As Yet Untitled Variation of Pride & Prejudice

As I mentioned last week, I have been writing a variation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Such variations can be read all over Amazon and seem to do quite well in Kindle form; I have also ordered a good many through our state-wide library system Links+.

As I do wish to return to writing, I thought that posting the beginning snippet of the first draft might compel me to keep writing. So here it is....

This variation picks up after Darcy has arranged for the marriage of Lydia and Wickham with Darcy and Bingley's return to Longbourn for the first time since leaving the neighborhood the previous November.

NOTE: The characters, the places, and the lines quoted from Pride and Prejudice (1813) are the imaginative work of Miss Jane Austen (1775-1817) to whom the world is forever indebted and for the creation of two of the most famous lovers in all English literature: Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.

Chapter One

            "Lizzy? Lizzy, where are you?"

            Elizabeth Bennet sighed over her novel, closed it with reluctance, and unfolded herself from her favorite reading perch in the windowseat of the bedroom she shared with her elder sister, Jane. Elizabeth had been re-reading one of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels, but she had become distracted, unable to focus on the book in her lap nor on the early autumn scenery spread out before her window.

            Jane certainly had not been herself lately. Before Mr. Bingley had leased nearby Netherfield Park last autumn, Jane had been Elizabeth's chief confidant and Elizabeth hers; not a single secret had stood between the sisters.

            But now sweet Jane held her secrets in silence, her eyes the only key to the sadness she felt at Mr. Bingley's closing Netherfield and returning to London—never to return, according to the correspondence of his sister, Miss Caroline Bingley. Despite Jane's continued silence on the subject, Elizabeth knew that Jane's attachment to their handsome and genial young neighbor was the cause of her sister's capricious appetite, sleeplessness, and wandering thoughts.

            Elizabeth shook her head, partly in amusement yet also with heaviness of heart. With Jane in love with a worthy gentleman of considerable means, life at Longbourn, their modest estate in Hertfordshire, was in the process of altering forever. 

            “There you are, Lizzy!” huffed Kitty, the second-youngest of the five Bennet sisters, as the bedroom door flew open with an unladylike crash. “Your presence is required downstairs,” she reported before turning on her heel and stomping down the hallway to her own bedroom door which Kitty opened and closed with an identical reverberating slam.

            Standing a bit stiffly after being seated for such a long time with her feet beneath her, Elizabeth smoothed the skirt of her morning dress and replaced her novel on the bookshelf. Stopping in front of the glass, she deftly smoothed the curls around her face and patted her back hair into place before proceeding downstairs. Puzzled by the summons, Elizabeth thought that although she had not noticed guests arriving, she had been quite engrossed in her novel…well, in her thoughts, anyway…and may have missed the arrival of guests at Longbourn.

            Hearing the hum of voices in the morning room, Elizabeth opened the door but halted abruptly and awkwardly in the doorway, her hand still on the brass knob, as two familiar gentlemen rose to their feet and bowed to her. Automatically, she dropped a quick curtsey in response and entered the room, smiling at the blushing young gentleman who had been seated beside Jane.

            “Welcome, Mr. Bingley, to Longbourn,” Elizabeth greeted warmly before turning to the second, taller gentleman. “And welcome, Mr. Darcy.” The unsmiling man nodded in response as Mr. Bingley launched himself forward to return her greeting.

            “I can see that you are well, Miss Elizabeth,” Bingley enthused as he bowed over her extended hand. “Thank you for your warm welcome. It is wonderful to be back in Hertfordshire; I have missed it exceedingly.”

            “You are always welcome at Longbourn, Mr. Bingley,” smiled Mrs. Bennet, her eyes alight with satisfaction at having a young man of Bingley’s wealth once again calling upon Jane. “And I have not forgotten the family dinner you promised to attend upon your return; no, I have most certainly not. We shall fix a date for you to join us very soon, sir, indeed.” Elizabeth winced as Mrs. Bennet’s rudeness at utterly ignoring Mr. Darcy who was standing near the window, his lips folded in a thin line that Elizabeth took for disapproval.  

