Season of the Soul ✽ Poetry in the Air

AUTUMN IS BEGINNING TO COME IN EARNEST HERE. Just if case you were wondering. I mean, sure, it rained all morning, so it wasn't the perfect fall day, haha... But, I am 98% sure the trees outside the shopping center near our home turned red overnight, and I noticed a tree in our own yard going yellow this afternoon. Plus, Mama stopped at the dollar store for fall decor this afternoon, and I'm cold. Why do I always forget that this is an evil that this time of year always brings with it? Haha...

And basically, it has me in the mood for all the fall quotes, and I think I'm just going to share these beauties instead of writing much today <3...

All pictures via Pinterest.

<3

Rejoicing in Hope,

Bri 

Of Dragons and Novels

Let me start off by wishing Tori a very happy 17th birthday <3!!!

Since this is Tori's birthday, and Tori both loves Lord of the Rings, and is the main reason that I came to love Lord of the Rings (it's not that I didn't love the books... it's just that 56 page chapters are really hard to find time for when you refuse to read less than a chapter in a sitting), and because Tori is having us re-watch some of the movies with her because she's re-reading the books, and because we celebrated her birthday today with a dragon theme, and because there was a neat blog party that happened, thrown by The Edge of the Precipice, that I totally knew was coming and totally forgot about while it happened... I decided that this would be an appropriate post to share today, despite it's being too late to be a part of the blog party (if I read my own sister's blog regularly, I wouldn't have missed it... but one fun fact about Tori: she changes blog/addresses frequently, and it means that I AM NEVER SUBSCRIBED TO HER BLOGS, and it's a problem, hahaha). So, without further ado, some of my thoughts on Middle Earth...

1.  What's your favorite Middle-earth story/book? Confession... I have only read one book of the smaller stories. So, I'm not exactly an authority here. Next time I read the series, I want to start with the Silmarillion and go through completely in order, but it is safe to say that I don't see that happening until after Christmas. But thanks to Tori, I have quite a good working knowledge of the other works, because she used to explain to me frequently at night the story line of each new book she read (I managed to stay awake about 50% of the time). But I believe my favorite book will always be "The Return of the King". Faramir, Aragorn, and Samwise all get their (mostly) happy endings, and it's got the death of Theoden, which I do not appreciate at all, because I wanted him to have a happy ending too, but also I do, because it's one of the few book scenes that has ever made me actually cry tears. So most of my favorite characters are taken care of, anyway... Second would be "The Hobbit". Let's face it, the style is wonderfully humorous but careful not to be a real comedy given it's perilous setting.

2.  Do you have a favorite subplot? When the people of Rohan get brought into the story, I feel like everything gets even better. It doesn't hurt that they are known for their horses, the Rohan music is my favorite theme in the movies, and that I love how kind Theoden is to the hobbits in the books. I mean, I love Aragorn's story, and I love the way Sam does everything he does out of loyalty for others, but I often think of Rohan/Rohan people when I think of the parts of the story I like best. But this seems like a main theme to me, so I am not sure it counts as a subplot. I think the smaller subplot that I love the best is Boromir + Faramir, trying to serve their people and please their Father, and both having huge struggles through that... Faramir staying true, no matter what is thrown at him, and Boromir's repentance after he succumbs to his Father's path/the ring.

3.  What's your favorite theme in Tolkien's books?  (Can be in one specific story, or overall.) I love that throughout the darkest time Middle Earth has ever faced, they face the future with hope. They fight not for power, but for right; and it's often the small things that bring the biggest change. They refuse to give in to despair, but do just what has been give to them to do, so that other's may know joy.

4.  Do you have a favorite weapon from Middle-earth? I'm partial to the swords, just because they have backstories, and I am all for your possessions having sentimental value. Haha... yeah, I'm not a weapons-loving person at all.It has to have some other purpose as well, haha.
If it had said tool instead of weapon, the answer would have been Sam's rope and herbs ;).

5.  Would you like to be a hobbit? Let us think about this: Hobbits love food, are very social, but love home, but also love to do something new just often enough for you to wonder when it will happen next, love to garden, are short... don't ask if I'd like to be one. Just give me a Hobbit hole, because I already am one ;). 

