Thankful Thursday: "It looked like an old painting, but real..."

"It looked like an old painting, but real – everything achingly idyllic in the morning light – 

and I thought about how wonderfully strange it would be 

to live in a place where almost everything had been built by the dead."

John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

This week I am thankful that I was able to take a trip to Dublin, Ireland with my friend AB last week.  I had a wonderful time, saw many beautiful things and places, learned so much about the history and culture of Ireland, had a few interesting encounters, and cannot wait to go back and share it with AC and SC.  I am thankful that I have returned safely to my family, and that the travel itself was unexceptional, though I did return with the flu.  However, I am thankful right now that it seems to be almost over.

What are you thankful for this week?  Leave a comment, then check out:

Top Ten Tuesday: "...a picture of Dublin so complete..."

"I want to give a picture of Dublin so complete 

that if the city suddenly disappeared from the earth 

it could be reconstructed out of my book."

James Joyce, 1918

This Tuesday I am traveling on the second leg of my trip back from Ireland to home and I wanted to feature ten things I now know about Dublin/Ireland, that hopefully others can find helpful in future travels.

1.  Coffee on the menu does not mean coffee beans, it means espresso beans.  If you want something akin to coffee, they will make you an "americano," which is espresso and water.  Also, many people drink tea with meals (and tea time), and most restaurants and shops have whole leaf tea as well as bagged.

2.  You can get delicious homemade Irish brown soda bread with everything and at almost every restaurant and pub.

3.  People generally walk on the left side, just like driving, but not everyone, and it can cause chaos trying to do it "right."

4. People almost never wait until the green signal appears to cross, but dart out into the road as long as there is just enough space to clear an approaching vehicle.  However, they generally do all cross at the crosswalks.

5.  The small, winding roads that go through smaller towns are as narrow and fear-inducing as they appear to be on television.

6.  The Dublin Bus is a great way to travel around the city, and even to some of the more distant suburbs, but having a bus app that works without internet access is a must.  I really liked Dublin Buster Lite.

7.  There is so much incredible literary talent coming from Ireland, past and present, that extends beyond the well-known authors of James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, and Jonathan Swift.  The Dublin Writers Museum did an excellent job of presenting the cannon of Irish authors.

8.  Most of the major national museums are free to get into, and a number of the other museums and galleries offer discounts for students and children.

9.  Even if the temperature is the same as the day before, it can feel much colder if the wind is blowing, necessitating extra layers, gloves and scarves.

10.  Ireland became the Republic of Ireland much more recently than I realized, and I feel an odd kinship to the Irish people I did not expect, now knowing more about their struggles.  It actually sparked within me an interest in delving into specific details about the American Revolution, because I really only know the basic facts that are taught in history textbooks.

Plus a tip about tipping: it is almost never done in Ireland, and servers/waitstaff will give the oddest looks if told to add a gratuity amount to the total bill, or to keep the change.

I had a wonderful time in Dublin, but did not get a chance to see everything I really wanted to.  It is a city literally filled with rich culture, and a week was only long enough to pique my interest (though definitely long enough to miss AC and SC).  I cannot wait to one day bring them along and share new experiences in Dublin, and this is one of the few places I think I could eventually see myself wanting to move to (along with Whistler, Canada).

Have you traveled anywhere interesting recently?  Leave a comment, then check out some more Top Ten Tuesday posts here:

"...come to this hallowed place Where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon..."

Tomorrow morning I leave to spend a week in Dublin, Ireland with my friend AB, so the blog might be quiet (though I am working on convincing AC to write a guest post - we shall see).  I hope to have a wonderful time seeing a new city, experiencing a different culture, and having time to relax, laze about and just read.

In honor of the trip, I wanted to share a poem I like from WB Yeats, an Irish poet and playwright, that I felt was fitting, both for my journey to Ireland, and for my traveling companion.  Hope you enjoy it!

"The Municipal Gallery Revisited"

William Butler Yeats, New Poems (1938)

I
AROUND me the images of thirty years:
An ambush; pilgrims at the water-side;
Casement upon trial, half hidden by the bars,
Guarded; Griffith staring in hysterical pride;
Kevin O'Higgins' countenance that wears
A gentle questioning look that cannot hide
A soul incapable of remorse or rest;
A revolutionary soldier kneeling to be blessed;

II
An Abbot or Archbishop with an upraised hand
Blessing the Tricolour.  'This is not,' I say,
'The dead Ireland of my youth, but an Ireland
The poets have imagined, terrible and gay.'
Before a woman's portrait suddenly I stand,
Beautiful and gentle in her Venetian way.
I met her all but fifty years ago
For twenty minutes in some studio.