            Glancing quickly at Darcy, Bingley was discomposed at the invitation which deliberately left out his friend and guest. “Certainly, Mrs. Bennet. Name the day, and we shall be here,” Bingley replied. Elizabeth quite admired his gentle reminder to Mrs. Bennet of what was due his friend, but she also knew that her mother would disregard the “we” of Bingley’s statement and not accept the subtle hint.

            Bingley turned to Elizabeth. “We were just discussing the possibility of a walk to Oakham Mount; Miss Bennet has assured us that the view is lovely, and that you know the way very well indeed. And the weather seems quite amenable.” He sent her sister a warm look, causing Jane to blush prettily. “Would you consider joining us, Miss Elizabeth?” He turned politely but seemingly without expectation to the rest of the assembled Bennets, including Kitty who had rejoined her mother and sisters. “Mrs. Bennet? Miss Mary? Miss Catherine? Would you care to accompany us on this outing?”

            While Mrs. Bennet refused with effusive apologies while winking significantly and obviously at Jane during her speech, Mary indicated a preference for her book. However, Kitty elected to join the excursion with unusual alacrity.

            A glance at Jane assured Elizabeth of the necessity of her accepting the invitation, thus allowing Mr. Bingley the opportunity to speak to her sister without the presence of Mrs. Bennet. Yet inevitably she would be in Mr. Darcy’s presence, and she was uncertain of his wishes in the matter. Yet, an opportunity to tease must never be dismissed….

            “Are you quite certain that you desire my company, Mr. Bingley?” Elizabeth queried, her eyes glinting with mischief. “Mr. Darcy and Kitty will provide adequate chaperonage, after all.”

            But Mr. Darcy, who had remained standing since her entrance, stepped forward. “We would greatly appreciate the honor of your presence, Miss Elizabeth,” he agreed as he bowed politely.

            However, Elizabeth’s eyebrows rose with surprise at his reply. Mr. Darcy seldom spoke with those outside his party at Netherfield which had included Mr. Bingley and his two sisters, one of whom was married to Mr. Hurst. Although Mr. Darcy remained unsmiling as was his usual expression, Elizabeth noted warmth in his gray eyes which seemed much lighter this morning.

            “With such an invitation, how could I possibly refuse?” Elizabeth replied, smiling. After she, Jane, and Kitty had collected their bonnets and shawls from upstairs, Elizabeth followed Mr. Bingley and Jane out the front door and into the pale autumn sunshine, Mr. Darcy on her heels and Kitty protesting behind them.

There's much, much more to write, and I am purposefully leaving Anne Lamott's quotation in the sidebar as inspiration to make time for writing. After all,

"If you can't find an hour to write, even Jesus can't help you."

~Anne Lamott

If if that quotation isn't enough to compel me to pick up my pen and continue to write, nothing will!

Hoping to write more this week,

Back in the (Writing) Saddle Again?

Image of journal (in German) and fountain pen. I wish I could write this neatly on unlined paper!

As I looked for a good quote for this week from among my nearly fifteen years of jotting quotations into my two volumes of Quotation Journals--known at Brave Writer as Commonplace Books--I came across one on writing that intrigued me. 

I have read little by John Piper, a well-known Christian theologian and author, who wrote the hugely inspirational book Desiring God...which, unfortunately, sits unread on my bookshelf. But his thought below on writing, which I copied down more than six years ago, is a truth that needs to be acknowledged.

And is perhaps the best reason we can have for writing, and especially for journaling.

Here's the quotation which I came across in Ann Voskamp's utterly revelatory book One Thousand Gifts:

"Writing is a way of opening our eyes to see what we otherwise do not see." 

~John Piper

As I am spurred on to return to writing again--something I have done in rare bits and snatches since hanging up the "On Hiatus" sign on the sixteen chapters of my unfinished novel, published serially on two different websites eighteen months ago--Piper's insights on writing really strike me as Truth. 

While I look forward to continuing to write two different stories--variations of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice which I have been obsessed with reading for the past two years--I also desire to spend more time "thinking on the page" which is the gift that journaling gives us. 

