A Circle of Quiet (Madeleine and Me)

How is it possible that I have not discovered this marvelous book before now?

"A Circle of Quiet" is by Madeleine L'Engle and I highly recommend it. It's a series of essays, ruminations and stories about life as a human, writer, Christian, woman, and more. It's funny, insightful, profound, and inspiring.

If you're not familiar with L'Engle, I recommend her young adult fiction--all of it--and her marvelous book on faith and art, "Walking on Water." I've yet to dive into her adult fiction, but as Madeleine herself says, "I suppose I'm not bright enough to know the difference between children and adult fiction." (My paraphrase). I love that so many of her novels, no matter the genre, have intertwining characters, even though some take place in chronos (real time) and kairos (time beyond our dimension, God's time).

Here's a quote from "A Circle of Quiet":

It is through ... the world of the imagination which takes us beyond the restrictions of provable fact, that we touch the hem of truth. The world we live in, the world we are able to know with our intellect, is limited an dbounded by our finiteness. We glimpse reality only occasionally, and for me it happens most often when I write, when I start out using all the "real" things which my sense and my mind cna know, and then suddenly a world opens for me.

No Thin Man for Me :(

I was sitting on our "couch" (made of two cushy chairs) watching "The Thin Man Goes Home" on my lovely big 27-inch TV and revelling in my evening off, when the buzzer rang. It was a flute lesson! Kim had told me about it, but 7:00 p.m. is a weird time for a lesson, so I was not prepared, and she'd not yet come home.

So I hastened to my room to watch the movie on my laptop, but the DVD player is not working correctly. So now I am sitting on the floor, typing, and wishing it were 7:30. Only 15 minutes to go!

It's been super-fun watching the complete Thin Man collection. That is one of the perks of my job. Now that I sit with all of the entertainment editors, I'm part of the movie-borrowing loop. Especially since the guys are constantly reviewing fun boxed sets, like the Thin Man and the Complete Monty Python. I've also got the complete Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers collection ready to go.

On the negative side, my yummy toasted whole wheat English muffins with raisins and cinnamon are getting cold. (Or "British muffins" as Trader Joe's labels them. Why? Is it more organic or something?)

10 minutes to go...who will be murdered in this film? And will notorious alcoholic Nick really stay on the wagon? Stay tuned...

For those who pray

I know not all of you are Christians, but if you are, please pray for the small women's group I lead, Transform.

Transform meets every other week and our purpose is to grow in intimacy with Jesus. So much of our pain and heartache as women could be eliminated if we really truly believed the truth about who we are: daughters of the King; the beloved bride of Christ; powerful and strong women who, because of our heritage and our union with the God of creation, really can make a difference in this fallen world.

Pray for me, for my assistant leaders Hillary and Sara, for my worship leader Catherine, and for the women in their 20s and 30s who will come. Pray that God draws those whom he has chosen, and pray that I will be able to hear the leading of the Holy Spirit and follow the Lord's agenda, not mine.

Thanks!

Hi Sam!!!

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when friend Sam told me he "enjoys my blog." Sam's never posted, I didn't know Sam read the blog. And that reminded me that there are probably others out there, like Sam, reading my blog and I have no idea that you are doing so. Hopefully I have an idea who you are, though I suppose anyone could read this.

You'd think I'd be used to this by now, seeing as how I'm constantly writing stuff (both online and in the newspaper) that is read by hundreds of thousands of people (the circulation for one of my sections is 200,000 and they estimate readership of a half million, but of course not everyone reads the food section!) At any rate, I still get a jolting reminder every now and then that my words really aren't going out into a nameless, sucking void.

So, I just wanted to send a shoutout to friend Sam, and to all of the others who are reading this, as well. Hi Sam!

:)