What Does Your Face Say?

If you are a fan of Jeff Berryman's book "Leaving Ruin", you will know why I like his blog. I recommend you read his entry on "The Yes Face".

Gives one pause - it's a face I'd like to have more often!

It's Still Summer in Michigan

It may say September on the calendar, but today is too lovely to be called fall. I am so lucky to be able to walk to the state park from my house, and I always enjoy it so on days like these when families take advantage of the summery weather. Today I saw a man painting in long white pants, short sleeve shirt and a straw hat with an easel set up by Lake Mac. He could have been a scene in a book, or a painting from long ago times. Another curious thing I saw was a little dog being "walked" in a stroller. I have to say this seems a bit cruel and unusual for a dog who looked to be perfectly healthy. Don't folks know dogs like to run about? But the best part is coming up to the channel just prior to entering the beach area. I love the little toddlers with their diapered bubble butts poking out of their shorts, and their little bare chests and toes as they run through the sand. This one was following a "doggie, doggie, doggie", all the while pointing at the doggie and running as best he could in the sand. I love seeing the families with the little towheads eating their hot dogs and drinking their pop at the picnic tables along the channel (we do live in Holland, so they really are mostly tow-heads). Lovers of all ages, newly in love couples strolling with their blankets and picnic supplies to watch the sunset, grandmothers and grandfathers sitting on their chairs either with their children and grandchildren, or without. Middle age couples reading in their camp chairs or grilling with friends. There is a relaxed ambiance about it all that is charming to me. Some nights when I walk, the older folks are sitting in their chairs and listening to the Tigers on the radio, enjoying the last days of the beach and baseball.

Fishermen/women of all ages are out as well. Some walking with their poles to the end of the pier, some along the channel, and one lucky fellow caught a big one while chugging through the channel to the big lake. There were cheers all around for him. In these lazy summer days everyone is warmly welcoming to those that cross their paths.

Sailboats on the lake, people on ski-doos, and a few die hard families still sitting on shore with their blankets and umbrellas, determined to soak it all in before fall blows in.

I enjoyed some time on a lookout just soaking in the sun, listening to my music, and thinking how serene it all is. It seems surreal that I get to enjoy this, and that others in the world are enduring war, poverty, illness and death. I need to be a lot more grateful for what I have.

When I turned to leave, I heard the wind rustling in the Aspens, and discovered, they not only sound like rain, but also an awful lot like when we turn the pages of our sermon taking notes in church! I passed a couple that had been reading and restrained myself from accosting a perfect stranger to see if he liked The Shack. As I sat on a boulder and emptied the sand from my sandals, the sun glinted off the beach grass and it looked for all the world like the grass that we put in Easter baskets.

It won't be long and this beach scene will change. The clouds will be dark and low, and the sun will turn the cloud edges shades of gold. The leaves will be golden as well, and will gently float to the ground. A friend once told me about a poem with these lines "Margaret are you grieving over golden grove unleaving" (Gerard Manley Hopkins) I always think of this poem in the fall. But for now, it is still summer in Michigan :-)

Leelanau and Andrew Peterson

So, what do Leelanau and Andrew Peterson have in common? Nothing really, I just happened to hear some of his songs while we were driving home, which led to me looking them up on itunes and downloading an entire album, something I don't usually do!

First, Leelanau - we had a great weekend. I read Jodi Picoult's book Handle with Care (see previous post), relaxed in the sun, ate at Boone's, Freshwater Lodge, and had ice cream with the cows. Have you been to Moomer's? Good Morning America voted it as having the "best" ice cream, I just for some strange reason like going and eating my ice cream while watching the cows. Boone's, of course, is always good, and they have some affiliates in Grand Rapids and Muskegon. If you have eaten at any of these places, let me know how they were: The Omelette Shoppe, Bagel Beanery, Sundance Grill, Bear Lake Tavern, and Alleyway Bar and Grill. Ron and I are always up for a good meal! Freshwater Lodge is in Traverse City, there are lots of dead fish and other animals hanging up if you like that sort of thing :-).

Now, for Andrew Peterson. I heard his "All Things New" on the way home, and immediately looked it up in itunes. I listened to the little clip you get with each song and decided I needed them all. If you don't know Andrew Peterson, he's kind of folksy, guitary, mellow singer. I love so many of the words in the songs - in All Things New:

"Come broken and weary, come battered and bruised, my Jesus makes all things new.