My current journal and my usual dip pen for writing in it each week

I have kept journals all my life, managing to write daily in small vinyl-covered diaries in my freshman, sophomore, and junior years of high school, and then journaling on and off since then. For the past few years, I've journaled about once a week--sometimes less--but on a regular basis, filling two journals completely and now well into a third. I tend to write on Friday nights, the one night I allow myself to stay up later than usual, with a quiet house beckoning me to write. Sometimes I light a candle, but I almost always write with a dip pen--sometimes a metal-nibbed quill--and bottled ink in sepia, midnight blue, or violet. Perhaps I feel more Austen-ish this way, but I know that if I go too long without writing in this manner, my fingers quite literally itch to hold that pen, dip the nib into the ink, and scrawl away.   

It's a peace thing--writing like this. I feel detached from life's current problems and stressors and write away about the events of my week, line after line in my faux-copperplate penmanship that I've worked very hard to develop over the years. I hate getting to the bottom of a page because not only is it more difficult to maintain neat handwriting, but it's also because my "space" is nearly gone. But often I push onto a second page, delighting once again in filling a page with events, ponderings, wishes. 

I received another journal at the Brave Writer Staff Retreat last month, a pale pink hardcover journal that I would never have purchased for myself as I prefer my journals to be old-fashioned in appearance, classic and preferably bound in leather. But this journal has a message printed on the front that stopped me in my proverbial tracks:

Don't let anyone dull your SPARKLE.

And then I began to think about those I allow to dull my sparkle, people around whom I cannot be myself. Right then I decided that this journal was going to be different. This journal was going to be Truth, not merely what I wrote in case someone read it after I left this earth, etc. And this journal was going to be about writing. It may contain some passages of original fiction or poetry, but it's also a place to plan, to dream, to wander and wonder. 

Most of all, it shall be a place in which I will not allow anyone to dull my sparkle as a woman, as a writer, as a thinking, creating being.

I just started teaching my Fan Fiction class at Brave Writer. I believe that this is the fifth summer I've taught it, and it filled up very quickly, the first time that this class has not only been full but also had a waiting list! I started writing fan fiction novels and stories in November 2010, and my work has become extremely popular on Wattpad.com and, to a lesser extent, on FanFiction.net. On these two websites, my ten novels and stories have garnered well over 4 million "reads" (or "hits"). 

  

But now I wish to switch fandoms to write JAFF (Jane Austen Fan Fiction). I follow the uber-talented writers at Austen Variations and have read most of their books, many of which I was able to track down through Link+, a California-wide compendium of libraries. Others I have bought one at a time on Amazon for my Kindle, using my online essay grading earnings to fund my obsession. 

A manuscript page from Chapter 11 of Persuasion by Jane Austen

And this is the fandom I want to write this summer. Of course, I started both stories with a quill and bottled ink before finally setting aside the lined pages of faux-copperplate in order to type it all up into Word for editing and printing purposes. I've shared the first few chapters of one story with our local Writers' Workshop which meets the second Tuesday of each month at our county library branch, and thus far the response has been quite positive. 

But I have only had time to jot a wee bit here and a little there because teaching nine online courses of 4-6 weeks each at Brave Writer, teaching a year-long expository essay class to high school juniors and seniors through our co-op Class Days with Heritage Christian School, grading essays quite regularly with my Online Essay Grading Service, and home schooling our fourth and youngest child (well, he's turning 17 in December) who will be a high school junior in the fall and who has significant learning challenges pretty much gobbles up all of my time. In addition, I've been assisting an amazing Christian poet/writer with her first traditionally-published book called Sky Mesa Journal: social media, blogging, and editing/formatting/proofreading. 

And then I teach Fan Fiction at Brave Writer each summer, so I really only have August available for significant writing. At least next year I won't be teaching at Class Day since our youngest has finished taking all of his science lab classes for high school, so we'll socialize through our local Park Day here in our small mountain village rather than driving down into San Diego every other week. But I need to find a way to squeeze in some writing time at least on a weekly basis. And I'm going to figure out how, one way or another. 

Because, after all, John Piper wrote of the revelations that come when we write, and I simply cannot miss out on those. 

Writing with you,

 

Now Available!

At last!!!

The Book of Common Prayer 2011 is now available! You may read more about this new edition available for liturgical review at Book of Common Prayer 2011.

