Wherever I Am

Friday, October 2, 2020

September Days (and Sunsets)

What was September? September was full of busy days, so it feels fitting that this post is a couple of days late. That sounds about right.

It began with E's birthday in the middle of full-on homeschooling with crisp days that felt just like what early September should be. These days bled into a September heatwave and us following K.J. on a 250-mile bike ride through the middle of France to raise money for a special cause, followed by a few days of rest free-of-charge on a small island. It was as lovely as it sounds. It ended with a week of rain showers and preparation for J's birthday, and here we are, on another rainy day eating leftover birthday cake.

There were many good gifts to enjoy in September, as well as a continued need for wisdom and endurance in a world complicated by a pandemic. This combination of the delightful and the concerning brings to mind the faith-strengthening words of the hymn Day by Day by Swedish writer, Lina Sandell.

Day by day, and with each passing moment,

Strength I find to meet my trials here;

Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,

I've no cause for worry or for fear.

He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure,

Gives unto each day what He deems best,

Lovingly it's part of pain and pleasure,

Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Let us walk into October with the expectation of pain and pleasure, toil and rest, and a good Father who dispenses them both in just the right amount for our good.

September 1 - Tea in the Garden

September 2 - Birthday Burgers in Paris!

September 4 - J starting a watercolor class

September 5 - Perfect Fall Scent

September 6 - True Love taking something off my plate

September 7 - Sunset over the Tracks

September 8 - Last Flowers of the Summer

September 9 - I saw more sunsets this month than I have all year in taking some after-dinner walks.

September 10 - Local Allotment Garden

September 11 - Another Sunset

September 12 - E found this letter from the 1950s in the attic.

September 13 - Church in the Park

September 14 - Château de Chambord

September 15 - Château de Chenonceau

September 16 - He's a warrior.

September 17 - 250-Mile Victory Cookie

September 18 - This pink sunset over the water thrilled my soul.

September 19 - A Sunset with my Man

September 20 - Sunday Afternoon Walk

September 21 - Trying to Fly a Kite

September 22 - Hobbit Day Celebration

September 23 - A Rainy-Day Leave-Taking

September 24 - Home Again

September 25 - It's been constant alternating rain and sun.

September 26 - A Walk in the Park when the Sun Returned

September 27 - Two Little Boys in Rain Jackets with Umbrellas (having the time of their lives throwing umbrellas in the air to catch the wind)

September 29 - Family Walk in Between Rain Showers

Monday, September 21, 2020

Family Bike Rides

Last night we went on a family bike ride.

As we gathered cameras and helmets and K.J. pumped air into sagging tires I had a flashback to when I was a teenager and our family opted to do a self-guided river-rafting adventure down the Nantahala River. At least, I'm pretty sure that was this trip, and we were on the Nantahala? Maybe I'm wrong. But I'm definitely right about it being the self-guided option, and without the official instructor giving instructions, I remember those first moments on the river.

None of us were really working together, we were frustrated, but then finally, somehow, we got into a groove and figured out what we were doing and had a really good time.

Last night we all had various problems starting out: the wrong shoes, unfamiliar bike gears, bikes that were uncomfortable sizes, someone (maybe me) who went on a 5-mile ride with her husband the night before already had a sore rear end and groaned when she sat back down on that seat. K.J. said, "This might be a really short ride." Who could blame him for thinking so?

But somehow, we found our groove.

And that's just the way it is with family endeavors or maybe with any other kind of group. The less-than-stellar start won't define the whole journey. The grumpy attitudes will get worked out, and the best part of the memory will be like mine rafting down the Nantahala with my family: the taste of the cold, sweet water splashing in my mouth and the thrill of the ride.

Friday, September 18, 2020

Five Quotes, vol. xix

book box spotted in Amboise, France

It's been a whirlwind of a week for our household beginning with a full day Sunday and then leaving Monday morning for K.J. to begin his cycling challenge of 400 km in 4 days.

I read an article a few months ago about why time during the lock-down for COVID-19 seemed to pass so quickly for so many. It explained how when we have the same experiences each day, the days run together because our brains aren't processing any new information, but when we have new experiences time seems to stretch out. I have definitely experienced that sense of time stretching out this week as we slept in a new place every night and I drove unfamiliar roads and navigated new cities each day. Last Friday feels like a year ago.

There hasn't been loads of time for reading this week, but there have been a few minutes each morning with a novel and a few chapters of the thoughtful companionship of The Next Right Thing book.

