The Wonder of Winter

 

I recently ran across a bunch of beautiful quotations on winter and filled up nearly a page of my quotation journal with them. This is one of my favorites ... 

Warmly,

Day 1 and Day 2 of 30 Days of Gratitude

 

I have stolen--um, I mean borrowed--this set of daily gratitude prompts from Maria Grace @ Random Bits of Fascination with the grand idea of trying to respond to each post during the month of November. Now seems to be an excellent time as we have sold our home of 19 years in our beloved little town of Pine Valley, California (population 1600 souls), and we are taking a HUGE leap o' faith as we wait to see where God will put us. The kids and I are hoping for Oregon since we have so many friends there, but it will need to be a special house in a special price range--in other words, pretty much a miracle. But God is indeed the One Who Does Miracles, so we are trusting Him for this miracle and for His clear direction if He wants us to go elsewhere. It may be a wild ride, friends!! :D

And as I was just jotting down quotations on gratitude from Ann Voskamp's amazing book on gratitude, One Thousand Gifts, it seems that God is working on me, developing a heart of gratitude rather than a heart of anxiety considering our move, the election, the pandemic, family relationships, etc. 

So I will be responding to the first two questions above in this post:

1. What made you smile today? 

I so enjoy laughing with my Bible study group from Blessed Trinity Anglican Church on Zoom. We meet each Monday evening to get an overview of a book of the Bible and discuss it, and so far we have discussed several books including Psalms, Genesis, Jonah, Philippians, Isaiah, and tonight was Colossians; next week we'll be discussing Esther. 

Father Gregory always makes us laugh, and we can be as silly as we like. We almost always add the Zoom video effects, so I was wearing my halo, and Father Gregory and his grown daughter Ashley were wearing little green leaves sprouting out of their heads. We also use the responses, including the heart, the thumbs-up, the party blower, the applauding hands, the thumbs-up, the laughing-'til-you're-crying, etc. We had a wonderful time gaining an overview of Colossians, and I read my favorite verses from this "prison epistle" written by the Apostle Paul: 

Colossians 3.12-17 (ESV):

12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

These verses make me smile, too--they describe our life and our joy in Christ so perfectly!! 

2. Who are you grateful for?

There are so many people I could list here: the members of my family, our priests/pastors (both current and former), my women's Bible study at Pine Valley Community Church, I am grateful for my friend, mentor, confidant, and former neighbor Judith. She is in her mid-80s but has the spirit and overflowing joy of her early 20s. (She says that she feels like she is in her teens, but she's a bit too wise for a teenager!😂) Judith has been my friend for about seventeen of our nineteen years in Pine Valley; our mutual friend Kitty introduced us, and we've been bopping over to one another's houses, texting and emailing, giving gifts and tech help and editing help and advice on poems and prose and being part of the same writers' workshop which meets monthly at our county library branch (and on Zoom during COVID). 

Judith tells the truth gently, but she tells the truth. She has such insight--truly she's a prophetic spirit--and I find her advice and help so grounded, Biblical and TRUE. She's an incredibly modest woman as well as an extremely talented one; not only is she a gifted poet and writer of prose, but she is also a musician and an artist. Talk about a real triple-threat!! But Judith is as far from a threat as a human could possibly be. She is infused with joy even when having a rough Lupus day; her eyes sparkle with mischief, and she is a woman truly "after God's own heart" as she speaks His Truth while His Love flows from her every pore. Her lovely face is so animated with her love for our Savior that she can't help but inspire all whom she speaks to, whether they are Believers or not. And her compassion, her righteous anger, her love for people, and especially her passion for saving God's Creation inspire all who hear her speak on these vital topics. 

Before I met Judith and Kitty, I had never met strong Christians who were Democrats, and, at first, I wondered how they could support the other political party. Now, nearly two decades older and a bit wiser, I can see why, and I have joined them in desiring to be compassionate, to help the poor and the helpless precisely as Jesus commands, to seek common ground with people rather than dividing them with any wedge that can be found. 

Our Writers' Workshop writing together on a NaNoWriMo "Write-In"
at the Pine Valley Library; Judith is second from the right.

