Archives

Life Links

Feb12

I’m hoping to make this a weekly feature when I return from my blog break because I fully believe that we will ultimately end the scourge of abortion by changing hearts, not laws. Yes, I believe that the law needs to change, too. But many people will not obey a law that is not written on their hearts. So, “life links” is my small way of telling everyone who comes to this blog that God is the Creator and Sustainer of every single human life, that our lives and the lives of our children are gifts from His hand, and that we as children of the Heavenly Father cannot continue to devalue the lives of others by tolerating abortion in our country or in our world.

I found this old post from 2005 at the Common Room. It’s about a time when the Headmistress was feeling very poor and very frightened. I’ve copied an excerpt, but you should really read the entire story.

I cried myself to sleep many nights, wishing I wasn’t pregnant. Even typing those words tonight, two decades later, I feel sick at the thought. ‘Ending the pregnancy’ was never, ever, not for one second something I even considered- but wishing God would end it for me— well.

I was so blind. So blind. Because I could see no light at the end of our tunnel, I thought there was only darkness ahead. But I could not see the light because I had lived too long in darkness and my eyes were not accustomed to seeing things through faith. I was a Christian. I believed. I loved my Heavenly Father. But I did not yet have enough faith to comfort me in what I foolishly thought was a fiery trial.”

Et Tu: How I Became Pro-Life.

I got lured into one of the oldest, biggest, most tempting lies in human history: to dehumanize the enemy. Babies had become the enemy because of their tendencies to pop up and ruin everything; and just as societies are tempted to dehumanize the fellow human beings who are on the other side of the lines in wartime, so had I, and we as a society, dehumanized the enemy of sex.

It was when I was reading up on the Catholic Church’s view of sex, marriage and contraception that everything changed.”

True Lent

Feb11

Hold a true Lent in your souls, while you sorrow over your hardness of heart. Do not stop at sorrow! Remember where you first received salvation. Go at once to the cross. . . this will bring back to us our first love; this will restore the simplicity of our faith, and the tenderness of our heart.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Poetry Friday: Abraham Lincoln

Feb8

Tuesday is Lincoln’s Birthday. So I’m leaving you with a couple of Lincoln elegies.

O Captain, My Captain by Walt Whitman

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Lincoln by John Gould Fletcher
(an excerpt, go here for the entire poem.)

There was a darkness in this man; an immense and hollow darkness,
Of which we may not speak, nor share with him, nor enter;
A darkness through which strong roots stretched downwards into the earth 15
Towards old things;
Towards the herdman-kings who walked the earth and spoke with God,
Towards the wanderers who sought for they knew not what, and found their goal at last;
Towards the men who waited, only waited patiently when all seemed lost,
Many bitter winters of defeat; 20
Down to the granite of patience
These roots swept, knotted fibrous roots, prying, piercing, seeking,
And drew from the living rock and the living waters about it
The red sap to carry upwards to the sun.

Not proud, but humble,
Only to serve and pass on, to endure to the end through service;
For the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and all that bring not forth good fruit
Shall be cut down on the day to come and cast into the fire.

More New Books in 2008

Feb5

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about some of the new books I’m looking forward to reading in 2008. Here are a few more:

C.J. Sansom, Winter in Madrid, Viking, January 2008. It’s a spy thriller set in 1940s Spain. I liked Sansom’s mysteries set i the time of Henry VIII, so I think I’d like to give this one a try, too.

Tod Wodicka, All Shall Be Well: And All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well, Pantheon, January 2008. This novel is about the life of a modern medieval re-enactor who moves between time periods, continents, and histories both real and re-enacted. Sounds intriguing. I like the title.

Kate Morton, The House at Riverton, Atria, April 2008. I saw a link to a revew of this book by Wendy at caribousmom at the Saturday Review. And here’s another by The Random Wonderer.

And doesn’t this one sound . . . wild? Nicola Upson, An Expert in Murder, HarperCollins, June 2008. Mystery writer Josephine Tey, on a train journey from Scotland to London in 1934, investigates the death of a young woman.

I gleaned all of these titles from the Historical Novel Society’s Forthcoming Fiction page.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born February 3rd

Feb3

Horace Greeley, b. 1811, American journalist. “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.”

Walter Bagehot, b. 1826, British essayist and journalist. “The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.”

Sidney Lanier, b. 1842, American poet. “Music is Love in search of a word.”

Gertrude Stein, b. 1874, writer and patron of artists and writers. “All of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation… You have no respect for anything. You drink yourselves to death.” Quoted by Ernest Hemingway in A Moveable Feast.

James Michener, b. 1907, American novelist, author of Hawaii. “The really great writers are people like Emily Brontë who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.”

Joan Lowery Nixon, b. 1927, Houston author of YA and children’s fiction. “My husband and I have four children, and when they were young I had only one day a week in which someone could watch the preschoolers and I could write. I discovered that you never find time to write. You make time.”

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born February 2nd

Feb2

Hannah More, b. 1745. Evangelical philathropist connected with William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect. In her youth she was also a friend of actor David Garrick, lexicographer Samuel Johnson, and politician and writer Horace Walpole. After her conversion to evangelical Christianity and her retreat from the high society of London, her friends were clergyman and hymn writer John Newton and anti-slavery activist William Wilberforce. She was active in the anti-slavery movement in England, and her character makes an appearance in the movie, Amazing Grace, a movie I highly recommend, by the way.

Here’s a snippet from her poem, Slavery, published in 1788 to coincide with the first parliamentary debate on the slave trade.

. . . the countless host
I mourn, by rapine dragg’d from Afric’s coast.
Perish th’illiberal thought which wou’d debase
The native genius of the sable race!

Perish the proud philosophy, which sought
To rob them of the pow’rs of equal thought!

