Rose Hawthorne

Yesterday, July 9th, is the calendar remembrance day of Rose Hawthorne. Her story reminds me of Dorothy Day (whose feast day is November 29). Dorothy lived later in the 20th century and Rose did her work of servanthood at the beginning of the 20th century. I just watched a movie on Dorothy Day a few weeks ago that was really good - "Entertaining Angels". There will be many images that'll return to me the rest of my life from that movie of what living loving God really looks like! Dorothy Day was no saint!

I don't even know if Rose Hawthorne's canonization completed. The process began in 2003, which is a very long and demanding process. Both women were very much women of the world, who gave up everything to care for the lowest of society.

What intrigues me the most about Rose is that she's Nathaniel Hawthorne's daughter. She was born into one of America's most creative and influential literary circle's. Labeled as Transcendentalists, Rose grew up surrounded by Emerson, Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, and others. Since I've followed some of their lives I enjoyed reading American Bloomsbury.

Rose had lived in London, Paris, Rome and Florence. Her father was an author (she was born just after The Scarlet Letter was published). She even had some of her own writings published. She was married and divorced. Her son had died when 5; and her husband was an alcoholic. She gave everything up to serve the poor.

Becoming a Catholic must have greatly distressed her father, and then to give up everything and live in the slums of New York. "I am trying to serve the poor as a servant. I wish to serve the cancerous poor because they are more avoided than any other class of sufferers; and I wish to go to them as a poor creature myself." Taking in cancerous poor, shunned by family and friends, was risking all, at a time when cancer was considered contagious.

Memory Lane

The summer rains have begun - "Yeah!" Monday it rained most of the day. So I took the day doing more in making Heather's old bedroom my sewing, art/craft, and now "Memory Room". Though the whole house holds memories, Heather's room now has more of my childhood memories.

I had bought and stained awhile back some shelving for the room. So the rainy day was a perfect day to put up the shelves (I still love the denim material I pasted onto her walls). I went through a barrel we moved up to Colorado with, labeled "Mom's Memories". It was fun going through it and walking down memory lane: things my grandma made me when I was a little girl, school year stuff, and on to some things I saved that I made my young kids.

So one shelf holds memorabilia from Austria, where I was born. My dad was overseas, in the military, with after war cleanup and my mom joined him. I have the beautiful scrapbook she made of that time and I recently read through her white ink writings on the black paper. During "The Sound of Music" movie she'd say, "You were there", "We were there", "I've seen that"...


Another shelf holds some of my old doll collection. My Barbie sits in the middle. My grandma made the chair from an opened tuna can - the lid is the back of the chair. It's covered in blue velvet. The Barbie is my second or third. I thought I had saved my old heads, but couldn't find them in the barrel. I had the original first ponytail Barbie they came out with - my aunt Recie bought it for me. The surrounding dolls are old. My grandma gave them to me and made tons of clothes for all my dolls, both sewed and knitted. I saved them all (or I should thank my mom that she saved them for me in the beginning - valuing what I valued).

Of my saved baby dolls, my Thumbelina has remained the best (other than my sister Kelli cutting off some of her hair) - AND it is close to 50 years old! So I went through some of the baby things my grandma had knit for me (I was the first girl grandchild) and had fun dressing Thumbelina in them and now she sits (lays) in Heather's old room, next to a cuddly patchwork dog I made from a tie-dyed sheet I did in a high-school art class.



And I hung some of my tie-dyed and batiked things from high-school. I liked to tie-dye material and see what I saw in it and then India ink details. I went through photos I did in a photography class where we got to play in the darkroom.


I was/am a saver I guess. Heather packed up a lot of her memories and is currently going through them with Bill in their new home in Texas. Since they didn't do the typical dating thing, this is helping them share their stories. And I told her to then throw a bunch of the stuff away! But she just emailed me about enjoying remembering, and even crying over some of the things she's finding.

Travis with his wife Sarah have come the past couple of years and helped us go through all the stored junk in the large space that is now Monte's new office and the garage. We wanted Travis to take whatever was important to him home. We had so much fun with all the remembering and telling stories. "Oh, I remember this ..." And Sarah would laugh over so much of the junk that was truly junk and try and help Monte think clearly and throw some stuff away (Monte's a saver too)!

