Random Wednesday

-Yall, what a great song. A new favorite.
-This week I am housesitting. There's a talking parrot.
-Still watching Felicity. She's a little crazy, right??
-Heading HOME on Saturday to see my youngest sibling graduate high school. Crazy.
-Reading "How To Be Alone," a collection of essays by Jonathan Franzen in which he bemoans the loss of literary culture and the insidious rise of gadgets/technology. Most of the essays were written in the mid-nineties. It is so sad to read, not because he's so right (though he is) in describing the problems with our postmodern culture, but because it's so much worse now. Poor Jonathan.
-Hosting an Italian dinner Friday. Hope it turns out! Ciao!

Happy Mother's Day, Mama!

I'm sorry--isn't she stunning???

My mom is the greatest. Besides being absolutely adorable, with a contagious smile and warm demeanor, she is the most selfless, loyal and generous person I know. She has spent countless hours listening to her children, driving the streets of Northwest Atlanta, standing in the sun at various sporting events, all with complete joy and devotion. Besides being adored by all four of her children, my mom is also a mother to many. As a band director, teacher and mentor, she has had hundreds of students come into her classroom where they learn music and gain a lifelong friend, which is essentially what good mothers become. Mom is absolutely the friendliest, most passionate, most loyal person. She is strong and courageous, she fights for what she believes in, but in my life I have rarely seen her angry or harsh. She is a quick repenter, she lets the Lord work in her heart and is humble enough to ask for forgiveness. That is perhaps the most amazing gift a parent can demonstrate to a child. She gives and gives and demands nothing in return. Well, today at least, my dear mama, you get a meager thank you!

Mom loves yellow labs!

So cute, I can hardly stand it!

I love you so much and am incredibly thankful for you. You have encouraged me so much and given me a sense of myself that I can take into the world. I know who I am so much because you told me and loved me, and taught me who God says that I am as well. You are the portrait of grace, servant love, and selflessness and if I can ever dimly reflect you, I would be delighted. Mom, you're the best and I couldn't love you more!

"Ah, the Saved...what happens to them is best described as the opposite of a mirage. What seemed, when they entered it, to be the vale of misery turns out, when they look back, to have been a well; and where present experience saw only salt deserts memory truthfully records that the pools were full of water." C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

The Natchez Trace

Some days, when the noise of cities begins to drown out your own internal voice, when you are so connected that you are disconnected, or when you just have a Friday to spare, you need to get away. Last Friday, at the prompting of my friend Courtney, I set off on one of the South's small adventures--The Natchez Trace.  Originally traveled by bison and western settlers, the Natchez Trace is now a historical highway that displays the lush landscape and interesting small towns that litter the path from Nashville, TN to the heart of Mississippi. It's the South at its best.

My traveling companion ("was nine years old...") Courtney

Capturing the Trace

The South is America, y'all

We found a great place to stop along the way for farm fresh fare

And met Benjamin Franklin in Leiper's Fork, TN

The Original

Leiper's Fork dowtown

Hiking trails off the Trace

A small creek

at a "waterfall"

40 miles from Nashville but a whole new perspective

The Old Trace

Love for 2012

Also, my friend J. Wes Yoder wrote a beautiful, poignant article for one of my favorite magazines describing his journey on the 444 mile road that I thought of often as Courtney and I travailed just a small piece of the Trace.

 "Vast and discordant truth and legend, where the trees can be more frightening than the ghosts, and a storm more spiritual than a baptism. So the adventure and romance are there, if you are open to them."


One Friday afternoon, papers and tests turned in, we were.

As a teacher, this editorial seems especially true and imperative. Humility is the beginning of wisdom, the ancients tell us, and humility comes from searching one's heart and asking questions of the world and the soul. We must give this to students, regardless of cultural capital or economic status. In our age, we don't need more information, we need citizens and thinkers who can examine their own hearts and minds, who can grapple with emotional and moral complexity within a deep social and spiritual framework. The great literature, the great questions, indeed truth itself, belongs to all.

from googleimages