1000 gifts: end-of-summer fling

Continuing my list of gifts, blessings that I write down to remember all the wonderful things that God gives me along life's journey (from Ann Voskamp's book and her blog, A Holy Experience).


We like to take a trip at the end of August - one last fling before school and fall activities start. This year we drove to Estes Park, Colorado and then across the 12,000 ft Trail Ridge pass down to Grand Lake.

338. Old wooden lodges with interesting themes.
The Bald Pate Inn in Estes Park, Co  is a beautiful old lodge with uneven floors and fireplaces and a neat theme: keys. Based on The novel Seven Keys of Bald Pate Inn, The collection boasts over 20,000 keys including examples from the Pentagon, Westminster Abby, Mozart's wine cellar, and even Frankenstein's castle. Here's my daughters holding one of the biggest keys in the collection.


339. Mountain views from the middle of a lake
We rented a motor boat to zip around Grand Lake. A great way to admire the mountains and all the fancy houses built around the lake.





340. Sailboat races
A bunch of sailboats setting up for a race makes for a beautiful sight on a lake. 










341. Porch swings.
Especially when the porch has a beautiful view overlooking Estes Park.

 











342. Eating dinner outside with hummingbirds.
Grand Lake has a flower pot every 3 feet almost any direction you walk, and all the outdoor cafes are surrounded by flowers - which means lots of hummingbirds. Sometimes you almost need to duck, they zip so close by you.

343. Flower-filled canoes. 
Lots of these around the cabins were we stayed.

344. Stream jumping 
There was a beautiful stream running into the lake near our cabin, with lots of rocks to jump around on.















345. Private beaches
We stayed at Lemmon Lodge in Grand Lake, which is several acres of cabins along the lake with its own private beach. It reminded me so much of Lake Kameninskeg and Chipewa Lodge in Ontario, where we spent a week or two every summer when I was growing up.

346. The riverwalk in Estes Park
I've been to Estes Park many times, but the Riverwalk was a new discovery. A bunch of shops and many outdoor cafes alongside the river.

347. Climbing on statues
The riverwalk included lots of different statues for the girls to climb over (in addition to these bighorn sheep, there was also a mountain lion statue, and beaver statues in a fountain that the girls had to climb all over too.

348. Acres of flowers
On our way home we stopped at the experimental gardens at Colorado State University, which has literally acres of flower beds. I remember my mom dragging me to gardens like this when I was a child, now here I am dragging my mom and my kids around gardens, too.

1000 gifts: sailing and other summer fun

Continuing my list of gifts, blessings that I write down to remember all the wonderful things that God gives me along life's journey (from Ann Voskamp's book and her blog, A Holy Experience).

327.  Not being afraid to switch schools
Much to our surprise, a few weeks after visiting us for the summer, my 16 year old stepdaughter decided to come back and live with us - for her junior year of high school! Switching schools your junior year? I didn't think Stars would actually do it, but school has been in session for a week now and she seems perfectly happy. And we are thrilled. We never thought we'd get to spend this much time with her again!


328. Turning 10 years old
My oldest daughter Blaze turned double-digits on August 5. She had some friends over for a party and horseback-riding and her idea for game, Pin the Horn on the Unicorn. I tried not to make comments like "you aren't allowed to get any older"

Blaze with her friends Tabs, Claire, Kate, and Melia (another good friend, Nicole, couldn't make it)

329. Camping with friends
 Our church organized a camping weekend up in the mountains and we brought four of our horses, a large tent and fortunately lots of blankets - but we still had to "dogpile" to sleep because at 8500 ft, even summer nights can get pretty cold! We had a wonderful time with friends around the campfire and then the next day giving pony rides to the kids, trail riding with older kids and adults, playing in streams, racing around on a four wheeler another family brought, and a SUPER bonus - (see the next item on my list!)

The forest were still beautiful, even though many trees have died from pine bark beetles

330. Sailing with friends
One family from church brought along a sailboat - and I got a chance to sail! I don't think I've been sailing since my college years, and it was a thrill that it all came back to me - like riding a bike, I guess. Blaze and Dreamer got to go out in the sailboat too. This on Rob Roy Reservoir, in Wyoming's Snowy Range. 

331. Church menus
My good friend Heather and I shared a giggle when one of her sons (she has four boys, the youngest are twins and I have four girls, the youngest are twins) came up to us at church and asked where the church menu was. Church menu? We finally got it figured out that he meant the church bulletin.