Dawson will some day have to go through the same process with us. His stuff is still stored in the garage ... and bunk house ... and old ferret house ... and playhouse turned "Dawson's Natural History Museum".

Memories, like stories, are important to us. We've been giving and throwing away more and more stuff, but I'm making sure I capture the memories by taking pictures of them (LOVE this new digital camera era!).

Just a side note in connection to memories and stories - I read about people in nursing homes and the importance of memories. People, even caring family members, might just look at things as junk, but when helping move one into a nursing home care, it's important to ask them about things and see what stories are connected with them. This 'junk', with their memories, often keep the last years of living more 'alive'.

Charles Dickens

Today, June 9, in 1870, Charles Dickens died. His writing really did a lot of good for the common people and outcasts, improving poor working conditions, and creating child labor laws. His tomb is inscribed with - "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."

I've both read and listened to, most of Charles Dickens' novels. Though not his most popular or most remembered book, my favorite is one of his last books, which was made into a movie, which I really like - Our Mutual Friend. And I've read GK Chesterton's book on Charles Dickens, who raves about his writing and likes Our Mutual Friend best too. So I'm in good company!

A Tale of Two Cities depicts both England and France. Dickens was trying to show the difference between a country who lived believing in God and another who seemed to be rejecting God - especially during the era of the guillotine!

Though Great Expectations may be his most remembered, it is my least favorite. Oliver Twist really tugged at heart-strings for street children in horrible working and living conditions. I like David Copperfield, and feel it's autobiographical. Little Dorrit could be autobiographical too. I saw it as a movie from our library, and it depicts life of families who's main bread-winner is in debtor's prison, with the family living there, but able to come and go, whereas the one who could be working to pay off his debts, is not free to go (many of them were shipped to American and Australian colonies).

There's another book series us Coloradoans like, since they take place very close to home - by Ralph Moody. Little Britches is the first book (another title earlier) made into a movie (with the current title). In that first book in the series, the family is homesteading west of Denver. It's a true story and as good a read as Little House on the Prairie. On their 'day of rest' they often went into the Bear Creek River basin below their ranch for a picnic and Mother would read from the books they ordered in the post. Charles Dickens' writings were what the book mentions being read most.

Charles Dickens said, "This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in."

Palimpsest

I've been reading reviews of the new CS Lewis movie release, "Prince Caspian". I learned a new word - palimpsest. One reviewer suggested that rather than say the movie is 'based on the novel', say 'it's a palimpsest of the novel' - that it has traces of the novel.

I guess artistic license has created a good action film that's not really a family film - and that it's missing most of CS Lewis's core story value.

I read (listened - I listen to hundreds of audio books) Dumas's Man in the Iron Mask and found the movie's story line was gleaned from only one paragraph of the book. When we're looking for movies to be like the books, I think we usually feel disappointed. And there's times I think the movies are an improvement on the book, or a whole new story to still enjoy and maybe touched by.

I like a lot of the past few decades movies over the older movies. I think today great questions are being asked - lots more to ponder and even discuss.

William Paul Young: A Look Inside 'The Shack'

The author of The Shack on The 700 Club tells some of his story.

But there's even better footage at his website "You are Welcome Here". He didn't intend to write a book, he told his six children stories about the Trinity, trying to help them understand a very approachable God.

Videos 1, 2, and 3 are the better of William P (Paul) Young telling his story.

I have to say, I was very curious about his story. I've wanted to depict the Trinity in my art ... but HOW can you? And he does it wonderfully. I've decided he KNOWS the Trinity!

Calendar

So, what day is today? Everyone knows it's St Patrick's Day. What do we wake up thinking? or maybe even plan ahead for? Wearing something green ("so I won't be pinched!"). Oh, that's really important! I'll say something about him later.

The 15th of March is The Feast of Saint Longinus. Do you know him? I wonder who even remembered his name, or did they just give him a name. I took a picture of a picture from one of my Saint books - and who do you see? John Wayne! not his typical western look. What movie is this?

Tradition merges the soldier whose spear pierced the side of the crucified Jesus with the centurion who later acknowledged him to be the Son of God. According to legend, Longinus was baptized by the Apostles and eventually died, a martyred bishop, in Cappadocia.

