Jezebel's Spooky Spot

Just in time for a Halloween, a repost from 2009.

When Jezebel’s Papa leaves for the war, she runs away to the forest. Despite the “googery-boogery creepy-crawly catchy” feeling in that spooky place, she claims it for her own.

As the seasons pass, the lonely feeling of missing her Papa doesn’t. Again and again she seeks out her spot even though she’s up against spiders, swamp ghosts, and pixie lights libel to steal her soul.

The book is Jezebel’s Spooky Spot by Alice Ross and Kent Ross and illustrated by Ted Rand. Like Jezebel’s Little Brother, your listener will be hanging on to every word. And you won’t mind reading it again because how often do you get to say “lawse a mercy”?

"The aliens we hoped to meet"

Prime Space is ready to initiate their MarsNOW mission. They’ve chosen three astronauts to complete a seventeen-month simulation. Helen, Yoshi, and Sergei have been selected for being “among other things, the three people least likely to kill one another under these conditions.”

Each member of the team has a support person who is responsible for sending frequent communication.

For Helen, it’s her daughter Mireille, an aspiring actress who has dealt with her mother’s fame and frequent absence since she was a child. She begins a flirtation with Luke, one of the crew members assigned to track the psychological well-being of the team.

Yoshi’s primary support is his wife. Madoka is a high-level executive that frequently travels. Her company designs robots who serve as home-health aides and companions. Confronted by her own robot prototype, she begins questioning what is her true self.

Sergei’s sons Dmitri and Ilya are adjusting to their new life in America with their mother’s new husband. Dmitri begins exploring his sexuality and worries about being discovered.

   

Meanwhile, in the simulator, each person of the “dream team” struggles to hide any weakness or perceived shortcoming that will make them ineligible for the real mission.

In The Wanderers, Meg Howrey couldn’t have chosen better characters to explore the psychological and physical limits of humankind. Luke, one of the observers, remarks on the standards they have set and the hope they represent: “Wise, creative, benevolent, possessed with an understanding about the fundamental nature of reality…We could be the aliens we hoped to meet.”

Our Deepest Fear

I’m three weeks into my graduate program in pastoral studies.

The Director of Worship and Liturgy shared this with us during orientation. My yoga teacher happens to be a fan of Williamson, so I had heard the first part of this quote from her many times. I kinda like the second part, too.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

The words above can be found here:

A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson

My TBR list is growing by the week. Did I mention it was only the third week?

Creation Versus Chaos: The Reinterpretation of Mythical Symbolism in the Bible by Bernhard Anderson

Diary of St. Faustina by St. Maria Faustina Kowalska

I and Thou by Martin Buber

Life of the Beloved by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Love and Responsibility by Karol Woktyla

Method in Theology by Bernard Lonergan

Pacem in Terris by John XXII

She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse by Elizabeth Johnson

The Origin and Goal of History by Karl Jaspers 

The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions by Karen Armstrong