is scripted and anyone who is different - is different. Clarisse is interested in discussion and nature and ideas; she's an odd duck and it is noted and disapproved of and unmourned at her death.<br /><br />Destruction is entertainment, cancellation is necessary for emotional stability. "Those who don't build must burn. It's as old as history and juvenile delinquents." says Faber. And yet Bradbury gives us the hope of the Phoenix bursting forth from the ashes. Granger, another displaced professor, explains to Montag that history is full of burning down and pulling out of the ash heap. As a family, we were listening to a series of lectures on Greek Myth which mentioned one between the Trojan War and Homer's compositions; we know of the time when the <a href="http://ladydusk.blogspot.com/2018/06/book-review-how-irish-saved.html" rel="nofollow">Irish Saved Civilization</a>; China's badly named "Cultural Revolution"; and we think of the book burning under the Nazi regime. Ideas will resurface, can we save culture through knowing stories and the thoughts of the ages? <br /><br />Here is Bradbury's premise. It isn't the destruction of the <i>books</i> exactly that he laments, but what is embodied therein and how we can embody that quality in ourselves. How we can share ideas with others. How we can conjecture and discuss. How we can even dispute and disagree. The microfilm didn't work, the great books had to be embodied in people because they were safer than carrying a book around. <br /><br />Bradbury is decrying the same-ness of everyone singing the same advertising jingle at the same time on the subway, of the lack of the individual who wrestles with ideas, who drinks a beer with his neighbor on the front porch and agrees to disagree - because he is free to do so. The flattening of society into non-identity purposely through a constant lowest denominator input is what causes the burning. <br /><br />The antidote: <br /><br /><blockquote>"Stuff your eyes with wonder," he said, "live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories."</blockquote> <br /><br />Be a free people.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3041038-ladydusk">View all my reviews</a>
dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-47333499547901494972020-07-24T10:28:00.003-04:002020-07-24T11:30:08.785-04:00Making trail friends<br />
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We've been taking three walks each day just out the front door and around our neighborhood. The dog is a <i>fan</i>. </div>
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When Jason came home, we sort of fell into a walk before work, a walk with the kids at lunchtime, and a lunch after work. He no longer has an hour and a half of commuting per day and, I have to say, we love having him home and creating liturgies for our day is only part of it. </div>
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We have this little patch of woods along a creek ravine in our neighborhood with a gravel trail through it.The part we walk through is probably all of 2, maybe 3, acres and the trail is skinny, down the middle. You can see houses on either side, but we found all kinds of spring flowers and, now in July, fungus along the path. Our mile-long door to door walks take us along this pathway.</div>
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Some of the flowers we saw just in our woods were dutchman's breeches, spring beauties, may apples, blood roots, rue anemone, and more. It was exciting to see something new almost every walk before the tree canopy filled in. It was interesting to watch the green start at the ground and slowly move upward until the canopy was filled. There were daily - and sometimes hourly - changes to observe.</div>
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We got used to asking oursevles, "what is that?" One thing we asked ourselves this about was an asparagus looking post. It was clearly a plant, but just one stalk shooting upward.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4q7saV1qvxo_OyTNlUlJuXuZrkpIVnXwLPHs9pvMgF8vYNeEK_9ayvGEL9LDdsb9Djvws_IHnUJ5taeZxnB2E9e4pGfgiRcx940SG3hdHrhEBDJw9vMvRHjG9hSIojB_E4HaxkQ/s2048/IMG_20200429_120712.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4q7saV1qvxo_OyTNlUlJuXuZrkpIVnXwLPHs9pvMgF8vYNeEK_9ayvGEL9LDdsb9Djvws_IHnUJ5taeZxnB2E9e4pGfgiRcx940SG3hdHrhEBDJw9vMvRHjG9hSIojB_E4HaxkQ/w375-h500/IMG_20200429_120712.jpg" width="375" /></a></div>
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Not many days later, we could tell: Jack-in-the-Pulpit! Right along the path. </div>
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Obviously, these pictures are of different ones, but we did enjoy following one Jack through his maturity. We looked for him every walk, every day. We made friends.</div>