Why not take a day each year to think about the crucifixion scene and all those witnesses. How might it have touched so many people's lives. We don't know all the stories ... but just imagine!

Another person remembered from that whole story is the man who offered his tomb for Jesus to be buried. March 17 is the Feast of Saint Joseph of Arimathea. According to a legend, Joseph was Jesus' wealthy uncle, and after his nephew's (did you ever think of Jesus as a nephew?) Resurrection and Ascension, Joseph accompanied Mary Magdalene to France. Then, alone, he made his way to Britain, bringing with him the chalice drunk from at the Last Supper, which became an ornament of the church he established at Glastonbury, Somerset. And that is how the Holy Grail ended up in England and why King Arthur was so concerned with it!

So from this legend we have so much literature - from the tales of King Arthur (and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" movie - I'm grinning) and on to the more current The Da Vinci Code (I read that Novel and the book that followed. Good writer of a good story, but remind yourself - it's a novel). I think Dan Brown knew of this legend and extrapolated! All I'll say is, "He's an angry-at-the-church man, and doesn't know his history."

Everyone knows bits of the St Patrick story so I don't want to say much. Of all that's written, my favorites are How the Irish Saved Civilization and The Celtic Way of Evangelism. I came away from having read those books realizing my faith is more Celtic than Roman based. Celtic writings are much like the Hebrew Psalms and very inclusive of the Trinity. (My favorite book for exposure to this is The Celtic Way of Prayer.) What must have overflowed from Patrick (born Succat) was the Celtic based monasteries that were very inclusive of the surrounding community, focusing on relationship and embracing the common people. They loved people into The Kingdom. The Europe they evangelized to life, kinda died again, returning to the Roman cold, exclusive (exclusion) monasteries and nitty-gritty detail focus and rules.

A Palladius or Pallagious was actually the first missionary to Ireland. His name was mentioned in the newest King Arthur movie, and because I know something of him, I made the connection in the movie. He preached that people can take the 1st step to salvation without the grace of God. Augustine took steps against his followers.

St Patrick, with a satchel full of books, including Augustine's writings, like City of God and his Confessions, returned to Ireland with its un-invaded tranquility by the barbarians who were ransacking Rome and all of Europe. Thus literature was preserved until Europe was ready to take them back.

Hasn't Patrick's Breastplate prayer been put to music?
Make Irish Soda Bread!

The Visitor (2008) - Movie Trailer HD

This looks really good. I can't wait.

Dancing Trio

We were just up at Travis and Sarah's. Travis brined three chickens then put beer cans, about 1/2 full, in each cavity and stood them on one side of the grill, with the burner off. He tried this with cans of coke but prefers this, saying it tastes better. The other side of the grill was kept on high and had soaked wood chips for smoking the birds. With three of them, it took a little over 2 hours till done. They were DELISH!!

So, on the calendar we've passed President's Day, in between Lincoln's and Washington's Birthdays. When the kids were young I used to take some Lincoln Logs and make a little log cabin to sit on a red, white, and blue woven cloth in the center of the table during this time.

The 18th is set aside in remembrance of Martin Luther. If you've not seen the movie "Luther", you should. It's a good representation of his life and home life and his wonderful wife Katherine. I read a biography of her and really enjoyed it. From her you get more of the perspective of the largeness of their home, and family, and the many guests they had. She really "looked well to the ways of her household", very much as Proverbs 31 depicts. Even to buying apple orchards to be able the keep the family in their 'home brew' which they drank at every meal, and finding sources for good food, and how she created her much needed well-stocked large kitchen. They were good parents too, enjoying life. We don't often know much about the "helpmates" of well known influential people. "The hand that rocks the cradle ..." is so powerful!

From family and food, to presidents, and then to the Luther family and food ... Hmmmmm, seeing the three together in a sentence my thoughts have run to where the power is and influence ... but no more. I leave it to you to run with the rest of the story.

Aborigine

I just saw this painting by a Barbara Stuart, inspired by one of the massacre sites in Australia, depicting the spirits of Aboriginals. It intrigues me. I was just reading about Aborigines in the book In Defense of food - An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan, who wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I highly recommend as a good read.