So many more reasons exist for why I am thankful for Judith, so consider this post a mere beginning!!   

Soli Deo Gloria,

Quotation of the Week

 

Have a lovely week, everyone!! I am buried in grading preliminary drafts of MLA research essays, so I will post more when I'm done with class. Until then, enjoy this quotation from my Commonplace Book!! 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Ponderings on the 19th Anniversary of September 11th

 

It seems a lifetime ago, yet it seems so immediate that it could have been yesterday. We were so removed from the actual events of September 11, here on the West Coast, awakened by my father's phone call after pulling into our family's mountain cabin with four sleeping kids at 2:00 AM just a few hours previously. We had finished packing up our city home of ten years, picked up the kids from my parents' beach house, and drove an hour east, past the small mountain town that we were moving to, and arrived at my family's 500 square foot cabin to stay until we could move into our new-to-us mountain home. 

We had only "rabbit ears" on the small TV in the cabin, so most of the news was blurry and static-laden. I remember being half-asleep all day, trying to watch the news, setting up my laptop on the kitchen table but only able to be online for half an hour at a time in order to keep the phone lines free to talk to family, the realtors, etc. All while taking care of four kids ages 18 months to nine years old. The little guy was still nursing, and I was trying to homeschool the older two kids while the preschooler created mayhem. 

Because I was so news-deprived, I tend to spend each anniversary of September 11 watching crystal-clear videos of the events in New York, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania. But the first anniversary was the most powerful because I could finally see, with astonishing clarity, the videos and photos of all that I couldn't see on September 11, 2001, and for several weeks afterward, as our escrow was delayed because of the New York banks needing time to start back to work again. 

But what really caught my attention was a moment in which the US Poet Laureate, Billy Collins (whom I would meet in 2013 at the Writers' Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University), read aloud his poetic tribute on the first anniversary of September 11. "The Names." It struck me viscerally, even more than U2's "Beautiful Day" and "Walk On" (two of my favorite songs by my favorite band) at the Superbowl halftime show a few months after the tragedy. 

Poet Billy Collins at The Writer's Symposium by the Sea, 2013

The thing I love about Billy Collins' work is that he is supremely unpretentious. With his poetic talent and his academic cred, with his position as our nation's Poet Laureate for two years, he could easily be as pretentious as all-get-out. But he's not. He is (no past tense here!!) our nation's poet. He speaks the language of the everyday American, with a hint of sarcasm, with a twinkle in his eye. But not with this poem. Here he is, reading "The Names" again, at the request of PBS:

 

If you would like to read more about Billy Collins and his poetry, check out his page on The Academy of American Poets at poets.org: Billy Collins. (To read some of his poems, click the bar beneath his photo.) 

US Poet Laureate Billy Collins

Thanks for allowing me to remember those dark days, but not very dark as I was a continent away, in a wee mountain cabin with four small children, trying to find out what the heck was happening on this beautiful autumn day, a day of change as we moved from one house to another nineteen years ago. I knew that what was happening was big and scary, even through the static fuzz of the 12-inch TV screwed into the wall seven feet from the floor. 

But Billy Collins made it real the next year, made it actual. Made it tangible. And I can't thank him enough. 

Poetically yours,

    

Small Town Dungeons and Dragons

 

Critical Role Second Campaign Characters, L to R: Yasha (Ashley), Fjord (Travis), Jester (Laura), Nott (Sam), Beau (Marisha), Caleb (Liam), and Mollymauk (Taliesen)

A couple of years ago, T started watching a live-streamed game of Dungeons and Dragons. The players and the Dungeon Master (DM) are all first-rate voice actors of anime and video game fame. But, more than that, they are friends who started playing over five years ago as a birthday present to one of the group of eight. That one-shot morphed into a homebrew game based in a wonderful world called Exandria, as devised by the creative mind (and voice) of Matthew Mercer. Matt led the players: Marisha Ray (who was dating Matt at the time; they are now married), Sam Riegel, Liam O'Brien, Ashley Johnson, Taliesen Jaffe, and another married couple, Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham. A couple of years later, they were approached by Geek and Sundry to play their home game live on Twitch. Thus, Critical Role started. 

