I started a book a few weeks ago on the recommendation of someone whose book taste I like. The book is over 600 pages long and began slowly, but I persisted because of the referral. I just finished it last night. I couldn’t get to sleep right away so wanted to read the final two chapters without disturbing Michael sleeping beside me. I reached over and quietly took out a little flashlight in my nightstand drawer, put on my glasses, and read in bed until just after midnight, when I regretfully turned the last page.

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden, was like no other book I’ve ever read. A work of fiction based on a real abbey in England, it’s a detailed and fascinating look into the monastic lives of contemplative Benedictine nuns. The women entered the abbey prepared to give their lives completely to God, and lived literal lives of prayer, which I find intriguing and compelling, even though I’m not Catholic.

The various nuns the reader becomes acquainted with are young and virginal, older and widowed, selfish and prideful, homely and insecure, formerly rich and powerful, beautiful and angelic, gifted and wise, and all in process of learning what it means to serve their God above all else. Some find that they cannot make the sacrifices, and leave Brede Abbey before taking their solemn vows.

It took over a hundred pages of reading before I began to understand how the author was crafting this book and developing her characters, but once I got the feel for it, I couldn’t put it down. I was deeply touched and awed many times, and had to lay the book on my chest, close my eyes and let a few tears fall.

Whether or not you’re a believer, if you would like a rich, different reading experience, your library should have this book, and you should check it out soon.

Strange and silly as this sounds, I feel almost bereft at the thought of no longer being able to savor this book at the end of the day.

Sigh,

I just put up a post about praying for our children. Now we see that Haiti’s children are in dire need. If you have paid attention to the news lately, you know about the terrible earthquake that has destroyed a huge part of that island nation. I can’t even grasp what kind of horror they’re experiencing.

While I sit in comfort and plenty, much of Haiti is in ruins. I have prayed, as many of you have. Really, I don’t know what else to do. But I would rather light one candle in the vast darkness than light no candle at all, especially when I have candles and matches in hand.

I’ve never done this on the blog before, but in case any of you would like to light one little candle in the dark with me, I’m posting a link to an organization I trust and regularly support, and one I know is already at work in Haiti, helping people, especially children.

I know that many people are very strapped these days. But I believe if each of us could give a little bit — $5? $10? the cost of a Frappuccino or a pizza — then for someone, somehow, it could make a difference. How much of a difference I don’t know, but I’m not going to let that stop me from giving.

Here’s the link to Compassion International.

Thank you,

My delightful friend Deb gave me a unique gift last summer that I use frequently. It’s a prayer mug, made by a friend of hers. The mug is stamped with different words that signify the things we might pray for when we lift our children to the Lord. The mom who made this mug thought of how we often hold our warm mugs of coffee or tea with our hands cupped around them, almost as if in prayer.

What better time to pray for our children than when we’re having a cup of something hot in the mornings? What better words to use than the ones on this prayer mug?

Guard...Love...Bless

Help...Heal...Guide

Protect

“Lord, we lift our beautiful, cherished children to you today. We don’t really know how to be good parents unless you show us what to do. We rely on you to do what we cannot.

Father, we ask you to guard our children whether they are young or old.

We ask you to fill their lives with evidences of your love, and teach them what real love is.

We ask that you bless our children in all the ways they need to be blessed.

Help them, Lord Jesus. 

Heal their wounds so they can know your touch and take your compassion to others.

Guide them today, Lord, and put them on the paths that will lead them to you.

And please protect our children, Father. Keep them from evil and evil from them.

In Jesus’ mighty name we pray….Amen”

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We’re feeling chipper in our part of the country because the forecast for the next ten days calls for high temperatures in the 20s and 30s, above zero. For a northern Minnesota January, it would not be out of the question for the forecast to be in the 20s and 30s below zero, so we’re taking notice and giving thanks.

