Happy Days At Home

I'm finding it slightly difficult to find subjects for my blogs. I really have nothing too spectacular to write about at the moment, but the poor Pocket Peridot is so empty and forlorn that I am determined to freshen its front page with something.... anything new. So, to whom it may concern, I'm going to write about................ well, actually, I don't know what I'm going to write about!

We've been at home for just a bit less than a week now, and, believe it or not, I've actually worked out a rhythm of day to day life. I do try and practice all the time that I need to on my violin and guitar - plus get my bookwork done; however, I usually end up getting the latter finished, and not the two former - and that's not even mentioning writing and drawing. Bleh! Between the lack of hours in the day, and my lack of self-discipline, I don't know how I can succeed in getting everything done. Ach! I'm hoping that there are at least a few people who feel the same way.

My little brother Jeremiah and I have been doing all our bookwork together of late. It is so much more enjoyable to work at something alongside another person . To his chagrin, he has still not achieved finishing a math lesson before me. Ha! Now just wait, because I said that, I'll eat his dust on Monday, and my lesson will be so hair-pullingly frustrating that I'll end it in tears. But wait! No tears can be shed over math while my cousin 'David Riley - Math Genius' is under the roof!

End of 'David Riley - Math Genius' Commercial -

Scene #1 - Pretty blonde girl drives away from high-school in sporty car - voice-over begins as she pulls out of parking lot - "Thanks 'David Riley - Math Genius', for giving me the math education I've always dreamed of!

Scene #2 - Young man in graduation cap and gown smiles into camera - "Thanks 'David Riley - Math Genius', for helping me through my darkest hours!"

Scene #3 - Show rich business man talking to employees and making important life decisions - voice-over begins as he stops for a moment, smiles, and picks up a picturesque family photo of his wife and children - "Thanks 'David Riley - Math Genius', for showing me what really matters in life!"

Enough of my rambling! I bet I will get absolutely NO comment on this post. Thus I shall feel completely forlorn, and think, "Why do I keep up this stupid blog anyway? No one (except Camille - good, faithful Camille) even cares that its floating in cyberspace!"

Ha! Now, if you're reading this, you'll feel an inner tug to write something interesting in my comment box. Haha!!!! I have caught you!!!!!

Well, I'm going to bed. Goodnight!

Gretchen Emily

My Top Ten Books of 2009

Despite my efforts to read 30 books this year, I have only achieved 26. Maybe next year I will reach my goal. Anyway, below is my list of the top ten books I've read this past year:

#1 - Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton

This is, without a doubt, the best theological book I have ever read. Chesterton dives into pools of miraculous thought that had never even crossed my mind. You'll feel like you should read every chapter about ten times if you want to fully grasp the meaning of what he's writing. It is an amazing book, and a must read for everyone.

#2 - The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

I have no doubt that The Silmarillion is one of the most beautiful books ever written. It goes through the history of Middle Earth in gorgeous depth and detail. Most people complain that it is slow, and that they had a hard time not losing interest. I couldn't disagree more. The beautiful descriptions and stories that make up this historical fiction are profound and breathtaking. The book is studded throughout with gems of melancholy beauty and cool, pure grief. It is stunning, and worth many hours of your time.

#3 - Bleak House by Charles Dickens

The mood, feeling, and underlying current of suspense in this book is perfectly wound up in it's name, Bleak House. I believe that Dickens was at his height when he wrote this one. It is every bit as good as David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. If you don't read it you are missing out on a rare, thrilling treat. And don't see the movie before you read the book!

#4 - Knowing Christ Today by Dallas Willard

This book is brilliant. Willard argues against the current day trend of disregarding knowledge, and writes about how our relationship with God has to be thoroughly based in it. It is very much worth reading.

#5 - Four Faultless Felons by G.K. Chesterton

This is the most fun, fast-paced book I've read this year. It makes me thirst for more Chesterton. He winsome light and laughter has won my book-worm heart, and thus he is by far my favorite author. The wonderful thing is that I have only read four books by him thus far, and have an entire Chestertonian world just waiting for me.

#6 - Watership Down by Richard Adams

This is not the first time I've read Watership Down, and it just gets better and better. Richard Adams is a masterful writer, and this book has one of the best climaxes of all time. Who would have thought that one of the greatest books ever written would be about rabbits? That is just a tribute to Adams' incredible ability to bring vague worlds to vivid life.

#7 - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I had known the story of Jane Eyre for a long time before reading the book. I tend to dislike reading books that I've already seen a movie adaptation of, but do not let your knowledge of the book's twist keep you from reading it. Jane Eyre is wonderfully thrilling, and the romance is second to none. The movie versions have not done it justice. It is Bronte's best book. (Do not read Villette)

#8 - Middlemarch by George Elliot

Middlemarch is a wonderful read. The love story is masterful, the characters are original; it is altogether brilliant.

