I mista speld

Yesterday, I wrote a facebook status update and misspelled a word.  

<<Gasps of horror>>

Being an English professor can be tricky when it comes to mistakes like this.  Sigh.  Usually I catch proofreading errors before committing them to facebook world, but yesterday I was not paying attention and it poofed out into the world where it was noticed by an old family friend.  Hilariously, it was noticed.  Ahhh, me.  I deleted the whole post, mistake and all, and then laughed for ten minutes :) 

The end of the semester is always a great reminder thet I makke lotes of mistaks and peeple love me enywhay. 

100³

One of the best aspects to doing life with other believers is knowing and being able to support what God is doing EVERYWHERE.  I have good friends in ministries around the globe, and it's such an honor to pray for them and to be a part of what God is leading them to do. Please consider joining my friends in St. Louis as they start their 100 days of prayer.  My friend Matt explains it in the video on this website:

http://www.siteproweb.com/100-to-the-power-of-3-real-one

Substantialiscious

Last week I went to pick up my mail from the faculty lounge, and I found a snickers bar and a note in my mailbox. The back of the snickers bar read "substantialiscious" and the note said:

The young woman who wrote it is a student from my very first year of teaching here, and she'll graduate next May (2012).  I haven't had her in class for several years, but every time I see her on campus, we talk about life and love and randomness.  She is a bright, beautiful, vivacious young woman who loves the Lord, and I am immensely touched that she took the time to encourage me.  Christ's love is so evident in her life.  

I'm so blessed. 

I am turning thirty-three in less than six weeks.  There are many "jobs" I thought I'd be doing at this point in my life.  Driving carpool, tucking children into bed, nursing boo-boo's, making sure my husband felt loved and respected -- if you'd asked me ten years ago what job I'd have at thirty-three, those are the ones I saw for myself. 

And yet...

God knew better.  Philippians 4:19.  He is meeting ALL of my needs according to the glorious riches I have in Christ Jesus. 

So this "job" teaching college students -- a job where I am welcomed into minds and hearts so freely; a job where I spend as much time listening and praying with students as I do lecturing and "teaching" them; a job where I can SEE God moving in individuals and changing lives -- obviously, this job is no job at all.  It is the Best.  The Best way to spend my time.  The Best way to spend my life. 

 

Esther 4:14.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?

Italics mine :)  As are these students, these years, and this season of my life.  Mine.  By the gracious lovingkindness of a God who sees the depth of my heart and loves me the same.   

I am deliciously -- no, substantialisciously -- blessed :)

Funny.

A friend sent me this text today:

Chuck Norris doesn't need a twitter.  He's already following you. 

Also, I think these came from the epic fail blog:

Sometimes, life is just fun.  Haha

At the Moment...

I am watching Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I am also organizing/grading/putzing through a thousand student papers.  I am postponing grocery shopping.  I am postponing house cleaning.  I am going to get a popsicle in about 13 seconds and I'm going to try to eat it without dripping all over these papers.

I am, truth be told, very tired of grading papers. 

I am not tired, truth be told, of watching Indiana Jones.  I love a man who loves adventure.  :)

Purple Poetry and Stones Under Rushing Water

Yesterday my Intro to Lit classes started studying poetry, and I (of course) made a very snazzy powerpoint to use for my introductory lecture.  I always have to be honest with my usually-terrified-of-poetry students and tell them that I never even LIKED poetry until I was in my early twenties.  I feel like this confession usually gets a good laugh, considering that it comes from their English professor.  The poems I was always asked to read were so old and difficult to relate to... and then, one day, I discovered this poem by Jenny Joseph:

---------------------------------------------
WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
--------------------------------------------------

Poetry, I explain to my students, can be awesome. The secret is finding poems whose writers express an emotion that you recognize.

At the end of the snazzy powerpoint, I like to play several contemporary songs that demonstrate the power of a strong image -- what a poet/songwriter can express by using figurative language instead of logical usage. 

One of my favorites is this beautiful acoustic version of "Stones Under Rushing Water" by Needtobreathe.  I think it demonstrates EXACTLY how an image (stones under rushing water) can represent a powerful emotion.

Enough Bookshelves

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.  ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991