Checking In

I’m sorry that I have not been as regular a poster as I usually am, but I have been busy writing to other people.

To a friend who was dealing with an extra dose of responsibilities I wrote:

“My heart goes out to you. I always recall a quote, of which I do not know the author, but says that it is doubtful that God can use greatly any man he has not first broken.

Brokeness. Not a strong-willed determination that we will follow Him, but a spirit released and set free, walking in the path of sorrow and joy, humbly embracing God.”

In a lighter spirit, I wrote this to another friend who'd lost something I'd sent her:

“Don't worry. I obviously carry my mind around in my hand and when I need to pick something up, I mindlessly set it down and then cannot find it again. It is hard to explain to my children why I keep losing my mind, but I keep thinking that they will probably have a chance at understanding it more when they are my age.”

Another person requested information on TWTM boards about Classical
Composition’s use of “recognition.” This is what I wrote:

“When we read stories that describe a situation that we have not experienced, we may not feel as though we are emotionally attached to what is going on. However, if the author adds descriptions of things we have experienced, we can more easily enter into the story. For example, we may never have experienced standing at the edge of an ocean waiting for a ship to come in. If I wrote, ‘She stood at the edge of the water waiting for the ship to come in. It was windy,’ it would not give you much to let you “feel” what was happening. There is not much in those two sentences that you have experienced yourself, so you cannot read it with recognition.

If, however, you have stood in the wind while it matted your hair and blew it everywhere, if you have seen a pink and blue sunset, if you have ever had feet that were so cold that you have had to pound them to keep them "alive," you will be able to enter into this ore easily:

’The child stood staring into the pink and blue sunset, tugging at her matted brown locks to keep them from blocking her view of the horizon. She shifted her weight from left to right as she tried to keep her numb feet moving. She could not bear to leave her lookout post, but did not know if she could stay here in the biting wind much longer. Would he come today? Must she wait longer? Surely, he would be here. He had promised.’

I don't know about you, but I wish I'd write the rest of the book to see how it ends! What is the difference? Recognition, for one. So in CC you are teaching the beginning tages
of recognition. You want the child to add information about wind in the trees because you have heard and felt the wind. It is something you can add that will bring the reader "into" the story. At this level it may just be one line, and it may not accomplish the task in an effective way, but the child gets to experiment with it so that later she can expand upon it.”

I’m going to go to my email box and write answers to some of your comments. Then, maybe, I’ll see if I can get a calendar made through Sundance for those of you who express interest. After that, I need to wade through the boxes of china, bedding, books, and furniture in my front porch that I brought from my mother’s house. I also promised to clean off the game shelf in my son’s room, and need to get my Christmas list ready for my trip to town tonight. Meals, housekeeping, laundry…

I went cross-country skiing yesterday. Bethany, my non-outdoors lover, asked to learn how to ski! Old mom was able to keep ahead of her most of the time, um, at least until the found herself on the ground. Oh, well. A few muscles noticed the extra activity when she woke up this morning, but all is well.

Blessings on you this week!

(I am now going to give up trying to get the spacing to look right on this entry!)