I have finished the sixteenth book in The Epic 100 Book Attempt of 2011.

I really enjoyed Their Eyes Were Watching God, a novel by Zora Neale Hurston. It is the story detailing the life of an African American woman, and her journey through life. The book explores her marriages to three different men, and the deaths of two of them. The whole book was really good, but the last few chapters were very gripping.

When I got to the last few chapters of the book, things started to sound familiar. It was like I had seen it before. I realized that I had seen the end of a movie about the book on tv a few years ago. I googled it, and, turns out, Halle Berry starred in it.

I can’t vouch for the movie, as I only remember seeing the last part of it, but the novel was really good. I enjoyed it, and I bet you would, too.

Love, Hope, Peace

Give me a day with things.
Give me something I can stand.
I can sing, but I am lost in the dark today. Please help me.
I am lost.
I am lost somewhere.
I am scared.
Help me be brave.
I need hope.
I need love.
I need peace.
I need to learn to be brave.
Help me learn.
Help me learn and I will help you.

~by Kyra Harmon

(I know I”m her mother, and I may be biased. However, I think this poem is dang good. Especially for an eight year old.)

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Here is another poem that I wrote for my poetry class. Please leave me a comment if you read it. I really like feedback. Hope you like it!

Spring

I set my clock forward,

And wake up tired.

Happy, though, to trade

The lost hour for

The sunshine of expectancy.

The coarse warbling

Outside my window

As Sir Robin clears his throat

To herald her arrival.

She’s coming soon,

Despite the ornery announcement

Of the Punxsutawney pessimist.

Outside my window

Her warming breath still

Fights the chill

Of the white witch who

Stole our fun and

Sang a harsh lullaby

To the tune of

Snowy nights and whistling wind.

But, now,

Outside my window,

I hear her siren call

To leave my work

And join my heart

To a daffodil dance,

Outside my window.

The babies on the branches

Strain to lift their flowered heads.

Blossoming proclamations that

She’s here!

I am taking a poetry class this semester, and this week’s assignment was to write a couple of poems that included allusions. I wrote the first poem about Spring, and the second one I wrote about my baby girl. Her birthday is Saturday, and I was reminiscing about her birth. It came pretty quickly after I lost a baby to miscarriage. My Abby Jo brought healing to me, and I wanted to memorialize that in this poem. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think about it.

Abby Jo

Two years since,

My world began again.

Spinning at a quicker rate,

Leaving me,

Gasping to catch up.

She should have been fifth,

But came in fourth.

The defiant, golden sunshine that

Would not be contained in

Or defined by

A lesser, silver lining.

Not all sugar and spice,

Sometimes fire.

Sometimes ice.

Her evil eye can

Chill you so thoroughly

Only her

Kiss can thaw you.

This unmitigated joy!

Unrivaled delight

Fourth time around,

It should be routine.

But, in her, my heart was

Resurrected.

Sweet enough to

Rot your teeth

Except for when

She’s horrid.

Yelling at her brother

While she sings Jesus Loves Me

To her baby in her muddy, pink tutu.

She believes that her brothers

And her sister

Were born first, merely

To serve her.

So she doles out smiles

And sticky kisses

As they gratefully meet

Her demands.

Her spankings are easy

Her wishes are met.

My determination—

Pathetic.

In her genesis,

Was the revelation that

Life doesn’t end in heartbreak.

But heartbreak gives birth

To life.

Having two of each, people often ask me if I think boys are much different from girls when they’re little. My oldest girl is 8, and my oldest boy is about to turn 7. While there are definitely differences, when they are little, they have more in common than not. They both like to play outside, watch movies, play the computer, and play make-believe. They both like to dress up in costumes, write stories, and read books. They both like to cuddle with mom and dad, crawl in our bed, and tells us about their dreams. They are both funny, sweet, sensitive, sometimes shy, and sometimes a little crazy.

If you want to know the difference, though, I’ll tell you what I just saw out my window.

Elijah climbed a tree, and Kyra followed him up. Kyra climbed down, and skipped away. Elijah climbed down, turned around, and peed on the tree.

Yeah. There is a difference.

I have finished the fifteenth book in The Epic 100 Book Attempt of 2011.

I really enjoyed this book by R.C. Sproul on the subject of worship. Sproul is a Presbyterian, and it was very interesting to me to learn about some topics that us Baptists think differently about than our Presbyterian brethren, such as infant baptism. I really enjoyed the respectful tone that Sproul used in discussing differences between Catholic and Protestant modes of worship. That may seem a small thing, but when you grow up hearing Catholics characterized the way I have, a little respect goes a long way. The last chapters of the book which focused on the involvement of our five senses in worship were exceedingly interesting to me. I think I might buy some incense!

I’ll leave you with a few quotes that I really appreciated:

“Disease is part of the fallen world. It’s part of the kingdom of this world. To bear that affliction is to give the same testimony to the redemption that is ours in Christ as if we were bearing the affliction of the persecutions of the Emporer Nero. Our spiritual response to disease should be no different from our spiritual response to persecution.”

“The danger we face as Protestants is not so much the possibility of becoming mindless [in our worship], although that’s always there, but the real possibility that we might become some kind of Gnostics who think that our response to God is purely cerebral, purely mental. We cannot let this happen because, when it comes to worship, the mind is not enough.”

“It would be the nadir of arrogance to assume that all the good music, the kind that is suitable to be used in the church, has already been  composed, and that only the innovations of the past are worthwhile for worship.”

The days will come when you don’t have the strength
When all you hear is you’re not worth anything
Wondering if you ever could be loved
And if they truly saw your heart they’d see too much

You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
You are made so much more than all of this
You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You’re beautiful

I’m praying that you have the heart to fight,
Cause you are more than what is hurting you tonight
For all the lies you’ve held inside so long
And they are nothing in the shadow of the cross

You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
You are made so much more than all of this
You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You’re beautiful

Before you ever took a breath
Long before the world began
Of all the wonders He possessed
There was one more precious
Of all the earth and skys above
You’re the one He madly loves
Enough to die

You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
In His eyes

You’re beautiful
You were meant for so much more than all of this
You’re beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
You’re meant for so much more than all of this
You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His

I have finished the fourteenth book  in The  Epic 100 Book Attempt of 2011.

Gray Matter by David Levy and Joel Kilpatrick

For those of you with a Kindle, this book is free on Amazon right now.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Dr. Levy felt compelled to begin praying with his patients before he performed surgeries on them. The book followed his journey from making that decision through the different events and outcomes that resulted from that decision. It was very interesting to me, because of the cases he describes and the medical procedures that he did. It was very challenging to me as a Christian, because of how he showed so clearly what putting yourself out there with other people concerning your faith can do. One of the main themes of the book was forgiveness, and I was really encouraged to read about the physically healing power of forgiveness. I encourage you to read this inspiring, intriguing book if you get the chance.

“Forgiveness is not pretending evil never happened, and it is not calling evil good. Forgiveness is setting yourself free by not giving others the power to hurt you again every time you think about them.” -Dr. David Levy, Gray Matter

To view my Facebook album of photos from my Spring Break, click the photo below.

To view my Facebook album of photos from mine and Chris’ trip to San Diego, click the photo below.