"Things always work according to their nature. She has won her heart's desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want: they do not always like it."

C. S. Lewis in The Magician's Nephew

We are in the mythology unit in 7th grade English. It's great fun,the students love it,I love teaching it, and we laugh a LOT! Last Wednesday we studied Romans 1:18-25, applying it to the mythology and talking about free will. I think this Lewis quote will be good to share with the students because, unfortunately, most have never read The Chronicles of Narnia!!

A New Book

"Books are quiet. They do not dissolve into wavy lines or snowstorm effects. They do not pause to deliver commercials. They are three-dimensional, having length, breadth and depth. They are convenient to handle and completely portable."-Anonymous


Thanks to a student who gave me a gift certificate for one of my favorite places, Barnes and Nobles, I was able to spend some of my wonderful Christmas-break freedom wandering the aisles, look at all the sales, and finally settle on a mystery (favorite light-reading genre). It will be perfect for reading when I have a few minutes to relax, and it is, as the quote above mentions, easy to carry around. The blurb let me know I'd be getting two mysteries for the price of one: the first, deals with Doyle (so part of the time I can be in post-Dickens London, great!), and the second is set in present day and deals with the murder of  the leading member of the Baker Street Irregulars (could be interesting).   I liked the cover design, tasteful, clever. But where Moore really sealed the deal was the quote he chose for the first chapter, which I have put in my Worth Remembering section.  So far, it is living up to my expectations; the switching centuries and storylines every chapter doesn't bother me in the least.  I hope it continues to please.
As I left B and N, I sighed at the plight of bookstores.  Everything is going into the virtual library somewhere in cyberspace, which I can't get my mind around at all! Meanwhile, actual, real books get more and more expensive.  That, unfortunately, I do understand.  I have always been one of the "feel of the paper" crowd, but maybe that will change, too.will change.

Symptoms of Society's Sickness?

I Want It Now,  by Roald Dahl

Gooses, geeses
I want my geese to lay gold eggs for easter
At least a hundred a day
And by the way

I want a feast
I want a bean feast
Cream buns and doughnuts
And fruitcake with no nuts
So good you could go nuts

No, now

I want a ball
I want a party
Pink macaroons
And a million balloons
And performing baboons and
Give it to me now

I want the world
I want the whole world
I want to lock it
All up in my pocket
It's my bar of chocolate
Give it to me now

I want today
I want tomorrow
I want to wear 'em
Like braids in my hair and
I don't want to share 'em

I want a party with roomfuls of laughter
Ten thousand tons of ice cream
And if I don't get the things I am after
I'm going to scream

I want the works
I want the whole works
Presents and prizes
And sweets and surprises
Of all shapes and sizes
And now

Don't care how, I want it now
Don't care how, I want it now

Careful Speech

A Man may make a Remark-
In itself - a quiet thing
That may furnish the Fuse unto a Spark
In dormant nature - lain -

Let us deport - with skill -
Let us discourse - with care -
Powder exists in Charcoal -
Before it exists in Fire.
                                     Emily Dickinson

Children

I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, And My blessing on your descendants;
And they will spring up amoung the grass like poplars by streams of water.
This one will say,"I am the Lord's"; And that one will call on the name of Jacob;
And another will write on his hand, "Belonging to the Lord." Isaiah 44:3b-5

Borrowing from Miss Austen, "it is a truth universally acknowledged", that child rearing is difficult, scary, time-consuming, exhausting, and overwhelming. Of course, as those involved in the activity know well, child rearing also provides hilarious, heart-warming, "my cup runneth over" moments that make all the teeth- grinding, wanting-to-pull-your-hair(or their's)-out times worth it all.

The blessings come when the friendship with the adult child begins. I remember older women always saying to me, "Cherish these years; they go by so quickly." They were right, though, at the time, one is not aware of the speed of the years. I feel the need to tell younger women to hang in there, persevere...it will be worth it all, someday. I love having my adult children as friends.

Separated by so many miles from our children as we are, I am very thankful for the technological wonders of phones and computers to keep in touch. (This current separation since we've moved to New Mexico has caused me to meditate upon the absence of separation in Heaven...new earth, new heaven, angelic measurements, no sea, no night... how will it all be?, I wonder. For now, I treasure the BRIEF time we get to be in the presence of our children.
This poem by Ruth Graham Bell, published in Sitting by My Laughing Fire, was my prayer when my children were little. I had always wanted six children, which God graciously granted. Then, after Joshua went Home, this poem "fit" even better.


Five I have:
each separate,
distinct,
a soul
bound for eternity:
and I
--blind
leader of the blind--
gropng and fumbling,
casual and concerned,
by turns...
undisciplined, I seek
by order and command
to discipline and shape;
(I who need
Thy discipline
to shape
my own disordered soul).
O Thou
Who seest the heart's
true, deep desire,
each shortcoming and
each sad mistake,
supplement
and
overrule,
nor let our children be
the victims of our own
unlikeness unto Thee.