Top-five Things I learned from Troy Urquhart

As a teacher, my greatest blessing is the friends who are also my teachers.

The Top-five Things I Learned from Troy Urquhart:

1. The search for Truth depends on the search for the Right Question.

2. Someone answered that question for you already. Go read.

3. There is no shame in being an elitist or connoisseur.

4. There is no excuse for the unwillingness to work hard.

5. To start with "So basically..." is to indicate you have already missed the point.

What have we here?

A Levenger catalog came in the mail today, and it featured THIS interesting thing.

Why didn't we think of it sooner?

Thank You For This World

Whenever I tuck her in, or when it is her turn at dinner, Faith prays. I love to hear Faith pray because she hits all the important things every time.

"Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Kaeyln, Tyler, Zack and (recently) Jess. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for my grandparents and friends. Thank you for this world. Please heal the sick people. Please take care of Kafui. Please bless us. Amen."

I am always struck by "Thank you for this world." I think the rest of us, especially Christians, spend a lot of time discouraged by this world. In this world, there is violence and poverty and sickness. We watch the news and ponder the kind of world that creates and contains those circumstances. We tend to despair.

Faith is six years old. To her the world is not only what is on the news. To her, the world affords trees to climb, friends on the block, and her dog Harley. It is full of wonder and mystery and excitement.

It would be easy to dismiss Faith's gratitude as naiveté because of how little she is. But look at the rest of Faith's prayer: "Please heal the sick people. Please take care of Kafui." She's aware of suffering and sickness. Kafui is the child their Sunday school sponsors from Africa. She know's he's hungry and dependent on them. This is not the prayer of a little girl who doesn't know any better.

It's Thanksgiving today. Faith's prayer reminds us to be thankful for more today than that we (or most of us) are carnivores. We are thankful for the food, family, and friends, sure. We are thankful for God's abundant provision this year.

But as Faith points out, we can be thankful for this world. We are thankful for this world for a couple of reasons. First, Psalm 24 says

"The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it;

2for he founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the waters."

Everything that is God's is good. We can be thankful for the world because it is God's and He made it.

It is true that there are things in the world that God didn't make and that do indeed break His heart. We can also be thankful for the otherwise discouraging parts of this world because they turn our eyes heavenward. They keep us from thinking this world is our home, and permit us to rejoice in the ongoing redemption taking place around us. We have hope in the brokenness because God loves the World and has a plan to redeem it.

Ultimately, on Thanksgiving, let us be thankful for this World. Let us be thankful God loved it, and that He is and has been constantly working on its redemption.

Christmas List

For those who asked and those who didn't:

• Heretics: The Annotated Edition, by G. K. Chesterton
• How to Read a Painting: Lessons from the Old Masters
• How to Read a Modern Painting: Lessons from the Modern Masters
• neutral density filter, skylight filter 52mm
• Ralph Lauren Style perfume
• Coco Chanel Madamoiselle perfume
• A new Red True Writer Classic Fountain Pen. The cap on this favorite pen of mine broke.
• Freeleaf White Letter-Sized Annotation Ruled Pads
• Bumble and Bumble Gentle Shampoo
• Bumble and Bumble Leave-in Conditioner
• Laura Mercier Silk Creme foundation in Rose Ivory
• The Pursuit by Jamie Cullum
• more memory cards for my camera
• memory card case
• Sunglasses
• durable, waterproof, but nice-looking watch
• Warm, red robe
• New running shoes, size 8
• Benefit's Bad Gal Lash mascara
• Clothes. Size 16. Especially sweaters.
• New black boots. 8W
• A new peacoat or wool winter coat of some kind, black or gray
• Tom Tom GPS. the one I bought before I moved here is so low quality it actually gets me lost more than it helps.
• Stila lip glaze holiday set from Sephora
• Sephora "little black eyeliner kit"
• Laura Mercier Mini Lip Glace Set
  

  Sephora Favorites The Little Black Eyeliner Kit ($116 Value)$36	Laura Mercier Mini Lip Glacé Set ($55 Value) $38

• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - The Complete Series

  Steven Weber(DVD)
• God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee

  by Michaele Weissman

  
  

Statement of Mission

I am here to reach the lost and build an organization capable collectively of doing so. In building the organization, I must equip the saints with good communication, required supplies, and sufficient space in which to work.

