Snow!

Oh my goodness, I just love snow.

L calls the snow drifts - 'snow dunes', hahaha.

We had to pop out to the shop as there was a dire emergency!  We'd run out of coffee!!  The horror!

The Herb of Grace - Elizabeth Goudge - Book Review

5 stars

One of my most favourite books. When Elizabeth Goudge writes characters she reveals their soul and their roots. The animating principle, throughout her books, is the mystery, the beauty, the strength, the warmth, and the light of God.

I won't say much more, except that I think my favourite character in this my second reading is Hilary:
"Increasingly, as he got older he enjoyed things. As his personal humility deepened, so did his awareness of the amazing bounty of God... So many things... The mellow warmth of the port, the pleasure of the game, the sign of Lucilla's lovely old face in the firelight, and David's fine hands holding the cards, his awareness of Margaret's endearing simplicity, and the contentment of the two old dogs dozing on the hearth... One by one the small joys fell; Only, to Hilary no joy was small - each had its own mystery, aflame with the glory of God"

Beautiful kitty

Watching the birds

Happy kitty

A while ago Boots was diagnosed with a thyroid problem and prescribed very high dose tablets. Recently, she started moving weirdly, like she was in pain, with sad staring eyes and would sleep hunched up. The vets could find nothing wrong.

Then I suddenly wondered if it was side effects from the tablets. So 4 days ago I stopped giving her the tablets. Within 2 days she was TONS better. Yesterday, I took her to the vets and he agreed she was so much better. And look at her now, 4 days after stopping the tablets! She hasn't relaxed like this in months.

The Bird in the Tree - Elizabeth Goudge - Book Review

5 stars

I've previously read The Herb of Grace (Pilgrim's Inn) and The Heart of the Family (books 2 & 3 in the series), but had never read this one, the first in the series, 'The Eliots of Damerosehay'.

This is a book about true life being rooted in a deeper life source than mere passing fancy and passion; it's a book about faithfulness and truth.

It's also magical. The house, the history, the people, give this story so much depth and heart.

The grandmother Lucilla, dignified and much loved doyenne of Damerosehay is distressed to learn that her grandson, David, is passionately and overwhelmingly in love with someone who will cause much pain for the family.

I wrote a few quotes down, but I love this, which is part of a speech by Lucilla to David in response to his heartfelt belief that being true is being true to your most passionate feelings, however much pain they may cause others:

'What is it once one moves beyond the narrow conception of truth as the correctly spoken word?...[T]rue action is the creation of perfection while lying action is the creation of something that falls short of the ideal...truth at its greatest is something made in the likeness of God.

'[I]f truth is the creation of perfection then it is action and has nothing to do with feeling. And the nearest we can get to creating perfection in this world is to create good for the greatest number, for the community or the family not just for ourselves; to create for ourselves only means misery and confusion for everybody. That made me see that acting a part is not always synonymous with lying, it is far more often the best way of serving the truth. It is more truthful to act what we should feel if the community is to be well served rather than behave as we actually do feel in our selfish private feelings.'

The story does not merely focus on David and Lucilla, but also on Damerosehay and its history, and the other family members, and local residents. It's a wonderful, wonderful story.

When you want to read a book, but you have a cat...

Lion and Lamb - Brennan Manning - Book Review

3 stars
For me, this book verged between amazing and thought-provoking to 'makes me want to throw it out of the window'. The good outweighed the frustrating, therefore the three stars.

Manning's book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, was life changing for me. But this one...I dunno...I think it needs a second read at some point, maybe I'm just not in the right frame of mind for some of Manning's points about suffering, etc. It just felt too hard, too otherworldly, too selfless, too high a standard. However, the answer most probably lies in the part which did resonate.

What did resonate with me was Manning's encouragement to look past our own failings and past and whatever drags us down and look to Christ. Meditate on his holiness, his beauty, his love, his peace...look away from yourself and look to him. This is where purity of heart comes from. Which reminds me of these two scriptures: Matthew 5:8 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God'; and, 1 John 3:3 'All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure'.

We TRY to be pure and fail because we are concentrating on ourselves; we are being legalists or are self-obsessed (both selfishness and self-hatred are different sides of the same coin). But if we simply place all our hope in HIM we purify ourselves because he is pure.

Manning encourages the reader to empty themselves, he writes: "Simply hoard nothing of yourself; seep the house clean. Sweep our even the attic, even the nagging, painful consciousness of your past. Accept being shipwrecked. Renounce everything that is heavy, even the weight of your sins. See only the compassion, the infinite patience, and the tender love of Christ. Jesus is Lord. That suffices. Your guilt and reproach disappear into the nothingness of non-attention. You are no longer aware of yourself, like the sparrow aloft and free in the azure sky. Even the desire for holiness is transformed into a pure and simple desire for Jesus." (Which reminded me of my favourite Tim Keller book - The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness.)

Overall, a good book and I may increase the stars on a second read.