III
Heart-smitten with emotion I Sink down,
My heart recovering with covered eyes;
Wherever I had looked I had looked upon
My permanent or impermanent images:
Augusta Gregory's son; her sister's son,
Hugh Lane, 'onlie begetter' of all these;
Hazel Lavery living and dying, that tale
As though some ballad-singer had sung it all;

IV
Mancini's portrait of Augusta Gregory,
'Greatest since Rembrandt,' according to John Synge;
A great ebullient portrait certainly;
But where is the brush that could show anything
Of all that pride and that humility?
And I am in despair that time may bring
Approved patterns of women or of men
But not that selfsame excellence again.

V
My mediaeval knees lack health until they bend,
But in that woman, in that household where
Honour had lived so long, all lacking found.
Childless I thought, 'My children may find here
Deep-rooted things,' but never foresaw its end,
And now that end has come I have not wept;
No fox can foul the lair the badger swept --

VI
(An image out of Spenser and the common tongue).
John Synge, I and Augusta Gregory, thought
All that we did, all that we said or sang
Must come from contact with the soil, from that
Contact everything Antaeus-like grew strong.
We three alone in modern times had brought
Everything down to that sole test again,
Dream of the noble and the beggar-man.

VII
And here's John Synge himself, that rooted man,
'Forgetting human words,' a grave deep face.
You that would judge me, do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland's history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man's glory most begins and ends,
And say my glory was I had such friends.

**Blessings to you all for 2013!  Please leave a comment and share your own favorite Irish poems, authors, quotes or sayings.

Thankful Thursday: "Announced by all the trumpets of the sky Arrives the snow ..."

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.

from "The Snow-Storm," Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week I am thankful that we had a white Christmas in North Texas.  I do not like the cold, but if it must be cold, I love when it is productive like this.  Most of my life growing up in North Texas the times it snowed, or even produced freezing rain and ice, could probably be counted on one hand.  However, SC has experienced snow at some point in North Texas every year since her birth except last year, and she loves it.  She seems to be immune to the chill that playing in the snow brings about because she wanted to stay outside all day Christmas Day!

What are you thankful for this week?  Leave a comment, then check out other Thankful Thursday posts here:

What 2 Read Wednesday:"She was expecting something empowering."Book Review: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frankstories by Nathan Englander

"Deb looks crestfallen.  

She was expecting something empowering.  

Some story with which to educate Trevor, 

to reconfirm her belief in the humanity that, from inhumanity, forms."

This book is a collection of eight short stories, of which I am usually not an interested reader.  I don't know if it is the stigma that, for me, developed from reading short stories throughout school, that it is "fake" reading, of minimal value, and that a real reader reads long works, novels and the like.  How could a writer create depth with so few words?  So I honestly have to disclose that I picked What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank up without realizing it was a book of short stories.  However, having a few plane trips on the schedule, I brought it along and found myself immersed in remarkably deep stories that forced me to think in ways I did not expect, and think about things that might seem unrelated to the story Englander is telling.

Going into the title story my knowledge of Judaism was limited to what I had learned in elementary school when reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, plus various television shows or movies and brief mentions of Jewish characters in books that were not really about those characters.  I thought I really understood the difference between Christians and Jews - I mean, Christians believe that Christ is the Messiah, Jews do not, and that is the end.  Right?  No, not really; it is so much more than that.  

In "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank," two Jewish couples, Deb and the narrator, Americans who live in Florida, and Mark and Lauren, American ex-pats who live in Jerusalem, spend an evening catching up with each other's lives and trying to determine whether the ex-pats have better lives because they are "more" Jewish having moved to Jerusalem, become Hassidic, and changed their names to less American ones (Yerucham and Shoshana) than the couple from Florida.  At one point they are arguing about what Judaism is and what it means to be really Jewish.  Deb argues that all that is needed is to live a life that is rich in Jewish culture, but Mark points out that the point of Judaism isn't to simply be part of a Jewish culture.  He says

"Not if it's supposed to be a Jewish life.  Judaism is a religion.  And with religion comes ritual.  Culture is nothing.  Culture is some construction of the modern world.  And because of that, it is not fixed; it is ever-changing and a weak way to bind generations.  It't like taking two pieces of metal, and instead of making a nice weld, you hold them together with glue."