We can go outside and not have to hurry to avoid the pain of 20 below on our skin. We can forget our mittens or gloves and say, “Phhtt! Who needs mittens or gloves in this glorious warm-up?” We can drive our cars without warming them up for ten minutes first. No long underwear, Mukluks or layered dressing is needed, because it’s relatively warm for this part of the country, during this part of the year. It puts a spring in my step.

Not related to the weather at all, I put some new CDs in the stereo today. Here’s our playlist:

I haven’t played any Eden’s Bridge in a while and it’s like an old Irish friend dropping by to sing to me while I do laundry and cut up vegetables.

Michael loves the Modernaires and they make me feel sentimental. This is the music my mother played on the organ, and hummed to herself as she kept our house spotless in the 1960s. Of course I didn’t appreciate this kind of music then and thought she was behind the times, but I’ve grown to appreciate it now, and I love that it makes me think of her.

This is an old recording from the around 1979, I believe. There are two or three songs I remember singing along to as I drove the maze of the crowded LA freeway systems on my way to work. Not sure why I’m revisiting them now, but it’s amazing to me that while I forget where I put this check or that paperwork, I can remember every single lyric on this CD.

I love anything by Sara Groves, but on this new CD the song that gets played the most is “Setting Up the Pins” because my grandchildren love it. When they’re driving in the car with me, it’s one of the first things Clara says, “Grandma, will you please play ‘Setting Up the Pins’?” And then when it’s over she says, “Grandma, would you mind playing that again?” 🙂 And to watch them in the rear view mirror, singing along and already knowing the lyrics, is pretty adorable.

You can watch the music video of Sara Groves and her family (they live in Minnesota) “setting up the pins and knocking them down”, by clicking here.

So….what’s on your playlist lately?

Clutter is an obstacle. It impedes your ability to find things, use things, appreciate things and to leverage the space and materials you have to build a fruitful, rewarding life.

Peter Walsh

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Have you ever eaten at a little dive of a Chinese restaurant and seen those paper place-mats that tell you what animal’s year it is? I don’t know if you’d call it the Chinese horoscope or what, but 2010 is the year of the tiger. Somehow I don’t think 2010 is going to be the best year for a certain Tiger, but for Chinese people this is the year of the tiger, and you’ll have to ask a Chinese person exactly what that portends. The year I was born was the year of the rooster. The year my husband was born was the year of the ox. The Ox and the Rooster: A Portrait of a Marriage…hmmmm…I think I could write a story about that one.

Anyway, a few months ago I started getting these regular feelings, or nudges, or subtle promptings, or whatever one would call them, about writing letters to the wonderful people in my life. I’ve written lots of letters over my half a century, so this wouldn’t be something new, but the nudges, those inward-elbow-in-the-ribs sort of feelings I was getting, have been really strong. So I’m going to act on this.

For me, 2010 is going to be The Year of the Love Letter. I am going to write a love letter to every person in my life who is supposed to get a love letter from me. I don’t know yet who all the recipients will be, but of course there are some obvious people who are at the top of the list. I have a husband, I have some children, I have some grandchildren – I think they should go on the list, don’t you?

Other than the fact that I have an intense desire to write love letters to those I love, I don’t know what this is all about. Don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind that perhaps the woman born in the year of the rooster feels impressed to make 2010 the year of the love letter because perhaps it will soon be the year of the earthworm. But that could also just be my melancholy nature taking hold. It does that a lot, and I try to pay no attention to it.

At any rate, I feel a certain kind of anticipatory joy about sitting down every couple of weeks or so and taking pen and paper in hand (no e-mail for these love letters!) to write to whomever I’m supposed to write to. I could cry just thinking about it.

I have no idea who I’ll write to first. I have no idea what I will say (other than “I love you so much”), but it has been a long time since I’ve felt so certain about something.

