It's another Simple Woman's Daybook! (Check out my posts from April, June, July, and August 2018 and January 2019.) I guess it's been a while? As always, I'm linking this up to the TSW Daybook blog hop. Maybe you'd like to give it a try too? It's pretty simple!
For Today...
Looking out my window...
We've just had a mild brush with Hurricane Dorian. Our power went out around 9 last night, so I opened the windows to let the cool breeze in. The power came back on before 7 this morning, while I sat in my van charging my phone and chatting via Messenger with an American friend in Japan. And now it's an easy breezy Wednesday afternoon.
We've just had a mild brush with Hurricane Dorian. Our power went out around 9 last night, so I opened the windows to let the cool breeze in. The power came back on before 7 this morning, while I sat in my van charging my phone and chatting via Messenger with an American friend in Japan. And now it's an easy breezy Wednesday afternoon.
In my garden...
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| Lantana flourishing! |
I am thinking and I am thankful...
My daughter Lydia's wedding is in two days. I am so glad our area didn't have much storm damage, and we should be able to proceed with preparations! Here we are at her bridal shower with her fiance's mother, Beverly, on the left.
I've known Bev for 17 years (though not nearly well enough!) since we went to church together until about 10 years ago. I'm touched that she suggested driving over to Clearwater together soon to see the Ringling Museum of Art.
Meanwhile, let's get this wedding going! I'll be at the church tomorrow prepping the sanctuary and reception hall.
I am wearing...
...the exact same thing I wore in my January post. So I'm using the same photo from then. Grace upon grace. Still so true!
What I will be wearing at the wedding is the "little black dress" that I wore to Joanna's wedding two years ago, as seen here.
One of my favorite things...
My CPAP machine, which I didn't get to use much last night. Amazing what you take for granted until you can't use it! I did get a few hours in with it this morning, though. Breathe! Oh, and I keep it in a hatbox on a side table wedged between my bed and my wall. Not glamorous, but quite functional!
My CPAP machine, which I didn't get to use much last night. Amazing what you take for granted until you can't use it! I did get a few hours in with it this morning, though. Breathe! Oh, and I keep it in a hatbox on a side table wedged between my bed and my wall. Not glamorous, but quite functional!
I am creating...
Most of my art work lately is either photography or some sort of lettering. It is often calligraphy on paper, but I also like to do seasonal chalk art for my front hallway. I've already decorated this area for autumn. It is my tradition to put up some of the decorations before my birthday on September 7. It's also a way of wishing against the heat and humidity of Florida in summer...
I am listening...
- Waymaker by Sinach
- Old Church Choir by Zach Williams
- The Breakup Song by Francesca Battistelli (about fear)
...Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson, who is brilliant of course. It is on reading Scripture as a narrative and bringing it to the interior of our hearts. Eat This Book was assigned for my Biblical Narrative class that I'm taking online at Asbury Theological Seminary this semester, along with a discipleship class called Gospel Catechesis. I checked the syllabus ahead of time and got an early jump on my text and Scripture readings the week before I was scheduled to start. I still had a lot of online work to do yesterday afternoon before the power went out. I watched lecture videos and posted on the discussion forums and then BLINK! Darkness! I was just in time!
Here's are a few of my books for this semester. Most of my texts are on Kindle. I read and write at my tilting table, which I dyed turquoise blue and wood burned along the bottom edge to say: "Fill your soul with all good things and let the beauty pour forth." That's one of my mottoes for life.
I am hoping...
...and completely trusting, that God will continue to guide my paths as he has done in rather unusual ways until now. In my Vocation of Ministry class during the summer we had to develop a "Rule of Life" (a plan for consecrated living), as well as a "Vision of Ministry" (what we think we will do with our seminary education). People often ask me about my ministry plans after I finish, and I usually reply, “I would like to work on a church staff as a versatile resource. I want to teach, disciple, mentor, and encourage women, as well as minister to those who are in vulnerable situations.” I believe that professional goal, or something similar to it, would fit my fluid, poetic, empathetic personality and giftings.
But I also realize this is a challenge since I am a divorced older woman with 10 mostly grown children. I was talking about this with a friend earlier this year, and she prayed that God would show me a "divinely elegant solution" - I love that phrase so much! It's been running through my head ever since I recalled this conversation a few days ago. What's it going to be, God? What's the plan?
Right now the plan is to slow down a bit. Instead of taking three classes as I've done in previous fall and spring semesters, I'm down to two. This is for two main reasons. I'm home schooling my youngest teen again, which was not in my plan when I started seminary a year ago. But she needs me, and she takes priority right now. I'm not giving up my life, but I am purposely adjusting it. The second reason is so that I can fully absorb what I'm learning by focusing my study time more intently. I love the ministry philosophy in this video, which happens to feature the aforementioned Eugene Peterson: Godspeed: The Pace of Being Known. It's funny that I saw this video last year and wished I could be part of the Anglican communion. And last December I did, quite unexpectedly, end up in a small Episcopal church with a dear friend and her husband, and so many sweet saints who love the Gospel, the Scriptures, prayer, and service to the community. The priest is also a graduate of the same seminary I attend. I'm so blessed.
I was reading this section from my January post and noted what I'd hoped then: "that my shoulder stops hurting." And it did! I went to an orthopedist for a cortisone shot which he said might last a few months, and it's been over six, and I'm so pleased. I did, however, fall off a waterfall this summer and hurt my back again, but that's another story.
In my kitchen...
Here is what is left of my hurricane stash. I think I'll be donating a whole lot of granola bars to a local community pantry, Hope Helps, via our church's Food on the Fourth program!
This is not my kitchen, but my daughter Mary's. I had stopped by after church last Sunday to bring birthday presents for my grandson, and while I was there, they were making pasta from scratch. I tried my hand at it.
Post script...
In this section, we share a link! So here's a good blog: Healthy Spirituality with Jean Wise. Recent favorite articles have included The Spiritual Practice of Wonder and Visio Divina – The Practice and Resources
If you enjoyed reading my daybook and would like to create one of your own, HERE is the link to the format, guidelines and complete list of prompts.
Closing notes...
I pray all of God's abundant blessings on all who read this.
Grace and peace,
Virginia Knowles
I brought some of the yummy pasta home and froze it, and finally enjoyed it with butter today!
Shared Quote:
"Christians feed on Scripture. Holy Scripture nurtures the holy community as food nurtures the human body. Christians don't simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus' name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son." Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, p. 18
"Stories suffer misinterpretation when we don't submit to them simply as stories. We are caught off-guard when divine revelation arrives in such ordinary garb and mistakenly thing that it's our job to dress it up in the latest Paris silk gown of theology, or to outfit it in a sturdy three-piece suit of ethics before we can deal with it. The simple, or not so simple, story is soon, like David under Saul's armor, so encumbered with moral admonitions, theological constructs, and scholarly debates that it can hardly move. There are, of course, always moral, theological, historical elements in these stories that need to be studied and ascertained, but never in spite of or in defiance of the story that is being told." Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, p. 43
In this section, we share a link! So here's a good blog: Healthy Spirituality with Jean Wise. Recent favorite articles have included The Spiritual Practice of Wonder and Visio Divina – The Practice and Resources
If you enjoyed reading my daybook and would like to create one of your own, HERE is the link to the format, guidelines and complete list of prompts.
Closing notes...
I pray all of God's abundant blessings on all who read this.
Grace and peace,
Virginia Knowles
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