The cast of Critical Role, L to R: Liam, Ashley, Travis, Laura, Matthew, Marisha, Taliesen, Sam

I could go on and on about Critical Role and all that they have done, along with many other live-streamers, to bring D&D mainstream. But after watching for a while, we got the itch to play. First, T played a short campaign (eight sessions) with younger brother J and J's wife Ems, plus a couple from our church. After they finished up as the DM was leaving for law school, T decided he wanted to DM ... and he has created a homebrewed world that combined Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition (5e) with the video game world of Elder Scrolls. After much planning of his world of Varmmyr, T, E, and I started playing with neighbor C, and in the eighth session, her husband D joined the party, now consisting of four plus the DM. 

One of our first battles!! 

I can't tell you how much I look forward to Sunday afternoons and four hours in another world. My character is an Aasimar (a part-angelic race) Light Cleric named Fionnlagh (pronounced "Finlay"); Fionn is basically a demon hunter sent by her mentor, Benedict (yes, based on St. Benedict) to help quash a demonic cult; this is Fionn's first solo assignment, and she has been sent to meet with one of Benedict's friends, Leland, a priest. Once she entered the small town of Eda'Linn, she goes to the temple where she is to meet Leland, and they are ambushed by demonic beings who quickly kill Leland before Fionn can get any answers from him...besides finding a letter from Benedict about a girl Leland has recently taken into his care. 

Also in the temple, Fionn meets a small girl named Tehn (pronounced "Ten"--E's character) who was under Leland's care and seems to have magical powers that Benedict is very interested in--according to his letter to Leland. They also meet a Tabaxi (cat-person--C's character) named Ember who is very handy with bows and arrows. These three start an adventure, all for different reasons, tracking down the source of the demonic attack and learning to trust one another along the way.

After several adventures in and around Eda'Linn, the trio travels to Port Eroth, and on the way, they come across and fight alongside a human named Ethrond who is an Eldritch Knight (D's character), and he joins the party since he has several contacts in Port Eroth. And thus the foursome starts tracking down the clues that will lead them far from Eda'Linn and Port Eroth across the mountains and into the Ghodeir Desert where they discover an archaeological dig that seems extremely hinky. And many fights and adventures, mummies and curses, come their way. 

Fionnlagh in her Iconoclast's Aegis Armor

We have now returned to Port Eroth at the end of our first arc. And has it ever been amazing!! When we returned to the Port near the end of our last session, Fionnlagh was finally able to hand over the Abyssal Sigil Stone to the Orc Prior Durmak, whom her mentor Benedict had told her to meet, telling him that they had kept the Stone from the mummified Ashen Prince, preventing his complete resurrection. Then Prior Durmak put Fionn through her paces in fighting a Shadow Demon ... with the caveat that she could not destroy the wooden warehouse in which she fought it. 

After decimating the demon (and not damaging the warehouse), Fionn is offered membership in the Iconoclasts, a secret espionage-type group within the Order of the Fallen Star. Above is her new armor which gives her two more points to her Armor Class, among many other awesome benefits. Plus, Fionn was very touched that Ember had sneakily followed her when she met and then completed her "test" with Prior Durmak, even to the point of congratulating her after her win.  

T voices so many amazing NPC (non-playing characters), draws so many awesome maps, creates so many fights and adventures for us, that we have a blast, and four hours just fly by every Sunday afternoon. This afternoon, we'll be starting our 27th session since beginning the campaign in early January; we've missed only one week, I believe. We'll bee off to the floating city of Vellestra for a bit of shopping and other fun!!  

One of T's maps of the underground caverns through which we sought the Ashen Prince.

Even though C and D live three streets down, we went to Zoom for our sessions once the pandemic hit in mid-March. They work from home, but C also has some health issues that keep her careful, as does T, so we may meet on C and D's deck outside if a particular Sunday is forecast to be cool enough. Unfortunately, today's temperatures are supposed to reach 100 degrees, so meeting outside is a no-go this week.  

