My home sits at the top of a ridge running more or less in a north-south direction, with slopes both in front and back. The backyard slopes east toward woods, and all the bedrooms have at least one window that lets in the early morning sun, its rays filtered through the trees. The front of…
Plan to Succeed
I padded quietly through the house, trying to avoid running into invisible chairs or tripping over the cat. She has a talent for walking literally under my feet, moving exactly where I was going to next step. The coffee maker, on a timer, had started 15 minutes earlier and was sputtering through the last few…
Rest
Rest. We as a culture can barely define it. We’ve mostly prioritized the opposite of rest, glorifying the overworked, overscheduled, overcommitted, hyper-busy to the point where anyone with down time is caricatured as a lazy, irresponsible slacker who has likely forgotten a significant number of responsibilities. Hyperbole? Hopefully, but I fear it’s all too accurate…
A Contrast in the Psalms
As has been fairly well established over the course of the last 2 years, my reading tastes – and listening too, throwing podcasts and audiobooks into the mix – might be described as eclectic, varied, and broad. In feeding those tastes recently, I’ve been listening to some retellings of the Greek myths, and one feature…
Created to Draw Near
The concept of priests and priesthood probably strikes most Protestants as a little…..different. For those with closer ties to Catholicism, it may smack of tradition and ritual, of unintelligible and unknown church teachings. For those more well-versed in the Old Testament, it might bring to mind the image of sacrifices, blood, and altars, of inspections…
Recent Reads, Volume XVI
A brief summary of what I’m currently reading or have recently finished, why I read it, and whether I’d recommend it. Although really, it’d have to be truly terrible for me to bother writing about a book I wouldn’t recommend…… With Kitchener in the Soudan (G. A. Henty) – Henty wrote historical fiction for an…
Consider the Source
When I was a kid, my dad had this corner bookshelf on which he kept a variety of items. There were some classic novels – several Dickens, and a few others I think; a few different dictionaries and other reference books like Strong’s Concordance and a thesaurus or two; notable pieces of his rock collection:…
Odder Than You Could Have Believed
One of the books I’m reading this year is a daily devotional comprised of selections from the works of C. S. Lewis. It’s likely never going to be my favorite of his works – there’s a thing called context that adds significant meaning and emphasis, and much of it is missing in a book such…
Wise in Your Own Eyes
There’s nothing quite like Proverbs for pithy words to live by. Short, not usually sweet but very to the point, and although even children can understand them on some level, there’s always something deeper to mull over. It’s been my habit as part of my daily Bible reading, off and on for as long as…
Pinching Fruit
It’s about this time of year that fruit tree growers have a habit of truly mystifying the casual observer. After obsessing over the temperatures, and the timing of frost compared to bloom, and the merits of cover versus no cover, and what risks post-pollination frost poses to the harvest, it would seem that finally, a…