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| In case you didn't know, J und A are PhD candidates in Historical Musicology at The Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland (and if you didn't know, Northern Ireland is a separate country from The Republic of Ireland). Let us clarify at the outset that this is not an "online" degree. We are external students, meaning QUB is sponsoring doctoral research projects we are doing.
Anyway, we have a US advisor, by the name of Robin Leaver, who stayed with us last week during the 2009 American Musicological Society Conference. This also fell on the same weekend as The Quakertown Regional Conference on Reformed Theology, for which event I am usually invited to play the organ. So we had two conferences in one weekend. And Robin Leaver was staying at our house.
After it was all said and done, we learned something about ourselves. We recover our sanity from events like this by doing domestic projects at home, either in the kitchen or other home-type stuff. On Sunday we made curtains. So far we have made curtains for two rooms in our house, and J's mom made curtains for one other room. The new ones are in the laundry room, which is where you come into our house.
Then, on monday, we received a new member of our family. She's huge, and 108 years old. Here's the living room before she came:
And now, after her arrival:
As the old Confucian proverb goes, "Two pianos are better than one." | | |
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Sometimes in life's busy whirl you just need to go away from everything and remember. You need to remember that God is. We've been so busy reading, writing, making music and working. So we took a trip to Ringing Rocks State Park, a place we've been many times.
There time seems to stand still and God's splendor mends our tired souls.
I've been learning so many things and many things have come from my committment to write in my Gratitude Journal each day. In it I record glimpses of God. It is a visual journal with scraps torn in and laid down, thoughts and ideas swept up and held, a place for words that line themselves up like a poem, lyrical worship. As the jumble pours out, chaos comes to order and I have the treasure in this broken vessel, topped off and spilling onto the page. Putting ink to paper is a way for me to listen and dialogue with God.
And I have come to see that pilgrims keep walking, that home is the place of story, that one must feed one's soul. I want to become a joy finder. In the quiet I find God and all the lost pieces of my life find their place.
Keep watch in this upside down kingdom and wear joy at all times. Salvage the day's cinders and in the daily ceremony of life and of grace gathering fill sad eyes with bouquets of blessing and remind them of the Father-glory, which never fades. This is life's liturgy and as you travel down the ribbon of road, life, find a quiet moment. Wring out the week past and He will quiet you with His love. | | |
| Local couple convicted of Cruelty to Animals
Dr. Claude V. Palisca Jr. Jr. was in need of a fashion makeover. The Blue Collar was found to be lacking with regard to the latest fashions. Le Chat is someone whose sartorial elegance must befit his social rank and status.
Actually, in the midst of moving clothes from one closet to another, the ole' red bowtie was rediscovered, and I said, "Hey, let's put this on Claude..." | | |
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