My cask of dice, Fionn's mini for fighting (yes, Fionn actually has angel's wings!!), plus Fionn's magical Feather Letter Quill and fine ink. 

So this is the world of Dungeons and Dragons, and oh, is it ever amazing and exciting!!

And now we just need to name our group!! ;)

Preparing to fight evil once again,  

Catching up on Book Reviews...

One would think with a pandemic going on that I would have tons o' time for reading, but, unfortunately, this has not been the case. Perhaps it's the time I've been investing in our homebrew of Dungeons and Dragons with a strong whiff of Elder Scrolls (we are playing our twentieth session this afternoon!). But it's been more a mental laziness.

I've been pushing myself through teaching my classes, finding concentrating difficult and time-consuming. I adore my students and love my classes, but just everything is taking more effort. Even reading. I am in a re-reading kind of mood, wanting something familiar rather than new to read. I've been depending on Jane Austen Fan Fiction (JAFF) and historical mystery series for the most part, but even these familiar characters are a bit of a challenge.

I find myself watching too much CNN and MSNBC on YouTube, then turning to re-runs of Critical Role's second D&D campaign (and the first new episode to stream in over one hundred days is due out this Thursday!). So I got real and reduced my Goodreads Reading Goal for 2020 from 80 (I read 96 books in 2019) to 50 which will likely still be a stretch as I have only read 17 or 18 books thus far.

Here are some thoughts about books I read earlier in the year and posted on Goodreads. I'm not posting many full reviews this year--mostly just giving a book its rating and the dates I read it, and then I move on. Ugh! I hope that the brain fog will clear and I can once again have my usual somewhat scattered but always book-hungry mind back for the second half of 2020.


To Conquer Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Jennifer Altman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A wonderful variation of Austen's most popular novel finds Darcy and Elizabeth encountering one another at an inn during a snowstorm. When the coach sent by Elizabeth's uncle does not arrive because of snowy conditions after she sent off the conveyance provided by the Collinses, Mr. Darcy offers her a ride in his carriage so that she doesn't have to face staying in the inn by herself. But the snow doesn't stop even for Fitzwilliam Darcy, and from this point, drama ensues.

Jennifer Altman provides a lovely tale of Elizabeth's growing regard for Mr. Darcy after she comes to know him much better during their stay in an empty hunting cottage after a serious accident with Darcy's carriage. The novel is very well-written, and the pacing is just right. I am often frustrated by some Austen variations (including Austen's original novel) for not giving us readers enough time to enjoy Darcy and Elizabeth as a couple before the novel ends. But this novel provides plenty of time to enjoy the love of Darcy and Elizabeth which is highly satisfying.


A Pressing Engagement by Anna Lee Huber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An intriguing novella, popping into the Lady Darby mystery series between Books 4 and 5. This one relates the engagement of Kiera to the man she first despised and then grew to love: a man of secrets hidden so deeply that Kiera couldn't help but wonder if she would ever really know the enigmatic yet oh-so-charming man she had agreed to marry.

But Kiera, despite knowing that her soon-to-be second husband is nothing like her first, the cruel Lord Darby who had forced her to use her considerable artistic talents to illustrate his anatomy textbook--the only reason he married her. Under threat of his breaking her fingers so that she could never hold a paintbrush again, Kiera reluctantly creates the illustrations for the well-known anatomist's textbook, gaining much knowledge of death and murder as a result.

While this knowledge proves invaluable in her partnership as an investigator, it was hard-won at the price of Kiera's ability to trust men. After all, her first husband has seemed perfectly amiable and kind...until they married. Although Kiera knows in her head that her fiance truly loves her, fear does creep in, causing her head knowledge to not quite reach her heart.

Will she be able to marry this man who adores her? Whom she adores? Or will both of their pasts come back to haunt them over and over again?

I am utterly entranced by this historical mystery series set in the early 1830s, and ranging from the wilds of Scotland to Ireland, to England, and even to the London ton. Kiera is a heroine worth knowing: she is intelligent, intuitive, talented, perceptive, and reads people sometimes too well. She knows her weaknesses all too well and hopes that she will not be mistaken in this marriage as she was in her previous one.

