More Marrow for Life

Hi friends!

It's been a short, cool summer, and tomorrow it comes to an end. I'm off on a great adventure! I hope you will join me on this little excursion via internet. I've started a new blog, which I'm hoping to keep up with while I'm away. There's not much there yet, but there soon will be. You can find it here, and please feel free to click through my flickr (linked on the right side), which is also a work in progress. For those of you interested in pen-pal-ing, leave me a little note, and I'll send you my new address.

With a heart full of love, anxiety, excitement, and faith,

Hannah V.

summer lately

[homemade cheese!]

For Your Good Pleasure

Since we've been away

June gloom days filled with homework and the Word, mother and sisters, Tuesday sleeping, fruit and vegetables, and garden planing.

Evenings end with Miss Marple, dreams of a house in the English countryside, tea, and books on homesteading.

Isaiah 1

7 Learn to do right; seek justice. 
 Defend the oppressed.[a] 
Take up the cause of the fatherless; 
 plead the case of the widow.

summer means strawberries

Love must be sincere

Can't you hear the pleading in Paul's voice? Begging the Jews and Gentiles that make up the church at Rome, pleading with them to join together in love.

love must be sincere....

and now,

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit"

[it's 2:55, and I'm writing abut Romans, that must mean my exam is tomorrow.

Wish me luck or say some prayers. Whichever you prefer; both are coveted]

This chaos is mind, brain and mind.

This is the space around my bed currently:



This is the package of goodies delivered to me recently:



This is the note that makes me yearn for home frequently:



This is the only view I see presently:

It's finals week, and that means home in 5 days (!), which means sisters and mothers and fathers and brothers, and puppies and babies and sunshine, and rest.
Rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest.
My favorite word.
But for now:
Poetry analysis,
Abraham Joshua Heschel,
the book of Romans,
an evolutionary outline,
and a little bit of insanity.

indeed

a goood way to end the year.



-pay no attention to photo#1-

Lithuania

Lithuania. Lithuania. Lithuania.

What more can I say?

The name is on my brain, on my tongue, on my lips.

It's in their words,

in their looks,

in their gestures.

We converse and somehow find ourselves back there.

We have nothing more to say and somehow find ourselves back there.

We pass by and somehow find ourselves back there.

To New York, to London, to Stockholm, to Vilnius, then onto Klaipeda.

No, I won't be here in the fall.

Yes, it is soon.

No, I won't see her all year.

No,

and then yes,

and then yes,

and then no.

I've spent all year somewhere else, now let me be here and let me rest.

barbequed salmon

May day: Union Congregationalists of Magnolia, Farewell to Seth&Carrie lunch, nap&conversation on a rock at Ocean Lawn, seeing the family - seeing the latest addition, Irish folk tales.

guess who's here!

and she's here to stay!!



just messing on that last bit. if only...

A word, a word, a word. With no pictures to display what is pride.

Too many times have I sat at this screen ready to express the abundance of gratitude, joy, emotion and a million other nouns that overwhelm, that sweep over my heart like a dust cloud over the desert. Too many times do I begin a word, and find myself frozen in that moment, incapable of expressing this and that and these. The school year hasn't ended, and it isn't coming to an end, but my hands feel the need to write, and my mind the need to debrief. Yet, again I find myself incapable of expressing anything. How can I? Words are great, words are beautiful, but words cannot express the mind and words cannot explain the heart. I long for space, I long for family, I long for time, I long for inspiration. I hear "Age of Adz" by Sufjan Stevens. An interesting piece. Confusing, chaotic, and messy - I can't help but wonder if it reflects the soul of the artist. It seems as if Sufjan has opened up his mind for the world to see inside: a disarray of colors, sounds, shapes, and objects. And isn't this the mind of us all? Cluttered with the tension of misunderstanding and a desire to understand. A mess of thoughts and feelings that cannot be described in any other way than disorder. Yet here is the climax, the contradiction if you will: there is harmony. In the state of unrest there is harmony; there is melody; there is structure; there is balance; there is peace; there is concord. I could type a series of sentences, I could type a series of words, I could type a series of letters. Because I am in a state of mind. My mind is in a state. I don't know, but you can. I can describe to you, I can look at you, and there is understanding between us. Because we are made of colors, objects, shapes and sounds. Bodies that house confusion, and order. So here is the mind. Here it is, at Your feet. My understanding is limited, but my growth is infinite. So here I am. Here I am, at Your feet.

Tess, and longing for that book club

this along with Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
waiting for summer and days to read...

A Good Thing

A great song covered by a great artist

A place, a place

A trundle bed, a dog.

A window, a pillow.

A home, a family.

A place, a place.

With every new place I find that my desire to learn is camouflaged by a desire to morph - to change, to mold into who people are instead of who I have yet to be. From where do these things come? Where do they find their roots? And will they ever be choked out by an overwhelming contentedness?

In Indiana, there is space. Standing on a small hill, I can look out over the vast expansion of crops at rest in the winter and think. But bitter wind and cold air has prevented me from doing so thus far, and so I will have to wait to think. I will have to absorb and experience until I can think, but then thinking will be great and my heart and mind will be at a better place to grow and hear.

I am a Pilgrim in the world

"In the earth I wander, but in God I dwell in a quiet habitation."

Heschel: God in Search of Man

"Lift up your eyes and see. How does a man lift up his eyes to see a little higher than himself? The grand premise of religion is that man is able to surpass himself; that man who is part of this world may enter into a relationship with Him who is greater than the world; that man may lift up his mind and be attached to the absolute; that man who is conditioned by a multiplicity of factors is capable of living with demands that are unconditioned. How does one rise above the horizon of the mind? How does one free oneself from the perspectives of ego, group, earth, and age? How does one find a way in this world that would lead to an awareness of Him who is beyond this world?"

lessons in denial, lessons in grace

spring is coming too soon.

the ground was soggy, the air was wet

and my heart is not ready

because seasons match seasons

and this season is still winter.

-

continually reminded that there is a world outside of myself,

a world full of aching hearts, and desperate people.

what does selflessness truly look like?

and when i look in the mirror,

do i see self

or do i see others?

-

realizing that the absence of family and home

is a long season.

and longing is a part of life,

because longing sets us on the search

that leads straight into his arms.

passing, and mourning

she is missed.

I've never really listened to Bob Dylan

I apologize for the lack of depth in my posts lately.

But this song is beautiful, and the melody matches my soul at the moment.

Please enjoy, please be contented, and please smile.