Chasing unicorns

I've wanted to get into astrophotography for some time (taking pictures of the night sky and its inhabitants), now that I have a camera that can handle low light conditions, but it was just one of those things that I never got around to.  Then I saw a little article on a comet that is in town for the weekend and decided it was time to dust off my tripod and give it a try.  Happily one of the perks of living in the middle of nowhere is you can actually see the stars without taking a road trip, though there are some rather significant obstructions on the northwestern horizon, at least from my yard, I thought I'd give it a try.  For two nights, I snuck out with my binoculars but to no avail and probably making the neighbors wonder what I was up to at night with my binoculars or camera!  Between said obstructions and low clouds, there was no comet.  I had read somewhere that it would appear right after sunset, and checked diligently every half hour thereafter for two nights and then went and set up camp, ready to take pictures on the third.  The sun set, there wasn't much for clouds, but still no comet!  I gave up on the dream, though I got to see two comets back in 1997, so I figured I knew what I was looking for, especially as this one was said to be less than those, which while interesting, weren't really all that cool to look at.  Instead I turned my gaze and spotting scope to the opposite horizon and did a little planet gazing, as Jupiter, and supposedly Saturn were rather prominent in the night sky as well.

I've never tried star gazing before, I took astronomy back in undergrad, but we never went out and actually looked at the stars, instead we just did more physics problems.  It was amazing to actually see another world (and 4 of its moons!) and then the rings of Saturn, amazing!  While I was busy trying to take a picture through my spotting scope, full dark fell, the stars came out in their myriad hosts, and glancing idly off to the northwest, there it was!  Wow!  I had given up, I was ready and accepting of disappointment, content with nothing or leftovers, but wow!  1997 had nothing on this baby, what a tail!  Then I saw a shooting star, and since I was already out there with all my gear, I finally got around to trying a shot of the milky way, which was actually pretty easy after Jupiter!

No wonder the psalmist proclaims, 'the Heavens declare the glory of the Lord!'  And in another place, 'taste and See that the Lord is good.'  Not just read about or watch on YouTube or inherently know, but rather taste, see, prove with your senses!  A dirty snowball, a lifeless rock, an incendiary ball of gas, all displaying His glory, His wonder, for me!  How much more can I do likewise in the lives of others?  Modern society is too much addicted to passive pursuits, ticking off things on the bucket list, watching it in HD, instagramming it instead of experiencing it.  We've lost our sense of wonder, our sense of humor, our humility, our joy!  We've become old, jaded, bitter, cynical, critical, not the immortal children of a boundless Kingdom as He intends us to be.

A friend of mine just went to Yellowstone for the first time, and gloried in the geological variety around her (she's a rock nerd!), astonished at the busloads of indifferent tourists that merely traipsed by, barely looking at anything, just taking in the requisite scenes and moving on or taking a selfie in front of some wonder or other, filling up most of the frame themselves rather than glorying in the sight itself or giving thanks to its Maker and theirs.  How very sad are such little lives!

May we lose the technology, the cynicism of our age, the hubris that easy access to seemingly limitless knowledge breeds, the jaded indifference of having seen it all, and reclaim the wonder of small children, who are delighted as much by the Morning Glory Pool as with the trash receptacle, who are very heirs to the Kingdom!  Go chase unicorns and dragonflies and rainbows, learn how to laugh, to sing, to dance and not care what anyone else thinks, learn to see the glory all around you, so much so thoughts of your own recede far from you (true humility)!  Lose yourself in the wonders of creation, rediscover your Creator!

Orphan no more!

Here's a great article to read if you just feel 'not good enough,' 'not accepted,' alone or unloveable.  I've been fighting that fight with myself, coming out of an abusive home, trying to convince myself that I am as worthy of dignity, love, and respect, the same as any other person.  Ironically, it goes on to say that God sees us as adopted children, children!  Beloved, accepted, blessed, giving pleasure to their Father!  I'm an adoptive parent of two amazing kids, most days I forget they are adopted, they're just my kids!  I can love and accept them, but I deny myself the same right?  I'm not doomed to ignominy, leftovers, wretchedness, and pity, as my upbringing has convinced me that I am, either in a current physical sense or in my eternal destiny, why can't I wrap my head around that?