But she truly loves her fiance, unlike the mere friendliness she had shared with her first husband who had been chosen by her father. So we hope with Kiera that all will be well in this auspicious marriage!


  As Death Draws Near by Anna Lee Huber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Now married, Kiera and Gage are forced to leave their honeymoon in the Lake District as Gage is sent by his father, Lord Gage, to investigate the death of a nun in Ireland. Despite the incomplete information provided by Lord Gage, Kiera and Sebastian are on the case almost immediately, but they are also accompanied by the extremely annoying Lothario, Lord Marsdale, who insists on assisting with the case.

Kiera and Gage find themselves in the middle of Irish rebellion against the English who are taxing the Irish above and beyond what is usual. Secret passages, secret cousins, secret relationships--all make Gage and Kiera's investigation fraught with danger.

It's another amazing mystery featuring Lady Darby--now Mrs. Gage, and Sebastian Gage, truly partners in marriage as well as in solving crime.


A Brush with Shadows by Anna Lee Huber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Forced to leave Ireland in a rush at the behest of Gage's grandfather, Gage and Kiera now travel to Dartmoor, to the home where Gage was raised and has not returned to in fifteen years, since the burial of his mother.

Gage has been estranged from his mother's family: his grandfather (his mother's father), his cousins Alfred and Rory, and his widowed aunt Vanessa. So this request to come to the moors from his grandfather is not welcome, but out of duty, they travel as quickly as they can from Ireland.

Mysteries abound. Gage's elder cousin, his grandfather's heir, has been missing for ten days, and it isn't clear whether he is in hiding or if something has happened to him. Gage is on edge constantly, arguing with his bedridden grandfather, his haughty and mean-spirited aunt who seems quite upset at Alfred's disappearance, and his rollicking cousin Rory who seems much more responsible than his missing elder brother, the heir.

The curse of Gage's family, the danger of the moors, and the feeling of being distinctly unwelcome despite Lord Tavistock's request for their presence, all combine to create a prickly feel to daily life in the beautiful old home. But does more danger lie in wait for both Kiera and for Gage?

Another edge-of-the seat read, courtesy of Anna Lee Huber and the Lady Darby mysteries!!


A House of Ghosts by W.C. Ryan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an incredible read. Part classic British country house mystery, part World War I spy story, part exploration of the paranormal, and part romance, I was extremely disappointed that this author apparently has not published any other books. The balance of all of these genres is exquisite and compelling. The switching of third-person point-of-views throughout the novel is smooth and extremely insightful; I felt as if I received the whole story. By retaining the third-person point-of-view, the writing style remains smooth and consistent while providing enlightening details from various characters' viewpoints.

I rarely give "5" ratings to books that are not classics by Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, and the Bröntes, but this book was definitely a "5" on my scale. It's a complex novel while remaining clear and concise, and was extremely difficult to put aside and go to sleep at night; I'd rather keep reading. Truly, an extraordinary novel, and I truly hope it is the first of a series as the ending may suggest.


Let me know what you're reading this summer!!!

Reading with you (at least a little),

~Susanne

The Third Sunday in Advent: Joyful Sunday!

Today is the Third Sunday in Advent, also called Gaudete Sunday ("Gaudete" comes from the French word for "rejoice").

So what exactly is Gaudete Sunday? Wikipedia informs us:

Gaudete Sunday (ɡaʊˈdeɪteɪ) is the third Sunday of Advent in the liturgical calendar of the Western Church, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran Churches, and other mainline Protestant churches. It can fall on any date from 11 December to 17 December. 

The day takes its common name from the Latin word Gaudete ("Rejoice"), the first word of the introit of this day's Mass: 

Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed in omni oratione petitiones vestræ innotescant apud Deum. Benedixisti Domine terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob. 

This may be translated as: 

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Lord, you have blessed your land; you have turned away the captivity of Jacob.— Philippians 4:4–6; Psalm 85 (84):1 

The incipit for the Gregorian chant introit from which Gaudete Sunday gets its name. 

