So many books, so little time! It has been way too long since I posted to this blog. I intend to change that.
My most enjoyable, inspiring, uplifting, hopeful book this week is not a book from our store. I’ll tell you about it anyway.
The first gardening book that turned my gardening world upside down maybe fifteen years ago was Jeff Ball’s Sixty–Minute Garden, Rodale Press, 1985. I incorporated his creative and fresh ideas in my garden immediately and have enjoyed continuing to use his ideas over the years. I just love those authors who take a fresh look at what we all know how to do, or all know “what is,” and give us new methods to try. The changes that Jeff Ball encouraged were so different and thoughtful that I couldn’t wait to utilize them those many years ago. His ideas result in working in my garden less than sixty minutes a week. He eliminates the continual battle with garden hoses for water and other tasks like weeding. And, they work! They have been working in my garden for about fifteen years.
Now Mel Bartholomew has a new book, The All New Square Foot Gardening, Cool Springs Press, 2005, paperback, $19.99. Each page has refreshing new ideas about gardening that are thoughtful, reasonable, and I can hardly wait to try them. I have been reading a page or two at every opportunity, avoiding continual reading because I may forget one of the nuggets on each page. Bartholomew’s enthusiasm spills over into other parts of my life with creative ideas that are “outside the box.” One example from this book: instead of using a lot of heavy dirt to grow the garden plants the author offers a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost that results in no weeds, no fertilizer, and very little watering. At first it sounds strange but stick with the author and he shows you how and why it works.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Inertia
Three related stories.
One. Last Wednesday, at the boxing gym, I had a brief conversation with AraJane. She is thirty-four years old, I think. In reply to how she was doing, before our exercise class began she said, that she had been at home, feeling grumpy and achy and thought, “why go to the gym.” But she got up and came to the gym. Then she said, “I feel better already by just being here.”
I thought about her comment for a few moments and realized that it is actually a rather profound statement. Feeling lethargic, grumpy, achy, and not wanting to do anything is not an uncommon human condition. But, AraJane made the effort to get up and get to the gym. Just by the act of making that much effort and her mood and feelings rose. It may seem like “getting up and getting going” is not such a big thing, but I think that perhaps it is actually a very big thing. It makes, if not all of the difference, then certainly it makes an awful lot of difference to what we do and how we react to life and the stuff that Life puts in our way.
Some mornings I wake up and think for a brief moment, “Should I get up and go to the lake to jog around it?” Then by the time that I go out the front door I am looking forward to the run that morning, wondering what will come of it, what will the weather be like, how will the jogging be this morning. And almost always I think on the way back home from running, that it is really a great way (for me) to begin a day. Dawn at the lake is beautiful –even last Tuesday when the rain was coming down steadily with a stiff south wind. I was soaked before I was half way around the lake. The rain water running down my face was actually kind of nice. It added to the adventure of it. Certainly those few people that I met going in the other direction smiled or nodded giving me the feeling that we were out there in the wind and rain together. When the weather is nice there are more people going around the lake in the morning, but fewer make eye contact and acknowledge others.
Two. I had a haircut last week. That’s nothing. My current barber is a woman. The last time we met she told me that she was going to attend college studying sustainable agriculture. So, we had a chance to talk about her start of college while she trimmed my hair this time. She (I don’t know her name) is just a normal twenty-something woman barber who has not previously shown much of her personality. Barbering does not encourage expressing much of one’s personality, I think.
I asked her about here studies and her college classes. She came alive! Her personality blossomed and exploded. She is so very excited about her classes and the learning that she is doing. She frequently stopped trimming my hair so that she could talk more about her experiences with what she is learning. As it should be her course work is opening up a whole new world, a world of learning new things that are important to her. It was great fun just to watch her react and describe her experiences.
At one point she mentioned and then I asked more about it, that she is “by far” the oldest student in her class. I tried to encourage her that she is in no way too old, as she expressed her distress that she had wasted so many years up to now by not learning the things that she is learning when she was younger. I tried to tell her of the changes in the activities and learnings in my life from the time I was 30 years old and where I am now: When I was thirty I did not have even a thought about an making or owning an electric vehicle, my organic gardening, building my backyard greenhouse, working closely every day with my wife in the bookstore, and more. Perhaps it was just some ranting of this grandfather.
Anyway, her enthusiasm spread to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the time while she was exclaiming and describing her experiences in the past several weeks while she trimmed my hair.