He isn't a stingy, miserly, grudging God, it is His good pleasure to give ME the kingdom, really?!  He is excited about it, like a loving parent?  Like me giving my kids stuff they need and desire?  Unlike the mother who bought me Christmas presents because it was socially prescribed and handed me the dreaded birthday present like it was some sort of illicit deal she found degrading and hoped no one would discover the truth thereof, and it was always something she wanted, never anything I had a desire, need, or use for, and then I was never allowed to play with or even look at it, it had to be safely stored in the closet because it was 'collectible.'  I feel like that sums up my whole young life: put it away in a dark corner, where it will eventually fall apart and decay, never having meaning, purpose, or value and never having any enjoyment therein.

Then there's God, and His crazy call to come out of that unwitting tomb, there's more to life than dust and shadows, despair and sorrow and shame.  He made a whole brilliant world to explore and marvel at and delight in.  He sent His only Son to pay the price of sin and rectify the world's ruin, so I don't have to.  He's surrounded me with people, interesting, warm, loving, annoying people to replace the family I never had.  And this is only the beginning, only the title page!  Me?!  The little girl whose own mother didn't love her?  A beloved daughter, a part of a family, heir to a Kingdom?!  Talk about fairy tales, this beats an enchanted frog any day!  And the door is open, shed the orphan's rags and become the child you were meant to be!

Young Author Syndrome?

I recently decided to do a major revision on my early books, a decision a decade in coming, but my writing has improved drastically since then and I want all my writing to shine, not just my latest books, but part of me felt like I was desecrating something sacred, but they need attention so bad!  No changes to the overall story, just smoothing out the choppiness, fleshing out characters and dialogue, and removing bald statements of the obvious, ugh!  Interestingly enough, I found a nice little article on a promising author and found one of her books at the library, hoping I had found Jane Austen's heiress at last, only to find the same problem in her writing as afflicts my own!

Most of my trouble with Jane Austen-wanna-bes is that most are little more than trashy romance novels wearing an Austen cover, though I would love to hear Miss Austen's comments on her so-called successors!  The book I read was neat, clean, and okay.  I wish I could call it great or even good, but it had no sparkle, no depth, no lure to draw me deep and skip two nights of sleep to find out what happens; the characters were shallow and uninteresting, there was a lot of promise but we only skimmed the surface and hastened on to the next plot point without pausing to experience the moment we were in, to explore the nuance and depth of personality and experience and what happens when they collide.  It felt like a chick flick on paper sans the trashy romance.  But there is promise, there are ideas there, that if developed and deepened, with a little practice, could yield wonderful fruit.  I can say the same about my early books.  It is young author syndrome.  And the cure is time and experience, both on an authorial and a personal level.

Write, write, and write some more.  Don't forget to read and read and read again.  And grow, especially as a person, your characters can't have more depth than the one who writes them, so deepen and expand your own character and thereby your fictional ones too!  I couldn't write like I write now back then because I was a shallow, two dimensional figure myself, only in discovering myself, the deepest corners of my haunted soul, could I become both the person and writer I should be.  Now, as a better, deeper person and writer, I'm going to attempt to go back and add depth and wit and whimsy to my original works.  I can't wait to see what this particular author develops into, there is a lot of promise there, but it is merely hinted at in the book I read, but the seeds of greatness are there!

 I think that is why modern people content themselves with trashy romance novels: there is no need for plot, character, or any talent at writing whatsoever, like our modern culture, we live for the moment, the now, for me, for the cheap thrill and shallow relationship.  But this young lady is not settling for that, and it will be exciting to see her continuing development!

Foolishness?