6.  Do you have a favorite romance/couple? Aragorn and Arwen's romance is my favorite. They are so patient and so willing to lay aside their own happiness for those who need them. It's kind of a back story we don't know enough of in the actual book, but we learn more in the appendix (Mama actually went years thinking that that was all elaborated in the movie, haha), and I think it's sweet. But I kind of like elements from them all, haha :). Someone pointed out that one of the biggest theme's in Tolkien's romances is that they all go through a period of waiting before their romance is realized, and that was based off of his own relationship with his wife, and I thought that was a really neat take from that!

7.  What's your favorite Middle-earth creature?  (Can be "real" or "imaginary.") ??? I mean, by creature, do we mean... everything but the men? I don't want to think that hard, haha. My favorite animal is Bill the Pony. He deserves all the apples Sam was able to give him.

8.  What character do you look the most like? Ah, yes. If you were to ask my sister and her best friend, I am the spitting image of a random elf in the scene where the dwarves first arrive in Rivendale in AUJ, if I would just straighten my hair (the elf who first talks to them, and says Elrond isn't there just to turn around and see him coming). I don't find this very flattering, but... really, there isn't anyone better, because I don't look like anyone,  so, I guess you can laugh over that if you know who that is...

9.  Are there any books about Middle-earth or Professor Tolkien (but not written by him) you recommend? Ahem. I've never read any, haha. The closest I came to reading a book about Middle Earth that wasn't the books themselves was also written by Tolkien, but compiled by someone else, "The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien". Seriously, he reminds my sister and I of a gentleman from our VA choir, and he was really quite neat! 

10.  List up to ten of your favorite lines/quotations from the Middle-earth books and/or movies.
Sam's quote. Obviously. Who does not find that quote (you know the one) the best quote and the perfect theme explanation of the story? So I went with a few "lesser" ones, since it wasn't "top ten" quotes that were supposed to be listed ;). In no particular order, here are ten of my favorites that come to mind/I have previously saved. (But I am thinking of so many other parts that are too long to quote - most of them surrounding the people of Rohan. Or Sam.)

"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."

"'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo.
'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'"

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king."

"Bilbo knelt on one knee filled with sorrow. 'Farewell, King under the mountain!' he said. 'This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils - that has been more than any Baggins deserves.'
'No!' said Thorin. 'There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!'
Then Bilbo turned away, and he went by himself, and sat alone wrapped in a blanket, and, whether you believe it or not, he wept until his eyes were red and his voice was hoarse. He was a kindly little soul."

"There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark."

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."

 "Praise from the praise-worthy is beyond all rewards."

"Hold your ground, hold your ground. Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

“I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.”

"I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them."

Cast Your Cares

As I was reading the other day, selections from "The Cure for Care" by J.R. Miller were shared, and I found the whole article... I wanted to share some of that article with you here, but if you would like to read the whole thing, it can be found here :). 

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"...Refer every disturbing thing to Him, that He may bear the burden of it. “But why should I have to make it known to Him?” asks some one. “He knows all about it already. Why must I take it to Him?” It is reason enough that He has asked us to do it; and if we will not make it known to Him, can we complain if He does not help us? He needs us to learn to confide in Him and to flee to Him in every moment of perplexity or pressure. Whenever there comes into our experience a difficulty, an annoyance—anything that tends to produce irritation or anxiety or alarm or confusion—we are to carry it at once to God. We are to get it somehow out of our unskilled hands and off our frail shoulder into the hands and over upon the shoulder of Christ. It is not enough to kneel down and say a prayer, nor is it enough to pray about the particular matter that worries us, asking for help or deliverance. Only the most simple-hearted definiteness in prayer will meet the need. We must bring the very perplexity itself and put it out of our hands into God’s, that He may work it out for us. 

We are to bring the matter as literally to Him as we would carry a broken watch to the watchmaker’s, leaving it for him to repair and readjust. A little child playing with a handful of cords, when they begin to get into a tangle, goes at once to her mother, that her patient fingers may unravel the snarl. How much better this than to pull and tug at the cords until the tangle becomes inextricable! May not many of us learn a lesson from the little child? Would it not be better for us, whenever we find the slightest entanglement in any of our affairs, or the arising of any perplexity, to take it at once to God, that His skillful hands may set it right? Then, having taken it to Him, and put it into His hands, we are to leave it with Him; having gotten it off our own shoulder upon His, we are to allow it to remain there. 