This new edition uses the English Standard Version Scriptures and hearkens back to the original Cranmer prayer book of the late 1540s, but is presented in modern, accessible language. Retaining historical and doctrinal accuracy, our prayer for this edition of the Book of Common Prayer is that it will introduce many people to the Biblical Anglican Church, allowing them to experience the prayer book for the first time.

The title page reads:

“This Book is for trial use by the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in North America for liturgical review. This Trial version has not been authorized, at present, for general use except as permitted by the ordinary of each diocese.”

So it is our wish and our prayer that this new trial edition of the Book of Common Prayer will be a valuable tool for understanding the Anglican mode of praying the Scriptures for those outside of the Church of England tradition and that it may be a viable alternative for those using the 1979 edition for readability yet not appreciating some of the compromises made in that Book.

I am so blessed to be part of this project. Father Keith Acker of Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity in eastern San Diego County, who revised this Book of Common Prayer under the direction of Bishop Richard Boyce, asked me to help him edit this project. What seemed to be some quick proofreading soon evolved into intense editorial sessions lasting over nine months. As I am not a member of the Anglican Church, much of the theology and content was new to me, and my ignorance and many questions became quite helpful in fleshing out explanations of aspects of the Anglican tradition and practice. I have been attending weekday prayer and Communion services with Fr. Acker since 2004, but my church membership resides within the Evangelical Free Church.

I started praying with the Book of Common Prayer over ten years ago, using a 1662 edition illustrated with illuminated manuscripts. Then when I discovered a nearby Anglican Church, I was introduced to the 1979 book, and then to the 1928 which I have used for the last six years exclusively until this new 2011 edition. As a scholar of medieval literature, I adore the beauty of language in the 1928, but its main obstacle was its inaccessibility to a modern audience that was not made up of medievalists.

We pray that the Book of Common Prayer 2011 will be a blessing to many, both within and outside of the Church of England, who desire to pray the Scriptures and the historic prayers of the Anglican tradition.

Blessings,

Starting My 365 Photo Blog Again....

Taken by Timothy at Sea Life Aquarium

Taken by Timothy at Sea Life Aquarium

I've started posting to my 365 Photo Blog again after some of my old 365 friends started a Facebook group. So I'll try to post a photo a day throughout 2011...we'll see how it goes. I'll also occasionally post photos by family members. Keith, after all, was a high school photography teacher who attended Brooks Institute of Photography, and both E and T are very much into photography as well. So I've posted two photos above that T took yesterday at the Sea Life Aquarium at Legoland in Carlsbad. He took a lot of photos, but these two are really nicely done, I think.

And here's my first post to Susanne 365 and Beyond: Starting 365 Again...

So here's to a new project for 2011!

My 2010 Rule of Life

Last January I posted a Rule of Life, and this January I do the same, praying that God will help me to follow it far better this year. (For an explanation of a Rule of Life, see the above link.)

The Rule for this year is very nearly the same as the one for the last:

Pray the Liturgy of the Hours

MORNING PRAYER:
--- Divine Hours Morning Prayer
--- 1928 Book of Common Prayer Morning Prayer, including Psalms and Lectionary Readings (Old and New Testament)
--- Diary of Private Prayer: Morning Prayer (optional)

NOON PRAYER:
--- Divine Hours Midday Prayer
--- Anglican Prayer Beads (optional)

VESPERS:
--- Divine Hours Vespers Prayer
--- Daily Book of Common Prayer (Prayer and/or Scripture Readings)

COMPLINE:
--- Divine Hours Compline Prayer
--- 1928 Book of Common Prayer Evening Prayer, including Psalms
--- Diary of Private Prayer: Evening Prayer (optional)

Weekly Church Services

--- Attend Friday Morning Prayer and Holy Communion (Healing Service) at Victoria Chapel, Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity, plus Holy Day Observances

--- Attend Sunday School and Sunday Worship at Lake Murray Community Church

Bodily Discipline

--- Gluten-free and sugar-free eating with one exception per week

--- Daily exercise, six days/week, 30 minutes per day

--- Awake at 7:00 AM; Bedtime by 11:00 PM, six days/week

Intellectual Discipline

--- 30 minutes (minimum) of writing (not counting blogging/journaling), six days/week

--- 30 minutes (minimum) of instructional reading, six days/week

--- Mini-retreats for writing/journaling/prayer at least monthly

--- Logos Reading and Discussion Group monthly

--- Local Writers' Workshop monthly

With the aid of Christ Jesus my Lord and Saviour, I intend to keep this Rule of Life in the Year of our Lord 2010. Signed this 31st Day of December, 2009.