Do you ever think you are living in an episode of the Twilight Zone or an article from the Onion or the Babylon Bee?  More and more I get that feeling!  The first hunch happened when I was in college, a certain pro-wrestler was elected governor of my home state, sort of a prequel to a certain guy being elected President.  But more than the political aspects of it, socially and culturally I found myself in a place that didn't seem to have the same reality as I had experienced elsewhere, and since then, it has only gotten worse, then it was confined to academia, now it is the very parlance of the media, politics, music, books, art, and trendy culture and even the social sciences.  And if you don't happen to celebrate, celebrate mind you not just tolerate, all the trendy aspects of this brave new world, well you are worse than a Nazi.

But then I read in a certain dusty old book, a true relic left over from unenlightened times, when they didn't even have google or social media, poor benighted fools!, that, 'it is the foolish things that will overcome the world.'  Interesting!  But then the ancient church was accused by the Romans of being cannibalistic atheists, so why should I be surprised?  Apparently it isn't just me or modern sensibilities, the same nonsense has been driving the world crazy since Eden fell.  Wasn't Paul accused of being driven mad by his great learning?  Didn't a dozen unlearned fishermen 'turn the world upside down?'  Wasn't there a riot in Ephesus even though the majority didn't know what they were protesting?  It is no different now.  It isn't that the world is being turned upside down so much as  parts of it are being turned right side up, in its current state it is upside down, that old book is the key to setting it aright: turning darkness to light, bringing life out of death, joy out of sorrow, hope from despair.  Maybe it is time to look anew at those foolish words from ancient days, the modern media, politicos, and internet gurus certainly don't have any sensible answers and they've had two millennia to come up with an answer to 'life, the universe, and everything,' and even 42 makes far more sense than some of the drivel they've come up with!

Late to the party!

I finally read one of the best selling and most iconic books in American history, albeit it was published in 1880, but what is a hundred years between friends?  I saw a really bad Canadian movie of 'Ben-Hur' last year and recently we listened to the Focus on the Family audio drama, but I had never read the book, along with all the other snippets and cultural references that were still present in my own girlhood: an episode call 'Ben-Hog' in the animated Garfield series of the late 1980s, Anne of Green Gables getting in trouble for reading it during geometry...  I think I have even seen the classic movie, but I have never read the book!

Overall I found it an excellent read, the author's attention to detail is exquisite and is the next best thing to a trip to the Holy Land.  It kept me interested, characters, plot, language, pacing, even though I vaguely knew the plot, were all very well done.  The only thing that really annoyed me was the author's insistence on placing Christ's birth on December 25th and making Jesus and His mother's physical appearance identical to all those romanticized, Caucasian Jesus pictures, where He looks like a well groomed hippy!  For a guy who did so much research and paid such attention to every other detail, it was a little irksome, if he hadn't bothered with such painstaking detail elsewhere, I would have let it pass, but it is obvious he's only trying to avoid angering his readers by enlightening them to the real facts of the matter that Jesus most likely did not have blue eyes and that we don't really know the exact day of His birth, though it is likely around lambing time.

Jesus wasn't physically pretty, Isaiah tells us that, 'He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him,' in the 53rd Chapter predicting the Messiah and His suffering for humanity's sin.  So boy band Jesus is a figment of our imaginings.  I understand why he wrote that way, but it clashes with the rest of the novel, which is otherwise so precise in every minute detail, which is ironic as a major theme of the book is people realizing that the Messiah did not come as a physical King or a military conqueror to overthrow the Romans, but rather to save the souls of men.  While the author wanted to open the eyes of his characters to the true nature of the Son of God, he was willing to allow his readers to persist in their cultural naiveté as to the birth date and physical appearance of their Savior, not that those are major issues, but it is amusingly ironic!

I also find it interesting the vast differences in the movies and audio dramas and other spin offs from the original.  Many of them miss the entire point of the book, and it is not the chariot race.  Just for that you should read the book, and even if you've seen all the movies, etc., you might be rather surprised by the plot!  Overall, it is a very good read, especially if you are curious about the subtitle, which most of the spin-offs seem to forget, 'A tale of the Christ.'  Enjoy!

The Great Bread Machine Revival?