"I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief."

- from The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry

"That's an appropriate way to handle yourself in a storm: take cover and wait for it to pass over. But it's possible to live with the dread of a storm even when the sky is clear without a threat of rain. It's possible to take cover even when there's nothing to take cover from, except for a heavy idea or a recurring thought in the night."

- The Next Right Thing, Emily P. Freeman

"The disciples traveling with Jesus most likely thought the goal that day was to get from one place to another. In that moment, in the way God always does, he made the side of the road center stage. He took what they thought was a footnote and made it a headline, a side-of-the-road detour in the upside-down kingdom of God."

- The Next Right Thing, Emily P. Freeman

"Bartimaeus didn't say, 'I have to regain my sight or else.' He simply said that was what he wanted, and he left the next step to Jesus. Desire is only toxic when we demand our desires be satisfied on our terms and in our timing. Knowing what we want and getting what we want are not necessarily the same thing."

- The Next Right Thing, Emily P. Freeman

"Every yes you say affects every person who lives in your house. Knowing what you want is an automatic filter to help you say yes to the things you've already predecided matter, and to let the rest fall gently away."

- The Next Right Thing, Emily P. Freeman

Friday, September 11, 2020

Five Quotes, vol.xviii

inside The Chaucer Bookshop, Canterbury, England

I've been choosing a theme for my reading each month this year, and this month I decided to focus on reading Noreen's books. I've listened to her tell so many stories that even events that happen in her fiction sound familiar to me because in every story there are bits of herself and her own varied life experiences. I found some humor in reading a romance novel written by my 94-year-old friend this week, but I was most moved by reading Noreen's memoir of how she came to have faith in Jesus as a busy, married mother of five in the early 1970s. I love reading people's stories, and I included a small excerpt of her describing the garden because the garden she looked out on after a significant learning experience in her life, is the same garden I look out on as I ponder all God is teaching me in this season. My children are now the ones playing beneath the willow and the cherry tree. I'm now the one learning to rest in the God who knows my limitations as I look out at the gray stone walls.

"Few could admit to being the victim of a fatal, historical error, she told herself proudly. Few people lived, as she did, with the constant feeling of having been born at the wrong time and in the wrong place. And fewer still realized, as she did, that all that was worth admiring, all that was beautiful and sublime, seemed to be vanishing with hardly a trace. The world, lamented Prudencia Prim, had lost its taste for beauty, harmony, and balance. And few could see this truth; just as few could feel within themselves the resolve to make a stand."

- The Awakening of Miss Prim, Natalia Sanmartin Fenollara

"...she was a mistress of the art of delicacy. Miss Prim firmly believed that delicacy was the force that drove the universe. Where it was lacking, she knew, the world became gloomy and dark."

- The Awakening of Miss Prim, Natalia Sanmartin Fenollara

"And it was as if a voice said: 'I know your limitations. I don't expect you to do something you cannot do. I only ask you to come to me and take me as your Saviour, then I can carry your burden and use you for the work I've planned for you to do. The work that only you can do for me.'"

- Eye of the Storm, Noreen Riols

"I put down the receiver and looked through the window at the children playing in the garden below. The sky was the colour of a tea rose and the pink and white blossom sprayed upon the cherry tree was stretching up to meet it; and I saw the beauty of the old gray stone walls encircling my home, the graceful sweep of the weeping willow whose leaves were dusting the lawn."

- Eye of the Storm, Noreen Riols

"Bookish people, I'm sorry to say, have an unfortunate tendency toward elitism. I know this because I am a bookish person, and also because I hang out with other bookish sorts...We want to cultivate good taste in literature, yes, but there is a marked difference between good taste and elitism."

- The Read-Aloud Family, Sarah Mackenzie

Monday, August 31, 2020

August 2020

August can be such a transitional month here. It began with a week-long heatwave, temperatures hovering around 100 degrees Fahrenheit and is ending with a cool front, highs in the 60s, and outside my window tinges of red are beginning to show around the edges of the leaves.

So August brought summer fun AND the return of school. It brought an unexpected quick trip to England and rising COVID-19 numbers. It brought the reminder that comes every August that teaching the kids is a full-time job for me, even though they can do a lot on their own. It's brought the reminder that investing in learning with my kids is good and fruitful work, and I love it. And so here we are entering the last quarter of 2020. K.J. shared this with me last week, and it made me laugh: