Random Sticky Notes

Clutter. I hate it. Little bits and pieces of stuff--life really--hanging around. Mostly clutter doesn't have a place to call its own, so it just gets put wherever. By the front door, or stuffed to the edge of the counter pretending it cannot be seen. Until I see it, that is.

Real clutter is easier to handle than clutter in my mind. Little things and big things bounce around from the front of my attention, then get relegated to the shadows, only to squeeze their way back into the light.

I think I'll just post them here. Perhaps all these disparate pieces of mental stickies will find purpose and meaning living on a blog post...

"Our practice is always to resurrect our selves, going back to the mind and the body with the help of mindful breathing and walking. This will produce our true presence in the here and now. Then we will become alive again. We will be like dead people reborn. We are free from the past, we are free from the future, we are capable of establishing ourselves in the here and now. That is the basic practice of Buddhism." 

(Thich Nhat Hahn, No Death, No Fear, 2002, pp. 98)

This Wednesday, Jennifer Harvey will be lecturing on PLU's campus as part of the Knutson Religion Department Lecture Series. Her book, Dear White Christians, of which I have had the pleasure of reading a couple chapters, is well-written and worthy of a peek.



Another book in the cue for reading is American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell. Recommended by one of my favorite profs, this looks like a meaty, but accessible read. Take a sneak peek HERE. "Based on two of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religious and public life in America, American Grace is an indispensable book about American religious life, essential for understanding our nation today." [back cover]

Latin snips from the beginner:

audeo, audere, ausus sum (verb) - to dare

nox, noctis, noctium (noun) - night

fortis, forte (adj) - brave, strong

res gestae (f. pl.) - revolution!

On the music wish-list:

winter cold season is coming...

"More than ever before it is possible to appreciate the fervid quality of religious experience in the late Middle Ages. It was an age marked by unusual religious practices--by flagellants, visionaries, and ascetics--all of whom burned with the intuition that the realm of God was separated from the human by the thinnest of membranes. Like daily life itself, religious practice was earthy and physical. Pain and suffering were vestibules for the holy; miracles were evidence of it." (Catherine of Siena: A Passionate Life, by Don Brophy, pp.244-45)

Catherine of Siena is the subject of my capstone research this year. There are a LOT of stickies hanging around about her, that's for sure! I'll share more stickies later.

Concerning that clutter: "I came to the conclusion that the best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item in one's hand and ask: 'Does this spark joy?' If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it. This is not only the simplest but also the most accurate yardstick by which to judge." ~Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

On the do-list: organize that amazingly chaotic sock drawer!!

So, that's all the clutter for now. Phew! 

Until the next time...