I almost cried as I read this...

Twilight on Sixth Avenue at Ninth Street

by Charles G. D. Roberts

Over the tops of the houses

Twilight and sunset meet.
The green, diaphanous dusk

Sinks to the eager street.

Astray in the tangle of roofs

Wanders a wind of June.

The dial shines in the clock-tower

Like the face of a strange-scrawled moon.

The narrowing lines of the houses

Palely begin to gleam,

And the hurrying crowds fade softly

Like an army in a dream.

Above the vanishing faces

A phantom train flares on

With a voice that shakes the shadows, --

Diminishes, and is gone.

And I walk with the journeying throng

In such a solitude

As where a lonely ocean

Washes a lonely wood.

The Futile Struggle

I have just been a witness to what may have been one of the funniest things of all mankind. Isaiah has been struggling to put down the footrest on our couch for about five minutes. It is not working. I laughed so hard...

Wales

What's been a big theme this week? Wales, Celts, Welsh. That's right, the place that the Celtic knot came from. But more than that, it's the home of plenty of lovely myths, legends, and an absolutely fascinating language, where one of the words for hello is "Cyfarchion". Can you imagine saying that every time you saw an acquaintance? Not only that, but the word for water is "dwfr". Actually, there are a lot of words in the Welsh dictionary that have no vowels, and even more that have only on vowel: y. Y is an extremely popular letter in the Welsh language.

Wales, or Cymru, in its native language, is southeast of the United Kingdom. It is bordered on one side by England, and the rest by seas … lots and lots of water. Wales is an extremely cultural country, proud of its heritage (Cymru means land of compatriots in Old Welsh). Though Welsh is a beautiful language, only 27% of Welshmen are able speak it today, the official language of Wales being English.

Welsh mythology – which I have become somewhat of an expert on – includes fascinating creatures such as gwyllion, gwyllgi, fachen and many other unpronounceable creatures. The Welsh social system in ancient times mostly consisted of kings, nobles, tenant peasants, and slaves. Odd Welsh foods are things like bread made from seaweed.

The most interesting thing about Wales is its mystery. There doesn't seem to be much about it that people really know. It's all speculation.

I was drawn to Wales a while ago, when I first read the Black Cauldron, and after that, the other Prydain Chronicles. Lloyd Alexander, the author, was strongly influenced by Welsh culture, naming his characters Gwydion, Gurgi and Eilonwy, and other Welsh-sounding names. I continued my slight interest after reading about Eowyn and Eomer from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, and rather feebly attempted to incorporate Welsh culture into my "elven" languages, created completely from scratch… and rather in a hurry. Back then, my comprehension of "Welsh" stopped at "the word has a lot of Y's".

It wasn't until a couple of days ago that I realized what Lloyd Alexander and his compatriots from the Prydain Chronicles had been trying to show me all along – that the Welsh culture had more to offer me than I had ever imagined. And, at the risk of being a copycat, I set out to Welshify everything I had created.

Wales is a country of shadows and guesswork. No one knows how fascinating it is until you have been captured by it.

Also, the country's flag has a dragon on it. How much cooler is there?

l'histoire de l'autobus (The Bus Story)

Yesterday was the day that I took the bus from the office to the Blancon's on my own for the first time. I was a little nervous, but not really. After all, the two things I feared most happening to me on a bus were an accident and a changing of the route so that I couldn't find my stop, and I had had an accident on a bus the last time I rode one. The chances of a route change were almost nil. What was there to fear?
I waited for the bus for about 15 minutes, which felt much longer, in a very painful hailstorm. I was inordinately grateful for my scarf, which I pulled up over my face like a stripy bandit's mask. I got on, casually dropped my token into the little thing like I had been doing it all my life, and took a seat. I was glad of a chance to get warm.
As we neared the apex of a hill, the bus began to slide backward. The whole bus went, "OoooooowOOOOaaaahhhh...." as we picked up speed and then stopped. And then slid backwards and then stopped. Finally, we managed to inch our way to the top of the hill, and then slid down in the dirty mush on the road. I let out my breath and thanked God profusely.
My trials were not over. We stopped at a corner so that the driver could talk to a man whose unintelligible babbling communicated that there had been an accident at the corner of Greene and Johson... O, that fated corner, where a car had been rammed into the back of my bus so many weeks previously. This caused the bus driver to... yes, that's right... CHANGE THE ROUTE.
I muddled my way through, asked questions, and walked a few blocks, and eventually showed up at the door of that dear carriage house. I was calm and collected, and did not panic nor did I cry or faint. A year ago, perhaps, I would not have been so cool in the face of adversity, but I think I did pretty well, under the circumstances.

So, everything has happened to me that I worried about... now what have I to fear?

Rachel

This morning, she said to Jenny as Jenny was getting dressed:

 

"Don't put that on. I won't want you to wear that."

 

Jenny was donning a blue vest, and said the equivelent of "tough cookies, kid". But still Rachel persisted.

 

"Don't wear that! Don't WEAR that!" Finally, Jenny inquired as to quoi, exactly, she didn't want her to wear that.

 

"Because it doesn't have a hood to keep you eeoos wohm."

A prayer

There are painful things happening.

God have mercy.

God give us wisdom and strength and comfort. We are most certainly under attack; there has never been a time when the guns are so trained on us as they are now. I can feel it in the very air, a darkness, a cloud that is waiting on the outskirts. Then it rolls quickly over the sun, and we are struck.

There is a multitude crushing down upon us, we all feel it. As we meet on Sundays, we pray that it will lift, we hold each other up, we know what it is to be in a battle. There is no faint nor inapplicable battle, there is no battle that will come, nor a battle that will pass us by. There is a battle now, that we live in, and that we must be prepared for. We must put on "the armor of light" (Romans 13:12).

As noticed by a new member of our group, the only part of us not protected by the holy armor is our back. Therefore, we are not meant to run, but to stand, face the trial and fight. "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7.

God give us the strength to pass through this with marks, but marks of our battle, not of despair. "Less like scars, more like character".

And let our battle cry ring out so that Satan will see that we are not afraid of him.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Brilliant, Holmes!

I just had two perfectly peachy ideas!

One: I could write a curriculum for the Sunday school! Not that it will interest, but nothing ever does.
Two: I had a bloody brilliant idea! I want to be a columnist at some point, and then I had the idea of: why shouldn't I? Therefore, I am starting an online newspaper, with twice-weekly columns from my life, news items, and hopefully! portions from contributing writers and reporters! Here's the deal: Anyone who wants to participate should email me at quillsinc@gmail.com, and I'll review your piece for the paper!

[A chuckle of glee]

Also, please pass the word around to everybody you know... and this means you, Sarah Bee, I know you're reading this!

Hello again

I feel like such an ass for not writing for so long. Of course, what am I to do? There is just so much else to be done.
1. I've been going on an aggressive forward movement to broaden my tastes and horizons. I've been learning about punk rock, and classic rock like the Rolling Stones and all those ancients.
2. I've had about two billion babysitting jobs, and two new clients.
3. School has been like a lawnmower on my head
4. I've got a secret... and I'm going to put it somewhere where no one will ever find it.... mwahahahaha! ( P.S. It's not of a romantic nature, because that would be REALLY gross... I mean, in the mushy sense of gross. I don't DO romantic)
5. Oh wait, there is no five.