My hope and prayer this year for myself spiritually is for me to grow ever more prayerful, ever seeking the Lord in my every thought. May His Spirit infuse my writing and reading, my prayer and recreation, my every moment of every day.

My hope and prayer this year for myself physically is a continuation of the healing process I finally saw in December after eight years of illness: the ability to exercise for the first time in at least six years, eating only that which is healthy, sleeping adequately, and through all this, lose the weight I have gained as a result of my medications and sickness, by our 25th anniversary in June. That's losing two pounds per week which I hope is quite do-able now that I can exercise at (very long) last.

My hope and prayer for myself intellectually is to continue writing and reading all that brings me closer to God and that which helps others see Him at work in their lives. I pray for the discipline to continue writing and reading daily so that I may be a light shining for Him, here on this blog and in my other writings and my readings. I have such a tremendously wonderful stack of truly excellent books that I haven't had time to read, so I pray that I will get to them, read them, digest them, and apply them to my life for His glory and my edification.

It goes without saying that my most significant hope and prayer is for the spiritual growth of our children ... of our family. May we each grow in Him as He leads, learning the discipline necessary to live productive lives for Him and opening our lives to others to allow the Gospel of Christ to shine through us. May each of our children love Him more this year than ever, developing their own spiritual disciplines as they grow in their individual faiths.

What are your hopes and prayers and desires for 2010?

Weekend Recital

The boys had a rather impromptu piano recital on Saturday afternoon. They were a bit out of practice after not having lessons for a month or so, but they've made arrangements to walk the teacher's rambunctious dog and do a little yardwork in exchange for piano lessons, so they're starting up again. They have been playing for three years in August and really enjoy it.


T played "Pagoda Tree"

J played two of my favorites: "Sea Mist" and "Landscape." Lovely!

J and Jack, who are both part of Father Acker's Free Teen Guitar Class, also played a couple of duets on guitar including "La Bamba"; unfortunately, my angle for taking photos was not good. I'll post a photo if Jack's parents send me some.

Approximately nine students played during the recital; one girl played flute as well as piano, performing a duet as she played flute and Teri, the teacher, played piano. Lovely! I wish I could afford to have B start lessons in the fall as he'll be in 4th grade; we'll have to see what kind of a bartering arrangement we can work out. Teri is a wonderful teacher, and the boys really like her. I wish I had time to take lessons myself; learning piano has always been one of my B-HAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals).

Dancing with the Stars

Last night and tonight made up Week 4 of the 8th Season of Dancing with the Stars and was a double-elimination. Thankfully, the "right" people went home tonight: Holly & Dmitri and Steve & Karina. Last week, Denise & Max went home, and the first ones eliminated were Belinda & Jonathan.

Now that the dross is eliminated from the show (the two couples eliminated tonight were embarassingly bad, especially Steve Wozniak, or however his name is spelled), I am really looking forward to the rest of the season. The front runners are three couples: Giles and Cheryl who received the first perfect score, Melissa and Tony, and Shawn & Mark. The couple I like best is Ty & Chelsie who started the first week *very* rough and are improving so rapidly. We recognize Chelsie from last summer's So You Think You Can Dance and really loved her dancing. She's the second pro to come to Dancing with the Stars from Fox's So You Think You Can Dance, Lacey being the first. A rodeo star, Ty is married to San Diego native singer Jewel who had to back out of Dancing with the Stars with an injury before the show started. Ty has come along by leaps and bounds, and his shyness and humility are refreshing. Currently they are my favorite couple this season, and Shawn & Mark are my second favorite couple. There are other couples I like also, but these two are my favorites.

