Janet at Friday Fill-Ins offers a challenging, though thoroughly entertaining, way to bring the blogging week to a close. She gives several incomplete sentences, and we are free to fill in the blanks in the most honest or humorous, wise or ridiculous way we choose. If you have a bog or website you can put a link in her Comment section, or visit the Comments to see the answers of other people.
If you do not have a blog or website, enter your complete sentences in the Comments section here.
So, here are my answers for the week -
1. I'm making a lot of mistakes, I'm learning from my mistakes, I don't know any other way to grow.
2. Why do I have a backyard and not have it covered with flowers?
3. How does this cellphone work, anyway?
4. Every morning, I put Vanilla-Flavored Light Silk on my cereal.
5. I consider myself lucky because I have friends across west Tennessee and Western Kentucky.
6. One day we'll see the real cost of environmental degradation.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Carolyn Stripling's Chicken Casserole, tomorrow my plans include working on our Income Tax Returns, and Sunday, I want to experience Sabbath!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Six Sentences
Two friends are having open affairs of the heart with their pets. Suzy loves Cocker Spaniels, especially a five-year old named Shadow. Shadow occasionally disappears, having affairs of his own, leaving Suzy angry and anguished. Martha finds all beauty and mirth in Bassett Hounds. Oliver is a pup, full of piddle and poo. Who would have imagined that walking the dog at all hours could elicit so many chuckles?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Lenten Haiku
to lend God
forty of the year's best days -
a glorious spring
created of soil
destined for earth
ashes to ashes
relevance, spectacle, popularity,
temptations of every heart's
wilderness
the days lengthen
sunlight and warmth -
time to wrestle with darkness
a final meal
among best friends -
betrayal on a full stomach
sunrise
a cock crows three times
sunset
a garden tomb
sealed against light -
the light within shatters the seal
forty of the year's best days -
a glorious spring
created of soil
destined for earth
ashes to ashes
relevance, spectacle, popularity,
temptations of every heart's
wilderness
the days lengthen
sunlight and warmth -
time to wrestle with darkness
a final meal
among best friends -
betrayal on a full stomach
sunrise
a cock crows three times
sunset
a garden tomb
sealed against light -
the light within shatters the seal
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Lenten Devotional Reading
Lent is upon us this week. I invite you to join me in an ancient practice as part of our preparation for Holy Week and Easter: devotional reading. Out of the abundance of materials, I recommend two prayer books that have been helpful to me.
Lent and Easter Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen, edited by Judy Bauer.
A national survey of clergy recognized Nouwen as the spiritual theologian who had most influenced them.
Nouwen took seriously the compassionate presence of God in the joys and sorrows of life. His own years held plenty of each, and he experienced the same kind of faith crises that many of us do. He had a nearly fatal accident on an icy roadway while he was helping a handicapped boy. A car mirror struck Nouwen a heavy blow. In his book, Beyond the Mirror: Reflections on Life and Death, Nouwen admitted that it was not love that kept him clinging to life, but "unresolved anger."
Dozens of such honest explorations are found in Lent and Easter Wisdom. Each daily reflection includes a brief insight by Nouwen, supported by Scripture, prayer, and a suggested activity for spiritual growth.
The Glenstal Abbey Book of Prayer
Glenstal Abbey is a Benedictine monastery located in County Limerick. It houses a secondary school, home to over two hundred students. The grounds include Glenstal Castle (Normanesque), lakes, forests, and an old terraced walled garden featuring a 'bible garden.'
The Benedictine spirituality at Glenstal is influenced by the earthiness of Celtic spirituality, reflected in The Book of Prayer. A companion Book of Icons reveals an Orthodox influence.
The prayer book is not restricted in use to the season of Lent. There are prayers for Sunday through Monday, a section for the great festivals of the Christian year, prayers and blessings for the variety of needs and occasions that arise in life, and a selection of psalms for centering and meditating.
For information about the monastery and the way of life of its monks, click here.
