Silverwalk Hermitage

Cover via Amazon

Sunday was a quiet day personally and weather-wise. I stopped at least twice by the quiet – the clouds moving overcast together, the soundless trees showing more limb than leaves, the lack of bird song, the stillness. At home, I was pleasantly surprised when reminded by the radio announcer about the extra “fall-back” hour; I still didn’t make it to church but did make it to a church meeting.

After the meeting, I went to a bakery for lunch, deciding to finish watching “Vision,” a film I had begun the night before. The open WiFi, I think, contributed to the poor picture quality as well as the frequent need for buffering. Finishing it at home was more pleasant. Before getting home, however, I stopped at our lovely public library coming out with more books (leaving a fourth behind for later) than planned. “Vision” is a German film about Hildegard von Bingen, the mystic, scientist and abbess in the 12th century.

The books are:

1. a biography, Hildegard of Bingen – The Woman of Her Age by Fiona Maddocks. I enjoyed the film, have enjoyed her music for some time and look forward to learning more about her.
2. by Dan Millman, whose “Way of the Warrior” inspired the quote to the side: “Where are you now? Here”….. It is The Four Purposes of Life and is due back first.
3. a true story by a writer whose dog saved him and his marriage from disaster due to his alcoholism, Bad Dog (A Love Story) by Martin Kihn (who lives in Minneapolis, my home town – another reason to pick it up!) . Always a sucker for a story in which both people and dogs/horses help each other, I look forward to reading it.

My plan is to complete the three physical books by next weekend.  Am in the midst of Michael J. Fox‘s book Always Looking Up on my iPad where I have the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson as well – though I enjoy real books, it seemed fitting to download the Jobs bio to the iPad .

What are you reading of late – and in what format?

Related articles

• Check out Vision: The Music of Hildegard von Bingen Radio on Slacker Radio (itsmybeautifullife.wordpress.com)
• Hymnody – Things I Never Learned at Music School (soundpossibilities.wordpress.com)
• Dies Natalis of Hildegard of Bingen (womenintheology.org)

This past Wednesday, I drove myself and a friend to St. Louis.  We both had appts. in the Barnes-Jewish Hospital complex.  There are friends and there are FRIENDS.  Some one maintains one’s guard but enjoys the company; others, like this friend and a friend in SD, give and take without any one-upmanship nor competitiveness.  We supported one another.  Our conversation flowed from her interests to mine to ours, finding common ground in our love of the movie “West Side Story” and our admiration for Leonard Bernstein.  You learn something new everyday.

As we spent our time, neither of us hurried the other; she was not put out that my appt. took way longer than expected and I was fine with her needing a city driver.  As we spent time together that day and the next, I recalled how Jesus called the disciples his friends.  Were they perfect?  Did they always respond correctly?  Hardly – but they loved one another, they cared for Jesus and He cared for them and consequently, us.  What a privilege to be a friend of Jesus, whom I see in these two friends of mine.

Related articles

• Conditional Friendship. (citesimon.com)
• Leonard Bernstein: The Unanswered Question (comofo.wordpress.com)