Valerie is a 40-year-old, single, Reformed Christian lady who lives in Baltimore. She doesn't remember a time
before she knew and loved Jesus, but she does remember accepting John Calvin into her heart in March of 2000.
Valerie is a member of Christ Reformed Evangelical Church in Annapolis.
Though her career aspiration is to be a housewife, Valerie has not yet found anyone suitable who wishes to hire
her for employment in that field (or, more properly, anyone suitable has not found her), so in the meantime she
earns her daily bread working in communications -- editing, writing, print design and website management.
Unexpected Affection
During my church's year between pastors, we were blessed with a variety of gentlemen who supplied our pulpit (isn't "pulpit supply" a funny Christianese expression?), including one father of a 6- or 7-year-old son with a developmental disability. The day he preached, we had a fellowship meal at the home of one of the elders, and at some point in the afternoon, the couch beckoned inexorably, and I took a wee bit of a doze. After some minutes, I was awakened by a kiss from the preacher's little guy! What a gift for anyone to be gracious enough to mistake me for a sleeping beauty. And what a charming little prince to so freely bestow affection on a weary stranger.
This past Sunday, another pastor was a guest in our congregation. He and his family visit every year while vacationing here, and usually we get to hear him preach, but this year he wanted just to sit with the congregation and hear Glen preach (and who could blame him!). Among his offspring, also, is a developmentally disabled boy -- this one in his teens -- who, as I was conducting my post-service communion glass hunt just gently reached out and took my hand as I passed. Again, a surprise gift of grace.
Thank you, Lord, for Theo and Nathan -- defective in the world's eyes, but perfected in Yours -- through whom You sweetly bestowed unexpected and unconditional affection on an undeserving person like me.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 2:34 PM
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008 AD
And I Don't Think We Ever Grow Out of It
From Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family by Elizabeth Rundle Charles, quoting Martin Luther:
The Nanny City
The Baltimore City mayor's office is evidently calling everyone in the city today with a recorded message to tell them there's a heat advisory. My ridiculously high tax dollars at work.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1:04 PM
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Why Do People Find This Comforting?
I have been to three funerals within seven weeks. I'd like to say, for the record, that I consider that Quite Enough, thankyouverymuch. In conjunction with each of these deaths, someone or multiple someones has/have said at some point or at multiple points, "He/she is looking down on us." Ugh! Creeps me the heck out every time. I've got no problem with God looking down on me. In fact I'd be pretty unhappy to learn that He wasn't. But the notion of my dead friends and relatives peering from on high makes me want to draw the blinds. Happily, I don't think voyeurism by the dead is supported in Scripture, so I can just put on my fake smile and not respond to the speaker. Some people really seem to find the concept comforting, though. I just don't get that perspective. Do you?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 10:05 PM
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Is There Any Hope for My Moral Character?
As most of my readers will know, I crochet. Crochet is the French word for hook, which makes me a hooker. Yesterday I began learning Flash, so when I start using it, I suppose I will become a flasher. What's next? Will I start removing paint or varnish and become a stripper? Maybe I should...because at least then I could repaint and thin no more!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 10:07 AM
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008 AD
The Princess and the Pea
I'm watching a software training video wherein the instructor has used the phrase "is comprised of" four or five times in two minutes. He means, of course, "is composed of." "Is comprised of" is nonsensical. It's parallel to saying, "is encompassed of." And though it is the sort of modern parlance to which I should probably have learned to inure myself long ago, it leaves my aural sensitivities as bruised and battered as the bottom of the princess who could feel the pea 'neath the twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. One might even call it a royal pain. Sadly, the metaphorical bedding of my life lies atop a veritable legion of legumes -- poor grammar, usage, pronunciation, punctuation, logic, etc. ceaselessly assault me.
All of which serves to remind me of how my real, actual sins must batter the spirits of those who observe them. My vegetative vexations are akin to what a man with perfect pitch endures when dwelling amidst the off-key. Yes, it's a real irritation, but it shouldn't be a big, dramatic trial to endure it. I know I've gotten spiritually out of whack when I allow such irritations to rise to the level of anger. Perhaps it'll be a sign of spiritual maturity if I ever learn to stop hearing and seeing the errors, but in the meantime, since I earn my daily bread in part by the sweat of my editorial brow, I guess I'd better not let my senses grow so dull!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 2:27 PM
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Flashback!