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But, getting to know "our" Jack meant we were <a href="https://ladydusk.blogspot.com/2020/07/seeing-we-see.html" target="_blank">able to see</a> other Jacks in other Pulpits in other woods. And in our woods. Most of them were tucked back behind in the under tree brush and leaves. There were at least 4 others that we found in the little woods along our path. One night Jason and I went to another park entirely and had a <a href="https://ladydusk.blogspot.com/2020/07/mans-first-occupation.html" target="_blank">similar experience to the trout lilies</a> in the previous post - there were so many that we almost couldn't point them all out. Because we knew our Jack, we knew others nearly instinctively.</div>
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Eventually we were able to recognize the leaves once the pulpit was no more. It wasn't through a lot of effort - I never drew him in my nature journal, for example, it was simply stopping to observe and know a friend daily. </div>
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There is something about the familiar. About consistency. Regularly visiting the same trail or path matters. Karen Glass, in her book <i>In Vital Harmony, </i>emphasizes Charlotte Mason's emphasis on the science of relations, "The first step in forming relations is to become personally acquainted with something concrete--maple trees or tulips or George Washington or a painting by Leonardo DaVinci." and "forming relationships--learning to care about many things--is the object of education." To do that, we have to put our students and, perhaps more importantly ourselves, in a position to observe and relate. To wonder. </div>
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Once we know, we see it everywhere.</div>
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I've been reading Madeleine L'Engle's seminal work <i>Walking on Water </i>and she mentions this idea - also found in Mason's writing. </div>
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L'Engle (pg 172, parenthetical aside mine):</div>
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In psychology class in college I remember the professor telling us that if we suddenly become interested in, say, mitochondria, we will come across articles on mitochondria in newspapers and magazines; they will appear to be in the news everywhere. But, if it were not for our particular interest (ahem - relationship), we would not have noticed the articles or turned on the television programs. </div>
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Mason (<a href="https://www.amblesideonline.org/CM/vol1complete.html#173" target="_blank">vol 1 pg 173-4</a>):</div>
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We know from our own experience that, let our attention be forcibly drawn to some public character, some startling theory, and for days after we are continually hearing or reading matter which bears on this one subject, just as if all the world were thinking about what occupies our thoughts: the fact being, that the new idea we have received is in the act of growth, and is reaching out after its appropriate food. This process of feeding goes on with peculiar avidity in childhood, and the growth of an idea in the child is proportionably rapid.<br />
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Ideas call out to ideas, whether in finding and recognizing Jacks-in-the-pulpit or noticing that our books are talking about the same things and to one another. We build a relationship with ideas, between ideas, between people and ideas, between God and ideas and suddenly find</div>
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" ... that <i>all</i> knowledge is connected. Miss Mason wanted us to apprehend that all knowledge is joined by a unity of "the relations which bind all things to all other things." " (Glass, 27)</div>
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Oh, that the Lord created such a funny flower as a Jack-in-the-pulpit and that leads to a meditation on Him and how he created such a funny creature as a human, in His image, who relates to flower, other people, and the divine King of the Universe. There is a unity centered in Christ who created and upholds all things.</div>
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That's why we make trail friends.</div>
dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-34787802363983276992020-07-20T10:40:00.002-04:002020-07-20T11:19:36.878-04:00Man's first occupation<div class="separator"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKQpvRYioMyB2O3Fnv8ksODf6VFaSrdsUrpEBLjlZ1d9Z4g3TiKaivGNaNmCGbpLzxNmfy7Xt9oKBi0D53YAwbLgmHEN6DKJNzLo45gg_3h2HsPDYr76Gig-B5DLy-UajTSDw2qg/s4032/IMG_20200502_151141.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKQpvRYioMyB2O3Fnv8ksODf6VFaSrdsUrpEBLjlZ1d9Z4g3TiKaivGNaNmCGbpLzxNmfy7Xt9oKBi0D53YAwbLgmHEN6DKJNzLo45gg_3h2HsPDYr76Gig-B5DLy-UajTSDw2qg/w625-h469/IMG_20200502_151141.jpg" width="625" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, <i>that was its name</i>. Genesis 2:19 (emphasis mine)</h4><div><br /></div>God set Adam into the garden and gave him the task of tending it, but the first thing he did was to name the animals in search of a helper. <br /><br />Naming. <br /><br />Names matter. How many Biblical references do we have - you will name him Isaac, or Maher-Shalal-Hash-baz, or John. Or "you shall call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins." <br /><br />Somehow, in the woods, naming something helps you see it. <br /><br />Names reflect the character of the thing named. God brought the animals before Adam and he named them from that audience. <br /><br />The harbinger of spring heralds spring's imminent arrival. It is small and short lived. <div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfJMWAsajlSK9UmG2zBbS8G2-o4ddX08OipVm0pe6yjpuNrKToC-i6So7frX1dzvPxbJN_WW7e8y8L-OCqq5DJtlU96NHZbhxUGlkZUWHToDErT4jsfHyogqJedfRgYi0YH6lqhg/s2048/IMG_20200321_151031.