A study was done in 1982, following a group of ten middle-aged, overweight, and diabetic Aborigines, as they were asked to return to the bush and it's lifestyle of food gathering. It was an experiment to see if the process of westernization they had adopted when they moved near towns, could be reversed. After seven weeks their blood was drawn, showing striking improvements in virtually every measure of their health, and the type II diabetes was either greatly improved or completely normalized.

Then another weird connection just showed up too. Today (or the 13th in Australia) is 'Sorry Day'. They are saying sorry to the descendants of the "Stolen Generation" for decades of horrors. I watched a video clip of this current event. I read and watched about this because of having read the book and watched the movie "The Rabbit Proof Fence".

I recommend the movie over the book since it tells more 'why' these aborigine children were stolen from their families in Australia. It's a true story, and maybe today's "Sorry" can be a beginning of healing for these families and a positive turning point against prejudice.

Fat Tuesday-Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras

Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday. I didn't grow up with Lent, but I like these 40 day periods, like Advent too, to have a spiritual focus that can bring more meaning with anticipation to ordinary days. The word Lent comes from 'Lenten' meaning a 'lengthen'ing of days into Spring (yeah!).

Baptisms used to be done on Resurrection day in the early church and they'd have a 40 hour fast in readiness for the event. In 330 AD it was stretched from new converts to all Christians and for 40 days - believing it commemorated Jesus' 40 day desert fast. So the Tuesday before became a time for confession and repentance, and called Shrove Tuesday ('shiriving' means confession).

Prohibitions seem a thing for Lent, with giving up rich foods as the focus, which has turned Shrove Tuesday into Fat Tuesday. Since people were wanting to rid their homes of some ingredients, they started having meals of pancakes, becoming tradition. Meat is sometimes given up too. Mardi Gras has become a revelry, a 'carnival', which means 'farewell to meat (flesh)'. It seems the given up items are being worshiped, and the time of self-reflection has turned into a self-indulgence!

In the movie "Chocolate" we see what some people do in giving up things for Lent. In the book Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner (a good book), she gives up reading for Lent. Ugh, that would be a hard one. A couple years ago friends of mine wanted to wear a tasseled bracelet (Numbers 15)(which I made for everyone) for a reminder of something - for me it was to exercise everyday, Sunday's excluded (which I think I'll do again this year - without the bracelet).

Some people will use tonight as a carnival celebration of looking inside ones self. People need to haul up aspects of personality they choose to bury and tend to remask a persona. I have friends who one year came to such a party with masks representing their hidden self, and maybe ridiculing egos. When Adam and Eve lost innocence what did they do? they sought to cover themselves. Paul asked us to "put on the new self" to "put on Christ".

Because meat, cheese, cream, butter, milk and eggs were typically avoided, small breads began to be made. Germans named theirs "pretzels" - "little arms". They were visual reminders for the heart, since formed in the shape of arms crossed over the chest - like praying.

God looks at the intentions of the heart, the spirit in which we do things. It's not just a matter of ritual but a matter of the heart!

Groundhog Day?

So what day is February 2? Groundhog Day!
Yes and No.

On the Christian calendar February 2 is Candlemas Day. This was the day Jesus was brought as a baby to the temple. Old Simeon and Anna were there waiting for years! for the Messiah, and proclaimed Jesus the Light to lighten all peoples.

A meeting of the old and new.

In some places candles may still be brought to the church to be blessed.

Folklore: "If Candlemas day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another flight;
But if it be dark with clouds and rain,
Winter is gone, and will not come again."

Groundhog Lore: If he sees the sun ...
and is frightened by his shadow he'll crawl back to sleep for 40 days.
If it's cloudy ...
and stays above ground; it's a harbinger of early spring.

Did dislike of religion bring the change from Candlemas to Groundhog Day?

Watch the movie "Groundhog Day".
Bill Murray, a TV weatherman seems condemned to live the day over and over again. He tries every role or small story he can think of. When all fail him, does he discover the real meaning of life?

It's Ecclesiastes in modern film--all is vanity. I love the fact that you can find a part of the Gospel in most every film.

eXpelled Movie Trailer

A movie is coming out this spring called "EXpelled". I'm curious about people's responses...

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php

from the land of green ghosts

I read (and listen to) many books, comprised of many genres. Periodically I like books that take me into other countries, whether they are biographical or historical fiction. I really like walking in the shoes of people to better get the context of 'the facts' about a place. The stories that carry the information give me a deeper understanding of a culture.