When I was a kid, I would often skip worship to go sit in the church library and read Spire Christian comic books. They were way better than anything coming out of the pulpit of that church. I'm not kiddin', man...these things were actually formative in my spiritual life. The biographical ones were better than the Archie ones, but I read all the ones we had over and over again. Anybody else have memories of Spire comics?
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1:47 AM
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Sunday, July 6, 2008 AD
Crocheting Update
Started the year with 52 squares left to go. On July 4 I completed number 26 of those 52 (106 of the total 132), so I'm pretty much on track for the year.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 9:27 PM
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What Does This Mean?
Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him." (Mark 4:24-25)
I know what it feels like it means, and that feeling isn't very nice.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 7:29 PM
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Thursday, July 3, 2008 AD
Netflix So Far
I joined Netflix and made a queue based largely on y'all's recommendations. Here's what I've seen so far:
"North and South" -- Good story. "Sweet Land" -- Made me cranky. "Dear Frankie" -- Me like.
Haven't been crocheting while I watch, though...just veggin'.
Sorry for the dearth of anything sensible 'round these parts. Someday my brain might start working again and come up with something worth saying.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 10:41 PM
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Thursday, June 26, 2008 AD
Better Than Reality TV
Today, still home sick, I watched some more reality TV, but then switched to some lectures and sermons by Jim Wilson. As with his book How to Be Free from Bitterness, which was transcribed from his lectures, I get to a certain point and hit a wall in my understanding of what Pastor Wilson the More Venerable has to say -- right about when it comes time to apply it. But I'm pretty sure the problem is with my heart, not with his teaching. I wish I had someone to listen along with me and walk me through (or beat me on the head through) learning the basic, practical Christian living stuff he teaches.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 8:36 PM
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008 AD
Reality TV
After not having a television for a few years, I finally caved in and started watching some shows online. Today, home sick, I ran out of episodes of The Rockford Files and started poking around for something else. I settled on a reality show. No, I won't tell you which one. It was amazing. There were all of my sins right there in living color for all the world to see. Mercifully, other people were the ones humiliating themselves in front of millions of viewers, but they might as well be portraying me. Scariest thing I've ever seen!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 9:18 PM
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008 AD
Tiffany's at Breakfast
Mom asked me a couple days ago if I wanted my birthday/Christmas present in June or September. Although my birthday's in August and Christmas is obviously in December, these were actually not irrational options as I was there in June and she'll be here next in September. She knew my answer without waiting for it -- I like presents, and the sooner, the better! So yesterday at breakfast she handed me a small gift bag in which was a small package. "I like small packages!" I noted. I opened one end of the paper and recognized the dark green box inside.
In the early '60s, a friend and mentor of mom's had died leaving almost everything to charity. Only a couple items were designated in her will. Since she was always clear about her intentions, Mrs. Sevier, a relative by marriage to Tennessee's first governor, managed to avoid "friends" who were only interested in her money. Mom, loving as she does out of no self-interest, was simply grateful for the guidance she'd received as a timid 22-year-old farm girl come to work in Baltimore. Expecting nothing, she received from the estate some cash, with which she purchased the piano I still have, and an antique Tiffany's blue enamel and diamond watch pendant on a gold and diamond chain (similar to this, but a little more elaborate). Expecting to receive it some years hence, after my mother has died, I instead received it yesterday.
This morning I began an online hunt for earrings I could wear with it, and was delighted to find these, which I think will match just about right. They'll be my birthday/Christmas present to myself, perhaps, though I will have to be patient for that present, as I need to pay off some car repairs before indulging in jewelry!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12:25 PM
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Of Course.
"I'll Fly Away" is just the ticket. Mom called and relayed the magic word from Amy: bluegrass. "Can't she think of something for a country boy?" Yes, I'm a little slow, but I think I can! Now I just need to figure out how to play bluegrass by Saturday. And find a decent chord chart. And learn the melody, 'cuz I always sing the harmony along with Allison Krauss!
