I offically call to order the first meeting of the GMH (Gerard Manley Hopkins) Book Club. I happen to be the only member at this present moment (with a potential second in the wings), but I hope for comments and participation.

I was introduced to G.m.H. sometime in high school–don’t remember exactly when–but his poetry became most effective when I first read his poem “The Windhover” for a college seminar class. I ended up writing a paper on Hopkins’s style and theological influences….but that is besides the point. The point of this little “book club” will be to read through Hopkins’s poetry and analyze them for their metaphorical and theological wealth. Eventually, I would like to find similar writers to throw into the mix, but we’ll start with Hopkins (since he’s the best!).

Today’s poem is relevant to me because 1) I am recently married and 2) it seems like everyone I know (my age) is getting married!

At the Wedding March (1918)

GOD with honour hang your head,
Groom, and grace you, bride, your bed
With lissome scions, sweet scions,
Out of hallowed bodies bred.

Each be other’s comfort kind:
Déep, déeper than divined,
Divine charity, dear charity,
Fast you ever, fast bind.

Then let the March tread our ears:
I to him turn with tears
Who to wedlock, his wonder wedlock,
Déals tríumph and immortal years.

This is a heartfelt prayer for blessings upon the marriage of a young couple on their wedding day.
The blessing for the bride: beautiful babies! (“lissome scions, sweet scions” – literally, elegant heirs). To the groom, Hopkins attributes “honour”–an interesting term, but applicable I think when you consider the word as a reference to fulfilling the duties of the head of a household, and the ensuing blessings of living as such.

In the second stanza, I love the typical Hopkins reversal of terms: “comfort kind” as opposed to “kind comfort”. This makes you look more closely at the terms, both separately and as descriptive of each other. The use of the word “charity”, repeated in the second stanza is important for the transition to the third stanza. Hopkins is referring not only to the attitude necessary for both husband and wife to continue in a loving relationship, but the love from which all other love stems–the charity of God. Wikipedia (go figure!) tells us: “In Christian theology charity, or love (agapē), means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.” What better emotion than agape can describe the charitable love of God by which extension we are enable to experience the love of marriage between man and woman?

In the third stanza we find the theological twist that Hopkins always likes to make: even as the bride is heading down the aisle, Hopkins (the narrator) envisions the bridegroom Christ, whose “wonder wedlock” to the church (his bride) results in triumph over sin and death, and thus everlasting fellowship in a relationship of agape with those to whom he is “wedded”. Hopkins here expresses his own gratitude for the immense charity and sacrifice of this relationship with Christ; at the same time beautifully realizing the metaphor for Christ’s relationship with the church in the relationship of marriage.

Read it through again with this thought in mind: We love because He first loved us. With this tri-fold example of the relationship between man and wife, Christ and the church, and Christ and the saved sinner, Hopkins manifest in three stanzas how we ought to go about our relationships in life.

Just a brief synopsis of what’s happening in my life right now:

– Patrick won a trip for two to Mexico through work. We might be soaking in the sun in Cancun by the end of this month. Maybe…

– I am renewing my passport for the aforementioned trip…the last part in a lengthy process of name-changing. Although, I guess it’s really a good thing that your identity is so hard to change.

– I have decided to quit my book club. It won’t make sense to keep traveling so far, especially after “the move”. I will need to find another book group.

– I am excited for “the move”, scheduled for March 13th, although preliminary painting and box-moving will begin around March 1….unless we’re in Mexico. 🙂

– Work is kinda driving me crazy. I guess that’s better than boredom driving me crazy.

– Starbuck’s tall-skinny-vanilla-latte is better than Caribou’s Northern Lite Vanilla Latte.

– I am looking forward to the beginning of my art “mentoring” class led by Nancie King Mertz (www.nanciekingmertz.com) to begin February 22.

– I have planned out our dinners for the next two weeks. It makes me feel accomplished to be that organized.

– It’s still cold and gray here in Chicago. Surprise.

Well, it’s typical. I live my life with the same goals day to day, but even I am inspired by the beginning of a new year –the feelings of renewal and the prospect of improvement. And yet, the resolutions of each  new year never seem to vary much…

1. Lose weight
    Yes, I said it. Isn’t this the #1 new year’s resolution for 75% of the American population? Or at least the female population? In truth, I don’t want to lose weight as much as I want to “tone”. That’s the new thing….toning. Oh yeah, and I want those old jeans to fit again. Whoever said that thing about newly-wed couples gaining weight in their unmitigated joy and contentment…was right.

2. Daily Devotions….daily
   During high school, I used to stay over at my grandparents’ house on evenings of a swim meet or when there was a late after-school event (because they lived closer to the school than our daily 30-mile trek). In the morning, when we would be getting ready to depart, eating breakfast, etc., I distinctly remember feeling my grandfather’s unseen presence in the sun-room (two rooms away from the kitchen where we would be eating) and  recognizing that he was sitting in there with a book or his Bible in hand (never was sure which), reading, meditating, enjoying the view of the trees and the foggy cityscape–beginning his day with a renewed dedication to God. This has always been a mental image of inspiration to me. Spurgeon sits on my nightstand, but these days I only open it every third or fourth morning…or evening. This year, I want to open it daily–twice a day, in fact. You know, the whole “morning and evening” thing. Not only that, but we have received a couple great devotional books for married couples–and I know they are worth a gander.

