I was turned onto this old Cherokee folk tale by a friend and I was moved by it, especially in this Lenten season it seemed to fit for me.
I was especially interested because I have always been told by my parents that my paternal grandmother was a quarter Cherokee. She looked it. My middle name is after her.
The author is unknown, like many fables. As follows.
A grandfather was teaching his grandson. He told him that there is a fight going on inside us.
He said it is between two mighty wolves.
One wolf is Evil: anger, envy, sorrow, regret,
fearful thinking, greed, arrogance, self-pity,
guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies,
false pride, superiority and ego.
The other wolf is Good: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity,
humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity,
truth, compassion and faith.
The grandson thought about it for a minute
and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?"
The old warrior simply replied, "The one I feed."
27 February 2010
22 February 2010
roman shades-diy
I am determined to make some roman shades. We are trying to brighten up our house. I'd like it to look like my home, and not just some place I am living. As we don't own, I can't knock out walls, sadly. So I am settling for paint, hardware, lighting, and new window treatments.
We are painting the appliances black so they all match. We have an ANCIENT Kenmore built in wall oven which Sears no longer sells parts for. It is a hideous avocado (what were they thinking back then, with the paneling and the avocado??) and we're on our third attempt at getting paint to stick to it. We gave up on the second attempt, and decided to just buy new oven...but guess what? The old one is not a standard size, and none of the home improvement mega centers have people certified to install gas wall ovens or do any cabinet cutting. I was disappointed to hear the salespeople say that they don't have people certified to do much gas stove work since electric is the new wow. I hate cooking with electric, and much prefer gas...I have heard the same from other women so I don't know if that information was accurate. Anyway, our budget cannot afford all that it would entail to get a new wall unit. Hopefully, the newest coat will look less cracked and ugly. If not...I'll hang big towels on the doors, haha.
Back to the roman shades. They are beautiful things. I want them, and I will make them. I stayed up far too late after wrangling the kids all into bed trying to figure it out and get started. I made a little progress. Here's the webpages I am using as guides:
http://jenduncan.typepad.com/whats_new/2008/11/roman-blind-tutorial-in-20-pictures-or-less.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Roman-Shade
Fun, fun. I hope I can get some rest and have steady hands to finish one shade at least tomorrow.
We are painting the appliances black so they all match. We have an ANCIENT Kenmore built in wall oven which Sears no longer sells parts for. It is a hideous avocado (what were they thinking back then, with the paneling and the avocado??) and we're on our third attempt at getting paint to stick to it. We gave up on the second attempt, and decided to just buy new oven...but guess what? The old one is not a standard size, and none of the home improvement mega centers have people certified to install gas wall ovens or do any cabinet cutting. I was disappointed to hear the salespeople say that they don't have people certified to do much gas stove work since electric is the new wow. I hate cooking with electric, and much prefer gas...I have heard the same from other women so I don't know if that information was accurate. Anyway, our budget cannot afford all that it would entail to get a new wall unit. Hopefully, the newest coat will look less cracked and ugly. If not...I'll hang big towels on the doors, haha.
Back to the roman shades. They are beautiful things. I want them, and I will make them. I stayed up far too late after wrangling the kids all into bed trying to figure it out and get started. I made a little progress. Here's the webpages I am using as guides:
http://jenduncan.typepad.com/whats_new/2008/11/roman-blind-tutorial-in-20-pictures-or-less.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Roman-Shade
Fun, fun. I hope I can get some rest and have steady hands to finish one shade at least tomorrow.
11 February 2010
progress
I came across an especially interesting blog the other day, and was so pleased to discover another homeschooling mother, who is much more eloquent and learned than I, had put together PDFs of many Orthodox resources for children.
I just finished printing and laminating a Child's Book of Hours. I am excited, because I was rather at a loss where to begin teaching my children about Orthodoxy. We'd been saying prayers, but the resources offered on Evlogia are a great help to me in instruction. The best thing is that I really think the things suggested will bring my children's attention to the prayer cycle in a more kid-friendly way.
My favorite was the Montessori three part cards of the hours for little ones and days. I had no idea how to encorporate Elijah (about to be 3) and Elisabeth (just turned one). If you've raised kids, you know that one, two, and three year olds LOVE cards. I know have a way to involve them that they will enjoy.
I also loved reading this perspective on teaching your children without exactly instructing them:
"A few years ago I began the practice of praying the Hours. With a small, homemade coil bound copy of an unpublished computer file given to me by my spiritual father, I began to enter into the daily cycle of prayer. It wasn't long before the children noticed that I had developed a habit of retreating into my bedroom every three hours. Although my goal was to escape their attention and retreat in quiet, curiosity took hold of them. Seeing me standing before my bedroom icon corner, they would enter the room quietly so as not to interrupt.
As time went on, one by one the children began asking for a copy of the Book of Hours. Paul and I put the file on a thumb drive and had a few copies printed out at Kinkos, giving each of our children a copy of their own. What began as a quiet retreat, slowly but surely, became a gathering.