E-Mail Balm from a Friend
I e-mailed a friend earlier today, and asked her, "I haven't the fist clue how to do grief. I'm just sort of feeling bewildered and alone. Is that what it's supposed to feel like?" Her response is what I needed to hear, especially the sentence I bolded:
Now I know why you have been on my mind so much. ... R--- said there was a death in your family. I am so sorry. This is hard, especially coming on the heels of your family friend. You know, Valerie, there is not a right way to grieve. Or a wrong way for that matter. It looks and feels different for everyone and it feels different from one experience to another. Sometimes the experiences build on one another and sometimes they are rolled up with the struggles we have in our everyday lives and we are just permeated with sadness. Death does not please God and He grieves along with us. That is my comfort. I know that in my sadness God desires and is pleased to comfort me. You know, "Jesus wept". What an incredible thing. He really understands the pain of loss and how we feel in the depths of our soul the finality of death. Don't try to second guess yourself during the process. Just cry and feel the way you feel. Be sad. It is o.k.
What Should I Sing?
My cousin's husband died early yesterday morning. Junior (my mom was the only one who got away with calling him "Wayne"!) was big and strong and loud and jovial and wonderful. When he and my cousin, Amy wanted to marry, they eloped to Elkton, Maryland, where they didn't need a blood test. I suppose such a beginning doesn't generally portend much good, but I never once doubted that they had a good marriage. They carried on the sort of perpetual happy arguing that assured you they were, underneath it, in perfect agreement. Their daughter, Sarah, is closer to my age (I'm the youngest grandchild of 15 on that side, and Amy's one of the oldest, and Junior a few years older than her), so I grew up playing with her and other cousins in her generation when I was in New Hampshire on summer vacations. They used to get a Fresh Air kid in the summers, so Vivi was a part of my vacation for several years. One summer I went with Amy and Junior and Sarah to Maine for a few days. I have a photo somewhere of Junior caught reading one of my comic books on that trip. It was X-Men, so I must have been in high school by then. I remember learning to play canasta with them on that trip, though I've long since forgotten.
I hate cancer. I hate death.
Amy and Sarah have asked me to sing at the funeral...and to suggest a few possible songs. A hymn seems the likely choice (though I sang a folk song at my grandfather's funeral) I can't handle something as emotional as "Abide with Me" again. But then again, whatever I sing will probably leave me a basket case. A friend mentioned a couple weeks ago that she's told her family that if any of them dies before she does, "For All the Saints" is the only hymn to be allowed at the funeral, since it already makes her cry, and she doesn't want to start a whole collection of tear-inducing hymns! Here are some of the options I've thought of so far:
I sang a version of Psalm 23 at Nana's funeral, and I don't think I want to do that again, unless I pick a different version. (I think I sang Crimond last time. There's another tune I like -- I thought it was called St. James's Air, but I can't find it. Ah...there it is: Brother James' Air. I think I could pull that off without being maudlin. Actually, now that I think about it, I may have used that version at Nana's funeral.)
Perhaps "I Know That My Redeemer Lives." Bob Bennett recorded a version of that, I think with guitar, that I really like. Of course I can't play that well, but perhaps I could figure out some simplified version. (Aha...the red Trinity Hymnal has guitar chords for Duke Street, and I think they're all ones I can play.)
I love "Be Still, My Soul," but I think I'd better not risk it.
"Amazing Grace"? I may be crazy to even consider it.
Any other suggestions? I think a reasonably familiar hymn would be best. Or maybe a Psalm with a tune that would be familiar to those unused to singing Psalms. Or maybe something I haven't thought of yet. I just need to give them a couple options soon to choose from. Ideas are welcome. But I want to have long since forgotten them all before the next time somebody asks me to sing at a funeral.
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 9:23 PM
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I'm watching a software training video wherein the instructor has used the phrase "is comprised of" four or five times in two minutes. He means, of course, "is composed of." "Is comprised of" is nonsensical. It's parallel to saying, "is encompassed of." And though it is the sort of modern parlance to which I should probably have learned to inure myself long ago, it leaves my aural sensitivities as bruised and battered as the bottom of the princess who could feel the pea 'neath the twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. One might even call it a royal pain. Sadly, the metaphorical bedding of my life lies atop a veritable legion of legumes -- poor grammar, usage, pronunciation, punctuation, logic, etc. ceaselessly assault me.
