I Tried to Buy Tulips

 

Do you ever go to the grocery store with your list and come to find as you stroll down the aisle that several items are completely out? Especially since the Pandemic hit last March, this has been a regular thing with various items, for different reasons suppliers and supplies have been delayed. First it was toilet paper, then it was oat milk, then it was orange juice, then it was oats. And so on. 

As we get into January and February I usually enjoy buying tulips as they finally emerge in the floral sections as Spring comes early to us here in the deep south. I have always loved tulips, especially around my birthday I let myself indulge in the purchase of these flowers that cannot grow here in the south and admire them as they open up and gracefully bend and reach like lovely ballerinas.

Not surprisingly I cannot find tulips right now. Nor could I last week, or the week before. Maybe they are elsewhere, adorning the tables of other homes. Perhaps they are still sleeping in their snowy abodes and haven't made their way to the south yet. So, I bought some lovely pale pink hydrangea stems and they are beautiful in their own right. They brighten my coffee table with their own charm that flowers can provide.

This was a small reminder that we are to be content with what we are given in life and to find the goodness in every daily gift. This helps me to remember to enjoy what gifts are present right here and now, and appreciate them, even if they are not exactly what I had in mind that I wanted. I really wanted some tulips because it is the only time of year I can get them, but I got hydrangea instead, and I shall enjoy and appreciate their beauty. 

Bigger picture, I woke up the other morning to see photos across my Instagram from all the London and Oxford people I follow of snow falling and the lovely landscape of the wintry snow scenes. I long for the snow and long for my favourite place like Oxford. I have missed it so much since my trip was cancelled last March. But to fit this example, Oxford is the elusive tulips that I cannot get right now. And that means I am meant to appreciate that which I do have right now, right here, and there are countless gifts to appreciate everyday that God has provided and I do not deserve. May we all look around us and see those gifts in these difficult days when a little light is most welcome. It may come along in a different way that you expected.

Before the Light Dawns

 

Before the Light Dawns

Before the light dawns
I am awakened with questions fused to my heart.
Sometimes answers seem to beguile me
betwixt dreaming and waking.
But You are there with my questions
O Lord.
Along with the steadfast rising of our 
neighborhood star,
Your creation sets me to wonder,
beauty close and far.
You dwell in the cosmos and in 
every breath I breathe,
Gifted with glimpses in Your golden light
Praise Thee.

Reading the Books, Thinking the Thoughts

 

What do I want to do on my birthday? Share books with the world, of course. Good books for all the reading and all the thinking. I wish today could be the official book day where everyone reads good books the whole day. In my dreams, we would all start reading as we made a cup of coffee or tea and got down to a full day of reading, thinking, and sharing. 

I have not shared many recent reads lately, but my bookishness is not diminished at all. One after the other, I go through books. Devouring them with no pause. All of these were engaging me in different ways and I thought I would share.

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

The fascinating world of fungi, mushrooms, and lichen is largely undiscovered to this day. There's not too much research out there on this underground mycelial world that connect tree root systems and helps clean up toxic waste. Merlin takes us along many ideas and studies through the book, keeping it very engaging and interesting - it really is a page-turner, which is not the norm for a science kind of book about nature. I have always been fascinated by forests and trees, and with that the mushrooms that pop up overnight. Now I know why that happens, and how the mycelial network underground works some magic in ways were are only beginning to grasp. What an interesting world to explore.

Words Are My Matter by Ursula Le Guin
I recently heard a writer I admire say that Ursula was a writer that made her want to write. I have read one series of books by Ursula (The Earthsea books) and since then I have wanted to explore more of her writing, and here was my chance. Stumbling upon this book in Savannah, I picked it up to read her essays and talks given about the topic of writing and the creative process. Very insightful and interesting to read her thoughts on the fantasy genre and the publishing industry. Now I will need to grab some of her other stories to read, knowing more about her. 

Art and Faith by Makoto Fujiruma
Mako is an artist who works slowly, crushing minerals to paint with and using his time of creating works of art as a meditative and slow process on purpose. He writes about that process and how essential that is for our faith, as it all is interwoven. I enjoy his thoughts on the methods of creation and his gentle ways of explaining it from his heritage background. Using techniques from the Japanese, like Kintsugi (the art of using broken vessels and putting them together again fused with gold to make them into an even more valuable and beautiful object), he paints beautiful pictures of faith through the arts. His thinking pulls much from N.T. Wright's lucid explanations of New Creation and how what we create matters and how it is building the heavenly kingdom here and now. 

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
Knowing that this book would be close to Sayers' own experiences, as she worked in the advertising industry for many years, I was ready for the wit and nature of the advertising environment, including quirky catch-phrases. Here, Lord Peter goes undercover, so to speak, taking up his alternate ego Death Bredon, to work at the advertising agency after a mysterious death (murder? suicide?) occurs down a stairwell at the office. There is much wit in this book, phrases and thinking about how the advertising in our lives affect us, but also this story dives into an underground world of drug trafficking and the brutal business of that world. There are layers to this one in that way, and it is always an enjoyable ride when D.L.S. is the writer taking you places.

Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers by Crystal Downing
The more I read of Sayers and learn of her, the more I am drawn to her and her thoughts. She's brilliant, and this book explores more of the subversive ways she inserts the gospel truths into all she did. She had a direct, non-emotional approach to life and religion. She believed in writing truth in a language that people could understand, which caused a lot of ripples of shock back in the 1940s when she published plays and dramas that had Jesus and his Disciples speaking in a modern (non-King James Version) language, even using slang (shocking!). Yet, those writings were able to reach people who never would have tuned in to the radio broadcasts and they heard the gospel message. That is a huge point she was trying to make. 

