"The Greeks were right. Live in fear of a grinding end and a dark hereafter.
Unless you know a bigger God, or better yet, are related to him by blood."

--Nate Wilson, Notes From a Tiltawhirl

Bubble trees

For the first time in a year. It gets to the point where you feel embarassed writing anything because it's been so long. But Annie tells me that she still checks this blog because she likes the name "A Bubble Tree" and I'm realizing that I also really like the name "A Bubble Tree," and that's a good enough reason to keep a blog going, isn't it?
By the way, in case you don't know, there are bubble trees in Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, a book all people everywhere should read. They're sort of shower trees; you stand underneath them and wait while the bubbles swell and swell until finally one bursts on your head and drenches you in a very refreshing way. If this was supposed to be a metaphor for the way my blog would nourish and fertalize and cleanse all of your souls or something than my bubble tree died a long time ago, but it wasn't a metaphor, just a good name, and a really good book, so I can go on merrily not updating and not feeling guilty about it. Except I do feel guilty. I think I'll start posting quotes.

The Back of the World

"Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind and it looks brutal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding its face? If only we could get around in front . . ." (G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who was Thursday)

My mom used to do cross-stitch and she said it reminded her of life because if you looked at the back of the cloth everything was a mess of knots. You could still see colors and vague patterns, could still get a sense of the picture; in fact, if you didn't know there was a front, you could probably convince yourself that that was what the picture was supposed to look like. But then you turn it over.
And sometimes we think we see patterns in this world, in our lives, we think we see colors and shapes and then we despair because it still looks like a mess. And we convince ourselves this is real life. We don't realize we're still on the back of the cloth. And you need all the messy knots, or else there won't be a picture.

"The bitter dealings of the Lord are no more permanent than puppy love." --Lauren F. Winner

Credo

"The Latin credo means literally 'I give my heart' . . . Faith is not about propositions, but about commitment. It does not mean that I intellectually subscribe to the following list of statements, but that I give my heart to this reality. Believe, indeed, comes to us from the Old English belove, making it clear that this too is meant to be heart language. To say 'I believe in Jesus Christ' is not to subscribe to a certain proposition. It is a confession of commitment, of love." --Diana Eck, Encountering God

How God works

'Well, you know, that is how God works,' I say soberly. 'He gave you all these things to trick you into relaxing a little so that in a few years he can really pull the rug out from under you.' " (Lauren F. Winner, Girl Meets God)

Which is exactly how I think most of the time. And it is a really good book, despite the overused title.

Books

Yesterday I accumulated new books, which is always extremely satisfying. It makes me feel sort of warm for days. :-) I went to a library book sale, and the best part of that, besides cheapness, was that all the children's books were unalphebetized in boxes on a tarp on the ground, so you had to crawl around on the tarp and dig through the boxes to find your books. It definitely added to the experience. Very rewarding. Anyway, I also went to Borders and I found a really wonderful book called "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo. It's about a self-absorbed china rabbit who is separated from his little girl and goes through a series of very different owners. Here are just a few quotes from it:

"It was a singular sensation to be held so gently and yet so fiercely to be stared down at with so much love..."
It made me wonder, is that how God...?

"I have learned how to love. And it's a terrible thing. I'm broken. My heart is broken. Help me."
Do we ever think about love this way?

"You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next."
Is this how we should live?

(the beginning quote) "The heart breaks and breaks/and lives by breaking./It is necessary to go/through dark and deeper dark/and not to turn."--Stanley Kunitz
Sobering.