Minuet, Anyone?

Bet you haven't studied minuets much lately. I mean the actual dance.

Maybe you never did study the minuet. I can't say I ever really did.

Cinderella will dance the minuet with her prince. That's how we're doing this production, anyway. Set in 1780's, we are taking our fashion cues from Marie Antoinette and her court. The ballroom action will be set with Mozart's Menuetto from Don Giovanni, a familiar "tune" by a popular composer at that time. The dance, both elegant and delightful, will serve to entertain our audience, no doubt.

And so, what have I been doing? Researching steps, patterns, hand movement, and foot positioning. It is a most graceful and refined dance. Quite charming. And more than adequate for Prince Charming himself.

Guess you may want to come see for yourself!

The crux of all we believe, summed up in one Holy and magnificent event.

His justice, truth, mercy, kindness, and faithfulness proven.

His power, glory, majesty, and greatness revealed.

His plan, salvation, redemption, and help made manifest.

It is Resurrection Day.

Come celebrate Easter, our triumphant Holy day!

trouble

Aching heart, waiting,
Looking for His help alone.
Eyes fixed on His Hand.

Sometimes you just have to hold on. Sometimes there are storms on the waters. Hold fast. He still holds you, He will yet have His way.

Oh, God, we wait on You, for oh, God, is there any other Saviour? We look to You.

In Search of Wisdom

Our wisdom is but foolishness compared to His.

How inconsequential are the multitudinous volumes of mankind's combined thought and conjecture. If there is a God who was brilliant enough to create all of this, why should we suppose for one moment that we can imagine a single iota of His brilliance, or comprehend His mind, or circumvent His will, or design a better plan?

Oh, God, help us to humbly acknowledge that our thoughts are not your thoughts, nor out ways your ways. Yours are inestimably higher.

Be God's fool - that's the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It's written in Scripture, He exposes the chicanery of the chic.
1 Corinthians 3.19 The Message

Book Study in My Family Room

The Help. By Kathryn Stockett. A best seller for 98 weeks. Soon to be a movie.

It is the book being read by a literature group comprised of high school students, their moms, friends, and neighbors -- right here. We recently finished To Kill a Mockingbird, the perfect precursor for our current read. The Help is the story of black women working for white women as domestics in the deep south at the beginning of the civil rights movement. Insightful, to say the least.

Last weekend I read several chapters out loud to my husband as we rode home from Rochester. The novel is narrated by three different voices, all in Southern dialects. To say I had a lot of fun reading it would be an understatement, and honey loved it, too!

I couldn't put the book down, and read through it in no time. Our weekly assignments are 6 chapters at a clip, so now I get to review each week.

Meanwhile I have been inspired to check out some additional reading materials from the local library -- books that were referenced in the novel. I have Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, The Catcher in the Rye, and Invisible Man on my nightstand. One more will be borrowed: Black Like Me.

I am thoroughly enjoying the study of this period of American history. The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. I was seven years old at that time -- too young to know what was happening, and the history was too current to be studied in school. And so, I feel as though I'm viewing a scene through a window that I've not closely observed before. Fascinating. Bona fide fascination.

Tomorrow night some of us will supplement the study by watching Driving Miss Daisy. And we've only just begun brainstorming additional resources. We were told about an upcoming miniseries on the Kennedy family. And PBS will be airing a show on Freedom Riders. Something tells me it will take some doing to exhaust the possibilities!

If you are free on Thursday afternoons at 1:00 you are welcome to drop in and join the discussion. You just might learn a thing or two. I know I am!

New Lands

I think I was born for adventure. The funny part? I'm not very brave.

But I have a hard time tolerating the status quo. Sometimes I'm too eager for something new. I'm one of those that must heed the admonition to not "change just for sake of change." I must remember that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I've always figured that if we've done it that way before, we shouldn't do it that way again. Huh... That might not always be wisdom, do ya s'pose?

At any rate, I'm bursting with the need to break out of what has begun to feel like the norm. And this time I'm pretty sure it's not just a reaction to status quo. I'm pretty sure the norm has become too comfortable, too compromised, too apathetic, too satisfying.

Time to shake it up, stir it up, and strike out for new lands, unknown territory. There's more to apprehend in God, more of the world to leave behind, more "glory to glory" to attain. Maybe -- actually undoubtedly -- more death to embrace. Now doesn't that sound like fun.

So I'm reminding myself that without sacrifice there is no fire. Without giving there is no gain. Without death there is no life. But without life there is no point in living. If that makes any sense...

I'm looking at my life, feeling challenged to put away the pretty things, the fun stuff, the easy ways. I'll need help to press on. I've grown a bit tired, weary. So I won't move on in my strength -- it'll have to be His.

And moving on is what I want. 'Cause I'm not resting here. Not yet. Not ever, I hope.

Cleaning

Sorting through old things. Habits, traditions, books, Easter and Christmas decor, t-shirts and jeans, those "do it this way because we always do" things, etc. Nothing is exempt from inspection; nothing gets a pass.

So I ask repeatedly, day after day: Why do we have this? What is the purpose, the need, the reason? Is the need truly significant, the purpose unique enough to require this habit or thing alone?

A bit tiring and tedious. Brain-frying and overwhelming. But freeing. Letting go of stuff, patterns, "always do-s", and even ways of thinking.

Maybe spring is coming after all. :)