Hope: The First Week of Advent

Hope is the light that shines in dark places, when we feel most alone. Hope lends us strength and grace to bear the unbearable. Hope is the theme of this first week of this Season of Waiting...

Book Review: Then Sings My Soul: Special Edition by Robert J. Morgan

I was recently sent a copy of Then Sings My Soul: Special Edition to review, and I have to say I was absolutely delighted with it! It is a collection of 150 well-loved hymns, each hymn with it's story of "how it came to be". I have to admit, I expected something a little less charming, something perhaps a little pedantic but worth it because the music is so wonderful. I am happy to say I was wrong! This sturdy paperback book has sweet rough-cut edges, the arrangements are traditional (a point I appreciated very much as I dislike many of the "re-arrangements" I hear), and the stories neatly capture the "soul" of each song.

I was familiar with some of the "hymn histories", but others were new to me and my family. Morgan has a deft manner of telling each tale, each filled with strong emotional content (after all, some of these hymns were crafted in periods of plague or persecution or war!) and yet not trivialized or sentimentalized.

I look forward to sharing this wonderful volume with loved ones!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson through BookSneeze in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trace Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Five Things I am Grateful for Thanksgiving 2010

There is a popular (and rather old-fashioned) Thanksgiving tradition called "The Five Kernels" . It seems that over that first harsh winter, the Plymouth colonists' rations dwindled to the point that each was given five kernels of corn per day - about half of the folk who had come across on the Mayflower died before spring.

And yet that autumn, as they gathered their first harvest, they did not wallow in miseries that they had overcome but rather they celebrated with a feast of Thanksgiving to God for the blessings He had bestowed upon them! And so many families since have carried on the tradition of handing each person at the Thanksgiving table five kernels of corn. A glass is passed around, and as each person drops in their kernels they share five things to be grateful for this year.

I humbly present my list:

1 - My children. I am so proud of the people they have become, and continue to become (as none of us stay the same always!). I am proud to have had a part in their lives!


2 - My family! We have shared joys and sorrows, we have celebrated together marriages and births and good fortunes, and we have grieved over disappointments and set-backs and loved ones taken too soon and others taken in their time.  I am fortunate that I have brothers that I consider among my best friends - I know how very rare this is! And I am fortunate that they married women I count among my best friends. 


3 - My nieces, wee and not-so-wee. Yes, I know technically they are family, but there is more than just the "auntie to niece" relationship - these precious little souls inspire me!


4 - Good friends who have stood with me and by me thru the years - friends who are indeed family!


5 - Plentiful healthy and delicious food - that I am "free from want" - true want, not the sort of "want" that the adverts try to convince us is real! 

Proclamation of Thanksgiving,1863, President Lincoln

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the field of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than theretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony wherof I have herunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

A. Lincoln

Autumn Leaves, English translation by Johnny Mercer

The falling leaves drift by the window,
The autumn leaves of red and gold.
I see your lips, the summer kisses,
The sunburned hands I used to hold.
Since you went away the days grow long,
And soon I'll hear Old Winter's song.
But I miss you most of all, my darling,
When autumn leaves start to fall.

True Colors

There are some who say the fall display is costuming - a sort of sugared pantomime of color. There are others who say the brilliant foliage is a swan song, a last hurrah before death.

Now that I am in my 40s - a time that used to be considered the "autumn of life" - I understand the soft plums and dazzling scarlets and blazing oranges differently - as a sort of reckoning with age and experience. I certainly feel as if my true colors shine more with each passing year, as the petty fears and considerations of youth fall away!

November, a Month of Giving Thanks

November is the month in which we in the US celebrate our Thanksgiving holiday. But why leave gratitude to a single day? Am I not thankful each and every day for the blessings it brings? And so I have decided to make the month of November a "Giving Thanks" time.

I am currently writing notes to people that have touched my life, thanking them for their contribution to the person I am (or am becoming). It amazes me how one note leads to another, a spark of memory "oh! I remember when Miss X helped me to..."

It can be very easy to say "I am blessed", but a bit more work goes into reflecting *how* I am blessed... *who* has touched my life... and how do I recognise this?

Show Me How Knitting, by Susan Levin and Gloria Tracy

This sweet, fun and informative book (which is really two books in one!) was given to me today by a friend who works at the Sixth & Spring Books offices. I mentioned that I plan to teach my wee nieces to fingerknit...
The book contains a delightful story, "Knitting to the Rescue" about a little girl named Mary Ruth who learns how to knit from her grandma during a blackout. Then "Mary Ruth's How to Knit Book" takes over - with step-by-step instructions!

I look forward to sharing this with Madi and Kay!

The Sun Shines Thru Even on Darkest Days

Some days we are weary. We are weighed down with griefs and burdens until we no longer believe in a restoring and life-giving Light.

And yet time will show that the sun does indeed still shine. And Light may be blocked by clouds, but still gleams thru - sometime grey and muffled, sometimes as a searing shard of Truth.

Life is not painless, our joys are not untouched by sorrow, and Light can burn as well as illuminate. But burn as it may, it comforts me to know the Light will indeed lead me Home...