On Gaudete Sunday rose-colored vestments may be worn instead of violet which is otherwise prescribed for every day in the season of Advent. This tradition, previously informally observed in the Anglican Church, was formally noted as an option in the Church of England in the Common Worship liturgical renewal. In churches which have an Advent wreath, the rose colored candle is lit in addition to two of the violet colored candles, which represent the first two Sundays of Advent. Despite the otherwise somber readings of the season of Advent, which has as a secondary theme the need for penitence, the readings on the third Sunday emphasize the joyous anticipation of the Lord's coming. 

So with this Sunday being the Third Week of Advent, we light our rose candle in addition to our two purple candles as we celebrate Advent as a church this morning and as a family tonight after dinner. There is just something so elemental and sacred in gathering around candles to read God's Word and pray together as a family--it's why Advent is one of my favorite times of the year.

I am so thrilled with Pine Valley Community Church's practice of celebrating Advent. Last year, Pastor Joe Murrell, newly returned to Pine Valley with his lovely wife Jenny, preached on each of the themes of Advent each Sunday: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. His sermons were especially poignant as he and Jenny had just lost their home in Paradise, California, just before their move back to Pine Valley where they had served for a decade. 

This year, Pastor Joe is continuing his sermon series on Making Sense of Suffering while working the theme of Advent clearly into each sermon. In addition, families are lighting our church's Advent wreath (the one Keith built for Lake Murray Community Church) and reading Scriptures to the congregation during both services. 

The readings today in the Book of Common Prayer 2011 centered on the life and ministry of John the Baptist. And the Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent is as follows:

LORD Jesus Christ, at your first coming you sent your messenger to prepare your way; Likewise, may your servants  and the stewards of your mysteries prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; So that at your second coming to judge the world, we might be found a people acceptable in your sight; Who lives and rules with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. 

So I rejoice in the Advent celebrations at Pine Valley Community Church, grateful for the valuable traditions that lead us into the Presence of Our Lord and Savior and that His Word is always present to teach our minds and encourage our hearts as we seek to be conformed to the Image of the One who lived, died, rose again, and shall return for us.

Wishing you a blessed Advent,

A Joyous First Sunday in Advent!!

I am overjoyed that Advent has been celebrated at Pine Valley Community Church in the past, so when I asked Pastor Jeff about continuing the tradition last Advent, he was all for it. And Pastor Joe, returning to PVCC after serving up north (and he and Jenny coming off the loss of their home in the Paradise Fire), gave a thought-provoking and heart-provoking sermon series on Advent that I will never forget. 

 A year later, and PVCC is gearing up for another celebration of Advent, and I couldn't be more thrilled!! Yes, we celebrate Advent at Blessed Trinity Anglican Church, my other church home, but somehow it feels even more special to celebrate a holy season whose tradition dates back to the sixth century in an evangelical church!

The Propers, which includes the Collect (a prayer prayed for the whole First Week of Advent by all Anglican Churches) and the Scriptures read in the Sunday service from The Book of Common Prayer 2011:

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT

THE COLLECT:

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, now during this present life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility, so that at the last day when he will come again in glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to eternal life; Through him who lives and rules with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen. (References: Romans 13.12; 2 Timothy 4.1; Philippians 2.5-8; 1 Thessalonians 4.16-17)

THE READINGS:

Romans 15.4-13

Luke 21.25-33

Psalm 25.1-6

Psalm 85.4-7

Micah 4.1-7

Our kind church family at Lake Murray Community Church allowed us to "borrow back" the Advent wreath Keith made about 15 years ago when Pastor Rollo was the worship pastor. So we have resurrected the wreath and the tradition now at PVCC, and I'm so thrilled! So we will light the indicated candles each Sunday of Advent, including the large white Christ Candle on Christmas Eve, and read Scriptures aloud as we celebrate Advent this month at Pine Valley Community Church. 

Here's the post I wrote for last year's PVCC Blog: What Is Advent?

Ever since we moved to Pine Valley in 2001, our family has celebrated the season of Advent. Keith made a simple wooden Advent wreath for our kitchen table, and every Advent season we have darkened the room, lit the candles after dinner, and read and prayed aloud together from one of the many Advent devotionals we’ve used as the kids grew up, focusing our minds and hearts on the coming of Christ in His Incarnation and looking forward to His Second Coming.