But it is just at this point that most of us fail. We tell God about our worries, and then go on worrying still as if we had never gone to Him at all, or as if He had refused to help us. We pray about our cares, but do not cast them off. We make supplication, but do not unload our burdens. Praying does us no good. It makes us no more contented, or submissive, or patient, or peaceful. We do not get the worries out of our own hands at all. This is the vital point in the whole matter. 

Or perhaps we do cast the burden upon God while we are praying, and feel for the moment a strange sense of joy in our soul. We rise and go a few steps as light-hearted as an angel. We have given God our cares to keep. But in a little while we have gathered up all the old burdens and anxieties again, and have them once more on our own shoulder, and we go bowing under them, fretting and worrying as before. 

But is that the best the religion of Christ can do for us? Is that the full meaning of the privilege expressed in so many golden promises in the Scriptures? Is a little moment’s rest from anxiety in the midst of long days of care all that it is possible for us to obtain?

...We are permitted to roll our care entirely over on God and to let it stay there. We are to put the broken plan, the shattered hope, the tangled work, the complicated affair, into the hands of the God of providence, leaving the ordering and outcome of it to His wisdom. The provocation, the friction, the burden that presses sorely, the annoyance, the hindrance,—instead of permitting ourselves to be vexed, exasperated or disturbed by them, we are quietly to turn the matter over to God, and then go on calmly to the next duty that comes to our hand. And, having done this, we are to cease to worry. We have given the perplexity to God. We have asked Him to think for us, plan for us, and take the ordering of the affair into His own hands. It is our matter, therefore, no longer, but His. 

Should we not be willing to trust Him? We put our worldly affairs and interests into the hands of men, and feel that they are safe. We commit our sicknesses to the skill of our physician. Business complications we confide to the wisdom of our lawyer. A broken machine we turn over to a mechanic. Is not God wise enough to manage the complications of our lives, and to bring order and beauty out of them? Has He not skill enough? Is He not our Father? and will He not always do the very best and wisest thing for us? Should we not trust Him, and cease to be anxious about anything that we have committed to Him? Is not anxiety doubt and unbelief? and is not doubt and unbelief sin?..."

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We give our worries to God, but go on worrying still, and this is the cause of our cares. 

I don't know about you, but  I know I have been guilty of this many times. I know God can and will answer all prayers in the best way, but so often after prayer I am left worrying that the answer will be different than what I would like, or will not happen quickly. But when I pray and leave those burdens at His feet, and do not pick them up again in fear, I am able to trust Him. "Is not doubt and unbelief sin?" When we doubt our Savior's plan or timing or answer, we are saying we know better what should happen. We, the fallible creatures with limited sight, doubt the plans of the infallible sovereign God who not only sees but has ordained the entire view of our life since before the world was made. Yet He continues to invite us to "Come unto Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28-29)

And when our hearts are trusting and aligned in Him, the cares of this world are no longer ours to bear, but simple another way for Christ to show His power in our weakness, and we find rest. 

Rejoicing in Hope,

Bri <3

Is there something I may prayer with you about, dear friends? Let us give all our troubles to Him and encourage each other in fellowship through Him!

It is Finished!

May we praise our Lord for the great love he has shown to us, that "we should be called the children of God", because we "who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ"! For "though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

We have "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God", but "even though "our sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool," because "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed"!

 Happy Resurrection Sunday to each of you :)!

Snowflakes...

I've been looking forward to quilling some snowflakes ever since I found some on Pinterest last July when I first discovered quilling. I really wanted to do it while there was snow outside, because I'm crazy like that, so I was thrilled when I woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground :). It wasn't enough to have any fun in, but it was enough to make quilling seem the perfect activity :)!

I was especially pleased that Tori agreed to help me! It was the first project that she's ever helped me with (and might be the last given her interest after trying it... heehee!), but we had fun :)

Our snowflake :)! I need to get a frame for it, but I love how it turned out...

"Our footsteps always follow us on days when its been snowing, They always show us where we've been, but never where we're going." ~A. A. Milne

Words on Obedience from Elizabeth Prentiss