James Joyce, b. 1882. “Bayard himself confesses to never having finished Ulysses, by James Joyce. Personally, I have a theory that there is a very good chance that Joyce himself didn’t even finish writing the book, since I have never actually met anyone who has read the thing cover to cover.” —Sarah Vine in a review of Comment Parler des Livres que l’on n’a pas Lus (How to Talk About Books that You Haven’t Read) by M. Bayard. Ms. Vine didn’t read Mr. Bayard’s book, either. Has anyone here actually read Ulysses, other than Madame MM-V, that is. I must say I’ve never felt the urge. It’s on my list of “Books That If I Had More Than One Life I Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately My Days Are Numbered.” What’s on your list of that name?

Under the Heaventree, an essay by Frederica Matthews-Green on the Christian life and Christian theology in the style of a chapter from James Joyce’s Ulysses. At least Ulysses is good for something.

James Stephens, b. 1882. Irish novelist and poet. He was a friend of James Joyce.

Ayn Rand, b. 1905. The Fountainhead is one of the books on the list for my LOST project, but I’m not about to spend my time on that massive tome either. I think that all I’d get for my time and energy is a very long expostion in fiction of Sawyer’s philosophy, “It’s every man for himself, Freckles.”


Judith Viorst, b. 1931. Author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Atheneum, 1972. We’ve all had them. Reading about Alexander’s bad day somehow helps me to laugh at my own bad days in a misery-loves-company sort of way.

Books Read: January 2008

Jan31

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah.

A Royal Affair: George III and His Scandalous Siblings by Stella Tillyard.

A Clearing in the Wild by Jane Kirkpatrick Recommended by Sarah at Reading the Past.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini.

Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney.

Fatality by Caroline B. Cooney. Rose has a four year old secret recorded in her diary that could tear her family apart. When the police try to take the diary, Rose knows that she must not only destroy it, but also remain silent about its contents for the rest of her life, no matter what the cost. Like The Face on the Milk Carton series, this stand alone thriller is about family secrets, crime, and the way both can fester and infect an entire community.

Both Sides of Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

Out of Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

Prisoner of Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

For All Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

Gracefully Insane: The Rise and Fall of America’s Premier Mental Institution by Alex Beam.

A Door Near Here by Heather Quarles.

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney.

Whatever Happened to Janie? by Caroline B. Cooney.

The Voice on the Radio by Caroline B. Cooney.

What Janie Found by Caroline B. Cooney.

Secret Believers by Brother Andrew and Al Janssen.

Time Series by Caroline B. Cooney

Jan27

It’s been my month to discover the young adult novels of Caroline B. Cooney.

First I read a historical fiction novel, Goddess of Yesterday set in ancient Greece. Good solid story.

Then, I read Fatality, a thriller about family secrets and suspected murder. I really liked it, too.

Next, I picked up all four of the books in a series about time travel; a girl, Annie Lockwood, from the 1990’s travels back a hundred years to the 1890’s and experiences romance, but also confusion and betrayal. The four books in the series are:

Both Sides of Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

Out of Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

Prisoner of Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

For All Time by Caroline B. Cooney.

Even though I thought some of the period details and the characterization of the 1890’s as a time period were a bit simplistic, reading the first book was addictive. I had to read the other three to find out what would happen to Annie and to her 1890’s beau, Hiram Stratton, Jr.

The second book in the series takes the reader into both a mental institution and a tuberculosis sanatarium of the late nineteenth century. Reading this story of a young man confined in an insane asylum by his evil, rich father complemented the factual information that I gained from reading this book, also earlier this month. I love it when my reading dovetails that way.

O.K., the series is YA romantic froth, but froth goes well with hot chocolate and cold January evenings. I went back to the library a few days after reading these books and picked up another very different series of four novels by the same author.

BY the way, speaking of time travel, Cindy asked the other day if I was looking forward to the season premiere of LOST. Yes, we’ve being re-watching all the episodes from the beginning to prepare ourselves for the fourth season. And, yes, I know it’s nerdy, but we enjoyed it. I’ll probably post this week, before Thursday, on what I’ve learned by re-immersing myself in LOST. However, the short version is: not much and I’m still confused.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born January 27th

Jan27

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
“Which road do I take?” she asked.
“Where do you want to go?” was his response.
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”

Other Lewis Carroll posts to cause you to lose your way:

Of Snarks and Quarks

Lewis Carroll’s Birthday: 2006

Radio Jabberwocky

“The horror of that moment,” the King went on, “I shall never forget!”
“You will, though,” The Queen said, “if you don’t make a memorandum of it.”
This is so appropo of my life and memory. The 3M’s, middle age, menopause, and memory loss, are my constant companions.

“The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today.”

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.” Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Pray for Kenya

Jan25

This Friday, January 25th 2008, a Day of Prayer has been called for Kenya. We are asking every Kenyan, every friend of Kenyans, everywhere to take time to make a concerted prayer for Kenya. On January 25th, make a point of setting aside time to pray for Kenya , it does not have to be a long time but it must be a deliberate effort to pray for specific things about Kenya “

We have been in contact with a couple of pastors in Kenya, Pastor James and Pastor Daniel. Things are still crazy there. There are riots in the streets, and some people were actually killed by police just this week due to rioting in the area called Homa Bay. That is where Pastor Daniel lives. Houses are still being burned down as well.

Pastor James says that the price of food has sky-rocketed, and transporting goods is even more expensive. He has many staying at his small church. He is helping to feed them and keep them safe. He says that some schools have opened, but they will not let their children go there because of safety concerns getting back and forth. They do not go out of their homes after 12:00 noon because it is too dangerous. Pastor James says he has never seen anything like this.”

Both of these quotations are from an email I received from a member of our church who has been to Kenya in the past to preach and minister to the poor. Please pray.