In All You'll Ever Need:

"The blood of Jesus, it is like the widow’s oil: it’s enough to pay the price to set you free. It can fill up every jar and every heart that ever beat. When it’s all you have it’s all you’ll ever need."

From Love is a Good Thing

"Love is a good thing. It’ll follow you down to the ruin of your great divide, and open the wounds that you tried to hide. And there in the rubble of the heart that died you’ll find a good thing. Love is a good thing."

My favorite from the Album is The Good Confession: I Believe

"All I know is that I was blind but now I see that though I kick and scream, Love is leading me. And every step of the way his grace is making me; with every breath I breathe, he is saving me. And I believe. So when my body’s weak and the day is long, when I feel my faith is all but gone, I’ll remember when I sing this song that I believe. I believe he is the Christ, Son of the living God, my Lord, my Savior."

(Tonia, when I hear this song I just feel joy and think of your daughter dancing!)

I also discovered I liked his Lay Me Down from the Far Country Album:

I’ll open up my eyes on the skies I’ve never known
In the place where I belong
And I’ll realize His love is just another word for Home

I believe in the holy shores of uncreated light
I believe there is power in the blood
And all of the death that ever was,
If you set it next to life
I believe it would barely fill a cup
‘Cause I believe there’s power in the blood

When you lay me down to die
So long, boys, so long, girls
Lay me down and let me say goodbye to this world
You can lay me anywhere
But just remember this
When you lay me down to die
You lay me down to live

The words are even better with the music. The only song I ever knew from him before was some goofy song about cartoons. I think he may become a new favorite.

"Handle With Care" by Jodi Picoult

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Disturbing but good, thought provoking like most of Picoult's books. I loved how she took recipes and used that terminology to relate to life. For example:

"Tempering: to heat slowly and gradually. Most of the time when we talk about a temper, we mean a qwuickness to anger. In cooking, though, tempering is about making something stronger by taking your time. You temper eggs by adding a hot liquid in small increments. The idea is to raise their temperature without causing them to curdle. The result is a stirred custard that can be used as a dessert sauce or incorporated into a complex dessert. Here's something interesting: the consistency of the finished product has nothing to do with the type of liquid used to heat it. The more eggs you use, the thicker and richer the final product will be. Or in other words, it's the substance you've got when you start that determines the outcome."

I like also how she wordsmithed the first chapter -

"Things break all the time. Glass, and dishes, and fingernails. Cars and contracts and potato chips. You can break a record, a horse, a dollar. You can break the ice. There are coffee breaks and lunch breaks and prison breaks. Day breaks, waves break, voices break. Chains can be broken. So can silence, and fever."I don't believe I've ever thought of the word breaks in all those different waves.

I've told you a little about the book without really telling you anything. It is a story about choices, and how those choices affect our lives and the lives of others. About priorities, and are yours and mine in the right places. If you read it, call me up so we can talk about it!

View all my reviews >>

While Away Your Day with a Book

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book captured and kept my interest, and was a great way to while away a Saturday and Sunday. A fascinating story from the past is being made into a film, an elderly lady who was on the periphery of the story is still alive, and knows the secret behind the story. The book weaves back and forth between her memories and her present life. I feel like this book was more a tale than a story. Webster's says a tale is: a report of a private or confidential matter; a usually imaginative narrative of an event. That's what this book felt like to me.

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A Walk on the Beach

I meandered to the beach tonight. It was such beautiful weather, and who knows how long it will last. My plan was to sit on the swing and watch the sunset, but the swing was too tight, and my legs were too long, so it wasn't very comfortable. Instead, I perched on a picnic table on a small hill by the side of the channel. I was surrounded by a stand of Aspens. As the light breeze blew through the Aspens you heard a sound like a light rain on your rooftop. It was so relaxing. The sun was low in the sky and it looked so pretty through a screen of beach grass. I would have liked to have placed my bed there for the night, it was such a perfect setting. There were no clouds, so the sunset was basically a line of pink above the water, but soon, when real Fall hits, and the clouds are hanging low in the sky they will be lit with shades of gold. One of my favorite times of year. So funny, watched the sunset, and walked home with the moon which was shining very brightly from the sun's light. About halfway home I started to hear the tree toads. I love the sound of tree toads, which is kind of weird cuz some of them sound like squeaky tennis shoes on the gym floor, and some of them sound like two sticks rubbing or tapping together. Here and there you would hear the techy sound of a cricket, and sometimes the chirping that a cricket makes. Throw in the sound of a dog barking here and there and it sounded suspiciously like music!