First, it is snowing. On March 28th. In North Carolina. Looks like I will get to try out the mittens after all.
Second, I will be attempting to memorize more Scripture. This is something that I was forced to think about as I was doing some work on our Youth study for church. I memorized some Scripture when I accepted Christ as a teenager, but I haven't done much since. I will remember a phrase or two, but I am particularly awful with remembering the reference, so I'm usually going, "yeah, I'm sure that's in there somewhere." So here's the verse(s) for this week--something from a recent lesson I taught the girls' class.
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." ~Romans 12:1-2
I like the idea of being constantly renewed and transformed--especially if it means revealing the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Also, the phrase "reasonable service" doesn't mean "what is expected of you" like I at first thought. It means spiritual worship--I talk to the youth about what the word "worship" means, trying to get them to think beyond the "worship service," the sermon and singing. Here, our dedication of our selves to God is an act of worship.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Knitting Back-Log
Rivendell Gloves and Hat: I love coral. I should not wear it. Shades of orange are dangerous with my complexion, but I can't resist. I made the hat first. I love the leaf lace pattern, that also looks (in this shade) like tiny flames. It is a bit long, and therefore a bit lumpy, but, no matter. The gloves reflect another of my obsessions: cables. This is the most complicated cabling I have done, and one glove (the second attempt) came out a bit better than the other. I named them after the elven city in The Lord of the Rings because both leaves and delicate Celtic knotwork seem to belong there. The book I am holding (getting a bit ambitious with our photo-staging, huh?) is David Day's Tolkien's Ring, a really cool study of the various world myths and stories that may have inspired Tolkien.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Catching Up
So, it's a bit sad that my first post of 2011 is in March, but I think that should be a fair indication of what the last few months have been like around here. So, here, in no particular order, are things I have been doing:
1) Dissertation Updates: I passed my defense last week! It was tough and exciting in equal parts, but it's over. I am now in the process of editing/formatting so I can submit to the graduate school. Graduation is set for May. Which leads me to...
2) The job search: I have nothing to say on this besides a plea for prayers. I am hoping for a lecturer/adjunct position somewhere in the general area.
3) On being sick: I have had 2-3 colds, a mild case of flu, what was possibly a sinus infection, and a round of stomach virus in the last few months. My doctor had told me back in August that there really wasn't any need to take my multi-vitamins since there hasn't been any proof that they do anything. I'm thinking that they do something for me, so I'm taking them again.
4) New Computer: After more than six years of excellent service, my laptop finally gave up the fight. I spent more than a week computerless, which actually taught me that the world will not leave me behind if I don't check my email every five minutes and that Facebook really isn't a life necessity. Nevertheless, I am very happy with the new laptop, and my ability to get online without a drive to the public library.
5) On books and travel: I never thought I would say this, but I have been devouring Jan Karon's Mitford series. I always assumed that these would be beyond cheesy and trite, but they are actually quite good - nice, peaceful, before-bed-reading. I have also been reading Great British Walks
and feeling that pit-of-the-stomach, achy, love-sick feeling I get when I start thinking too hard about England. I want to go back sooo bad. I actually got out the Fodor's again, just for fun, to start thinking about where we would go the next time - I'm thinking fly into Manchester, hit either the Lake or Peak District, go through Yorkshire, then north into Hadrian's Wall country. Sigh. Oh, I listened to the audio book of Sarah Rose's For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History 
, an historical account of Robert Fortune's theft of tea production from China in the 19th century - very interesting.
6) Projects: After a mad flurry of knitting (I finished the Christmas gift shawl, the Villette vest, a pair of mittens, and a hat (pictures to follow)), I am taking a break from needlework. Instead, I have been breaking out the old colored pencils. For Christmas, Jordan got me a certificate for an art class on colored pencil technique which I very much enjoyed. Then, on the new bookshelf at the library, I saw Wendy Hollender's Botanical Drawing in Color.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
6) On working out and goals: Since January, I have been working out fairly consistently at the gym at school. I was doing a program that Jordan found for me, that involved actually going in the weight room, where I was invariably the only girl. I was actually impressed with what I was able to do - I finally figured out that the weights are supposed to be heavy (duh). I had always picked light weights (like 5lbs.) because I thought that was what I was supposed to lift, because I am a little girl. Then, I realized that you don't get stronger if you lift what it already pretty light. I quickly moved up to the 15lb. dumbbells, which are almost too heavy. I'm not sure that they are actually having the effect that I wanted - I think I am stronger, but my arms are still fairly stick-like. I've been running on the treadmill too, and as soon as it gets sufficiently warm outside, I am going to start training for another 5k. I ran one in 2009 in 32:10. My new goal is to run in under 30 mins.