I really enjoy the dances, the music, and the couples who learn to dance well together. I miss dancing, especially the ability to do physical activities that I cannot do currently. I would LOVE to take ballroom dancing lessons - and with my husband who claims he has no rhythm. Aaah, one can dream....

But the next best thing is watching Dancing with the Stars and cheering on our favorites through the Viennese Waltz, the Samba, the Mambo, the Foxtrot, the Quickstep, etc. Whether Ballroom or Latin, all of the dances are fun to watch. However, we don't allow the boys to watch because of the rather revealing costumes (or the lack thereof). How ABC calls Dancing with the Stars a "family show" is completely beyond me with the vast majority of the women dancing around half-naked. But E and I try to ignore the immodest costumes and enjoy the dances and music.

So we'll continue enjoying the beautiful ballroom dancing this spring and also watch So You Think You Can Dance this summer. Dance, baby, dance!

Fifth Day of Christmas and Saint Thomas Beckett

(Image from "Just a Slice" Flickr page, located through Google Images)

In addition to today being the Fifth Day of Christmas (I'd take five golden rings right now, thankyouverymuch), today is also the Feast Day of St. Thomas Beckett. The candle above in Canterbury Cathedral marks the place where St. Thomas was murdered by henchman of King Henry II, who apparently mistook his frustration at Thomas to be an order for the Archbishop's murder.

Here is the Saint of the Day from AmericanCatholic.org:

St. Thomas Becket (1118-1170)
A strong man who wavered for a moment, but then learned one cannot come to terms with evil and so became a strong churchman, a martyr and a saint—that was Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in his cathedral on December 29, 1170.
His career had been a stormy one. While archdeacon of Canterbury, he was made chancellor of England at the age of 36 by his friend King Henry II. When Henry felt it advantageous to make his chancellor the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas gave him fair warning: he might not accept all of Henry’s intrusions into Church affairs. Nevertheless, he was made archbishop (1162), resigned his chancellorship and reformed his whole way of life!

Troubles began. Henry insisted upon usurping Church rights. At one time, supposing some conciliatory action possible, Thomas came close to compromise. He momentarily approved the Constitutions of Clarendon, which would have denied the clergy the right of trial by a Church court and prevented them from making direct appeal to Rome. But Thomas rejected the Constitutions, fled to France for safety and remained in exile for seven years. When he returned to England, he suspected it would mean certain death. Because Thomas refused to remit censures he had placed upon bishops favored by the king, Henry cried out in a rage, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest!” Four knights, taking his words as his wish, slew Thomas in the Canterbury cathedral.

Thomas Becket remains a hero-saint down to our own times.

Comment:
No one becomes a saint without struggle, especially with himself. Thomas knew he must stand firm in defense of truth and right, even at the cost of his life. We also must take a stand in the face of pressures—against dishonesty, deceit, destruction of life—at the cost of popularity, convenience, promotion and even greater goods.

Quote:
In T.S. Eliot's drama, Murder in the Cathedral, Becket faces a final temptation to seek martyrdom for earthly glory and revenge. With real insight into his life situation, Thomas responds:

"The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason."

Although I found the above image via Google, Keith took an almost identical photo when we were in England in 1988. I loved Canterbury: the gigantic cathedral visible from everywhere in the town, the school kids in their plaid uniforms streaming out of their schools, the quiet of the cathedral and the hollows in the stone steps where perhaps millions of pigrims over the centuries crawled on their knees to the shrine of St. Thomas. And being the medieval scholar (a nice word for "fanatic") that I am, it was the place that Chaucer's famous cast of characters were heading to "on pilgrimage" and they told their (sometimes) notorious "tales" to while away the time on their trip from London to Canterbury. Some of the Canterbury Tales seem so modern that it's difficult to believe that Chaucer died in the year 1400.