Three. My sister is 65 years old. Last fall when she was “only” 64 her employer of more than 20 years laid her off. It was part of the cost cutting measures that are so common today. Janet is not ready to retire. What to do? She rallied her resources. She enrolled in a class to help her find a new job, to interview effectively, and other aspects of being wanted by a new employer. She is seeing a counselor, exercising, dyed her hair, and other activities to “get ready.”
A month ago she was interviewed for a case management position. It was much less than she was qualified for, but it would be a job. At the conclusion of the interview the interviewer said to Janet, “You are actually qualified for a management position. Would you be interested if one were to become available?” As Janet relates it, she thought, “Damn right!” and replied, “Why yes, I would be interested.” In the following weeks she kept checking with this organization and when a management position was posted she immediately contacted them. The result is that she starts next week at what she thinks is the dream job. It is exactly what she loves to do! She can hardly wait to get in and help them.
What do these three stories have in common? We each decide when we are ready to do what we want or need to do. We are never too old until we decide that we are too old. We don’t know where the next bend in the road will take us. But that bend in the road will take us very much farther than sitting at home complaining.
One. Last Wednesday, at the boxing gym, I had a brief conversation with AraJane. She is thirty-four years old, I think. In reply to how she was doing, before our exercise class began she said, that she had been at home, feeling grumpy and achy and thought, “why go to the gym.” But she got up and came to the gym. Then she said, “I feel better already by just being here.”
I thought about her comment for a few moments and realized that it is actually a rather profound statement. Feeling lethargic, grumpy, achy, and not wanting to do anything is not an uncommon human condition. But, AraJane made the effort to get up and get to the gym. Just by the act of making that much effort and her mood and feelings rose. It may seem like “getting up and getting going” is not such a big thing, but I think that perhaps it is actually a very big thing. It makes, if not all of the difference, then certainly it makes an awful lot of difference to what we do and how we react to life and the stuff that Life puts in our way.
Some mornings I wake up and think for a brief moment, “Should I get up and go to the lake to jog around it?” Then by the time that I go out the front door I am looking forward to the run that morning, wondering what will come of it, what will the weather be like, how will the jogging be this morning. And almost always I think on the way back home from running, that it is really a great way (for me) to begin a day. Dawn at the lake is beautiful –even last Tuesday when the rain was coming down steadily with a stiff south wind. I was soaked before I was half way around the lake. The rain water running down my face was actually kind of nice. It added to the adventure of it. Certainly those few people that I met going in the other direction smiled or nodded giving me the feeling that we were out there in the wind and rain together. When the weather is nice there are more people going around the lake in the morning, but fewer make eye contact and acknowledge others.
Two. I had a haircut last week. That’s nothing. My current barber is a woman. The last time we met she told me that she was going to attend college studying sustainable agriculture. So, we had a chance to talk about her start of college while she trimmed my hair this time. She (I don’t know her name) is just a normal twenty-something woman barber who has not previously shown much of her personality. Barbering does not encourage expressing much of one’s personality, I think.
I asked her about here studies and her college classes. She came alive! Her personality blossomed and exploded. She is so very excited about her classes and the learning that she is doing. She frequently stopped trimming my hair so that she could talk more about her experiences with what she is learning. As it should be her course work is opening up a whole new world, a world of learning new things that are important to her. It was great fun just to watch her react and describe her experiences.
At one point she mentioned and then I asked more about it, that she is “by far” the oldest student in her class. I tried to encourage her that she is in no way too old, as she expressed her distress that she had wasted so many years up to now by not learning the things that she is learning when she was younger. I tried to tell her of the changes in the activities and learnings in my life from the time I was 30 years old and where I am now: When I was thirty I did not have even a thought about an making or owning an electric vehicle, my organic gardening, building my backyard greenhouse, working closely every day with my wife in the bookstore, and more. Perhaps it was just some ranting of this grandfather.
Anyway, her enthusiasm spread to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the time while she was exclaiming and describing her experiences in the past several weeks while she trimmed my hair.
Three. My sister is 65 years old. Last fall when she was “only” 64 her employer of more than 20 years laid her off. It was part of the cost cutting measures that are so common today. Janet is not ready to retire. What to do? She rallied her resources. She enrolled in a class to help her find a new job, to interview effectively, and other aspects of being wanted by a new employer. She is seeing a counselor, exercising, dyed her hair, and other activities to “get ready.”