332. The real reason for earthquakes
Don't often hear of earthquakes on the east coast, but this August there was a significant one centered in Virginia, not far from D.C. A couple days later this showed up on Facebook: "Word has it that it was not an earthquake that we experienced near our nation's Capitol-- It was the Founding Fathers all collectively rolling over in their graves at the same time." (in reference to the political gridlock and rumors of the government having to "shut down")

333. Secretariat
All four of my girls absolutely love the movie Secretariat, about the famous racehorse (we love Seabiscuit and the Horse Whisperer too). Dreamer and the twins started playing "Secretariat" in the backyard - they race in big circle around our bushes and trees and take turns being Secretariat and the great horse's competitor, Sham. 


334. Creative reading props
Blaze and Dreamer were both in a summer reading program, and their teacher came up with some creative ideas to get them excited about reading. One of my favorites was when she gave them "witch fingers" - green plastic warty things they stuck on the end of their pointer finger to make it fun to point at words while reading.

335. Homemade manicure stations
One night Stars set up her own manicure station (my piano bench) and gave me and all four of the girls manicures - including buffing our nails, letting choose our own nail color, and massaging our hands with lotion.
 
336. Our whole family on horses
Well, technically not the whole family (not B. and I) - but we did get all five of our the girls on horses at the same time. Stars is on Folly, Blaze on Spring, Dreamer on Ally, Serious on Rebel and Starlet on Jewel. 

Stars teaching Blaze some new tricks - sitting backwards on your horse

Starlet on Rebel - both her and Serious are figuring out how to use the reins

337. Plunder
As I am nearing the end of Beth Moore's Breaking Free study, I was amused (but also impressed) by how she applied this lesson from the Exodus. When Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go, the Egyptians were so eager to see them go that they gave the Israelites silver and gold. 

Beth writes "Do you realize you don't have to escape from captivity [in slavery to strongholds] with nothing to show for it? After all the enemy has put you through, take your plunder. Let God bring you forth from your time of slavery with gold, silver and jewels... don't just reclaim surrendered ground. God wants to enlarge your borders and teach you to possess land you never knew existed."

I'm not completely free of my captivity yet.  I'm finally over the depression that lingered even into July, but don't feel like it's gone, only hovering just out of sight, getting ready to pounce on me again. But this study has helped me identify the lies that I fall for, and the truth that sets me free from the trap - how to grab that truth and hang on. It's the hanging on part I'm still struggling with. I let go too easily (which is why I feel like with the slightest stumble I'll fall right back into depression). 

I don't yet have a vision of the plunder that will be mine to claim - but I'm still thrilled with the promise that there are riches in store for me. Not literal riches, of course (I've never wanted to be materially rich). But probably some sort of riches that can't even fully envision right now.

1000 gifts: gymkhanas and genies and more

Continuing my list of gifts, blessings that I write down to remember all the wonderful things that God gives me along life's journey (from Ann Voskamp's book and her blog, A Holy Experience).

The highlight of our summer is when my stepdaughter Stars (now 16 years old) comes to visit. Here she is hugging her friend Ch.

313. Fireflies and fireworks
Fireflies giving us a 4th of July fireworks preview at B.'s parents' home in Springfield, South Dakota. Then Rodney and Tyler bought huge packs of fireworks and TJ and the other cousins set them off in the backyard.

314. Mulberry-picking
My sister-in-law Josey took the girls mulberry-picking. They all came back with purple-stained hands and feet -what a sight!

315. The Missouri River in flood
Visited Gavin's Point dam, on the Missouri, to see the huge amount of water being released - reminded me of being up close to Niagara Falls, with all the thundering noise and mist. Everywhere along the Missouri there was flooding, some parks completely under water.

316. Submerged forests
B. and I went canoeing. Along the edge the the flooded lake, we paddled through a partially submerged forest - beautiful and a little eerie.

317. Muddy trucks
Stars has her driver's permit so she's doing lots of driving. Her friend Ch. has her own truck and they went out "mudding" on the dirt roads, then come back and washed off the truck and filled our driveway full of mud, too.

318. Dog-lovers in drive-thrus
Stars says "only in Wyoming" when you go through a fast food drivethru for a hamburger, do they offer your dog a piece of bacon, too.

319. Hearing someone else play my piano
Chesca always plays our piano when she visits - she writes, plays and sings her own songs. I love to hear the beautiful music on my seldom-used piano.