I have never instructed any of my children, telling them that we would pray at set hours throughout the day. Instead what happened was quite natural and evolved in an organic and very real (and slow) way. No longer retreating alone into the quiet of my room, we now regularly gather together, every three hours, before the family icon corner.
This is not to say that my example has always been worthy of imitation. It has also involved my getting noticeably sidetracked and missing those three hour intervals, sometimes for days or weeks at a time. But by God's grace (and through the prayers of my spiritual father) I didn't loose courage and approached our often abandoned icon corner, each time a little less sure of my strength, each time asking God to help me to come back at the next Hour. Perhaps, in the long run, the example of my persistence in spite of obvious weakness proved stronger than the appearance of strength. If she can do it, anyone can.
Over time the praying of the Hours has become the pulse of our day. Laboring as a family, the temptation to abandon prayer has been lessened. When taken as a whole, as a family, there is always someone who is eager to begin once again, unknowingly encouraging the rest of us to gather just one more time."
When we go through hours of one-on-one instruction during homeschooling, it is sometimes nice for the children to feel that there is not a concentration on them. It's like when I taught my oldest son to read, and didn't know my daughter was learning by osmosis...when I went to start at the beginning with her I realized she was all ready to start reading. She knew her consonant and vowel sounds perfectly from listening, and could easily read beginner words. She's actually surpassed her older brother in reading skills, and I believe it is not only the fact that children are different but that she learned to love reading because it was not pressed upon her...she heard so many times the correct way that it was almost second nature to her by the time she had to actually apply it. I've homeschooled for a few years now, and this happens a lot. It's why homeschooling is so wonderful. I didn't think about prayers in the same context, but I was enlightened and inspired by the above quote. I didn't have a ready approach, other than to call the kids together even if they clearly didn't want to be there. I feel much more equipped to go at this teaching the faith business now.
Sorry if this post has grammatical errors, but I wanted to jot this down...off to make bread, make granola, put the toddler to bed, put the bigger kids to bed, etc.
Oh, as a recent gift from my husband was a touch phone, I was also happy to find this same blogger's link to the Dynamic Horologian and Psalter. Maybe some of you busy people could find use from it, too. Or at least, those with babies constantly in hand, on hip, and underfoot.
Christ is in our midst!
I just finished printing and laminating a Child's Book of Hours. I am excited, because I was rather at a loss where to begin teaching my children about Orthodoxy. We'd been saying prayers, but the resources offered on Evlogia are a great help to me in instruction. The best thing is that I really think the things suggested will bring my children's attention to the prayer cycle in a more kid-friendly way.
My favorite was the Montessori three part cards of the hours for little ones and days. I had no idea how to encorporate Elijah (about to be 3) and Elisabeth (just turned one). If you've raised kids, you know that one, two, and three year olds LOVE cards. I know have a way to involve them that they will enjoy.
I also loved reading this perspective on teaching your children without exactly instructing them:
"A few years ago I began the practice of praying the Hours. With a small, homemade coil bound copy of an unpublished computer file given to me by my spiritual father, I began to enter into the daily cycle of prayer. It wasn't long before the children noticed that I had developed a habit of retreating into my bedroom every three hours. Although my goal was to escape their attention and retreat in quiet, curiosity took hold of them. Seeing me standing before my bedroom icon corner, they would enter the room quietly so as not to interrupt.
As time went on, one by one the children began asking for a copy of the Book of Hours. Paul and I put the file on a thumb drive and had a few copies printed out at Kinkos, giving each of our children a copy of their own. What began as a quiet retreat, slowly but surely, became a gathering.
I have never instructed any of my children, telling them that we would pray at set hours throughout the day. Instead what happened was quite natural and evolved in an organic and very real (and slow) way. No longer retreating alone into the quiet of my room, we now regularly gather together, every three hours, before the family icon corner.
This is not to say that my example has always been worthy of imitation. It has also involved my getting noticeably sidetracked and missing those three hour intervals, sometimes for days or weeks at a time. But by God's grace (and through the prayers of my spiritual father) I didn't loose courage and approached our often abandoned icon corner, each time a little less sure of my strength, each time asking God to help me to come back at the next Hour. Perhaps, in the long run, the example of my persistence in spite of obvious weakness proved stronger than the appearance of strength. If she can do it, anyone can.
Over time the praying of the Hours has become the pulse of our day. Laboring as a family, the temptation to abandon prayer has been lessened. When taken as a whole, as a family, there is always someone who is eager to begin once again, unknowingly encouraging the rest of us to gather just one more time."
