New Books

I've added a couple of books to the list in my sidebar in the last few days.

Both of them were memoirs. "The Year I Got Everything I Wanted" by Cameron Conant, whose blog I also link to, and "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I liked both.

I particularly liked the following short passage from Gilbert's book. I liked the word she describes, because I understand, just a little, that idea of "living at the border". She writes:

I was reading through an old text about Yoga, when I found a description of ancient spiritual seekers. A Sanskrit word appeared in the paragraph: ANTEVASIN. It means "one who lives at the border." In ancient times this was a literal description. It indicated a person who had left the bustling center of worldly life to go live at the edge of the forest where the spiritual masters dwelled. The antevasin was not one of the villagers anymore - not a householder with a conventional life. But neither was he yet a transcendent - not one of those sages who live deep in the unexplored woods, fully realized. The antevasin was an in-betweener. He was a border-dweller. He lived in sight of both worlds, but he looked toward the unknown. And he was a scholar.

Christmas Church

Mostly, if you know me, you know that I really don't get that into Christmas, or Christmas music. There are just other seasons and holidays I like better.

BUT

I love the last church service before Christmas. We always have great music, and a good time with each other. Today my brother is directing a choir. I've heard his school choir sing the song they're performing, and I'm looking forward to hearing the church members do it. And a "cookie buffet" after the service - how cool is that? Everyone brings a plate of Christmas goodies to share.

So, that's where I'll be this morning. Getting into the Christmas spirit, and eating cookies.

Then I'm coming home to experiment with my roommate at making a traditional dessert that they have at Christmas in New Zealand.

See ya later!

hungry

I swear my body runs on a weird cycle sometimes... I have weeks with absolutely no appetite, where I force myself to eat, and get a stomach ache every time I force something down. Then, I have days like yesterday and today, where everything makes me hungry. I eat big meals regularly, and I'm still hungry.

Today I've eaten quite a lot, and I still find myself hungry.

I've made good food - full of healthy ingredients, and all I can think at this moment is, "I need another meal."

Vegetables. I'm craving vegetables. Or maybe ichiban soup, with vegetables in it. I have steamed veggies in my fridge - maybe I'll eat those in a while.

Funny how life is like that in so many ways - you can be barely able to eat, to take things in for a long time, and then, suddenly, you find yourself unable to satisfy your appetite.

My devotional life can be like that. For weeks or months I "eat" the minimum, and then, suddenly, I find myself "starving" for the word of God.

I'm hungry right now, in more ways than one.

P.S. I Love You

My roommate and I went to see the new movie, "P.S., I Love You" last night. SO fantastic!

I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. Great humor.

And then, in the next second, I was crying. Touching moments, pathos, beautiful.

Plus, hardly any crude language, hardly any extraneous sex. (While I cope with other movies that have too much of those things, I'm always happy to come across a great movie that doesn't have them!)

Lemon Shortbread

My roommate and I saw a movie tonight. More on that tomorrow - it deserves it's own post!

After we got home, we congregated in the kitchen, doing some Christmas baking. She's making some sort of hazelnut biscotti, and I mixed up the dough for lemon shortbread. It's chilling in rolls in my fridge at the moment, waiting to be sliced, baked and iced at various points over the course of the day tomorrow. It's a tradition. I make it every year. My brothers hate it (they have issues with fruit flavors in things that aren't, well, fruit), but everyone else seems to love it. Which is funny, because I could take it or leave it. But I make it every year!

Good night!