In this statement, I realized that this is also the problem of modern Christianity in America.  It has merged with social customs and become a Christian culture that one can pick and choose what to participate in.  Christians can now go to a church that doesn't use offensive words like "Jesus," but tells them to be happy, have hope, and become a better "you."  Christians can pass by the homeless scornfully, broadcasting an intimate knowledge that the men/women/children on the street would all be better if they got jobs and gave up the drugs and alcohol, while choosing to spend their hard earned money to material comforts of their own lives because they deserve it.  Most of us are living in a Christian culture, not living Christian lives.

With Mark's statement the difference between Judaism and Christianity also made a lot more sense to me,.  Jews are still bound by the Old Covenant, while for Christians there is only Jesus.  Jews have the ritual Mark spoke of because they still do not believe the Messiah has come, so the only way to seek God's forgiveness is to follow the rituals.  So Mark and Lauren really believe that changing their names, their style of dress and their homeland makes them more Jewish, because to them, it is all they can do, and when they look at Deb and the narrator in their Floridian home, barely going through the motions of required Jewish customs, they feel that they can scorn them.  

For Christians, none of this outward show matters.  It really doesn't matter how deep into the ritual of Christianity one delves, because God's gift of Jesus paid for the sins of the world.  In Galatians 2, Paul explains to Cephas that it is not by following the laws of the Old Covenant, but by faith in Christ that saves sinners.  However, living a Christian life does matter.  Galatians 2:20 says "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."  Christians are a changed people.

The other seven stories in this book are just as engrossing and thought-provoking as the title story, and I would heartily recommend it for adults.   

What 2 Read Wednesday:"...God's love had changed everything"Book Review: The Tale of Three Trees retold by Angela Elwell Hunt

"But on Sunday morning,

when the sun rose and the earth trembled with joy beneath her,

the third tree knew that God's love had changed everything."

-The Tale of Three Trees, a traditional folktale retold by Angela Elwell Hunt

As Christmas is upon us, I thought I would share a book that was introduced to us this year as a great Christmas read.  After reading it, I found that The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt is a wonderful Christmas story, but it does not stop there.  It is also a wonderful story to read during the time period between Christmas and Easter, because it does not focus on simply the birth of Jesus.  I love that about this book, because God's gift to us of Jesus would not be what it actually is without His death, and I personally find it hard to celebrate His birth without constantly remembering that His life would end, painfully, horrifically, at my expense.  It is one of the reasons "Joseph's Lullaby" by MercyMe is one of my favorite Christmas songs.  It reminds me that the reason for His birth is enormous.

The story begins explaining that there were three trees at the top of a mountain who had dreams of what they would become "when they grew up."  The first tree wishes to be a chest to hold treasure, the second to be a strong ship carrying powerful kings, and the third simply wants to grow so tall that people looking upon it will think of God.  The trees do ultimately get their wishes, but in a way that points the reader to God's love through the birth, life and death of Jesus.  It is an easy read, and even SC, who is 4 1/2, completely understood exactly what was going on and who the author was referring to.  The illustrations by Tim Jonke are soft and beautiful, and accompany the story very well.

I would recommend this book as a read-aloud for the whole family near Christmas, up to Easter, and any time a reminder is needed that God's love changes everything.

Top Ten Tuesday:"Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuelshall come to thee, O Israel."

"Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

shall come to thee, O Israel."

-O Come, O Come, Emmanuel 

Merry Christmas!  As you celebrate the birth of our Savior, please enjoy a list of my top ten favorite Christmas songs:

1. "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (Sufjan Stevens)

2. "Joseph's Lullaby" (MercyMe)

3. "Breath of Heaven" (Amy Grant)

4. "O Come all ye Faithful" (Josh Groban, feat. Mormon Tabernacle Choir)

5. "O, Holy Night" (Selah)

6. "Holy, Holy, Holy" (Sufjan Stevens)

7. "Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming" (Sufjan Stevens)

8. "Joy to the World" (Chris Tomlin)

9. "Light of the World" (Chris Tomlin, feat. Matt Redman)

10. "Away in a Manger" (Casting Crowns)

And since it's Christmas, here is an extra song as a gift!

What are your favorite songs to celebrate the birth of our Savior?  Leave a comment, then check out some other top ten lists here: