I changed Bee's winter shelf to a Valentine's Day theme this weekend, with books about love and kisses.
We spent the evening working on a Valentine for Bee's babysitter.
Bee's favorite part? She loved playing with the glue.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Bee My Valentine
I changed Bee's winter shelf to a Valentine's Day theme this weekend, with books about love and kisses.
We spent the evening working on a Valentine for Bee's babysitter.
Bee's favorite part? She loved playing with the glue.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Respite
The sun came out yesterday. The city warmed to a delicious 50 degrees.
Walking to work in the morning, I felt like a mole, emerging from weeks underground, squinting up at that strange, orange ball in the sky.
All day at work, I sat at my desk, face turned toward the sunlight that was streaming in through the floor to ceiling windows. The neighborhood stray cats sunned themselves on our windowsill.
After weeks and weeks of gray with snow, gray with rain, and gray with fog, the sunlight was a much welcomed panacea.
After work, I went jogging with Max with a skip in my step. Even Max plodded along a little more quickly than usual.
Saturday morning sunrise brought with it another mild day and blue skies. I am grateful.
Winter will surely return, pulling her dour skirts around the city, subduing its inhabitants once more.
For the time being, I am relishing the promise of winter's end.
Walking to work in the morning, I felt like a mole, emerging from weeks underground, squinting up at that strange, orange ball in the sky.
All day at work, I sat at my desk, face turned toward the sunlight that was streaming in through the floor to ceiling windows. The neighborhood stray cats sunned themselves on our windowsill.
After weeks and weeks of gray with snow, gray with rain, and gray with fog, the sunlight was a much welcomed panacea.
After work, I went jogging with Max with a skip in my step. Even Max plodded along a little more quickly than usual.
Saturday morning sunrise brought with it another mild day and blue skies. I am grateful.
Winter will surely return, pulling her dour skirts around the city, subduing its inhabitants once more.
For the time being, I am relishing the promise of winter's end.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Book #8 "Acedia and me" by Kathleen Norris
I have been reading this book a little at a time, savoring a chapter every night or so. Kathleen Norris has a very rare quality as an author. She is able to impart her very deep faith in God across the pages and straight into the hearts of her readers.
Norris is a protestant who becomes an Oblate in a monastery. She is woman of great faith, but not without her own personal struggles and despair. Never holier than thou, never preachy, her voice is that of a friend you would want to have.
Norris' best known book is "The Cloister Walk." It is an extraordinary narrative, and one I take comfort in when I feel my own faith faltering. It has never failed to renew my spirit.
Her most recent book "Acedia & me" delves into acedia as a sin, a vice, a disease, and a path to redemption. She perhaps best explains acedia in its contemporary sense in the following paragraph:
Acedia is at work in us when we prefer buying things to witnessing the beauty of nature, "reading" catalogues instead of books, or lingering in a museum store instead of touring the museum itself. These are not insignificant choices, for in making them we risk losing our capacity for wonder. When acedia has so throughly possessed us, making life seem so dull that only artificial stimulation can get our attention, it may be crazy to suggest that the ordinary rhythms of time, the passing of day and night, have something to teach us, or that there is a world to be revealed when the mall is closed, the electric power has failed, and it is too dark to see anything but shadows and stars. Cast back on our lonely, raw, and wounded selves, we may find that nobody is at home. (194)
She is brutally direct, but so, so right.
Norris is a protestant who becomes an Oblate in a monastery. She is woman of great faith, but not without her own personal struggles and despair. Never holier than thou, never preachy, her voice is that of a friend you would want to have.
Norris' best known book is "The Cloister Walk." It is an extraordinary narrative, and one I take comfort in when I feel my own faith faltering. It has never failed to renew my spirit.
Her most recent book "Acedia & me" delves into acedia as a sin, a vice, a disease, and a path to redemption. She perhaps best explains acedia in its contemporary sense in the following paragraph:
Acedia is at work in us when we prefer buying things to witnessing the beauty of nature, "reading" catalogues instead of books, or lingering in a museum store instead of touring the museum itself. These are not insignificant choices, for in making them we risk losing our capacity for wonder. When acedia has so throughly possessed us, making life seem so dull that only artificial stimulation can get our attention, it may be crazy to suggest that the ordinary rhythms of time, the passing of day and night, have something to teach us, or that there is a world to be revealed when the mall is closed, the electric power has failed, and it is too dark to see anything but shadows and stars. Cast back on our lonely, raw, and wounded selves, we may find that nobody is at home. (194)
She is brutally direct, but so, so right.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Vanities
Five little things that make my life happy:
My morning cup of tea: Harney and Son Cinnamon Spice. I honestly don't know whether I could start my work day without it.
A natural lip gloss that I can share with Bee: Korres lip butter. You should hear her smack her lips when I let her swipe a little bit.
My iPod: a constant soundtrack for all that city walking. And that way no one knows how much 70s music I actually listen to.
Peanut M&Ms: my current addiction of choice. I really, really cannot stop eating them.
My Mom's daily email, telling me all about life at home.
My morning cup of tea: Harney and Son Cinnamon Spice. I honestly don't know whether I could start my work day without it.
A natural lip gloss that I can share with Bee: Korres lip butter. You should hear her smack her lips when I let her swipe a little bit.
My iPod: a constant soundtrack for all that city walking. And that way no one knows how much 70s music I actually listen to.
Peanut M&Ms: my current addiction of choice. I really, really cannot stop eating them.
My Mom's daily email, telling me all about life at home.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Crossaints, the Eiffel tower and really cool clothes
Just when winter is at its nadir and I have lost hope of ever seeing the sun again, a friend throws a bolt of lightning my way that makes my bleak February positively sparkle.
"Let's meet up in Paris," she says in a email to me and a number of other girlfriends scattered throughout Europe.
My friend goes on to propose a ladies weekend, filled with window shopping, eating, gabbing, and getting away from the grind of everyday life.
The rsvps fly fast and furious over email. Everyone thinks this is a wonderful idea. Winter has a grip on all of us.
When I ask David, he tells me I should go.
And then I realize I have enough American Express points to pay for my flight.
So, this evening has been spent in a swirl of gratefulness. A weekend in Paris!
"Let's meet up in Paris," she says in a email to me and a number of other girlfriends scattered throughout Europe.
My friend goes on to propose a ladies weekend, filled with window shopping, eating, gabbing, and getting away from the grind of everyday life.
The rsvps fly fast and furious over email. Everyone thinks this is a wonderful idea. Winter has a grip on all of us.
When I ask David, he tells me I should go.
And then I realize I have enough American Express points to pay for my flight.
So, this evening has been spent in a swirl of gratefulness. A weekend in Paris!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
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