Tag Archives: reading

Sweet, Summer, Sabbath Peace

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This weekend may be the first since I started my reading sabbatical that I’m really living the life that’s planned… reading, writing, swimming, summer foods. Not too much more.

It’s such an overwhelming privilege to have this time to just fill up. I fill up with interesting books. I fill up with strength. I fill up with silence. I fill up with summer fruits and veggies.

It’s amazing. It’s necessary, because I’m pretty depleted by the end of the year, but that doesn’t make it less amazing.

I don’t really have time to read during the year, not things of substance — and often I don’t have the brain space to absorb anything that’s not directly related to what’s going on that minute.

I love my job. But I love new ideas as well. I love the people I work with… but it takes me a while to settle into taking in rather than giving out mode… So… oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

And today. Sorta grey and cloudy. I’d better get my swim in early. I’d better pile a cucumber on some bread. Isn’t life grand? Well, my life is grand. I hope yours is

Sweet Summer Sabbath Peace to you, my friends. I wish you long conversations with friends and quiet times with yourself. And a leisurely swim, or whatever does it for you… Peace. Fill up, so you can give out.

And enjoy dawn in Lewisburg!

EverydayPeaceSunday31Jul31

Books and Peace of Mind (and Heart)

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Books have always been my friends. They are my teachers. They are my respite. They roil my mind and they soothe my soul.

I read things that are good for me and things that are good for nothing but a sweet hour away. I have discovered wonder, uncovered facts that changed everything I know to be true, and laughed myself silly.

What an amazing invention. People think and write things and you get to know what those things are. It’s amazing when you think about it. People you don’t know. People who live across the world. People who have been dead for centuries.

They’re a problem because they do seem to pile up around my house. Not as quickly as they used to do, since I keep the fluff on the kindle… but still.

What fascinates me, saddens me is that people use them to disseminate hate. Such sacred things, books, and people desecrate them. I know, they are dealing with their truths… which i decry as untruths… but there you are.

It’s many a book that has been toted around by me, many that have become part of my bedding, changed with the sheets. Books that I have reread, books I have tossed across the room in disgust, books that have place of pride on my bookcases, until they’re passed along to someone else.

I don’t know about you, but I’d do better to bring them in, read them, cherish them, and let them go…

But, oh, oh, oh, the Peace! Books are a wonderful thing in my life.

EverydayPeaceThursday7Feb18

 

Peace of the Tiny Little Things

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Luckily, yesterday was far less traumatic than the last time. (which only makes me believe harder that my dentist used a string, a wrench and a door in the removal of that molar. No seriously, folks. that was owie!)

But my brain was firing on fewer than all cylinders most of the day, so it was a pleasure to come home to a new book by a favorite time whiler-awayer… And since I usually write her a review, so I didn’t even have to pay her for it. I’m happy to read and review Audrey Faye‘s books. They’re sweet, edgy, and amusing. And just the right length for a look away from life. Oh, and she writes series of books with bunches of friends that you get to know and care for. Always a fave with me. I read lots of different kinds of books, but I always have a few that simply take me away from what i’m doing now. so hurrah.

Actually, I’ve corrected enough spelling mistakes in today’s post that I’m clearly not yet firing on all cylinders! Maybe I’ll have to reread the book! And wander down to the book store to see if they have the Tim Wise’s new book, “Under the Affluence,” which I next need to read.

But when your brain is marshmallow, stick with the fluff. You do what you do when you can…

Peace is often very small and sweet, which means it’s not entirely insignificant. Peace. wherever you find it today, my friends.

FrostyMoonLunacyOct15

 

That Reading, Snuggling Peace

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For those of us who miss our grandchildren — we need to cultivate local kids to keep our hand in the game.

Someone wants or needs a story to be read to them. Someone wants or needs to read a story to us.

Side benefits? New Stories. Old favorites revisited. Shared innocence and earnesty. Snuggles. Pretty much all good things.

And oh, new and interesting children in your life and in your arms. We’re made to love these kids. We should practice harder.

If there were more adults snuggling with children, particularly children not their own, if we learned the shape of those bodies in our arms, in our laps, there would be more Peace in this world.

This is not a difficult challenge to undertake. And if you don’t have grands yet, you can begin training.

HarvestMoonLunacySep17

Thinking. Peace. Sabbbath.

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Here I am having a reading summer unlike any I’ve had since about 9th grade AND I’m visiting friends I first met after my four year career in reading (what else IS graduate school if not a reading career?).

Not only are these people with whom I once talked (worked) and considered late into the night, they’re people who know what I used to think about… who I was before I was a married UU minister. There’s a wonderful joy in knowing people who hold your history. Friendships!

And today I’m joining friends from my church in PA who just happen to live in the same town as our daughter’s family and doing what I so rarely do on vacation — going to church! They’re here 5 months and then at home 5 months and It’ll be wonderful to see where they are making their spiritual home when they’re not with us. It’s going to be a slow Sabbath with some good visits thrown in.

And the morning started out watching my grandson play with his legos… what a wonderful unexpected joy and fabulous side effect of marriage. Kids and grandkids— quite the jackpot, one I’m only slowly learning how to enjoy… never having expected it…

It’s a great period in my life. That said, I’m really looking forward to home and the weddings and the swimming that are the last stage of my summer. If I don’t look too closely, I feel like a 9 year old! There’s a sweet Peace in all of this!

GardenMoonLunacyAug9

Reading Peace

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All through the summer, when I was a girl, from about junior high on, I would walk to the library at least once a week and check out about 10 books. Two summers I undertook to just read through the fiction and so I was reading epic Russian sagas at the same time I was reading British spy mysteries. It was fun. Although I have to admit that at the speed I was gulping books I may have missed some of the finer points! But nothing gave me more joy. Swim. Read. Swim. Read. All Summer long.

During the work year, while I may get one or two substantive books read, I pretty much stick to fluffier reading. I read mostly to stop thinking rather than to think. ahhhhh. a chance to unwind.

But now during the summer, one of the requirements/privileges of my job is to prepare for the coming year.

This is made so much sweeter by the fact that this year, no one is sick, no one is dying and I’m not recovering from a death in the family. I am so grateful.

So this year, I get to stuff and stuff and stuff and stuff.

And it’s grand. I have no idea how things will all come together or even if they should, but I’m grateful for the opportunity.

Books have always offered me Peace, even as they’ve stirred and excited me.

Hurrah!

GardenMoonLunacyJul28