As I spent a little time yesterday, reveling in research time now that my laptop is again Internet-worthy, I checked out some doctoral programs. Two caught my attention, but only one is a low-residency program. Living in England for a year (or a few) has always been one of my Big Hairy Audacious Goals (B-HAGs). The doctoral programme in English at the University of Kent in Canterbury is a dream programme, enabling doctoral candidates access to the historical and literary documents of the cathedral; however, it requires full residency for three years (full time). A dream, but such a lovely one! The doctoral programme in English at the University of Wales, Lampeter, can be accomplished almost totally from home as it requires just one short residency of two weeks at the beginning of the programme and then the rest can be done via electronic means. Doctoral candidates choose an area of research that matches with a research area of the professors (and Old and Middle English is one of them!), and a research PhD mostly from home is indeed possible. This university, established in 1822, seems to be the "real deal" and may be a possibility in five to ten years if I decide to pursue doctoral studies.


Back to Canterbury: the cathedral awed me, and, even in photos, still awes me. Its sheer size is daunting enough from the outside, but inside it's even more spectacular, especially considering its age. The surrounding roofs barely visible in the above image are all five to six stories tall, and the cathedral looms over them all, a beneficent giant guarding the town.

So today I think of St. Thomas, willing to stand up for what was right even when he knew the truth tolled his death knell, and of Christ whom we celebrate on this fifth day of Christmas.

Another Summer Plan Is a Go-Ahead!

I chatted with my friend Kitty tonight, and I think we've hammered out the details for starting a literary group at Lake Murray, something I've been wanting to do for a few years now. We now have a list of books to discuss for the first year, with the plan of having everyone chip in ideas after that.

And we have chosen a name: Logos, which is Greek for word or study. In the Gospel of St. John, the word "Logos" is used repeatedly to refer to Jesus: "In the beginning the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God...." So we'll be studying (logos) these works to see Jesus (Logos) in them.

Our preliminary list of works to read:

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
Measure for Measure by Shakespeare
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek by Annie Dillard
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Great Expectations by Charles Dicken
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

So I'll pass this list by Pastor Steve and then write up a blurb for the church bulletin, and we'll meet on the last Friday of each month, starting in July. I', praying that it will be a wonderful group with deep discussions and wonderful revelations of God's working through the writings of these talented authors.

Another BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) is becoming a reality -- woo-hoo!

A New BHAG

Well, it's really a new incarnation of an old BHAG. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term BHAG, it stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. It's a term often in use among a group of women I've known online for eight years.

Anyway, today I was goofing around on the computer, procrastinating beautifully and thus ignoring the dust cloth and the basket of bathroom cleaning solutions at my feet. The AOL mail page had a lovely red tab labeled "Online Degrees." Well, that's certainly something worth checking out. I followed the labyrinth of links to various universities and degrees, finding nothing to my liking whatsoever.

Then the idea popped into my head: why not check out the seminary where Johanna and my own pastor have attended? I'll bet THEY have some interesting courses available. And did I ever find one that spoke to my heart and soul! The course title is "Christian Classics," (right up my alley, to say the VERY least!) and the main textbook is the very book I'm reading a second time for Lent: Richard Foster's Devotional Classics. Now, the other two texts look extremely interesting as well: Christian History, Issue 37: "Worship in the Early Church" and 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century. I was salivating onto my beleagured laptop.

Wiping away the drool, I quickly printed a copy of the syllabus. Then I saw the date: begins April 30. Oh well, I'm arriving home from North Carolina that night, and it is a very intensive class, so it's probably beyond my strength just now. I still e-mailed Johanna immediately, and she assured me that the course was the first one she took at Bethel and it was tops. Sigh -- I wish I could enroll right this very minute, but it just doesn't seem possible at the present time.

So I'm adding taking this course to my list of BHAGs which currently include: creating an English country garden; learning to play the piano; living in Great Britain for an entire calendar year; learning to spin and weave; taking a literary tour through Boston, Concord, and Prince Edward Island; learning to sing well enough to blend into a choir; spending two weeks at a monastery in complete silence; learning Latin, and relearning German.

BHAGs keep me going when the going gets tough. When I am up to my eyeballs in home school math assignments and science experiments, when I am overwhelmed by a dirty house and impossible yard, when the kids are quarreling and being distinctly unkind to one another, and when I have no time to myself whatsoever, THEN I think of my BHAGs and think: SOME DAY. And I smile my secret smile to myself and go on to the next thing in my busy, crazy life.