Monday, January 26, 2009

Poetry, at Hearts' Haven

You may recall last year Matthew won our charter school and then our county Poetry Out Loud competitions and made it to the California State level.

Well, this year, Sarah is eligible to compete............and she won our charter school competition. She was great! I think she has a good chance in being in the top five of county, based on last year's competing students and the schools expected to be there this year. Please pray she can do her best! The competition is this coming Wednesday.

In the meantime, we are searching the Poetry Out Loud website for one more poem for her, and we found this poem below. We ALL fell in love with it immediately! We wanted to share.


Be Music, Night’
By Kenneth Patchen
(1911-1972)

Be music, night,
That her sleep may go
Where angels have their pale tall choirs

Be a hand, sea,
That her dreams may watch
Thy guidesman touching the green flesh of the world

Be a voice, sky,
That her beauties may be counted
And the stars will tilt their quiet faces
Into the mirror of her loveliness

Be a road, earth,
That her walking may take thee
Where the towns of heaven lift their breathing spires

O be a world and a throne, God,
That her living may find its weather
And the souls of ancient bells in a child's book
Shall lead her into Thy wondrous house

Oh, my! Isn't that just lovely! What visions do you see when you hear this poem?

And now, here are Sarah's two poems for competition:

A Psalm of Life

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist.


Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.


Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.


Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.


Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.


In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!


Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!


Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;


Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.


Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Her Kind

By Anne Sexton


I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.


I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.


I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.

Poor Anne sexton. She was obviously mentally ill. Can you see that in her poem? Sarah reads both of these poems so well. She has great emotion. She makes you believe that she believes every word she is saying. Marty and I are so proud of her.

And, now, one last thing.

My friend Gloria is going to have her 8th baby on Friday. Would you please pray for her?

(And, for those of you who think this is Gloria G....remember that her baby is only 4 months old! :) )

Blessings,

Chari


Thursday, January 15, 2009

More Word speaking right to me......

With what we are currently doing these days, these words from God speak to my heart:

From the same source as the last post:


He leads me in right paths for His name's sake.
Psalm 23:3

I don't feel in no ways tired,
I come too far from where I started from.
nobody told me that the road would be easy.
I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me.

American Negro Spiritual




Our next path includes an unexpected trip to San Francisco too take Matthew to an interview on Monday. Thought we would spend time with our "family".........John & Gloria.....as long as we are down there. Considering on Wednesday morning the path was wiped out from under our feet suddenly........and then just as suddenly restored to us this afternoon........we certainly feel God at work here, leading us.

And, as for feeling "in no ways tired " .......well, let's just say I need to get together with God and work that one out. :)


Also, please pray for Sarah because first, before we go tomorrow, she is competing at the Poetry Out Loud competition at our local charter school.

I should have know I would take the time to blog (instead of pack) after I said no more blogging. :)

Now, off to figure out the passport info......maybe we will sign up tomorrow on the way out of town.

Love to you all! God bless!

Chari

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Just the words I need to hear.....

Isn't it always that way with The Word?


The Lord's mercies are without end.
Psalm 100:2
God will give us strength to serve him.
St. Francis Xavier, 16th century

I have finally found a Catholic "scripture a day" website............which also includes a quote from a saint. Now that's convenient! :) I am so happy about this!

Please pray for my cousin. She is in the ICU with a very serious condition.

Love, chari


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Spring Semester Springs into Action

Hello, my friends & loved ones, the few still checking in. :)

I think I am taking a blogging break. If you look at last year's blogging statistics on this blog......you would find things are not much different this year. :)

I have so many things I have wanted to blog about.........ah, well.

I THINK I got our Christmas newsletter done...it just needs photos. I will try to send it out before Lent starts. I promise, I THINK! :)

In the meantime, I cannot blog for awhile because........

-I am trying to get Matthew out of the country. :)

-I am trying to get Anne to a four-year school.

-I am trying to get Matthew into his dream-school when he gets back from being out of the country.

-I am smack in the middle of an intensive basketball schedule for Garrett through our charter school, the first sports team ever, with a VERY GREAT COACH!!!

-I need to get Malachy to basketball clinic because he has been asking for it for months....before soccer was over!

-I have four kids taking classes at the local junior college.

-There is ski/snowboard school on some Thursdays.

-There is skiing or snowboarding whenever there is free time........and, sadly, snow. :(

-I am teaching childbirth classes.

-My house desperately needs re-organizing on one half & decluttering on the other.

-I need to get my seed order in.

-I need to get my chicken order in.

-I need to get the chicken coop cleaned out & ready for the chickies.

-I need to organize the garage.

-I need to write a round-robin letter.

-I need to get Matthew a passport.......but first a certified copy of the birth certificate.

-I need to research and purchase a new camera.

-I need to help the kids make Marty his VERY late, homemade, scrapbooked 2009 calendar, poor guy!

-I need to iron lots of shirts.

-I need to help my struggling readers.

-I need to help my struggling writers.

-I need to plan out a new way of homeschooling.

-I need to plan out a new way to do chores.

-I need to help my 13 year old with her first college class.

-I need to drive people everywhere.

-I need to help my 15 year old pick poems for her Poetry Out Loud competition this week.

-I need to work a few days a month at the hospital.

-I need to re-vamp my childbirth classes.

-I need to figure out a meal plan that works for us, with two vegans in the house.

-I need to get more sleep.

-I need to get to mass.

-I need to pray the Rosary.

-I need to run down to the Bay Area this coming weekend for an interview for Matthew.

-I need to finish Christmas newsletter & get it mailed out via email & snail mail.



-I NEED TO PRAY!!!!!!!
I SO cannot do this alone.
Thanks be to God for His Presence.
I am sure I have more to do.....sigh.....but, for the moment, this is all I can think of........for now.
So, this is why I am not blogging for the moment.
If you actually read this, would you please leave a comment. I am just curious to see who will show up. :)
Blessings from busy Hearts' Haven.
Love, chari