Here and There

I was delighted by a friend's list of unrelated items. It did what good blogs do for me. It made me think "Me, too! I can do that!"

1. With the help of a wise new friend, I figured out where the time in my day is going: to people. I feel like I used to be able to accomplish more in a day than I do now (which may be inaccurate). It's not that I have less to do, necessarily, I just do less. I blame three of my life's recent additions for this: driving and traffic, an inconsistent work schedule, and living with people. Two were obvious to me, but the third was surprising. I have lived alone for a long time, so I didn't realize the time consumed by the daily minutiae of maintaining relationships.

2. A Marin native illuminated some of this county's peculiarities for me--things I'd noticed but didn't know how to name. People here are "slightly apathetic", "casually sophisticated" and "quirky" to the point of making an art of it.

3. I have become more obsessive about my paper-crafting. It's sort of a cut-and-paste self-medication driven by a hunger to share my experience and creative inspiration around every corner. In other news, I found a store near my coffee shop interesting in carrying my notebooks.

4. I am so disturbed by men over thirty who use "Booyah" and "It's go time." Even as a punchline.

5. I went to Coffee School in the City for my new job. Unfortunately, the curriculum content ran a distant second to a research paper I wrote in sixth grade, titled "Where in the World is Juan Valdez."

6. A customer in my coffee shop talked today about growing up in North Beach where real Italians make coffee for other real Italians. He overheard a customer order a drink with specifications nearing 50 words, and shook his head. "What happened to the days where a drink was a drink? Everything was a cappuccino and it was perfect. Coffee? Yes or no. Let the barista make the damn drink." His small capp was on the house.

7. I miss teaching, my classroom, and my students every day. I feel like the Autumn started without me. One of my regulars at the coffee shop is a teacher who retired after 35 years. She misses it, too. After describing my move to Marin, she smiled knowingly and said, "My dear, you are plant who has been re-potted. You've just left behind a few roots." Here's to hoping they'll regrow.

H is for Happy Birthday

It is the fourth anniversary of my blog, and my 29th birthday. Or at least it was when I started this post.

A friend said that after today, I'm rolling toward 30 like a snowball headed for Hell. It's a colorful analogy, but I'm hoping its loaded with hyperbole.

I had a really lovely birthday. I got a badass leather jacket in the mail from my mom, as well as trip to Nordstroms in a little silver box. My sister-friend mailed me new Stila red lipstick, the Stila Paris palette, and some Chocolate shortbread made from pure crushed cacao. I had to work, but I got to go with Shannon for some life-changing pumpkin cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory.

I was so delighted by the sweets and the bits of glamour, but it was the Coleman kids who gave me a great birthday. Faith and Zach, who are 6 and 8 respectively, stormed my room at 7am to wake me with a big "Happy Birthday!". Zach had arranged all my presents by "my seat" on the couch. Kaelyn had scribbled a giant "Happy Birthday" all over the mirrors that I use. There would be NO missing her salutations. And then, when I got my coffee and curled up on the couch, there was the big reveal of the Coleman birthday tradition: The Birthday Turtle. Here he is:

The birthday turtle sings "Happy Birthday" and marches around. Faith informed me that everyone in our family gets to have the Birthday Turtle sing to them. And there it was. Everyone in our family. On my birthday, the Coleman kids did all the things that mark the special days of family members.

When I lived in Florida, I loved my birthday because of the fuss my students made and the chance to throw a party. Even though we were too busy to spend time together often, birthday parties were not missed. Once a year, I could be surrounded by my favorite people. This is a really important occasion for a single person who lived alone. There was one day when the warmth and celebration was more powerful than the sense of solitude and loneliness.

This year, I didn't have to manufacture the occasion. When the warmth and celebration found me, I noticed the loneliness and solitude were gone for the first time in years. This year I got the birthday turtle because I'm part of something to celebrate--full time. Every day.