I hope to blog with something approaching consistency; I also hope to learn how to end posts. They always seem abrupt or weird.
1) Dissertation Updates: I passed my defense last week! It was tough and exciting in equal parts, but it's over. I am now in the process of editing/formatting so I can submit to the graduate school. Graduation is set for May. Which leads me to...
2) The job search: I have nothing to say on this besides a plea for prayers. I am hoping for a lecturer/adjunct position somewhere in the general area.
3) On being sick: I have had 2-3 colds, a mild case of flu, what was possibly a sinus infection, and a round of stomach virus in the last few months. My doctor had told me back in August that there really wasn't any need to take my multi-vitamins since there hasn't been any proof that they do anything. I'm thinking that they do something for me, so I'm taking them again.
4) New Computer: After more than six years of excellent service, my laptop finally gave up the fight. I spent more than a week computerless, which actually taught me that the world will not leave me behind if I don't check my email every five minutes and that Facebook really isn't a life necessity. Nevertheless, I am very happy with the new laptop, and my ability to get online without a drive to the public library.
5) On books and travel: I never thought I would say this, but I have been devouring Jan Karon's Mitford series. I always assumed that these would be beyond cheesy and trite, but they are actually quite good - nice, peaceful, before-bed-reading. I have also been reading Great British Walks
and feeling that pit-of-the-stomach, achy, love-sick feeling I get when I start thinking too hard about England. I want to go back sooo bad. I actually got out the Fodor's again, just for fun, to start thinking about where we would go the next time - I'm thinking fly into Manchester, hit either the Lake or Peak District, go through Yorkshire, then north into Hadrian's Wall country. Sigh. Oh, I listened to the audio book of Sarah Rose's For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History , an historical account of Robert Fortune's theft of tea production from China in the 19th century - very interesting.6) Projects: After a mad flurry of knitting (I finished the Christmas gift shawl, the Villette vest, a pair of mittens, and a hat (pictures to follow)), I am taking a break from needlework. Instead, I have been breaking out the old colored pencils. For Christmas, Jordan got me a certificate for an art class on colored pencil technique which I very much enjoyed. Then, on the new bookshelf at the library, I saw Wendy Hollender's Botanical Drawing in Color.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.6) On working out and goals: Since January, I have been working out fairly consistently at the gym at school. I was doing a program that Jordan found for me, that involved actually going in the weight room, where I was invariably the only girl. I was actually impressed with what I was able to do - I finally figured out that the weights are supposed to be heavy (duh). I had always picked light weights (like 5lbs.) because I thought that was what I was supposed to lift, because I am a little girl. Then, I realized that you don't get stronger if you lift what it already pretty light. I quickly moved up to the 15lb. dumbbells, which are almost too heavy. I'm not sure that they are actually having the effect that I wanted - I think I am stronger, but my arms are still fairly stick-like. I've been running on the treadmill too, and as soon as it gets sufficiently warm outside, I am going to start training for another 5k. I ran one in 2009 in 32:10. My new goal is to run in under 30 mins.
I hope to blog with something approaching consistency; I also hope to learn how to end posts. They always seem abrupt or weird.
Friday, December 17, 2010
The Academic Life: Perspective
I will now wax philosophical....
During my first year in the MA program, an undergraduate professor asked me to write an article on graduate school, to be read by students at my Alma mater who were considering applying themselves. I can't remember exactly what I wrote, but I have the feeling that it was rather uninformed, and probably not very helpful. A few months of graduate school hardly made me the best authority on the subject.
Recently, I have begun rewriting that article in my head, probably because I am almost done with graduate school, and I hope I have attained a slightly better and wiser understanding of the matter....although I can't be certain.
At any rate, I think that the single most important thing I have learned about the academic life is perspective. Graduate school shunts you into a rather narrow paradigm, a mindset about academia that is propagated by mainstream culture as well as the academy itself. This mindset can be broken down into the following ideas:
1) Being smart is the most important thing in the world. There is the mindset, "We think big thoughts! Big, important, but undervalued, thoughts!" I remember feeling the pressure to think big thoughts - not for the sake of the thoughts or thinking or ideas, but to prove that I belonged, that I was academic material. That I was important.