The term "Advent" means "coming" or "arrival" and refers to the first Incarnation of Christ as well as the expected second coming of Christ. Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day and ends on Christmas Eve. If Christmas Eve is a Sunday, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown.

Advent also marks the beginning of the Christian Year for most churches in the Western tradition. The season of Advent is richly symbolic. The light of the candles reminds us that Jesus is “the light of the world” and that we are also called to “walk in the light, as He is in the light.” The purple of the candles symbolizes the royalty of Christ, the Almighty who “made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” The rose candle, lit on the third Sunday, reminds us that hope and peace are near, available only through God. Lit on Christmas Day, the white candle which is called the Christ candle, recalls Christ’s holiness, purity: He who was without sin who died for the sins of all. The central location of the Christ Candle reminds us that the incarnation is the heart of the season, giving light to the world. The greenery, symbolizing abundant life, surrounds a circular wreath: never-ending, eternal life. The red of the holly berries reminds us of His blood to be shed on the cross for us.

The Advent wreath Keith made while we were at Lake Murray and now are using at PVCC

The origins of the Advent wreath are found in the folk practices of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples who, during the cold December darkness of Eastern Europe, gathered wreaths of evergreen and lighted fires as signs of hope in a coming spring and renewed light. Christians kept these popular traditions alive, and by the 16th century, Catholics and Protestants throughout Germany used these symbols to celebrate their Advent hope in Christ, the everlasting Light. From Germany, the use of the Advent wreath spread to other parts of the Christian world.

The purple theme of Advent is also the color symbolizing suffering which is used during Lent and Holy Week and points to an important connection between Jesus’ birth and death: The Nativity--the Incarnation--cannot be separated from the Crucifixion and Resurrection. The purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world, of the "Word made flesh" and dwelling among us, is not only to reveal God and His grace to the world through Jesus’ life and teaching, but also through His suffering, death, and resurrection.

The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in His First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in His Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000-year-old event in history; it is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. This is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate. Scripture readings for Advent reflect this emphasis on the Second Advent, including themes of accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment of sin, and the hope of eternal life in this double-focus on past and future. 

Our family's Advent "wreath" which has been used for many, many years. 

Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation as they affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power and glory. That acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising from a profound sense that we live "between the times" and are called to be faithful stewards of what is entrusted to us as God’s people. 

So, as the church celebrates God’s in-breaking into history in the Incarnation and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which "all creation is groaning awaiting its redemption," it also confesses its own responsibility as a people commissioned to "love the Lord your God with all your heart" and to "love your neighbor as yourself." The primary focus of Advent is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, as we wait together to celebrate His birth, death, glorious resurrection, and imminent return. 

Here is a prayer we’ve prayed together each Sunday in Advent:

O God, rejoicing, we remember the promise of your Son.
As the light from the candles fills this room,
may the blessing of Christ come upon us,
brightening our way and guiding us by His Truth.
May Christ our Savior bring light and life into the darkness of our world,
and to us as we wait for His coming. Amen. 

Wishing you a holy and joyous Advent season,

The Joys of Camping: With a Horse o' Course! (Part 2)

Continued from last week's post...

Part 2 of 2

We kids would take turns going out on early morning or late afternoon trail rides with one of our parents, and the ones left behind would often hike up Stonewall Peak, a local mountain accessible from basecamp at the Paso Picacho Campground; it was two miles up the peak topped with gargantuan boulders and two miles back down, not counting the two-mile hike to the base. Or we might explore the remains of the local goldmine, Stonewall Mine, from which two million dollars of gold was unearthed in the 1880s. Now surrounded by chain-link fencing, we’d walk the perimeter, trying to peek down the huge hole that marked the main mineshaft. A small cabin nearby hosted photos enlarged to poster-size recounting the history of the most prosperous goldmine in our local mountains.

