The Response: Icon — Jessica

I’ve been following along with the summer online book club at “Heart of My Home.” We are discussing The Little Oratory and like Cheryl’s quote from yesterday, it is reminding me to be mindful of my vocation.

The Call: Sanctification Through Daily Tasks — Cheryl

Years ago, when I was a relatively new mother, I read Holiness for Housewives (and Other Working Women) by Dom Hubert Van Zeller, and though I’ll never forget many of the lessons learned, I should try harder to be mindful of them. Here’s a paragraph from the book:

So it is idle for you to complain about the drawbacks to spirituality that you find in your particular vocation. There is nothing that you are up against that God has not given you the grace to surmount. You can, if you want, turn the monotony and drudgery and the distraction into an expression of love. For you to look down on the factory or the nursery or the office or the shop as being unworthy of sanctification is a snobbishness of the worst sort. Also it implies that you and God cannot bring about a supernatural direction to a work that is objectively neutral.

— Dom Hubert Van Zeller

The Response: View from My Rebounder* — Cheryl

This is one of Dennis’s photos (of a barn near our house). I had it printed on canvas as a gift for his 40th birthday. It hangs on the wall of his office, which also contains my rebounder. I took this shot while I was jumping. I also took many other photos of many other things in his office (well, OK, mostly guitars), but I liked this best. I played with the levels a bit. Otherwise, it’s as shot.

*Rebounder is a fancy name for an expensive mini trampoline. Mine’s a Bellicon.

The Call: Too Busy — Jessica

Luke loves to jump off of furniture and I already have lots of pictures of him in mid-air, so I assumed that this would be an easy call. But then my schedule yesterday kept me so busy, running from point to point and jumping from event to event that I didn’t even get a real dinner on the table. Papa Johns at 4:30 is pretty much a fail. Thank goodness all this madness ends in two weeks!

The Response: Sunshine — Jessica

It’s always nice when the sun returns after a few grey, rainy days.

The Call: Sometimes I Forget — Cheryl

I planted a packet of seeds a few years ago. In fact, I’ve planted many seeds over the years, and plenty have come to naught — perhaps that’s why the return of my forget-me-nots takes me by surprise nearly every spring.

The Response: No Matter How Old You Get — Cheryl

Keep wishing, hoping, and praying.

The Call: A Pause — Jessica

THE SKIES can’t keep their secret!
They tell it to the hills—
The hills just tell the orchards—
And they the daffodils!

A bird, by chance, that goes that way
Soft overheard the whole.
If I should bribe the little bird,
Who knows but she would tell?

I think I won’t, however,
It’s finer not to know;
If summer were an axiom,
What sorcery had snow?

So keep your secret, Father!
I would not, if I could,
Know what the sapphire fellows do,
In your new-fashioned world!
— Emily Dickinson

Response: Irving Penn Rose — Jessica

After reading about Irving Penn on David DuChemin’s blog last night, I did a search for his still life images and fell absolutely in love with his studies of peonies and poppies. Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I tried to honor him by attempting to photograph my little knock-out rose with his technique (or as close to his technique as I could muster in the twenty minutes of time I had). I like how the plain white background gives it room to breathe (which was also the week’s assignment from Be Still 52.

Not Erased by the Ravages of Time — Cheryl

“Many of those who have spoken before me on these occasions have commended the author of that law which we now are obeying for having instituted an oration to the honor of those who sacrifice their lives in fighting for their country. … I shall therefore begin first with our forefathers, since both justice and decency require we should on this occasion bestow on them an honorable remembrance.” — Pericles, 5th century B.C.

The Response: Where Would I Go? — Cheryl

There are days when I look around my studio, which is supposed to be a sanctuary of sorts, and encounter so many representations of things I need to do and things I want to do (but who can find the time for that stuff?) that I almost wish I could simply fly away.

The Call: Swinging Free — Jessica

The Response: Brothers on a Swing — Jessica

…another tender sibling moment.

The Call: Special Relationship — Cheryl

Now that Stella is almost five, I miss seeing those tender moments when a big brother or sister held her close. That doesn’t mean that there are no more special moments — they just look different now.