2) Graduate school is necessarily competitive. We must know who is the smartest! Under certain situations, a classroom personality could emerge, a nasty, bullying personality. Everyone trying to out-think everyone else, speaking English-ese and name-dropping obscure theorists.
3) Graduate school is about a series of nearly impossible, soul-sucking tasks that must consume your every waking hour, as well as your dreams. The program is set-up to try you. The dreaded comprehensive exams. The expectation is that in the face of such an insurmountable obstacle, you must become a blithering zombie who gave up sleep and sanity long ago. The dissertation is supposed to daily reduce you to tears of bitter frustration.
4) The only point of going through this experience is to get a good job. And, when we say good, we mean a tenured professor at a top, research university. But, because the job market is abysmal, we will finish our work while alternating between nail-biting anxiety and spiraling despair.
There is another way. This has not been my experience with graduate school, thank goodness. And I don't mean this to be patronizing or otherwise self-aggrandizing. Of course, graduate school is hard. And, in a way, it should be - otherwise that fancy title you get at the end wouldn't mean much. But, I think that we sometimes make things much harder than they have to be by believing the hype.
I believe that there are many, many important things in life. The preceding list, however, doesn't make into the top ten. I'm about to break out the Sunday School rhetoric, so get ready: God is the most important thing in life, and beyond. How's that for perspective? The God of the Universe, the Creator of all things, the One who save us, compared with comprehensive exams? Puh-leaze. Will my ability to make the smartest comment in class have eternal consequences? Probably not.
And the amazing thing is, God gives us words and directions that help us to have perspective on things like graduate school. He says things like, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat , or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on . Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?"* Isn't life more than your grades and your degree? But that's not the only reason not to worry - what am I going to do if I can't get a job, what if I don't pass my exam, what if I don't finish my dissertation? Paul writes, " But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."** I can relax because I know that I will be taken care of. That doesn't mean that everything will work out according to my plan. But whatever God wills has got to be better than anything I could have come up with.
Letting go of the hype is a very freeing experience. It took me a while to get there, of course, and I am not now completely rid of the occasional round of worry. But, I didn't lose any sleep over my exams. I read some of everything on my list and actually enjoyed quite a bit of it (and what I didn't enjoy, I read as little as possible). I am enjoying writing my dissertation. I love my topic and I love the research and I love what I have written. I believe that less stress actually makes you more productive. If you say, in the long run, this doesn't really matter, you actually do pretty good work on it. I don't work on weekends and I don't work in the evenings. I go hiking. I visit my family. I read tons of good, absolutely non-academic books. I teach a youth class, sing in the choir, and volunteer tutor. I knit and crochet and draw and bake. I have not had to compromise my real life for my academic life. I recognize that this is a paradox - the best (most painless) way to succeed is to decide it doesn't matter. This, however, does not mean that I take my work lightly. On the contrary, I would like to think. In fact, I consider it beyond just work, and something bordering more on craft. But, that will have to be another post.
*Matthew 6:25
**Philippians 4:19
During my first year in the MA program, an undergraduate professor asked me to write an article on graduate school, to be read by students at my Alma mater who were considering applying themselves. I can't remember exactly what I wrote, but I have the feeling that it was rather uninformed, and probably not very helpful. A few months of graduate school hardly made me the best authority on the subject.
Recently, I have begun rewriting that article in my head, probably because I am almost done with graduate school, and I hope I have attained a slightly better and wiser understanding of the matter....although I can't be certain.
At any rate, I think that the single most important thing I have learned about the academic life is perspective. Graduate school shunts you into a rather narrow paradigm, a mindset about academia that is propagated by mainstream culture as well as the academy itself. This mindset can be broken down into the following ideas:
1) Being smart is the most important thing in the world. There is the mindset, "We think big thoughts! Big, important, but undervalued, thoughts!" I remember feeling the pressure to think big thoughts - not for the sake of the thoughts or thinking or ideas, but to prove that I belonged, that I was academic material. That I was important.
2) Graduate school is necessarily competitive. We must know who is the smartest! Under certain situations, a classroom personality could emerge, a nasty, bullying personality. Everyone trying to out-think everyone else, speaking English-ese and name-dropping obscure theorists.