When we go through hours of one-on-one instruction during homeschooling, it is sometimes nice for the children to feel that there is not a concentration on them. It's like when I taught my oldest son to read, and didn't know my daughter was learning by osmosis...when I went to start at the beginning with her I realized she was all ready to start reading. She knew her consonant and vowel sounds perfectly from listening, and could easily read beginner words. She's actually surpassed her older brother in reading skills, and I believe it is not only the fact that children are different but that she learned to love reading because it was not pressed upon her...she heard so many times the correct way that it was almost second nature to her by the time she had to actually apply it. I've homeschooled for a few years now, and this happens a lot. It's why homeschooling is so wonderful. I didn't think about prayers in the same context, but I was enlightened and inspired by the above quote. I didn't have a ready approach, other than to call the kids together even if they clearly didn't want to be there. I feel much more equipped to go at this teaching the faith business now.
Sorry if this post has grammatical errors, but I wanted to jot this down...off to make bread, make granola, put the toddler to bed, put the bigger kids to bed, etc.
Oh, as a recent gift from my husband was a touch phone, I was also happy to find this same blogger's link to the Dynamic Horologian and Psalter. Maybe some of you busy people could find use from it, too. Or at least, those with babies constantly in hand, on hip, and underfoot.
Christ is in our midst!
08 February 2010
logismoi, singing
Orthodox tradition tends to place some fence posts around emotion (not that it is not always present). But it is not placed in a supreme place (as is true in much of our culture). Emotions are part of the logismoi, the thought life that often plagues us. Sometimes it’s accurate, sometimes not. Sometimes helpful, sometimes not. Thus doctrine tends to drive most Orthodox music, as well as a traditional concern for “sobriety” though this is a hard thing to define. What I need (and most of us) is healing – of our thought life – of our emotional life- of the whole of our life – a healing that God alone can give. Thus the drive of all of our music is to unite ourselves to God. Not simply to be excited or emotional about God – but to unite to Him. This is different and takes some time, I think.
-a reply to comment on Glory to God
Fr. Stephen's thought that emotion is placed in a supreme place in much of our culture is very agreeable to me. I think also that emotion does not deserve a supreme place. The explanation of why that is true, relating to logismoi, was very helpful for my understanding. Pretty much what I was trying to say in this post, but far more eloquent.
-a reply to comment on Glory to God
Fr. Stephen's thought that emotion is placed in a supreme place in much of our culture is very agreeable to me. I think also that emotion does not deserve a supreme place. The explanation of why that is true, relating to logismoi, was very helpful for my understanding. Pretty much what I was trying to say in this post, but far more eloquent.
30 January 2010
elated
I was going to write a very long blog post about Orthodoxy. Then I realized I can sum it up in a few paragraphs (not Orthodoxy, but my present thought).
I know very little about Orthodoxy. However, while barely scratching the surface I still feel able to defend what I believe. And to stand up for it's merit. I've never felt that before. The closest I got was being Anglican, and that time was chock-full of questions and doubts as well.
When I became Anglican, I starting to feel like I was occasionally able to hit the nail on the head about whole Christ is and what a Christian is and what the Church is and where I enter into all that. I didn't have something ancient to rely on. I had the shaky "because I really believe it in my heart!" to depend on. Folks, I haven't seen half the ugliness that can come "from the heart" that I'm sure some of you out there have, but I can say the human heart is a tricky place. Without God, it's a nightmare.
Even the things I knew have been clarified. I never understood the depth of the baptism of the Lord, and why it is so important. I know now, just from attending services during Theophany. No one pointed anything out to me. You can't miss it. If you miss it, your eyes are closed and your ears are covered! You can't be present in an Orthodox church and not learn. I feel like a toddler, saying, "What's that? What's that?"
And guess what, reader? When I find an answer, it's not, "Well, we do this because about fifty years ago we didn't like what so and so was doing or saying and now we do this...to combat what we disagreed with."
I'm ecstatic like a really annoying, over zealous convert. Unless you read this blog, you won't have to be subjected to it, though, I assure you. I'm quiet in person. Before wine.
I know very little about Orthodoxy. However, while barely scratching the surface I still feel able to defend what I believe. And to stand up for it's merit. I've never felt that before. The closest I got was being Anglican, and that time was chock-full of questions and doubts as well.
When I became Anglican, I starting to feel like I was occasionally able to hit the nail on the head about whole Christ is and what a Christian is and what the Church is and where I enter into all that. I didn't have something ancient to rely on. I had the shaky "because I really believe it in my heart!" to depend on. Folks, I haven't seen half the ugliness that can come "from the heart" that I'm sure some of you out there have, but I can say the human heart is a tricky place. Without God, it's a nightmare.
Even the things I knew have been clarified. I never understood the depth of the baptism of the Lord, and why it is so important. I know now, just from attending services during Theophany. No one pointed anything out to me. You can't miss it. If you miss it, your eyes are closed and your ears are covered! You can't be present in an Orthodox church and not learn. I feel like a toddler, saying, "What's that? What's that?"
And guess what, reader? When I find an answer, it's not, "Well, we do this because about fifty years ago we didn't like what so and so was doing or saying and now we do this...to combat what we disagreed with."
I'm ecstatic like a really annoying, over zealous convert. Unless you read this blog, you won't have to be subjected to it, though, I assure you. I'm quiet in person. Before wine.
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