A month ago she was interviewed for a case management position. It was much less than she was qualified for, but it would be a job. At the conclusion of the interview the interviewer said to Janet, “You are actually qualified for a management position. Would you be interested if one were to become available?” As Janet relates it, she thought, “Damn right!” and replied, “Why yes, I would be interested.” In the following weeks she kept checking with this organization and when a management position was posted she immediately contacted them. The result is that she starts next week at what she thinks is the dream job. It is exactly what she loves to do! She can hardly wait to get in and help them.
What do these three stories have in common? We each decide when we are ready to do what we want or need to do. We are never too old until we decide that we are too old. We don’t know where the next bend in the road will take us. But that bend in the road will take us very much farther than sitting at home complaining.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Northwest Catholic Women's Convocation IV
Nancy left a few minutes ago, Saturday morning. She is working with three other women at the NW Catholic Women’s Convocation yesterday and today in Bellevue. Twelve hour days of selling books. The conference has about 2000 women attendees and about 30 women speakers, all of who have written books. We are selling the books. It is a non-stop marathon of bookselling for these two days. When Nancy arrived home last night at 10:00, having left at 8:30 that morning, without having had dinner (no time), she was pretty tired. She will be exhausted this evening.
The Catholic women organizers have taken more heat from the Church than in previous years. This is the fourth such conference that have occurred about every four years. As the Catholic Church bends to the conservative right the pressure on the organizing women escalates, alas as it has throughout history.
The Catholic women organizers have taken more heat from the Church than in previous years. This is the fourth such conference that have occurred about every four years. As the Catholic Church bends to the conservative right the pressure on the organizing women escalates, alas as it has throughout history.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Our St. Francis mural & the artist who painted it.
On a day last summer a rather scruffy man entered our store and told me about a passionate mission that he was following, painting murals on the walls of buildings in Seattle. For free yet. Was he believable? Just barely. Then we drove around to addresses he gave us and saw some of his work.
We, at the Episcopal Bookstore, are delighted to be included in a segment on the SeattleChannel, a local cable channel recently. The segment reported on the mural painter Ryan Henry Ward who created the mural depicting St. Francis and the animals on the side of our store’s building.
Ryan Henry Ward is a unique and marvelous man. You can learn more about him that even includes an interview with me in that 10-minute segment. (Click on the previous word, “segment.”)
We, at the Episcopal Bookstore, are delighted to be included in a segment on the SeattleChannel, a local cable channel recently. The segment reported on the mural painter Ryan Henry Ward who created the mural depicting St. Francis and the animals on the side of our store’s building.
Ryan Henry Ward is a unique and marvelous man. You can learn more about him that even includes an interview with me in that 10-minute segment. (Click on the previous word, “segment.”)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Rent-a-Crowd & Rent-a-Pallbearer
Yesterday a Roman Catholic priest and friend of the store visited us. He mentioned in passing his Rent-a-Crowd and Rent-a-Pallbearer, for funerals. And we said, “What! Okay, we need to hear this story. You have special mourners and pallbearers for funerals?!”
First, you need to know that this priest is the only priest at a very large local Catholic church. He also answered my query yesterday about how many kids will be receiving their First Communion this Sunday, with “about 64.” It is a big church with a large number of members, big enough to have 64 pre-teen kids all about the same age who, after completing the classes for training in the Church will take Communion, for the first time.
The good Father told us yesterday that when a 99-year old woman dies she deserves a good funeral just as much as anyone else. A not uncommon problem for the very old is that all of their friends and family have died before them and there are none, or very few, who would attend their funeral. Likewise, for the very old, there are often too few friends or family members who have the health to be able to lift the casket with the dead person’s remains inside. Pallbearers are the ones who escort and carry the casket.
Father has a group of healthy individuals who will attend a funeral as the pallbearers when needed. He can contact his mourners and/or pallbearers and they will attend the funeral of someone they don’t know but who needs a good, decent, and dignified funeral. He said that he has over one hundred mourners who will attend a funeral when needed.
We were impressed with the thoughtfulness, as well as practicality of having pallbearers and mourners on hand and available for whomever needs them. Yes, each person, no matter who, deserves the dignity of a decent funeral. It is very practical, and very thoughtful and caring to have members of the congregation who will attend a funeral, not for their own grieving, but out of respect for the deceased person’s life.
First, you need to know that this priest is the only priest at a very large local Catholic church. He also answered my query yesterday about how many kids will be receiving their First Communion this Sunday, with “about 64.” It is a big church with a large number of members, big enough to have 64 pre-teen kids all about the same age who, after completing the classes for training in the Church will take Communion, for the first time.
