A New Project

Hello dear friends,

As you may have noted, if you read my last post on New Year's Resolutions, this January I am beginning a new project to prepare myself for the GRE Literature Subject test. I plan to take the test in September and will be undertaking a rigorous reading list between now and then. My study guide is probably overkill for the test (which is the sort of exam that is so difficult, you can't prepare for it enough, but reasonably scaled so that it's not necessary to kill oneself in preparing). I'm viewing this process more as a way to review what I learned as an undergraduate and to develop my understanding of the course of literature in English (and some of its main influences).

Happy New Year!

I have an angst-ridden relationship with new year's resolutions. I love making them--I love making goals and lists and schemes for self-improvement. But inevitably, a few weeks into the year, I stop building the good habits I had determined to pursue and pass through some small crisis of disillusionment. Do you find, as I do, that your list always contains certain items? Eat better, exercise more, keep longer and more frequent devotions. Is it really worth setting goals which I will inevitably fail to achieve?

Some Sunday Service Musings

The church Jeremiah and I attend here in Oxford was built in the beginning of the twentieth century, and it could easily be older. The building was constructed of old grey stone with beautiful stained glass windows, and the interior architecture nods to the romanesque, with beautiful rounded arches and a high vaulted ceiling. Sunday services feel more weighty in such an environment.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A very joyful and blessed Thanksgiving to you all, dear friends! I am sitting at my desk with hot chocolate here in Oxford during a brief respite from cooking. My husband is napping after a late night of paper-writing. We have a duck in our slow-cooker and very tantalizing pumpkin pie on our (small) table. It's been sort of a fun experience cooking all of Thanksgiving dinner for the first time.

Confession

During my devotions this week, I have been reflecting on my attitude and practice in prayer. One habit I notice in myself is a tendency to confess the same category of sin over and over--without really reflecting on individual instances of sin.