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne

Your eyes do not deceive you. A.A. Milne, the author of all the Winnie the Pooh stories, first wrote a murder mystery, his only one, in the 1920s. This is a classic golden age mystery (akin to Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers) now sometimes dubbed as cosy mysteries. I suppose they are cosy because they would never happen in our own lives, so they are escapes. But do not be fooled, there is murder and darkness of the soul being revealed by the end as the murderer is identified. I like how murder mysteries reveal true natures of people, explored through various characters and sitations. This was a fun mystery to read, which I read in the afternoon on the 18th, on A.A. Milne's birthday (born 1882).

The Icicle's Tale

 

The Icicle's Tale

I am an icicle, set up in the trees
where I make my house, if you please,
a cosy spot, demure, perhaps small
to a grand eye, but not all
the best of life is confined to the large
ice houses, often crowded and charged -
it becomes a mess of ice and dust.
One hurries, thaws, and recycles trust
of icicles set upon themselves to care
in their environment always so unaware
of the beauty set in their store.
They build and gather, yet always want more.
So they scatter, crack, glitter, and glaze.
Never stopping to simply admire and gaze.
Up higher I rest in my simple abode,
setting my icy house to pace a slower mode
I notice the frost, smell the ice, 
and feel blanketed by snow soft and nice.

Winter Charms

 

Brrr.
I love this feeling of January. These Winter days that feel like Winter. My heat runs. The cosiness abounds. It is a little bit challenging living in an old home with single-pane windows and no central heating, but it's all part of the adventure. 

I made a little pot of jasmine silver tip tea. Superb. It warms my core as the afternoon stays quite chilly.

I read a lovely little icy blue toned book - The Tempest by Shakespeare, and enjoyed the magical, mystical elements. It is such a short play, I wonder if Shakespeare wrote it overnight one evening.

Then, I move onto another new book just arrived, Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit by P.G. Wodehouse. It is silly and fun as you would expect with Wodehouse, and I am constantly chuckling. It is just what I needed as the world seems to ache outside my door more and more each day. I need a little silliness and Bertie Wooster will deliver in that. I am having a blast in these short stories. The simplest notions make me smile, such as breakfast:

The letter arrived on the morning of the sixteenth. I was pushing a bit of breakfast into the Wooster face at the moment and, feeling fairly well-fortified with coffee and kippers, I decided to break the news to Jeeves without delay.

It isn't 'having' or 'taking' breakfast like a normal, civilized human being. It is a 'pushing' a bit of breakfast into his face. Not sure why that is so funny, but the imagination takes us places. The class of Bertie and his silly notions to his valet Jeeves and views of life somehow makes the basic tasks and the trouble they get themselves into positively risible. Reading these stories is perfectly timed right now when a little cheer is essential. No time in history is perfect, even in Wodehouse's time there were many dark times indeed, but it reminds me that we can still have absolutely charming episodes at home. Pure wit and delight with a little imagination.

I find that when I look at the world with Wodehouse eyes, I see much to laugh at and find words to provoke such laughter. Right now, and always, that is a very good thing. 

Savannah in December

 

Savannah in December

The colourful crunch of cascaded leaves
Dot paths along Madison Square in Winter deep.
The calendar says late December, as I see,
but this is the south, as cold as it shall be.

I take my morning path to wander along quiet cobbled roads
next to brick-laden homes - tall, slim, old
as a few centuries are new, laden with history,
charm oozing from stairs to front doors delights me.

My feet tread Lafayette Square amongst elegant lamp posts and oak trees -
moss dangling from branches like a time
of childhood sweetness when one sings a swinging rhyme
whimsy lingers as the cathedral bells chime.

A Little Savannah Adventure

 

After more than a year, and still during a pandemic, I finally took a tiny adventure to get away for a few days. The travel restrictions have left a large gap in my life - the delightful variance of scene and feeling that I have needed so deeply. Savannah, Georgia is a five hour drive (without stops) and is an entirely different atmosphere than anywhere in Florida, which is what I need. That southern charm and history is steeped into all the historic streets and buildings. Also, my dear friend Jen lives outside the city, which was a big bonus of going there. We got to spend some good time together, which is heart nourishing.

I stayed in the middle of the historic district (which was still dressed up for Christmas - oh how lovely!), nicely sandwiched in between two lovely bookshops (yes, I most definitely placed myself purposely as close to the books as I could) and had an amazing 11th floor view of the city. I could have sat there most of the day each day and been very content. I did end up spending a lot of time up there after getting coffee and wandering the streets in the mornings before people came out (other than residents with their pups). The city was busier than I would have liked, and sitting in a coffee shop is just not an option these days, so I took my delicious lavender oat milk latte back to the room for my writing time. I avoided all the busy shopping streets, and my only requirement for shopping was to go to the two bookshops.

I went to each bookshop right when they opened. They only let about six masked people in the shop at a time, so it was not busy when I was in there, but a line always formed outside and I passed them as I left. It felt so wonderful to browse a real bookshop, and pick out some new titles to bring home with me. A couple I started reading up in my room later on after I got takeaway food to bring back. I cannot resist a new book (or books).

My heart is very thankful for this short little trip. Long haul travel will be closed for a while, so I shall have to stay closer to home, and be thankful in that.