People, we are seeing a movement like we haven't since the nineties!  It is full on revival!  It's another Great Awakening and no, I'm not talking 1890s...bread machines are back in demand!  That wasn't what you thought I was talking about, was it (though maybe the title gave it away).  Is this news, probably not, I'm only aware of it because my bread machine decided to have mental issues yesterday and my husband's answer was to go price shopping online, only to discover the things are sold out everywhere.  Happily my own unit came out of its stupor and seems to be working again, but I was still intrigued by the temporary shortage of something so obscure as a bread machine.

When all this started I noted that bread was completely sold out in our store for a week or two, but as I haven't bought bread in over a decade, it wasn't more than an idle curiosity, though I also noted that the flour was all gone and so was the yeast.  Apparently people were going to try making their own and this bread machine shortage shows how widespread that idea is.  I find it wonderful that this pandemic has produced such unexpected and wholesome fruits.  A couple months ago, bread making was a lost art, only practiced by foodies with an interest in that sort of thing or by necessity for those with dietary issues, but most people in general, had no clue about the process.  Necessity has forced us to look back to the wisdom of the past, to wonder how our forebears survived in a world without Google and Wonder Bread.  And what will be the result?  Has a whole new generation of bread makers come of age?  Long after this crisis passes, will they still have their sleeves rolled up and covered in flour, recapturing the joy of turning water and flour into a true culinary miracle?

What other 'ancient wisdom,' will we rediscover out of doubt, fear, necessity, or boredom?  What about the answers to the great questions of life?  Why are we here?  Where did we come from and where are we going?  Why is there evil, pain, and suffering in the world?  Perhaps it is time to rediscover the faith with answers to those tough questions, have you discovered the Bread of Life?  Even if you can't get your hands on a bread machine, the 'Bread that comes down from Heaven' is available anytime, anywhere, to everyone!

This is your life?

I keep reading L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle and thinking it is my own autobiography, save a few minor details.  Have you ever found a book like that?  One you read and wondered how it was your own life had been captured by a stranger, especially one who wrote a hundred years ago?  That's the power of story, my friend, no matter in what genre you are dabbling: film, books, video games, comics, music and art...all of it should tell a story, at least any of it worth bothering about!  Story is the language of the soul, no matter the medium!  Wondering what to do during these strange weeks at home or how to help others or change the world for the better?  Why not engage with story?  Read to your children, watch a good movie with your spouse, write that novel you've been incubating, take a virtual tour of an art museum or listen to the Requiem or the Messiah in their entirety or break out your own forgotten paints and add some color to the world!

Take this time to add beauty and meaning and wonder to the world, put something beautiful in!  Modern forms of art, music, literature, and poetry revel in destroying all the rules, all the meaning, the entire point of any of it.  Art and story must have meaning or they are meaningless, just like our lives!  So if you find yourself in a lonely, colorless existence at the moment, all this enforced time at home has revealed the utter bankruptcy of your soul, you aren't alone nor are you hopeless!  Begin today, add color and meaning and purpose to your drab little life!  Read great books and good poetry, watch wonderful movies, have real conversations about deep things, study great art and music, develop your own latent skills in whatever discipline and add to the vast human repertoire.

But remember it is all still meaningless if there is no Meaning behind everything.  If we are the result of some cosmic sneeze, with no eternal destiny or meaning, then go ahead and watch and listen to drivel as meaningless as our reality, until the coldness and loneliness and pointlessness freezes your heart and mind as cold as the regions between the stars, for that is our ultimate destiny: cold, dark oblivion, if Nothing is Everything.  Otherwise, take that thirst for Something and look under the metaphorical rocks and logs of reality until you find it, sell all that you have for this Pearl of Great Price, this Treasure buried in a Field.  That very thirst is a sign you are alive, that life has meaning, and that the point of life is to find that Meaning.  A mere chemical abstraction shouldn't feel empty, lonely, pointless, but a living, breathing, quivering, wondering soul certainly can!  Enjoy story in all its variations and remember the Great Author to whom they point!