The church's additions
to the blessings of spring -
prayer, almsgiving, fasting
Lent and Easter Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen, edited by Judy Bauer.
A national survey of clergy recognized Nouwen as the spiritual theologian who had most influenced them.
Nouwen took seriously the compassionate presence of God in the joys and sorrows of life. His own years held plenty of each, and he experienced the same kind of faith crises that many of us do. He had a nearly fatal accident on an icy roadway while he was helping a handicapped boy. A car mirror struck Nouwen a heavy blow. In his book, Beyond the Mirror: Reflections on Life and Death, Nouwen admitted that it was not love that kept him clinging to life, but "unresolved anger."
Dozens of such honest explorations are found in Lent and Easter Wisdom. Each daily reflection includes a brief insight by Nouwen, supported by Scripture, prayer, and a suggested activity for spiritual growth.
The Glenstal Abbey Book of Prayer
Glenstal Abbey is a Benedictine monastery located in County Limerick. It houses a secondary school, home to over two hundred students. The grounds include Glenstal Castle (Normanesque), lakes, forests, and an old terraced walled garden featuring a 'bible garden.'
The Benedictine spirituality at Glenstal is influenced by the earthiness of Celtic spirituality, reflected in The Book of Prayer. A companion Book of Icons reveals an Orthodox influence.
The prayer book is not restricted in use to the season of Lent. There are prayers for Sunday through Monday, a section for the great festivals of the Christian year, prayers and blessings for the variety of needs and occasions that arise in life, and a selection of psalms for centering and meditating.
For information about the monastery and the way of life of its monks, click here.
The church's additions
to the blessings of spring -
prayer, almsgiving, fasting
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Welcome!
new year's insight
or perennial delusion -
wisdom and happiness through blogging
Slog through another blog? I was just planning to cut back on my feeds, find some more entertaining reads, and save my brain from PC-induced drain.
We live in a word-dependent culture, don't we? Spend a few minutes in a staff meeting, a family Thanksgiving gathering, or a Protestant worship service -- words piled upon words. Good words, many of them: welcome, congratulations, shared sorrow, gentle guidance and firm hope.
Too often, however, we are not only word-dependent, but imagination-starved. The words are flat, the ideas are predictable, and the conversations fail to inspire or challenge us. One reason for these outcomes is the collective disengagement of our imaginations.
The imagination reveals meaning and mystery to us in ways that rational thought cannot. We learn different ways of seeing, listening, and speaking. We allow ourselves to think new thoughts, and most importantly, to think no thoughts.
So, another blog with more words; but I envision a distinctive purpose and method. The Pine Tree Notebook is my attempt to connect the dots among three centers of focus: the practices of our faith; the precise, random beauty of nature; and the ability of our baptized imaginations to open our personal worlds - including faith, nature, and our inner selves - to new experience and expression.
Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light. Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods
or perennial delusion -
wisdom and happiness through blogging
Slog through another blog? I was just planning to cut back on my feeds, find some more entertaining reads, and save my brain from PC-induced drain.
We live in a word-dependent culture, don't we? Spend a few minutes in a staff meeting, a family Thanksgiving gathering, or a Protestant worship service -- words piled upon words. Good words, many of them: welcome, congratulations, shared sorrow, gentle guidance and firm hope.
Too often, however, we are not only word-dependent, but imagination-starved. The words are flat, the ideas are predictable, and the conversations fail to inspire or challenge us. One reason for these outcomes is the collective disengagement of our imaginations.
The imagination reveals meaning and mystery to us in ways that rational thought cannot. We learn different ways of seeing, listening, and speaking. We allow ourselves to think new thoughts, and most importantly, to think no thoughts.
So, another blog with more words; but I envision a distinctive purpose and method. The Pine Tree Notebook is my attempt to connect the dots among three centers of focus: the practices of our faith; the precise, random beauty of nature; and the ability of our baptized imaginations to open our personal worlds - including faith, nature, and our inner selves - to new experience and expression.
Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light. Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods
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