#9 - The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

This book is amazing and beautiful. It is about a man in Hell who takes a train ride to Heaven, and other than that I will not try and tell you what it's about. Lewis has a soft touch in his books that sets you longing for paradise. But this one puts your longing a bit deeper, and closer to the heart.

#10 - The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

This book is just fabulous. The movie doesn't do it justice by half. It turned everything around to where there was not a tenth of the depth and underlying feeling and moral that make the book so moving and wonderful. It's an excellent work of classic literature, and every bit worth your time.

Here is the full list of the books I've read in 2009 -

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Christus Victor by Gustaf Aulen

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton

Four Faultless Felons by G.K. Chesterton

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Middlemarch by George Elliot

Adam Bede by George Elliot

Howards' End by E.M. Forster

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Tess of the D'Uberveilles by Thomas Hardy

The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

The Wise Woman by George Macdonald

The Golden Key by George Macdonald

The Quest of the Fair Unknown by Gerald Morris

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini

The Land by Mildred D. Taylor

Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor

The Road to Memphis by Mildred D. Taylor

Leaf By Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

Knowing Christ Today by Dallas Willard

The Calling of Dan Matthews by Harold Bell Wright

'A Woodland Scene With Deer' by Carl Fredrik Aagard

'Interior' by George Nicolaj Achen

Victory!

     It seems that the contest that began only about a week ago, has now ended. On the day that I wrote and posted my last blog, 'The Nazarene From Bethlehem', Benjamin failed to post his own. And thus, I have won the vicious, bloody cyber-space duel that started with so much gusto. 

     It's too bad that there is no reward for the winner of this mind tasking contest. A gift card to Barnes and Noble, or a Snickers bar, or an apple........... or a pencil........ or some fabric softener.......... Oh well, the very joy of beating my sibling in writing endurance is enough!

Gretchen

The Nazarene From Bethlehem

     While reading through the passages in John chapter 7 where the people question how the Messiah could come from Galilee, and not from Bethlehem as the Prophets said he would, a thought struck me - why did Jesus not clarify the whole question by telling the people plainly the story of his birth? Was it because they wouldn't believe him? That very well could be the reason. We know from the Gospels that the Disciples knew the story, but whether Jesus himself told them, or whether it was Mary, His Mother, after the Son's Ascent, is a mystery. My own guess would be that Mary told them, since the narratives in the Gospels are very much from her perspective. But the question still stands: Why did Jesus let a great number of the people's unbelief continue, when the simple understanding that he was actually born in Bethlehem might have been enough to clear their minds, and cause some of them to believe? 

     I pondered the question after I read this -

     John 7:25-27 - Meanwhile some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, "Isn't this the man they want to kill? And here he is, speaking freely, and they have nothing to say to him! Can it be true that the authorities have made up their minds that he is the Christ? Yet we all know where he comes from, but when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from."

But, as I read on, the matter began to clarify. 

John 7:28-29 - Then, as Jesus taught in the Temple, he cried out: "Yes, you know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of myself: no, there is one who sent me and I really come from him, and you do not know him, but I know him because I have come from him and it was he who sent me."

It's amazing how some of the most mind-boggling questions that Jesus posed had answers that made complete sense, but were totally surprising. In the answer to the question concerning his birthplace, Jesus doesn't say, "Oh no, you've got it all wrong. I was actually conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of a virgin in a stable in the town of Bethlehem! You see, it all makes sense when you know the facts." Instead he replies by revealing that the Prophet was not speaking of his birthplace or town when he said that no one would know where the Messiah came from, but of where he came from, namely, the Father - making it clear that they didn't know the Father anymore than they knew the story of his birth.

Over and over again in the Scriptures you find questions that have answers like this. The people didn't have enough faith to simply believe that even though they didn't know the ins and outs of the answers to the questions, they would trust that God knew, and that he would reveal it in his good time. This thought first came to me when I was reading the passage where Jesus states that unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood we have no life in us. A great many of his disciples left him when he said that because they didn't have enough faith to trust that Jesus wasn't telling them that to have eternal life they must become cannibals, but that there was an entire mysterious spiritual meaning behind his words, which he would reveal to them in time. The Twelve stayed because they did have that faith. (I should probably say the Eleven, since Judas most likely stayed just because he had his hands in the money bag.)

     I think that is why Jesus didn't clarify some of his most confusing statements to the people. He wanted the type of follower that would look beyond the confusion that some of his words would create, to the knowledge they had of him, and to the trust and love that his deeds and words had built in their souls. 

Gretchen   

  

The 116 Sonnet of Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds, 

Or bends with the remover to remove:

Oh no! It is an ever fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark, 

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.