We wrapped up warm and headed downtown to join the thousands of Lexingtonians who chose to mark the day by marching together in honour of Dr King, and to be reminded that there is still much work to do. It was Maggie and Seth's first time to join a march, and when I got back to the house with Seth we watched clips of the march on Washington, and Dr King's "I have a dream..." speech. It was particularly poignant for us as we now call Lexington's Martin Luther King neighborhood home.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Best Books - 2009
I (Sean) have been keeping a reading log for 10 years. For some reason I read more books in 2009 than any year previously - 83, for a total of more than 25,000 pages. For those of you who enjoy reading as much as Rebecca and I do, here are the books I enjoyed most from among those 83.The most important book I read in 2009 was 'The Transition Handbook' by Rob Hopkins. Having become increasingly informed of the looming crisis "peak oil" presents, I wanted to read this book, which friends had recommended as a hope-full response to what seems an insurmountable reality. It chronicles the history of the "Transition Movement" (which began in the U.K. and is now spreading globally) and also provides hands-on advice for what it will take to make the transition from oil-dependence to local resiliency. I highly recommend this as an introduction to this vital issue that continues to remain 'off the radar'. (See also the excellent documentary "A Crude Awakening.") In a similar vein I also enjoyed Bill McKibben's "Deep Economy."
My favourite biographical work was "Drinking: A Love Story" by Caroline Knapp, a non-sentimental, and wryly humourous account of her 20 years as a high-functioning alcoholic. Also in autobiography (in the "I did something for a year and wrote about it" category), I thoroughly enjoyed "The Year of Living Biblically" by A. J. Jacobs.
In the "books about the Book" category, I loved "Genesis: The Story We Haven't Heard" by Paul Borgman. Dr Borgman is a professor of English at Gordon College, who has spent 25 years wrestling with the Genesis stories with his undergraduates. His exploration of the Abrahamic narrative is particularly excellent, and there is insight and profound pondering on every page. Highly recommended. I also found Sandra Richter's "The Epic of Eden" excellent - a very helpful introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures.
An 'honourable mention' goes to Rob Bell's and Don Golden's "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" - which i re-read in 2009 for a small group study.
That wraps up my favourite non-fiction books I read last year - the fiction recommendations will be up next.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Campsie Place - January 8th 2010
It has not been above freezing since we came home, with little hope of that any time soon. Our Houston-acclimatized bodies are feeling it! Our narrow side street has been inaccessible to the city ploughs, which makes for a pretty picture, but slick footing underneath. Maggie and Seth were excited to see snowdrifts, but disappointed to discover that it's not "fun" snow - so cold it's just powder. We hung the final curtains last night, and i finished putting that plastic wrap stuff over the south facing windows. There's still an arctic gale blowing through the kitchen cabinets - the tile floor sucks the heat out of our feet. We've plugged the draughts best we can, but with the thermostat set at 60, the heat still stays on most of the day. Welcome to winter!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Family photos
Our dear friend Geoff Maddock took some beautiful photos of us a month ago, and we've finally got around to uploading some. We have a lot of catching up to do on the blog - watch this space!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Waking up to snow
Maggie and Seth (and us too) were excited to wake up to their first snow ever. They insisted on going outside to play in the 1/4" of snow. Watching them revel in scraping up enough snow for a snow-peanut, and making a snow angel on the pavement (learned from a book, of course) was a delight - oh to be thrilled by such simple things...
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thanksgiving 2009
We've had a wonderful week with family, and have been mindful of all we have to be thankful for. Our sister-in-law Erin's parents came down from Minnesota, and we shared several meals with them, and a hike in Red River Gorge to Gray's Arch on a stunning autumn day. The litluns held up remarkably well, and had a big time scrambling up rocks and climbing along narrow ledges and through small spaces to reach the base of the arch (see more photos at our Flickr account).In preparation for Rebecca's family driving in from Illinois, we spent 3 days turning the third bedroom from the 'holding area' for all our unpacked boxes into an actual guest room. We also hung pictures and photos, swept floors, cleaned - partnering with God in the ongoing work of bringing order to chaos! It's quite astounding the difference having an ordered space makes to our overall sense of well-being.
We joined the Martin/Bailey/Watterson clan for brunch on Thanksgiving morning before driving back to Lexington for Will & Lisa Samson's community Thanksgiving feast, enjoying time with them, their friends and neighbours, and Communality friends and family. The food was quite spectacular, and we finally got to meet Claudia Burney and her family, who are good friends with the Samsons, and who Sean connected with somewhat randomly through Facebook before both our families moved here.
Friday saw the Martin clan descend on our home for brunch burritos, books and games before a hike at McConnell Springs, and then heading downtown for the Lexington Christmas parade. We drove out to Wilmore on Saturday for one last meal together, and began to make plans for Christmas in Greenville - the first time the cousins will be together for Christmas. But between here and there is Advent, which we began in darkness at the High Street House on Sunday night, as once more we wait for the Light of the world to be born in us anew...
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