3) Graduate school is about a series of nearly impossible, soul-sucking tasks that must consume your every waking hour, as well as your dreams. The program is set-up to try you. The dreaded comprehensive exams. The expectation is that in the face of such an insurmountable obstacle, you must become a blithering zombie who gave up sleep and sanity long ago. The dissertation is supposed to daily reduce you to tears of bitter frustration.
4) The only point of going through this experience is to get a good job. And, when we say good, we mean a tenured professor at a top, research university. But, because the job market is abysmal, we will finish our work while alternating between nail-biting anxiety and spiraling despair.
There is another way. This has not been my experience with graduate school, thank goodness. And I don't mean this to be patronizing or otherwise self-aggrandizing. Of course, graduate school is hard. And, in a way, it should be - otherwise that fancy title you get at the end wouldn't mean much. But, I think that we sometimes make things much harder than they have to be by believing the hype.
I believe that there are many, many important things in life. The preceding list, however, doesn't make into the top ten. I'm about to break out the Sunday School rhetoric, so get ready: God is the most important thing in life, and beyond. How's that for perspective? The God of the Universe, the Creator of all things, the One who save us, compared with comprehensive exams? Puh-leaze. Will my ability to make the smartest comment in class have eternal consequences? Probably not.
And the amazing thing is, God gives us words and directions that help us to have perspective on things like graduate school. He says things like, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat , or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on . Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?"* Isn't life more than your grades and your degree? But that's not the only reason not to worry - what am I going to do if I can't get a job, what if I don't pass my exam, what if I don't finish my dissertation? Paul writes, " But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."** I can relax because I know that I will be taken care of. That doesn't mean that everything will work out according to my plan. But whatever God wills has got to be better than anything I could have come up with.
Letting go of the hype is a very freeing experience. It took me a while to get there, of course, and I am not now completely rid of the occasional round of worry. But, I didn't lose any sleep over my exams. I read some of everything on my list and actually enjoyed quite a bit of it (and what I didn't enjoy, I read as little as possible). I am enjoying writing my dissertation. I love my topic and I love the research and I love what I have written. I believe that less stress actually makes you more productive. If you say, in the long run, this doesn't really matter, you actually do pretty good work on it. I don't work on weekends and I don't work in the evenings. I go hiking. I visit my family. I read tons of good, absolutely non-academic books. I teach a youth class, sing in the choir, and volunteer tutor. I knit and crochet and draw and bake. I have not had to compromise my real life for my academic life. I recognize that this is a paradox - the best (most painless) way to succeed is to decide it doesn't matter. This, however, does not mean that I take my work lightly. On the contrary, I would like to think. In fact, I consider it beyond just work, and something bordering more on craft. But, that will have to be another post.
*Matthew 6:25
**Philippians 4:19
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Seeing Snow
My family finally took our trip to Dollywood. We had gone back in September for my dad's company picnic, but had been rained out, so we went Saturday to redeem our rain-check tickets. It turned out to be a very cold day, and as we crossed the mountains at the NC/TN state line, we saw the snow that had fallen the night before. It was beautiful and strange, seeing snow on trees that still had their autumn leaves.
These pictures were taken from the backseat of a moving vehicle, so I am actually pleased that they turned out at all. Ironically, they are the only pictures I took that day. We were so bundled up at the park that it was too difficult to get the camera out anyway. The temperature hovered in the low 40s, and we were all wearing puffy coats and tobogans and gloves. The baby was the warmest of all of us - we kept checking and not even his nose got chilly. Jordan and my young cousin took off to ride the rollercoasters and other adventuresome rides, while the rest of us (my parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and I) wandered around, taking in the various shows and looking at the shops.
As I have mentioned before, Dollywood is just a bit tacky, but quite a lot of fun. This was the first day of their Christmas festival, so we enjoyed seeing all the lights and decorations. My favorite was a show called "Appalachian Christmas," a performance by the Smokey Mountain String Band of various blue-grass and mountain Christmas music. I am kicking myself now that I didn't buy the CD - it was fantastic.
We had a wonderful time, and, as my sister said, "It really gets you in the Christmas spirit." Not that she needs any help - I think she's been singing Christmas carols since Halloween!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Pumpkins
Friday, October 22, 2010
Good Words
Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. - Hebrews 4:14-16
Christ is our high priest - He connects us with the Father. He knows our struggles and weaknesses and can sympathize because He is fully man as well as fully God. Therefore we can confidently bring our problems and thoughts and fears to Him, and He will give us mercy and grace. Prayer isn't something we have to do - it is a gift.
Awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)