320. Rediscovering old favorite songs
Discovered that Stars loves Toto's song "Rain in Africa" - which was my favorite song back when I was13.

321. Gymkhanas, or games on horseback
All four of our girls, from ages 10 down to 4, got to participate at this summer's gymkhana at our county fair. Wikipedia describes a gymkhana as an event (often for children) "that includes timed speed events such as barrel racing, keyhole race, egg and spoon race, flag race, and pole bending. All of these events are designed to display precise, controlled actions and tight teamwork between horse and rider at speed, although most clubs offer a variety of classes, allowing riders to compete at the speed level they are most capable of, and comfortable with." Which in our case also meant that the two older girls could lead the twins on their horses for their events. Here's a picture of the girls with all the ribbons they collected!

322. Wishes from genies
Blaze says "If had a genie, my first wish would be to be beautiful, and my second would be that whoever I touched would become beautiful and cured of any sickness. Then I'd pass the lamp on to a friend and she would use her third wish to set the genie free (because I'm too selfish to do it)" !!!!

323. Thrummingbirds
This has been a summer full of hummingbirds! I kept hearing them all the time, but seldom saw them, so we bought a feeder and set it out - even then you barely catch a glimpse of them, they come and go so quickly. I think they should be called thrummingbirds instead; their wings make a metalllic thrumming sound.

324. Horseback archery
Read about the Atilla the Hun (research for my book) and how horseback archery was a long-lost art that is now being rediscovered. I love discovering neat things during my research - this was something bpth B. and I could relate to since we love horses. Horseback archery requires the same "muscle memory" also required for riding a bike, roping cows from horseback, pole-vaulting and many other activities.

325. Blankets and stars in the backyard
B. and I lay on a blanket in the backyard at night to look at the stars

326. Audrey Hepburn quotes

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."

"When you have nobody you can make a cup of tea for, when nobody needs you, that's when I think life is over."

"You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him."

The beauty of Perelandra

This post is part of the C.S. Lewis book club hosted at the Quiet Quill. I've also written up my thoughts on:
Out of the Silent Planet
A Grief Observed
Surprised by Joy

I've been trying to figure out how C.S. Lewis manages to immerse you so fully in a new world, as he does when you visit the planet Perelandra. 

I think I understand at least part of his excellent technique: it's not so much the details, but it's how he reveals them as a series of first impressions/discoveries which gradually get pieced together and then change as as the "big picture" is slowly, exquisitely revealed.

Ransom is the main character this book and the previous book, Out of the Silent Planet: a bemused British philologist (studier of languages). When he arrives on the Perelandra, a planet primarily of water, it is fascinating to see him cope with the aquatic world. I would love to tell about the ________ islands, but they are one of the neatest features of the world-building, so I use a blank as a form of enticement!

The theme of the book first appears to be a retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, and the serpent's temptation - the differences being that it's a watery version of Eden, and that Ransom is present to warn Eve about the serpent's wiles. But the ending will reveal that the it's more than a retelling; as Ransom realizes at the end, God never tells the same story twice.

At first I had a hard time with this statement:

If he now failed [to keep Eve from the original sin], this world also would hereafter be redeemed. If he were not the ransom, another would be. Yet nothing was ever repeated. Not a second crucifixion; perhaps-who knows-not even a second Incarnation... some act of even more appalling love, some glory of yet deeper humility.

My first reaction was to think "how could be anything greater than Christ dying for us? How is there any greater love?" But I think the point Lewis is trying to make here is that we simply cannot fathom the glories of God, the limitlessness of His plans - "His understanding no one can fathom." (Isaiah 40:29).

I liked how the serpents in this story are actually good creatures - Satan is represented by a different creature altogether, but I tell you, he will seriously give you chills.

Another neat twist in this story is the Lady's (symbolic of Eve) responses to Satan's temptations. She has her own brand of fascinating logic, which at first appears childishly naive, but is innocent and wise enough to hold its own with the millenia of Satan's accumulated experience and cunning. Lewis must have brainstormed for YEARS to come up with the dialogue in this book. It's not clever; it's more than clever.
This excerpt is a glimpse into the Lady's different perspectives:

"I mean," said Ransom, "a night is not a very long time."

