A Life Well Lived

The great question for the old and dying, I think, is not if they have loved and been loved enough, but if they have been grateful enough for love received and given, however much. No one who has gratitude is the onliest one. Let us pray to be grateful to the last.

-Wendell Berry, Andy Catlett, 120.

Sunset

You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.

-Psalm 65:8b

Stuff I Brought Back From the Cape

A bucket of beach rocks
Sand (in my car, clothes, backpack, etc)
Just a hint of sunburn
Made-in-Kenya earrings
Lemonheads
Used books:
Letter from New York, Helene Hanff
Emil and the Detectives, Erich Kastner
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, Jean Lee Latham
On the Art of Reading, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
The Wonderful O, James Thurber
The Eye of the Story, Eudora Welty
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin
Comedies, Oscar Wilde
Hot Water, P.G. Wodehouse

All is Well

The Shunammite woman's grief was perfectly warranted; but there was also nothing ridiculous about her "All is well" when Elisha put her living son in her arms. In thanksgiving, we force ourselves to cling to the moment of resurrection before it reaches us.

-Leta Sundet, "Fierce Gratitude," Thought Meadow, Issue 5.

***

Lately, the phrase "it is what it is" has crept into my vocabulary, a handy non sequitur when things don't go quite the way I'd like. But it's a phrase that kind of bugs me, I think because it's a verbal shrug of the shoulders - life is rough, don't sweat it, just move on. Que sera sera, whatever will be will be. But if I believe in a sovereign God, that doesn't really jive with an it-is-what-it-is attitude. Whatever is, is because God intended it to be. I can rejoice, or get angry, but an emotionless "hey, whatever" doesn't really make a lot of sense. So, maybe I'll try out the Shunammite's "all is well" instead. When a meeting at work goes poorly because I was inadequately prepared, when we hit a major roadblock in our Fairmont trip prep, when Ben & Jerry's doesn't have any of my favorite ice cream flavors (brownie batter, oatmeal cookie chunk, cinnamon bun - in case you were wondering)...all is well. I have a sovereign God, and I can rejoice in his good plans, even when I am exasperated beyond measure.

Thanks, Leta. :)

Packing List

The night before my father sailed he borrowed his father's knapsack and he and the cat packed everything very carefully. He took chewing gum, two dozen pink lollipops, a package of rubber bands, black rubber boots, a compass, a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, six magnifying glasses, a very sharp jackknife, a comb and a hairbrush, seven hair ribbons in different colors, an empty grain bag with a label saying "Cranberry," some clean clothes, and enough food to last my father while he was on the ship. He couldn't live on mice, so he took twenty-five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and six apples, because that's all the apples he could find in the pantry.

-Ruth Stiles Gannett, My Father's Dragon, 20.

***

Note to self: Must remember to pack two dozen pink lollipops for my impending trip to the Cape. Also a very sharp jackknife and seven hair ribbons in different colors.

In Memoriam

The fear of forgetting anything precious can trigger in us the wish to raise a structure, like a paperweight to hold down our memories. We might even follow the example of the Countess of Mount Edgcumbe, who in the late eighteenth century had a thirty-foot-high Neoclassical obelisk erected on a hill on the outskirts of Plymouth, in memory of an unusually sensitive pig called Cupid, whom she did not hesitate to call a true friend.

-Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness, 123-124.

Stuff I'm Taking to the Cape

Bubble Thing + Bubble Juice Ingredients
Episodes of In Plain Sight to share with the peripatetic Jessie Gac
An Ideal Husband (the movie...)
The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton + scads of other library books (any suggestions?)
Sunglasses
Sneakers
Hats
???

Tidiness

Rum idea this is, that tidiness is a timid, quiet sort of thing; why tidiness is a toil for giants. You can't tidy anything without untidying yourself; just look at my trousers.

-G. K. Chesterton, Manalive, 42.

Bubbles!

Bubble Juice - New & Improved Recipe

Measure into a clean bucket and stir together:

16 cups warm water
1 cup Joy or Dawn dish soap (if you're abroad, use Fairy or Palmolive Aloe)
2 tablespoons baking powder (not baking soda)

Tip: It's STILL best to let your bubble solution sit overnight.

-David Stein & the Editors of Klutz

Bubble Juice - Original Recipe

Measure into a clean bucket and stir together:

12 cups water
1 cup Ultra Dawn
1/4 cup glycerine

Tip: It's best to let your bubble solution sit overnight.

-David Stein & the Editors of Klutz