- the anticipation of knowing that finishing a book I've been working on for a while was in reach
- getting so lost in forming words in my head for later writing that I missed my bus stop
- smiling at God's perfect timing in when I ended up reading a particular book
- sweet smelling bubble bath
- chocolate and peanut butter
- a perfect new notebook
- making plans
- crossing items off of lists
- tasty leftovers
- successfully completing 2 years of making these daily 5 lists!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 365
Today's Daily 5:
A Review of Sabbath by Dan Allender
This book is the centre of a series of funny timing in my life. I requested a review copy of it from Booksneeze.com back in February, and started waiting. When it had been several months and it still hadn't appeared, I contacted them, and looked into the missing book. They sent me a new copy, and life happened. I hardly made any progress on reading this book until this week.How perfectly exquisite is God's sense of humor that in a week where I have been craving silence, quiet, rest, and space, one of the items on my to do list was to finally tackle Dan Allender's book on Sabbath?
I can say for certain that this book will be the centre of further conversations on my blog.
Allender offers a thoughtful and beautifully written discussion of the idea of practicing Sabbath. It's a topic I've thought often about in recent years, a topic I've listened to various speakers address, and even a topic I've read about, but I don't believe I've ever heard someone address it in a way that made me long for the sort of Sabbath they were describing. Allender's book did that for me.
The idea that the Sabbath is to be a time filled with delight is central to his premise, and is an idea striking to me - so contrary from the dry, studious, and perhaps even boring ideas of Sabbath that pepper my conservative Christian background. A day of delight - a day for hope, to set aside work, and worry, a day to enjoy the best - good food and wine, wonderful relationships, and deep conversations. That sort of description has me pondering how I can practice Sabbath in my own life and context.
I'd highly recommend this book - it's not prescriptive, but presents instead a beautiful argument for the centrality of sabbath not only to the Christian faith, but to our very ability to live full, rich lives. It's not a complicated read, but is well written, the words flowing beautifully.
As I said, it was a book that fit wonderfully into a week that found me craving quiet rest, and spoke truths that will carry forward with me into the remainder of my life.
Note: I was provided a free copy of Sabbath by the Booksneeze.com review team. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated beyond the copy of the book, and was not required to provide a positive review.
You Ask, I Answer, Take 18
Today's You Ask, I Answer question comes from Johanna, who asked:
A very good question.
The answer to the first part is this: I don't speak any languages other than English fluently.
As a product of the Canadian educational system, I have a very minimal command of French. And by minimal, I mean that I can count to 49, say hello and goodbye, please and thank you, and recognize a few other words commonly found on signs or product labels (it's the law here- all product labels, and all signs in nationally governed areas such as national parks, are in both official languages.)
As a product of parents who spent time in South America, and two years of high school instruction, I also have a minimal command of Spanish. In Spanish, I can basically say enough to communicate that I can't properly communicate. I can understand a bit more than I can speak. My Spanish is a bit better than my French, and while I wish I'd taken more in high school, I don't regret the decision to drop the language, given that the particular teacher was a fan of teaching via embarrassing her students, and after having been at her mercy in one year, (I had a wonderful teacher my first year), I was unwilling to allow that to continue! Interestingly, a close friend of mine speaks Spanish as her first language and other friends speak quite fluently as their second language, so if I can just increase my vocabulary a bit, I'll have numerous people to practice with!
The answer to the second part of the question is a bit more complex! I love language, and would love to devote some time to learning more. I would most definitely begin with Spanish, since it's a language that I absolutely love, and that is spoken in many of the parts of the world that I'd love to travel to. I would probably avoid any tonal languages (so most Asian languages are probably out) since I'm rather tone deaf and know I would struggle with them. I'm fascinated by Hebrew, by Arabic, and others. Italian, being closely related to Spanish, is also an enticing option. I have friends who speak German, and I think that might be fun to learn someday. I'm sort of of the opinion that any language you can add to your repertoire very much broadens your horizons and perspectives, and creates space within you for new things, so I definitely think that language is a worthy thing to tackle, and most definitely plan to turn my attention to Spanish in the near future!
What languages do you speak, besides English? What languages do you want to speak/learn, if you had the time/energy?
A very good question.
The answer to the first part is this: I don't speak any languages other than English fluently.
As a product of the Canadian educational system, I have a very minimal command of French. And by minimal, I mean that I can count to 49, say hello and goodbye, please and thank you, and recognize a few other words commonly found on signs or product labels (it's the law here- all product labels, and all signs in nationally governed areas such as national parks, are in both official languages.)
As a product of parents who spent time in South America, and two years of high school instruction, I also have a minimal command of Spanish. In Spanish, I can basically say enough to communicate that I can't properly communicate. I can understand a bit more than I can speak. My Spanish is a bit better than my French, and while I wish I'd taken more in high school, I don't regret the decision to drop the language, given that the particular teacher was a fan of teaching via embarrassing her students, and after having been at her mercy in one year, (I had a wonderful teacher my first year), I was unwilling to allow that to continue! Interestingly, a close friend of mine speaks Spanish as her first language and other friends speak quite fluently as their second language, so if I can just increase my vocabulary a bit, I'll have numerous people to practice with!
The answer to the second part of the question is a bit more complex! I love language, and would love to devote some time to learning more. I would most definitely begin with Spanish, since it's a language that I absolutely love, and that is spoken in many of the parts of the world that I'd love to travel to. I would probably avoid any tonal languages (so most Asian languages are probably out) since I'm rather tone deaf and know I would struggle with them. I'm fascinated by Hebrew, by Arabic, and others. Italian, being closely related to Spanish, is also an enticing option. I have friends who speak German, and I think that might be fun to learn someday. I'm sort of of the opinion that any language you can add to your repertoire very much broadens your horizons and perspectives, and creates space within you for new things, so I definitely think that language is a worthy thing to tackle, and most definitely plan to turn my attention to Spanish in the near future!
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