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfJMWAsajlSK9UmG2zBbS8G2-o4ddX08OipVm0pe6yjpuNrKToC-i6So7frX1dzvPxbJN_WW7e8y8L-OCqq5DJtlU96NHZbhxUGlkZUWHToDErT4jsfHyogqJedfRgYi0YH6lqhg/s320/IMG_20200321_151031.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Also called "pepper and salt"<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div>Trout lily leaves are spotted or mottled like the fish and are visible long before their delicate flowers.<div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhFlHucURpQLJU2FbjJBtxy-tDHuJuDj0R-MNYSedm_cISryCecuy29hQcJSmH4MTIJJfUFnuoucZmLMxfrSCz0BPraRm5C1mJH90DJ12YST5dgJ5W82sX_465r8-1sN3nv6rYg/s2048/IMG_20200404_150624.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhFlHucURpQLJU2FbjJBtxy-tDHuJuDj0R-MNYSedm_cISryCecuy29hQcJSmH4MTIJJfUFnuoucZmLMxfrSCz0BPraRm5C1mJH90DJ12YST5dgJ5W82sX_465r8-1sN3nv6rYg/s320/IMG_20200404_150624.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Compare the mottled leaf with <br />the ramps leaves surrounding it<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Twin leaf flower - briefly flowering for 24 hours or less - is twin leaves matching.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWG2EUGWSw7ZDvj0Wh08_KNBe0KwX3cGxrZsiZRHmtifvxmZzXC9k5riqWJ-slho428j7Oc98OeNyvE6ODrofbNePs_LgtK5HK0kMNx8T5as5dKj9eZXyIaEynk0Fa8HrjQOR2g/s2048/IMG_20200418_151956.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWG2EUGWSw7ZDvj0Wh08_KNBe0KwX3cGxrZsiZRHmtifvxmZzXC9k5riqWJ-slho428j7Oc98OeNyvE6ODrofbNePs_LgtK5HK0kMNx8T5as5dKj9eZXyIaEynk0Fa8HrjQOR2g/s320/IMG_20200418_151956.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can just see its leaves forming.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><br />Not everything is as obviously named ... I'm currently struggling with birdsfoot trefoil (that low yellow flower that mixes in with the chicory and Queen Anne's lace along the road and in the medians). Cutleaf Toothwort was another that I struggled with. There are some <i>unusual </i>names.<br /><br />Sometimes the sheer number of things to name is overwhelming. That's OK. Get one or two. Make sure you point them out whenever you see them and name them. <br /><br />We can have a relationship with things we name. No one wants to be "that guy over there." The first thing we do when we meet someone is share our name. And try to hold onto theirs. There's an anecdotal story about former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel who <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">greeted by name a man with whom he'd had a passing introduction</a> several years before. When asked how he possibly remembered that man's name, <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.72); font-family: "unify sans", sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: italic;">...the moment you start putting other people’s importance before yours, you’ll remember their name, too.</blockquote>Ouch. Convicting much? <br /><br />Names matter and being able to name is a large part of knowing, of building a relationship. If education is the science of relations, as I believe, then names are an integral part of learning; of relating; of caring.<br /><br />Perhaps, not surprisingly, naming is <a href="https://ladydusk.blogspot.com/2020/07/seeing-we-see.html" target="_blank">integral to seeing</a>, also. I think it goes to that idea that you have a relationship with that kind of thing. When you have a name to give something, you are more likely to see it. <br /><br />We saw our first trout lily kind of early and it was special and beautiful. Then we started to see more of them peppered in different places and were excited each time. One hike, at their height, we saw so many that we stopped naming each individual but could glory in the sheer embarrassment of riches. We knew them and loved seeing the forest floor littered with the yellow and white flowers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJd0rhXB4rAIRDj5gD4UbTtpLWMn1g_qWu3A-xyK_0KuTPgIgNpH6q5J1YHf5xVZbo18XemD9ciT1cA8BfonSxi1sm77tk0kzVf2pzdpDshrs6wJO76pYPPlUiqtRSSysfTW4nLg/s2048/IMG_20200425_120835.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJd0rhXB4rAIRDj5gD4UbTtpLWMn1g_qWu3A-xyK_0KuTPgIgNpH6q5J1YHf5xVZbo18XemD9ciT1cA8BfonSxi1sm77tk0kzVf2pzdpDshrs6wJO76pYPPlUiqtRSSysfTW4nLg/w625-h469/IMG_20200425_120835.jpg" width="625" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When you have a name for something, you can share it with a companion (or four). You can talk about it together <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%206%3A7&version=ESV" target="_blank">as you walk along the way</a>. You can contemplate its beauty, its goodness, its truth. You can receive it as a gift and share it with others. It is the first step to communication and communion and understanding. Names are necessary for community.