What about you? Do you feel like you’re supposed to focus on something or accomplish something in 2010? Will it be the year of the beginning of the college degree? The year of the 10 pounds lost? The year of the needed vacation? The year of the big move? The year of forgiveness? The year of being fully present where you are? The year of cleaning your house? The year of not washing your hands 20 times a day? The year of actually trusting God? The year of not going to McDonald’s? The year of being a good listener? The year of speaking up? The year of finding out about Jesus? The year of saying no to high heels? The year of not squeezing your zits? The year of speaking blessings instead of cursings? The year of more consistent quiet times? The year of walking? The year of learning how to play the Irish Tin Whistle? The year of organizing your office? The year of honoring a promise? The year of flossing your teeth more? The year of driving the speed limit? The year of drinking less coffee? The year of laughter? The year of reading through the Bible? The year of getting to know your neighbors? The year of paying down your debt? The year of buying a properly-fitting bra? The year of saying you’re sorry? The year you jump for joy?

What do you hope 2010 will mean for you?

Thank you to the readers who left comments about books that had touched their lives in some way. Some titles I haven’t read and would like to – I think Ben Hur goes on my list today.  🙂

I used Random.org to find who the four winners would be, and since only six left comments, your odds were pretty good.

Here are the winners of January’s giveaway:

Rob F.
Ronda B.
Savannah S.
Deb A.

I will either mail or deliver a new copy of Safely Home to each of you very soon! I hope to hear what you think of the book after you’ve read it.

Thank you for entering and visiting the blog!

Happy reading,

Happy New Year! May 2010 be a year of peace and joy for you.

I’m going to give away an unforgettable book to four fortunate blog readers this week.

My dear friend Carey recently told me about this book by Randy Alcorn. She said she sobbed her way through it, and that it was one of the most life-changing books she’d ever read. And Carey is a prolific reader, so to me that said a lot.

Of course I had to read it. I downloaded it on my Kindle right away, and can’t remember when I’ve been so moved. Not necessarily because it was so exquisitely written, but because of the way the main character Li Quan lived his life.

I have four brand new copies of Safely Home, and will send them out to the four winners who will be chosen by random.org.

All you have to do is leave a comment and share what book has made a difference in your life, and why? I’m not necessarily saying that the book you name has to be profound in a spiritual sort of way, although that would be a good title to list too.

Maybe a particular book changed the way you look at something or someone? Maybe a book answered a question for you? Was there a book that made you laugh like no other? Or did a story give you needed hope during a hard time? Or perhaps a book just helped you escape, de-stress and relax for a while. Was there a book that set the course of your life on a certain path? Do you have a favorite children’s book that you keep going back to? What book have you read more than three times? What book, like Safely Home for Carey, made you sob all the way through? I would love to know! And I’ll bet a few other blog readers would like to know too.

I could answer each one of these questions easily myself, but I would like to read what you have to say. If you have been a reader of this blog and have never left a comment, now’s your time! It’s easy to do, and as I’ve mentioned before, you can be kept anonymous if you prefer. Your e-mail address, your name, all can be kept private – just mention that to me when you leave your comments.

I was so touched by this book that Michael asked me to read it out loud to him. We’re taking it slow, a chapter or two at a time, with a hot cup of tea and a box of Kleenex nearby as we go.

Comments will be taken until Tuesday, January 5th, and the four winners will be announced on Wednesday the 6th!

Blessings,

Faith means believing the unbelievable or it is no faith at all.

G. K. Chesterton

I hope your Christmas was blessed in some special way. Even if not in the ways that you expected, I hope you were able to detect at least one specific blessing and give thanks for it.

We Americans are spoiled – we forget that if we have something to eat, a roof over our heads, the ability to get out of bed, and at least one person in life who cares about us, then we are more blessed than many on our planet.

Our Christmas was so blessed I almost didn’t know how to contain it. I was missing Sharon, Chris and their three children who were far away in Maryland, but aside from that void, our celebration was wonderful.

First of all, our house now gets decorated in ways it never did before. Since Sara is a floral designer, she took a few branches of cedar and some cast-off, destined-for-the-trash roses, a few yards of my ribbon, and the results were little pockets of beauty all throughout the house.

In the living room

On the kitchen counter

Over the kitchen table

I didn’t take pictures of the tiny arrangements she did for two bathrooms and the den.

