The Iron Diva: March 2025

Looking out the window....

Gray clouds and snow on the ground. Yep, we're back to winter for a few days.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

Grace is the best method of being restored. Divine love is the safest tonic for the weak patient. It makes the soul as strong as a giant, even when the bones are breaking through the skin. There is no physician like the Lord, no tonic like His promise, and no medicine like His love. - Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, p. 92.

When poetry has done its important work of revealing and describing the hidden hell we carry and perpetuate, it also has this power and privilege to cleanse and renew our vision, and set us on the right road again. - Malcolm Guite, The Word in the Wilderness, p. 90.

Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things. - Edgar Degas, quoted in Julia Cameron's The Artist Way, p. 174.

Experts say that denying bad feelings intensifies them; acknowledging bad feelings allows good feelings to return. - Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, Chapter 4.

I'm thinking about...

I'm pondering over many subjects. I can share a couple.

First, I'm pondering the poetic. I'm rereading Malcolm Guite's The Word in the Wilderness. This is an anthology of poems curated or written by Guite for the Lenten season. I enjoyed my first reading of it six years ago, but only because Guite was kind enough to give clarifying commentary on each piece. Even this rereading requires the explanatory notes for maximum enjoyment. Like my struggles with history, I find poetry another weak academic subject for me. A friend of mine who taught middle school English gave me a few pointers on how to read poetry according to the punctuation rather than where it rhymes. That helped a lot. Now, I'm hooked and want to read and know more.

Another thing I'm thinking about is my book collection. It's been a while since I've paired down my unread volumes. I still have shelf space for the selections I've read and want to keep, but my "to read" shelves are getting a little full. In the past couple of years I've been given a lot of books (and yes, I've bought a few too). I thinking about doing a couple of first chapter speed runs where I go through a stack of books and read the first chapter to see if the writing and/or subject matter pique my interest at all. If so, they go back on the shelf. If not, they go to the thrift store or a little free library for others to enjoy. Yes, I know the nerdy solution would be to buy more bookshelves, but I don't have room for any more. Trust me, when I have my own house, there will be plenty of bookshelves.

What I've read since the last digest...

On Loving God by St. Bernard of Clairvaux ✮✮✮ 1/2
Learning Humility by Richard J. Foster ✮✮
The Power of Preaching by Tony Evans ✮✮✮ 1/2
Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mulholland Jr. ✮✮✮ 1/2 (a glorious reread)
As You Wish by Cary Elwes ✮✮✮✮ (a glorious reread)
Words of Cheer for Daily Life by Charles Spurgeon ✮
The Peacemaker by Ken Sande ✮✮ (a reread: it wasn't so "glorious" this time around)