The good Father told us yesterday that when a 99-year old woman dies she deserves a good funeral just as much as anyone else. A not uncommon problem for the very old is that all of their friends and family have died before them and there are none, or very few, who would attend their funeral. Likewise, for the very old, there are often too few friends or family members who have the health to be able to lift the casket with the dead person’s remains inside. Pallbearers are the ones who escort and carry the casket.
Father has a group of healthy individuals who will attend a funeral as the pallbearers when needed. He can contact his mourners and/or pallbearers and they will attend the funeral of someone they don’t know but who needs a good, decent, and dignified funeral. He said that he has over one hundred mourners who will attend a funeral when needed.
We were impressed with the thoughtfulness, as well as practicality of having pallbearers and mourners on hand and available for whomever needs them. Yes, each person, no matter who, deserves the dignity of a decent funeral. It is very practical, and very thoughtful and caring to have members of the congregation who will attend a funeral, not for their own grieving, but out of respect for the deceased person’s life.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Why don't we follow the Acts of the Apostles?
Today’s New Testament Lesson:
Acts 4:32-35
4:32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.
4:33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
4:34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.
4:35 They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
For all of the fuss that the Biblical literalists give to keeping Scripture accurately no one seems to expect, let alone demand, that we follow this description of the very early Christian community.
Yea, verily, no acts of same gender sexuality, nor marriage of same gendered couples, and women must obey the head of the household, the man, or so sayeth many fundamentalist Christians, but none of them say that we should all pool our ownership of everything, sell everything and give it to the community, and distribute it to each as any has need.
I do not remember every hearing an Episcopal sermon on this topic either.
Could it be that when scriptural faithfulness meets political socialism that politics always wins?
Acts 4:32-35
4:32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.
4:33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
4:34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.
4:35 They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
For all of the fuss that the Biblical literalists give to keeping Scripture accurately no one seems to expect, let alone demand, that we follow this description of the very early Christian community.
Yea, verily, no acts of same gender sexuality, nor marriage of same gendered couples, and women must obey the head of the household, the man, or so sayeth many fundamentalist Christians, but none of them say that we should all pool our ownership of everything, sell everything and give it to the community, and distribute it to each as any has need.
I do not remember every hearing an Episcopal sermon on this topic either.
Could it be that when scriptural faithfulness meets political socialism that politics always wins?
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
What do we do with our Lenten practices during Easter, and Pentecost?
Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! Our Lenten Practices are over, or are they?
Now (that we are singing alleluias again) is an interesting time to evaluate our Lenten practices.
Part of my practices included reading Lent With Bishop Morneau during breakfast. Reading a book during lunch (I made it through two books during lunches in Lent.), keeping the radio turned off while driving and working in the kitchen and basement projects, deep cleaning rooms in the house, and rehearsing to refer to a transgendered friend by his male pronoun.
A few of the practices were easy. Others were more difficult. I managed to only deep clean three rooms in the house. I am relieved to find that I refer to my friend in the male gender unconsciously now.
How do we treat our Lenten practices now that Lent is over? Do we immediately grab for the chocolate that we had given up, perhaps even more so than before Lent specifically because we have shunned it for these several weeks?
I don’t think that I will continue with the deep cleaning of the house. I find that turning off the radio when there isn’t really something that I’m interested in is quite easy this week thanks to the practice of silence during Lent. I miss not having a book to read at lunch. My friend remains male in my subconscious.
What about you and your Lenten practices? Which ones remain with you and which ones were easily discarded?
Now (that we are singing alleluias again) is an interesting time to evaluate our Lenten practices.
Part of my practices included reading Lent With Bishop Morneau during breakfast. Reading a book during lunch (I made it through two books during lunches in Lent.), keeping the radio turned off while driving and working in the kitchen and basement projects, deep cleaning rooms in the house, and rehearsing to refer to a transgendered friend by his male pronoun.
A few of the practices were easy. Others were more difficult. I managed to only deep clean three rooms in the house. I am relieved to find that I refer to my friend in the male gender unconsciously now.
How do we treat our Lenten practices now that Lent is over? Do we immediately grab for the chocolate that we had given up, perhaps even more so than before Lent specifically because we have shunned it for these several weeks?
I don’t think that I will continue with the deep cleaning of the house. I find that turning off the radio when there isn’t really something that I’m interested in is quite easy this week thanks to the practice of silence during Lent. I miss not having a book to read at lunch. My friend remains male in my subconscious.
What about you and your Lenten practices? Which ones remain with you and which ones were easily discarded?
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