Facebook posts from August | Dreaming Beneath the Spires
That hilarious little Irene has been following Roy and I around with her laptop, recording our conversations, then playing them back to us. “Could some gift the giftie give us/To hear ourselves as others hear us!”
Zoe has been in a Shakespeare workshop at the Oxford Playhouse; the strain of a week with just me and Irene is telling on Roy! We are SO similar, so it’s like being with Anita squared, or Irene squared!
Provide for those who grieve in Zion— a crown of beauty instead of ashes/ the oil of gladness instead of mourning,/ and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair./ Isaiah 61:3 The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35.
Revising the plot! When our lives seems to have run into the desert sands of barrenness, and we wonder if we’ve lost our way, constant prayer can bring a surprising plot reversal–beauty from ashes, streams in the desert–rescuing one from inexorable cause and effect; sin/weakness and its consequences. It can rewrite the direction and story of one’s life. This has often happened to me, and I need it to happen once again!
Satisfying day. Yoga class w. Roy while our girls swam. Picnic at the Univ. Parks with church friends. Too tired to go to evening church; Roy & Zoe have gone. No more swapping church for yoga, though yoga makes me feel v. smiley, energized, calm & happy! Can’t risk being too tired for p.m. church, bec. church is such an important part of my relationship with God. Enjoying our church’s summer Bible school on prayer!
Had a lovely chat with Karoline Sassenberg, back from Sierra Leone where she’s a missionary. While loving & forbearing with difficult people, she said God gave HER a gift: a changed heart. She learned to love! She has watched her friend B. deal with trying people & circumstances & become daily more beautiful. A changed heart is a spiritual prize I covet, yet adopting the ways of love where you win that prize is hard!
Roy & I should be sound asleep, and soon we will be–hopefully!–but we are in the process of buying tickets for our summer vacation in Europe. Yes, tres late, given that we are leaving during the last week of August for 2 weeks. We’re looking at Norway.
We’re set! We fly to Norway for the last week of August and first week of September, and are renting a 4 bedded motor home with kitchen, loo, shower. Planning to explore the fjords, mountains, coast, forests, Northern Lights, trolls… I’ve been fascinated with Scandinavia because of a childhood obsession with Norse mythology, and am thrilled to be going there. As are Roy and the girls. Yippee!
Zoe was cute in the Comedy of Errors at the Oxford Playhouse’s drama workshop last week. This week, apart from Zoe’s sleepover, we’re reading books, playing tennis, swimming & relaxing. The electrics & underfloor conservatory heating are being installed, & everything should be done before we leave for Norway end month. Next week, Zoe camps in Somerset with friends, and Irene will be in a drama workshop (Shakespeare).
Anita Mathias sprayed the weeds & regravelled our driveway. Roy wanted to get a contractor, but I’ve had too many workmen around! During R’s 9 month sabbatical, we’ve updated t. plumbing, & brightened the house with chandelier-style lights. I was way slower than a pro–walking to and fro from the gravel stacks w. a cup; should have used a wheelbarrow! Relaxing task–until a 10 yr. old chatterbox joined me. Farewell, contemplation!
Hey, I like Britain’s NHS on the whole! During the 17 years I lived in America, I had so many American friends–writers, artists, and regular folk who have held on to jobs they hated because of the “free” health insurance, and knew partly insured folk who have been crippled by medical bills. I think universal healthcare would be a good idea for America–and every other nation too!
Today’s sermon at Aldate’s: What we focus on,the longed-for destination, our Ithaca: success, wealth, God…, shapes us, our characters, our journeys. Our hearts’ deepest desire determines a myriad actions & decisions, & course of our lives & our happiness. But we can, many times a day (as I do!) choose to repent of an unworthy focus & revise & reset our desires on what is worthy.
Zoe’s in Somerset w. friends, camping at Soul Survivor, the premier Christian Youth (deep spirituality & loud music) Conference. I walked in our paddock w. Jake, our border Collie. He catches the sticks I toss him with the same sense of accomplishment as when Roy obligingly serves a tennis ball EXACTLY where I am standing, & I volley, & for a fleeting, phantasmagorical second, fancy I’m Federer.
10 yr old Irene is enjoying Romeo & Juliet rehearsals. Coincidentally, she did it last term & remembers the lines beautifully. They were given HW: to research interesting facts about R & J, & Irene researched obsessively on the net, since the director called her “the expert on Romeo & Juliet” in public. The power of words, the power of praise! Move over, you ancient dons who taught me at Somerville; a new age dawns!
I (successfully) tried to get the lean, muscular Roy to go to the gym with me. Exasperated, he said, “Anita, I married you for better or for worse, richer or poorer. I did not say “for stupider or cleverer.” Irene listened with furrowed brows, then whispered, “Mummy, what does he mean? Who is getting stupider? Could it be Daddy? It couldn’t be you; or does he mean both of you?” Well, it’s certainly not little Irene!
We live surrounded by farmland, w. wheat & rape fields on either side of us, & behind us. It’s generally idyllic & bucolic. We see horses and ponies grazing from our right windows, and herds of Jerseys and Holsteins from our front windows. The grumpy days are when the fields are harvested, as today, when I am staying in, & doing internet work & play with portable air-conditioners on, because I cannot stand the noise!
Quiet day today. The tenant farmer who farms t. fields around us (wh. belong to Christ Church College, Oxford!) employs migrant workers (gypsy, I’m guessing, or Eastern European) who are paid per job, not per hour. Once each season, they work from early morning till 1p.m. at night–until the job is done. Roy, a sound sleeper, doesn’t believe it, but I sleep lightly & hear the noisy harvesting across t. hedge from us.
Set my blackberry & mobile broadband dongle to work in Norway. My business, Benediction Classics (publishing out-of-print books, 162 so far) can be run on t. fjords of Norway or i
n my study in our garden! So I travel a lot! My head whirring with business, I walked, & thought of Isaiah, “The Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea” & prayed that I might be so filled! Quietened down!
Late summer & abundance everywhere! We inherited an orchard w. 6 apple trees, & pear, plum, mulberry, medlar, hazelnuts, walnuts, blackberries, raspberry, grapes, figs, peaches, cherries (1.5 acre). It’s our 4th year here. I used to try to use much of that fruit!! This year, I am not trying! We’ve told our neighbour, an elderly Englishman, who house-sits for us & is v thrifty, to help himself. He makes pies & jams!!
Getting excited about going to Arctic lands for the first time next week, and reading up on Norway. Norwegian humour: A tourist asks a lad, ” Does it always rain in Bergen?” ” I don’t know. I’m only 13.”
A centrifugal day! Zoe returned exhausted from a week camping at Somerset. Irene played chess at Warwick. 6-18 year olds played against each other. Irene lost to big boys for her first 2 games, but won her 3rd. The games were 2.5 hours each! Roy was the national high school chess champion, & Irene, a natural, has his genes, & used to win effortlessly & intuitively, but now needs to work. Will she continue? I hope so!
“There’s a providence which shapes our ends/ Rough-hew them how we will.”
BATTER my heart, three person’d God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow mee,’and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to’another due,
Labour to’admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearely’I love you,’and would be loved faine,
But am betroth’d unto your enemie: 1
Divorce mee,’untie, or breake that knot againe;
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you’enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.
John Donne