I just finished reading the book entitled above. It's a Burmese Odyssey by Pascal Khoo Thwe. This young man is surprisingly literate having grown up in the jungles of Burma, from the Padaung tribe famous for their 'giraffe-necked' women. He was a part of the earlier military dictatorship battles, finally able to escape to England, and graduate from Cambridge. But I can picture Burma better now when I hear the news of the thousands of red-robed Buddhist monks marching, and hear that Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest, whom Pascal had put his hopes in.

Now when I hear of Darfur news I'm taken there from having read What is the What by Dave Eggers - a novel and autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the early "Lost Boys of the Sudan" (you can watch that documentary). I now have an understanding of behind the scenes of what's going on there.

I feel I understand more of Africa's history from a variety of books over the years. Like one from two guys bicycling across northern Africa, to The Poisonwood Bible in the Congo, to James Mitchner's huge book on South Africa.

I don't know if I can say I'm looking forward to watching "The Kite Runner", but I do want to see it having read the book. It's a good picture of life before and during Taliban rule. Then I lived with women in the Muslem Middle East world, from Reading Lolita in Tehran.

My latest genre in audio books is murder mysteries. I've enjoyed trying to solve mystery stories since I was a kid, like the old Perry Mason TV shows.

Thomas a Becket of Canterbury

In the Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims are on the way to the tomb of the martyred Saint Thomas Becket.

Thomas wasn't especially religious when King Henry II made him the 39th archbishop of Canterbury in the twelfth century. He was a drinking buddy, and companion in arms - but he got religion at this post. This changed everything and soon Thomas' friends and the King started grumbling, and quarreling over the separation of church and state. Hearing they wanted to be rid of this troublesome priest that stood in their way, overzealous soldiers stormed the cathedral and bashed out Thomas' brains on this day in 1170.

The drama, "Murder in the Cathedral" by TS Eliot is based on these events. And then Richard Burton plays Thomas in the movie "Becket". Every year when his day rolls around again, I tell myself that I need to watch this movie, but haven't yet. Maybe I'll go now and order it from Netflix before I forget.

Peter Pan!

Starting in 1904 in England, everyone would wake up on this day and say "Peter Pan. We get to go see Peter Pan today!" The tradition of the play went on for years.

That's why Peter Pan movies periodically come out in December. The movie "Finding Neverland" came out for the 100th year anniversary in 2004.

I've been a Peter Pan fan for over a decade now. There's a message there that was a part of my pursuit that eventually led to the experiencing of God in a deep way.

I started with recognizing things missing in my life. I had become so rational, so "adultish". I wanted to regain my sense of wonder. So I started down a path of pursuing what it meant to be childlike.

My favorite Peter Pan movie is Spielberg's 1991 "Hook". The setting is Christmas, so he knew of the tradition of Peter Pan at Christmas time when families are gathered together seeking entertainment.

It's an "adultish" Peter in the movie. Grandma Wendy invited the family to England. Peter is forever on his cell phone. His wife is frustrated. His kids are enamoured with Wendy and the nursery window and are full of anticipation.

Grandma Wendy finally has to get in Peter's face and ask, "What do you remember of your story Peter?" Peter had forgotten his story. He didn't know who he was!

The rest of the story, since Captain Hook stole away his children, has Peter relearning how to be childlike to win back the hearts of his children. He had to relearn how to play, how to fly!

That too was my quest. Who was I really?

Watch the movie "Hook".

Watch "Finding Neverland" (with Johnny Depp!). It is so close to the real JM Barrie story in that it tells us why he wrote Peter Pan. Barrie wrote many stories inspired by his mother's Scottish highland tales. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Barrie saying, "I am a capable artist; but it begins to look to me as if you are a man of genius. Take care of yourself for my sake. It's a devilish hard thing for a man who writes so many novels as I do, that I should get so few to read. And I can read yours, and I love them."

In the movie you meet the family of boys who inspired the lost boys (the movie shows these boys' father as already dead, though in real life, Barrie nursed him through his illness.) When the Davies boys met Barrie, they said they'd found a childlike adult in the midst of stodgy Victorian England.

There's a line in the book that's central to Barrie's vision. Over the years his vision had been watered down, thinking it too dark for families. It's - "To die will be an awfully big adventure." This line is the heart of the story (as too in many stories, including the Gospel).

It's a looking for something good out of something tragic. Tolkein calls this 'eucatastrophy' - a victory of good over evil, but with a price to be paid - a redemptive sacrifice. So when faced with the possibility of drowning in Mermaid's Lagoon, Peter is going to make it an adventure.

Hmmm ... "to die will be an adventure"... Doesn't Jesus ask me to come to him as a child? and to die to self? and that in dying there's true life/living?!

Missed Saints

I've not posted of some saints that I remember only for some fun little something that their story makes me think of...

Edmund Campion is Dec 1. He reminds me of the movie and book: The Scarlet Pimpernel (the BBC version is the best and closest to the book). Though born of a protestant printer-bookseller in London in 1540, he became a Jesuit and a secret agent for the Faith.

I love history. I love books. I've read stories where old homes in England had cubbyholes called "priest holes". Campion's story makes me literate to these priest holes.

With the introduction of Protestantism, some rulers were seeing possibilities of separating from the Pope. The Church ruled. Monarch Henry VIII was the first to start a new church. What happened for probably a century is that the religion followed the ruler. Differing beliefs could not coexist for quite some time. The last Catholic monarch of England is what history calls Bloody Mary, and her successor, protestant Good Queen Bess. Lots of deaths swinging from protestants killing catholics and then vice versa and back again.

Campion was in Elizabeth's reign and he was constantly changing his name and apparel. Like once he was disguised as a jewel merchant. He was the object of a year long manhunt, all the while ministering to catholics in hiding and publishing 'underground' pamphlets. Queen Elizabeth liked him and tried to dissuade him, making him offers. But he was the 1st of hundreds who were hanged, drawn, and quartered for adhering to their religious beliefs.

Dec 3rd is Francis Xavier's day. He was one of the original Jesuit's founded by Ignatius Loyola. (I've wanted to understand the differing monastic groups.) Xavier lived in the early 1500s and it amazes me that in 10 years he traveled 9,000 miles - a great feat in those days. He brought the Gospel to more than 50 kingdoms and baptized more than a million. The church he planted in Japan lasted three centuries without Bibles or priests - only word by parents passed on to children. He's remembered as the Apostle of the Indies.

Dec 4 is Saint Barbara's day. I don't remember her story because there was nothing in it I cared for for me. BUT I only remember her day because I read that if you cut pussy willow branches (and the like) and put them in water on her day, they'd be budding by Christmas.

Dec 7 is Ambros's day. Trained as a lawyer, was a governor and became Bishop of Milan in 374. He was a great preacher and lecturer. It was he who converted Augustine, showing him that a person of intelligence could find the Christian faith totally satisfying. When baptizing people, he first washed their feet, which was not customary.

The one thing that sticks out to me is that Augustine was amazed at Ambrose reading silently to himself. Just the history of written language is fascinating. We just think it's gone on forever. But everything had been oral. Homer and Plato were the first things to be written (prior to that was history of kings and kingdoms and laws). They were uncomfortable with their writing. And still it was not read silently. Boggles my mind. They say we're returning to a more oral society with media we have today. I think we've got a good mix.

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. You'd think of Jesus and the Incarnation, but no, it's what's believed of Mary's conception. It seems that Mary's parents did not 'couple' in 'human mire' - taking no pleasure in the act and not conceived with the taint of original sin. Thus a fit vessel for God's son to be hatched in. It's been a hotly debated thing for years.

We've come a long way baby! I don't know how many people still think of sex in marriage as dirty and evil. If God did not like our humanness, why did he choose to enter history as a seed in a womb and go through the birth process and be laid in an animal feed trough, needing to be nursed and burped and diapers changed, and announce his birth first to the lowest of society, dirty shepherds! There's such joy in sex as the Sacrament of Marriage!

So that's the update on Dec saint stories I like, until December 13. My thoughts remember the picture on the Sistine Chapel where God stretches out his hand to Adam, calling him out of the dirt of the earth, kissing into him his breath of Life. How beautifully humanity is created. And God stretches out his arms to those who wait for his touch.

movie trailer

I just watched CS Lewis's Prince Caspian movie trailer - coming out mid May. It looks good.

I like Aslan's line - "All that you know is about to change."