Everything started when Jeremy, Carolyn and their four children came over on Christmas Eve day. Unfortunately, Jeremy had to work on Christmas day, so our plan was to spend lots of time together on Christmas Eve, then get up early on Christmas morning so he could be part of the gift opening before he went to work at the hospital. I was thrilled when they decided to spend the night so there wouldn’t have to be any packing up and going home in the cold.

We had carols playing softly all day, the kids were reading and playing with Legos and coloring pictures, and the snow was falling heavily outside.

We ate a late lunch/early dinner around 2:30, and had ham, scalloped potatoes, broccoli and raisin salad, red cabbage slaw, and buttered rolls.

Christmas dinner

After dinner we cleaned up a bit and kept commenting about the weather, which had reached blizzard status with many inches of snow predicted. I felt so sorry for the people who were trying to get home to Minnesota for Christmas; flights were canceled and the roads were so treacherous that driving was almost impossible.

Here’s a photo of our gang, without Elijah and Audrey. He was at the table but somehow isn’t in this picture. She was napping with her glow-worm.

Carolyn, Clara, Vivie, Sara, Jeremy, Julie, Michael

Jeremy and the children had written and planned a Christmas play, and staged it in the third floor guest suite of our house. When it was time, we all went upstairs where the seats for the audience had been placed, where a stage with stage lights had been set up, and all the props and “costumes” made. The play was about a little dog named Shorty (played by Vivienne) and what she learned after she ran away from home for not wanting to wear her new Christmas collar. She had to deal with the dog catcher (played by Elijah), landed in a cage in the pound, and had a change of heart after talking with another dog in the pound named Cocoa (played by Clara) who helped Shorty see how good she really had it.

Jeremy was the director and provided background music

Vivienne and Elijah playing their parts

Vivie, Clara, Elijah

Shorty learning her lesson at the dog pound

Audrey was still too young to take part in a play. Maybe next year.

Later that night we joined together in the living room and sang Christmas carols. I think the highlight for me was when four year-old Vivienne, who was comfortably cuddled on her mama’s lap, decided to sing one of her own carols a capella. She often makes up her own lengthy songs and we sat and listened as she introduced this new one about praising the Lord: “O price the Low-udd, O you’ve got to price the Low-udd, because you should price the Low-udd, yes we price Him…” I wish I had a recording of this because it was so funny and so sweetly heart-wrenching at the same time. I can imagine the Maker of Heaven and Earth smiling at Vivienne’s song.

Jeremy read the Christmas story to us from Luke, and we were reminded about why we were together in the first place. Why we exist, why we are on this planet, why we are a family, all have to do with the coming of Christ to the earth. How amazing that the Creator of everything so willingly limited Himself to show us His love. How humbling that even when we pay no attention to Him, He has His eyes of love on  us. How comforting that when we are His, nothing can touch us without His permission and His good purposes. How wondrous that He left the splendor of Heaven to dwell in whomever would ask Him in.

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’   Acts 17:24-28

After this, each child got to open one gift before they went to bed.  There have been many times when I have not been as grateful as I should be for this big house, but Christmas Eve 2009 wasn’t one of them. We have enough rooms and beds that each person could have a warm, private place to sleep. Thank you Lord, for your many blessings.

After the kids went to bed, the adults played Whoonu?, a fun game that tests how well you know someone else’s favorites. I learned that Sara does not like baseball caps but loves big cities, that Carolyn isn’t crazy about roller skating but loves birthday parties, and that Jeremy likes museums better than cats.

And the snow continued to fall outside. We checked the weather report and found that over twenty inches of snow was predicted, with blizzard conditions, and hoped that Jeremy could get to work in the morning.

our back yard, early in the storm

Early on Christmas morning when it was still (as Vivienne says) “peach black” outside, we got up to open presents before Jeremy went to work. Carolyn put yummy cinnamon rolls in the oven to bake, and we all sat around and watched the children open their presents. There was a Star Wars sword, some Tinker Toys, some pom-poms, many books, a Teddy bear, a Misty of Chincoteague model, some punch balloons, a doll…we watched them all ooh and aah over their gifts, and I was impressed with their gratitude. Blessings abounded.