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><h4>The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">“This at last is bone of my bones<br /> and flesh of my flesh;<br />she shall be called Woman,<br /> because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:20-23)</h4></div>dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-67851360637688748072020-07-18T17:48:00.001-04:002020-07-18T17:48:28.857-04:00Seeing, we see<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRZ0pwlkKsG3lU_UEoKPIU03NHaDRKJvNOkRe891Cx1YLY_7JivcqX0C-KIw-cbzZt5uidMSTImAc8AH_mLdq0MGFQPicyzGB_K0Lh5IC_TYLfRHGfMjTbY6ReekTojXpxd2EljQ/s4032/IMG_20200502_151141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRZ0pwlkKsG3lU_UEoKPIU03NHaDRKJvNOkRe891Cx1YLY_7JivcqX0C-KIw-cbzZt5uidMSTImAc8AH_mLdq0MGFQPicyzGB_K0Lh5IC_TYLfRHGfMjTbY6ReekTojXpxd2EljQ/w500-h375/IMG_20200502_151141.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">When we walk into the woods it takes a minute. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">We start on the trail and it takes a bit to get acclimatized. I would say until you can't hear road noise anymore, but it doesn't usually take quite that long.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">It's surprising, though, how far in before we begin to see.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">We notice, of course, the condition of the trail. We mostly hike bridle trails - you know, for horses - and often the churn of hooves means the trails are all kinds of muddy for a long time. The horses rut and twist the ground, especially soft ground, into a mess that holds puddles even when it has been dry for days. During the rainy season? It's mucky. Wear boots. We'll talk about that later, though ... </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">So as we're walking in and getting the lay of the trail and up the first hill or so, I'm still usually thinking - OK, that's far enough. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Push through that. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">I think to myself, "Let's see what the trail holds. The path that you follow will hold beauties, glories. Open your eyes and look." </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">That's when things start come into focus. We've been walking for 5 minutes in April and see our first spring beauty and suddenly they are everywhere. I remember to look for colors - in March and April I remembered to look for green. In April and May for whites and other colors. Some flowers in July are showy and purple or orange, but shockingly I will miss them until I see one.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Then the forest opens up and we can receive what the path has for us. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">In April, Jason and I were walking. I was hoping to see a trillium. Just one. It was a little early in April, but spring ephemerals are called ephemeral for a reason and I didn't want to miss it! One of the dangers of the bridle trails is that I watch my feet more than the forest. It can be treacherous to ankles! I look too much at the path I'm traveling and not at the surrounds. We were walking along, I was following in Jason's footsteps along a wall and Jason calls out, "<i>There's</i> a trillium." </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfj40Zgr6OgD3xkd2zC0mAHmQ0dvTjod6yNCo5Gp7NIXdUSaZmalmzJU76L_UmCdiSBIpaglcrZuRGZtgaLQ_wOiCb-aJdTf7SzZqkdD_SQQTjttD68h2mMtg7jMnTWkUVYbTSCA/s4032/IMG_20200411_105120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfj40Zgr6OgD3xkd2zC0mAHmQ0dvTjod6yNCo5Gp7NIXdUSaZmalmzJU76L_UmCdiSBIpaglcrZuRGZtgaLQ_wOiCb-aJdTf7SzZqkdD_SQQTjttD68h2mMtg7jMnTWkUVYbTSCA/w375-h500/IMG_20200411_105120.jpg" width="375" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And then we looked up and back - just a bit - and there was one in full bloom that we hadn't seen. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihS4TDgVrvVX1bIEASPNA_JiF8cEUMLpXY_gOx-YCExIHDOmuLcoGrjv-bvlpdlvByeBIJjmUEupE4R-aenCAtcEK7O6wLpbDDK7nQ0VZxz9XJHRuOxT9LhUDzViNr1xbEI1Ol1w/s4032/IMG_20200411_105137.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihS4TDgVrvVX1bIEASPNA_JiF8cEUMLpXY_gOx-YCExIHDOmuLcoGrjv-bvlpdlvByeBIJjmUEupE4R-aenCAtcEK7O6wLpbDDK7nQ0VZxz9XJHRuOxT9LhUDzViNr1xbEI1Ol1w/w375-h500/IMG_20200411_105137.jpg" width="375" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Glorious.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We saw many other trillium this spring, and I loved them all, but that first one and immediately the second? What a gift. They're special. We learned to receive and see. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As we go along the trail, we try to see what it gives us. We can bushwhack some, but we always come back to the main pathway. It leads us to beauties.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Reading is similar. We start, we get the lay of the book: the author's vocabulary, syntax, thought processes. We follow the path the author has laid out for us and we have to receive what is there. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Sometimes it takes a few minutes to get there. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">But once we see an idea, we see more of that one and more varieties that the author is giving us. The book opens up so that seeing, we see.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">We just have to catch the first glimpse.</div>dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3009930.post-18726289862832384162020-07-16T11:32:00.007-04:002020-08-21T10:23:01.203-04:00In which an indoorsy mom begins hiking<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihxTELKlMKWIQz-REJ8P1rdqOU_gzX1bHW-PNyTsYdq-ixM1jiPMptIsLZM1XWXk04g6fUHFw8w5-AwxUuKE9-uyRamMdMgh3w0iURmpf_qgWbJ0KUgYUMki_gCESBkMuxi7WZoA/s3645/PANO_20200328_134932.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="863" data-original-width="3645" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihxTELKlMKWIQz-REJ8P1rdqOU_gzX1bHW-PNyTsYdq-ixM1jiPMptIsLZM1XWXk04g6fUHFw8w5-AwxUuKE9-uyRamMdMgh3w0iURmpf_qgWbJ0KUgYUMki_gCESBkMuxi7WZoA/w1000-h238/PANO_20200328_134932.jpg" width="1000"></a></span></div>
<div><br></div>I don't really like “outside.” <div><br> Oh, I know I'm supposed to and do feel a twinge of guilt about it, but I don't like dirt or bugs or wide variances in temperature. I'm not, however, philosophically opposed to “outside” … actually, I'm rather philosophically a fan of outside - especially for my kids. And I can stay in the temperature controlled indoors. And kill any bugs. And read a book. <br><br></div><div> My husband loves to hike. This is something he figured out about 15 years into our marriage. It started with Geocaching; through that medium he started to find places where he could walk in the woods on the regular. We have this dog, this rescue dog, who has severe abandonment issues (he ate a love seat, no joke, and my Bible). The dog needs exercised, so my husband started taking him out for 3 hour hikes on Saturdays and leaving me home with the children by myself yet another day of the week. <br><br></div><div> I decided that I liked being with him more than I disliked hiking outside. <br><br></div><div> This spring (yes – this spring when all the places and events were cancelled) hiking was still open. In the snow, in the rain, in the heat, in the thunderstorms. We have boots and coats and rain jackets and dry bags (for our phones) and off we go on an adventure most Saturdays. We started making the kids come, too. Now – if they aren't actually excited about going - they're reconciled to joining us and never complain … and are thankful to have gone. “Exposure breeds taste,” as Brandy Vencel says. <br><br></div><div> I started to say we go on a “new” adventure most Saturdays, and to some extent that's true. We've found we have a favorite trail that we - more often than not - go to. We do other trails in between, but return to this one regularly. It's new and different, but familiar, every time we hike it. <br><br></div><div> It isn't just Saturdays. One of the first things we did when Jason came home to work was set a routine of daily walks: three of them. We walk before work and school, we make the kids join us at lunch time, and when he's done for the day – we walk. We talk, or don't, watch the landscaping and the patch of woods, and reconnect simply by being together. And we notice. <br><br></div><div> I guess "outside" isn't so bad, after all. <br> <br></div><div><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY8L2me8pwv9kmp4cIjR5979oEo-FTq2MKmRVhsqJbSbygnVjgPsGmfjwxqAC0XVtwTCJZ-XaiYF7Rl4JFCWr7Ktahj9lxLZsXYwaugD8DlrsaLoKX4FvenryecHXn6_luszZOcg/w500-h375/IMG_20200502_151141+%25281%2529.jpg"></a> <br> I've learned some things on these daily and weekly adventures and want to have an ongoing series – I'd like for it to become an occasional feature – as I consider "hiking as scholé", but this is where I'm currently planning to go: <br><br></div><div> <a href="https://www.scholesisters.com/recover-sense-wonder/">Hiking as Scholé</a> (at Scholé Sisters)<br><br> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Seeing helps you to see</a>. </div><div><br> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Namingis important</a>. <br> <br></div><div><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Familiarity breeds interest.</a> <br> <br></div><div><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Finding is exciting</a>. <br><br></div><div><a href="https://ladydusk.blogspot.com/2020/08/reversing-course-for-new-perspective.html" target="_blank">In and out</a>. <br><br></div><div><a href="https://ladydusk.blogspot.com/2020/08/fighting-gravity.html" target="_blank">Up and down. </a><br><br></div><div> Gear. <br><br></div><div> Sun and shade.<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Community.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A Guide.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Better than Before.</div>
</div>dawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17987916970944867015noreply@blogger.com0