She thought again, and then spoke suddenly, her face lightening. "I see it now. You think times have lengths. A night is always a night whatever you do in it, as from this tree to that is always so many paces whether you take them quickly or slowly. I suppose that is true in a way. But the waves do not always come at equal distances. I see that you come from a wise world... if this is wise. I have never done it before, stepping out of life into the Alongside and looking at oneself living as if one were not alive. Do they all do that in your world, Piebald?"

Here is a very interesting temptation that Ransom struggles with on Perelandra:

Looking at a fine cluster of the bubbles which hung above his head he thought how easy it would be to get up and plunge oneself through the whole lot of them and to feel, all at once, that magical refreshment multiplied tenfold. But he was restrained by the same sort of feeling which had restrained him from tasting a second gourd... this itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards... was it possibly the root of all evil? No: of course the love of money was called that. But money itself - perhaps one valued it chiefly as a defense against chance, a security for being able to have things over again, a means of arresting the unrolling of the film.

And a related quote:

Perhaps the experience had been so complete that repetition would be vulgarity - like asking to hear the same symphony twice in a day.

There are some interesting discussions between Ransom and the Lady about the Eldil, the name used for angels. Apparently, the Lady has never encountered angels before. Ransom wonders why they do not appear on Perelandra, when they were the ruling beings on Malacandra (the planet he visits in the previous book).

"Eldila," said Ransom. "the great and ancient servants of Maleldil... whose bodies are made of light. Whom we can hardly see. Whom ought to be obeyed."

She mused for a moment and then spoke. "Sweetly and gently this time Maleldil makes me older. He shows me all the natures of these blessed creatures. But there is no obeying them now, not in this world. That is all the old order, Piebald, the far side of the wave that has rolled past us and will not come again. That very ancient world to which you journeyed was put under the eldila. In our own world also they ruled once; but not since our Beloved became a Man. In your world they linger still. But in our world, which is the first of worlds to wake after the great change, they have no power. There is nothing now between us and Him. They have grown less and we have increased. And now Maleldil puts into my mind that this is their glory and their joy. They received us - us things of the low world... weak and small beasts whom their lightest touch could destroy; and their glory was to cherish us and make us older till we were older than they - till they could fall at our feet. It is a joy we shall not have... but it is a joy beyond all. Not that it is better joy than ours. Every joy is beyond all others. The fruit we are eating is always the best fruit of all."

I also loved how when the two eldil prepare to show themselves as distinct figures to the Lady and her husband, they first try on a couple "appearances" to Ransom to see how they would be received by humans - first they appear as the winged cherubim, "a tornado of sheer monstrosities... darting pillars filled with eyes, lightning pulsations of flame, talons and beaks and billowy masses of what suggest snow, volleyed through cubes and heptagons into an infinite black void. The next appearance they tried was of wheels turning within wheels. Then at last they tried the image of man, but giants, and burning white like white-hot iron. (Ezekiel 1)

Here is a descriptive excerpt that startled me with the reversed perspective of sea above and mountains below:

...an exquisite haze like vaporized amethyst and emerald and gold... the edge of this haze rose as he rose, and became at last the horizon of the sea, high lifted above the hills. And the sea grew ever larger and the mountains less, and the horozon of the sea rose and rose till all the lower mountains behind him seemed to be lying at the bottom of a great bowl of sea.

Such beautiful descriptions! It reminds me a little of the way Tolkien so lovingly described some of the beautiful places in Middle Earth. I also loved this summation of the beauty of the planet Perelandra (Venus) in comparison to Malacandra (Mars), its older sister:

Malacandra seemed to him to have the look of one standing armed, on the ramparts of his own remote archaic world, in ceaseless vigilance, his eyes ever roaming the earthward horizon whence his danger came long ago. A sailor's look... eyes that are impregnated with distance.

But the eyes of Perelandra opened, as it were, inward, as if they were the curtained gateway to a world of waves and murmurings and wandering airs, of life that rocked in winds and splashed on mossy stones and descended as the dew and arose sunward in thin-spun delicacy of mist.

I will finally end this long post with my most favorite quote of all from Perelandra. It includes a reference to Job 38: 1-7, which were the verses I read many years ago when God first opened my eyes to His truth.

Listening hard, he could hear nothing but the low murmurous noise of warm wind and gentle swell. The suggestion of music must have been from within. But as soon as he lay down again he felt assured that it was not. From without, most certainly from without, but not by the snse of hearing, festal revelry an dance and splendour poured into him - no sound, yet in such fashion that it could not be remembered or thought of except as music. It was like having a new sense. It was like being present when the morning stars sang together.