Hot afternoons were spent napping under the pines, reading quietly or playing not-so-quiet card and board games. We usually played games after dinner, too, gathered around our Coleman lantern on the red-and-white plastic tablecloth, the color worn away in places from frequent scrubbings after dinners of spaghetti or barbecued burgers or our favorite: grilled Spam with baked beans, fried potatoes and onions, and brown bread sliced from the can which we always enjoyed on our final night (after the fresh meat was long gone) before packing up and leaving for home the next morning.

Sometimes after dinner, we’d scrape the plates and leave them to soak in the dishpan while we kids leaped into the back of the ancient, bent-backed ranger's 1950’s Ford truck, and he drove us along backroads inaccessible to all but the park staff, motioning us kids to be quiet as we kept an eagle-eye out for deer and bobcats coming out to feed at dusk. One night, we counted over twenty-five deer in half an hour. The ranger, Vern, looked as if he were a century old, with gnarled hands, a thin, wrinkled face, and rheumy eyes. Several nights during our trips, he visited our campsite after dinner and told us stories about his cowboy days in the ‘20s and '30s while we munched Jiffy-Pop popcorn or gooey s’mores. Some of Vern’s stories must have been tall tales, but it was hard to tell when he was joshin' us; as we grew older, the twinkle in his dimming eyes usually clued us in.

Lake Cuyamaca and Fletcher Island before the 2003 Cedar Fire

In the summer after we reached our teens, Dad rented a rowboat for my brother and me, and the two of us spent a whole day floating on calm Lake Cuyamaca. Tom fished while I read from a stack of favorite books (usually featuring Louisa May Alcott, Nancy Drew, or Trixie Belden), and we met the rest of the family for a picnic on the island in the middle of the lake, hiking up the hill to the very top of the island where the picnic tables (and a small one-holer “toilet”) were permanently installed. Tom never caught much except for a nasty sunburn and rather sore muscles from rowing us about, and sometimes I came back with a headache from the sun glaring off the white pages of my books for more than eight hours, but the peace and quiet of the lake on a weekday were magical.

Another tradition of our camping trip was taking a day to drive into Julian, a former mining town and now a tourist area. We bought candy and snacks at the Cider Mill, browsed through some shops, and stopped at the old-fashioned drugstore for strawberry sodas at the marble soda fountain. Skipping the ubiquitous apple pies for which the town was famous, we replenished our ice chests at the corner grocery store and perhaps picked up more fresh meat before we drove back down the winding roads to Los Caballos, hoping no one would get sick in the car after all the sweets we had enjoyed.

Cuyamaca Rancho State Park near Los Caballos, before the 2003 Cedar Fire

We spent up to two weeks camping nearly every summer at Los Caballos, as our mother had before us starting in the 1950s, and as our kids did for part of their childhood; our parents loved teaching their grandkids the joys of camping. When we were younger, our grandparents, aunt, and uncle often came up for a day; my grandfather, a former member of the Escondido Police Posse, often took a short ride with my aunt who was as horse-crazy as my mother and sister. When we were older, we often brought along Scott, our neighbor from across the street, for a few days, and he insisted on climbing Stonewall Peak daily during his stay. My parents’ best friends often came up for a couple of days with us, too—although they actually slept inside their tents (perish the thought!) and thus missed most of the raccoon fights in the creek bed. We loved every moment of our trips to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.

Unfortunately, Los Caballos burned in the 2003 Cedar Fire which devastated so much of San Diego County, and because of Native American artifacts around the camp, it was never rebuilt. Occasionally, I still drive up to Julian, always stopping to pause at the metal gates blocking access to our beloved campground, the metal horse stalls still visible through the devastation wreaked by the fire sixteen years ago.

Stonewall Peak and Little Stonewall to the left, northern exposure from Lake Cuyamaca, after the fires (2009)

Every time I drive (or am driven) down the mountain on Interstate 8 into San Diego, I automatically turn my head to the right at a certain point before the Highway 79 exit where the nearby mountains part perfectly, revealing the distinctive rocky southern face of Stonewall Peak. Every time, memories of hiking that mountain with my dearest family and friends come to mind. 

And I smile. 

Thanks for strolling down memory lane with me!

Warmly,