Jeremy took one of the four-wheel drive vehicles to work (23 inches of snow would eventually fall in our city) and we enjoyed a leisurely day of quiet music, lots of food, happy children, and the movie Little Women. After lunch Carolyn made Reese’s bars and we found that they, along with cold glasses of milk, were the perfect accompaniment to a game of Yahtzee.

We ended the day not with leftovers from the night before, but with homemade pizza. Two-year old Audrey is rapidly becoming very verbal, and each time we asked her if she wanted another little piece of pizza she would enthusiastically smile and yell, “Shuh!” (sure!)  More blessings.

After dark fell and the snow tapered off a little, Carolyn and I loaded bags of gifts and four children up into Michael’s truck, to take them home, about two miles away. They were all dressed in their winter snowpants and boots and mittens and hats. The side streets were still not plowed, but the main streets had been, leaving chest-high snow banks in front of the driveways on Jeremy and Carolyn’s street. Even with a big four-wheel drive truck, we could not get through into their drive. Carolyn had to climb over the mountain of snow and trudge down the driveway, making trips into the house with the bags of Christmas goodies. Clara, Elijah and Vivienne were able to get through the drifts by walking in Mama’s footprints, while I held on to Audrey until Carolyn came back to carry her in.

When Jeremy was through with work that night, he couldn’t get in to their driveway either, so spent two hours shoveling the piles of wet, heavy snow in order to be able to park the car and go inside for the night. Thankfully it was about twenty-eight degrees out, so bitter cold was not a factor as it so often is for northern Minnesotans this time of year.

When I returned home we watched my favorite HGTV show Divine Design, cleaned up a little bit, talked over the highlights of the holiday we’d spent with our loved ones, and Sara stayed the night with us again, which was another blessing.

I do not know why our Christmas was so blessed.

I know a young woman who just found out she has an aggressive cancer, and she has a husband and three young children. I know a man whose heart is giving out, and he’s aware that he may not see another Christmas with his family. I know a woman whose brilliant, talented, only son is getting ready to go to prison. I know a family who doesn’t know where they will live in 2010, nor how they will make it financially. I know of a family whose father just had a brain hemorrhage and they don’t know if he’ll ever be right again. I know a man who lives in his car and doesn’t know how bound up in chains he is. I’ll bet you know a few people going through their own terrible trials too.

I don’t know why today we are so blessed. And I don’t pretend to think that someday we won’t have more serious trials of our own. We do have some now. And as long as we live, we’ll probably have some more. It’s just the way it is.

But at this moment in time, I want to be found being grateful. And not just anemically grateful. Powerfully and exuberantly grateful! I want the Lord to find me clapping my hands in applause and looking to Him and saying, “Thank you! I have noticed! You have blessed us! We can hardly contain what you’ve done for us, Father! Thank you, thank you! You are so good to us!” And maybe I’ll even sing with Vivie, “O price you Low-udd, O how I price you, my Low-udd!”

What will happen if next year, if I’m still writing away on this little blog, I have bad news to report? Will I still think we’re blessed? Will I still be proclaiming how good God is to anyone who will read? I pray so. I pray I am always able to give thanks to Him no matter what. He is my rightful owner and can do with me what He will. I will always try to praise and thank Him no matter how plenty the blessings or how heavy the burdens. I trust Him, and long to trust Him even more.

In one of my favorite books, At Home in Mitford, the main character, Father Tim, has a moment when he can hardly believe the blessings of God in his life. He quotes Psalm 68:19 aloud as he walks along (“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation!”), and then shouts out the verb in the verse that means the most to him…

“Loadeth!”

That’s how I felt this Christmas season. Loaded down with blessings.

And for this I most fervently price the Low-udd…