3. Get a hobby
   I have several person hobbies, actually. I love to read, paint, write (as you are reading), cook, daydream….the simply joys of a self-proclaimed artistic spirit. But when you have moved to a new city and have no company but that of your newly-acquired husband, things can get a little dull (which is not to say that I don’t enjoy Patrick’s company; on the contrary, I think he gets tired of me more easily than I of him ). In the end, it is really a good idea to have a hobby that brings you into connection with the outside world. This was much easier during school, when there seems no limit to the number of group activities occurring on any given day…not to mention the proximity. Things like this are a bit more intimidating in a big city. But, I need to make friends. And it wouldn’t hurt to leave the apartment every once in a while.

**Note: I have since found a book club to join, and am looking into taking up an art (oil painting) class with a local artist.

4. Read More. Paint More. Do more.
    This resolution may be a summary of the previous three. I have a very bad habit of taking up a project…and leaving it unfinished after the initial excitement has worn away. I need a little more stamina when it comes to completing these projects that start out with such a wave of inspiration: finishing the painting(s) that sit incomplete in my “art corner” (although I will make excuses till next week about poor lighting, inadequate materials, bad easel…you get the idea); reading the books that I have bought with such expectation for quiet afternoons spent in savoring the written word; actually getting my butt out of the house to accomplish these resolutions I have set for myself. And most of all, not whining about it. It it so easy to get yourself stuck in a rut when you feel as though there is too much to do and too little time in which to accomplish it. The memorable words of my high school swim coach always come to mind when I feel this sense of desperation, “The more you do, the more you can do.” She is right (as she always was)–procrastination is not really anyone’s ally. The concept reminds me of a particularly good sermon that I heard this past summer (if I find a link to the audio, I will add it) where the main point referred to this verse:

1 Thessalonians 4: 1 “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God.”

That phrase “abound more and more” (ie “to excel) is what struck me in this sermon: we, as Christians, ought to live lives that excel in everything we do. In my notes from this sermon, I wrote “Mediocrity is the first step to apostacy.” And it becomes clear to me how true this is–when we let ourselves slide into a mindset of mediocrity, our life for Christ is in danger of becoming stagnant.

 This is the summary of my New Year’s resolutions for 2009 (and any year, for that matter): to more ardently pursue the Christian life by excelling in any and every activity: whether it be cooking, cleaning, daily devotions, meeting friends in a new city or keeping up with old ones–each and every activity in life must be lived to its fullest extent, in order that it might be an activity glorifying to the God who gave us the ability to do it!

Have you ever been so busy that you find yourself stopped in the middle of doing something but you can’t for the life of you remember what it is you were doing? And you start turning yourself in circles because you can’t even remember which direction you were headed?

That is me today. Incredibly busy. It may be the Christmas season, or it may be that my job is finally coming full throttle, but I find myself overwhelmed with things to do these days. Not that this is necessarily a bad happening. In fact, I sort of welcome it. It is nice to be busy–to work hard and know that you are accomplishing something. I relish the feeling…but sometimes it takes a little while to gear up for it. I think I have been “gearing up” for the past three months, and perhaps now I am ready to take on this challenge with which life has presented me? That of married life, adult life, job life, home life….get-a-life? Maybe I am subconsciously preparing myself to turn a new leaf in the upcoming new year, but even if I do, it will  be with a long list of “to-do’s” remaining from 2008…

So, this morning I had a knock-down, drag-out fight with my coffee maker.

I guess you could say I provoked it: forgot to take out the filter from yesterday…tried to grind coffee…..overflowing grounds everywhere….baaaaaad coffee…you get the picture. At first I didn’t think it would be so bad. Empty the filter; make a new pot. NO. Apparently leftover ground coffee had been dispersed into every nook and cranny of the inner workings of this high-tech machine. What else could a girl do but take the whole dang thing apart (grinding mechanism, filter, pot, the whole shabang) and clean every single little corner. Needless to say, dish-pan hands before your first cup of coffee is not the best way to start off the day.

But neverfear: I won the fight in the end. Although it is now brewing happily away on my third pot of coffee (but the first that will actually be drinkable…I hope), I am starting to consider my options. Perhaps a French Press? They seem to be quite fashionable. Or maybe I will resort to my mother’s do-ahead method of cold-drip coffee concentrate… I’m not sure if I can relegate $50 a week to Starbuck’s (sorry Dean)…

    OR        ????

It’s always been this way….mostly.

I have always had a fascination with shopping–I love perusing the racks for hours, seeking out the perfect new top, trying on outfits for kicks or just  determining whether a purchase is right for me. And now, this little bad habit has extended to the realm of SHOES. My winter boots were a recent purchase that was a long time coming, and very planned out. I have also been eying a pair of city boots that are perfect for Chicago–just the right height with just the right style (I found them online a while back, but just finally tried them on in-store today….they are everything I hoped for! AND they are on my *Christmas List*) But today, while Christmas shopping–shopping for other people, mind you–I just had to make a spontaneous purchase.

Don’t be too quick to judge (my purchases are not always adored by others as they are by me….especially my DH who thinks I tend to buy “granny shoes”)! They look a little odd in the photo, but they are adorable on! Especially with a pair of wide-leg jeans. I couldn’t help myself from stopping to *just look* on the clearance racks in the shoe department today, and I think it paid off. This pair of NINE WEST shoes cost me only $15 (read: fifteen dollars) and that’s down from their original $69!!! I guess you could say I’m pretty proud of my bargain….not to mention I convinced another woman in the shoes section to buy this same pair. Obviously ,they looked good on me or else she wouldn’t have wanted to try them on. 😉

I also managed to finish most of my Christmas shopping AND run errands for work (meet clients, drop off proofs, etc.).  All in all, a successful day.