Apr. 24, 2007
Well, so much for that
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Friends, if you began tuning in again in the last two months, I must say good-bye once again. HomeschoolBlogger's platform will not continue to work well and I need to switch to another host. Thanks to blogging, I'm writing more than ever, but 90% of it stays focused on Wellspring Tea, a business that continues to open doors and grow. Blogging is beginning to play a different role~as a business support more than a personal on-line web log. So off I go! Always sorry to disappoint. Meanwhile... Meet me for tea at three, (and we'll catch up in person!) Jenny |
Apr. 10, 2007
Bloggin Psychology--Part II
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A quote came across my path this week that lingered and rolled around as I mulled and chewed it over. "People's favorite subject is themselves." I reacted first by thinking, "Is that really true?" The more I think about it, the more I admit, even for myself, it's true. Could this be why blogging has become prolific? How many blogs do you know where the author is writing about something other than themselves: their families, beliefs, laughs, book lists, or adventures? For the record, the rhetorical question isn't meant as a judgment, just an opportunity to clarify an observation. So many of us work in some isolation that we need to choose to counteract, whether it's at home or a cubicle. Blogs and the internet provide endless opportunities for reaching out beyond our little worlds. Blogging gives anyone who wants one a voice. I realized after some observation, the blogs I return to again and again are either those authors I know in real life that I love to read or the ones whose primary topic is not themselves, but share common interests. In my instance they often review books. The blogs I drop off reading after a few months are often because I'm done reading about this particular author's day-to-day life. There's a slight light I think I see at the end of the writing tunnel. Its been there a while, but something in mulling the above statement made it click. Yes, some of us can write best-selling memoirs. But to move from writing as a wanna-be writer to a producing writer, the chance of "success" is greater if one writes beyond themselves, for the reader, with their favorite subject as a backbone, not the center. I can write about what I know, me, but if I really want to write for others, I need to be able to move beyond me. Just a thought. |
Apr. 3, 2007
So What's Your Mulberry Bush?
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"All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel..." So what's your mulberry bush? What's the one lesson you have to learn over and over again? It doesn't seem to matter how many times you bump your head, you forget to close the cupboard door EVERY SINGLE TIME? What's the one life pattern that causes those who know you best to raise their left eyebrow and quietly ask, "I love you, but don't you know this by now?" Is this normal or is it just me? Just in case you're interested, this is my mulberry bush: "All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel. The monkey snickered with all of his might, "Look at her high expectations!" It's April and home-schooling moms are in the home stretch. We feel it. It's how I IMAGINE a marathon runner feels when they talk about the wall. It's the home-school time of year to hit the wall. It takes concentrated energy to get through the wall to find endorphins for the home-stretch. So, in order to prepare for this wall I should know is coming, four years into it, I... 1. bought Martha Stewart's newest book on Housekeeping that could literally choke a horse (yes friends with a raised eyebrow, I really did) and am actually reading it. 2. almost decided to host another large soiree' for our overburdened home-school moms (ehem, of which I am not one because I take balance and boundaries so seriously...pride cometh before a fall) in my home on April 20th. ' 3. spend the majority of my free time mentally massaging my latest business plan. 4. try to purchase the perfect wardrobe for May's annual vacation to help compete with my post-two-babies-bikini-clad sister-in-law. 5. decided NOW is the time when my children WILL leave the house with clean faces, combed hair, matching socks, and no sweats on. Need me to go on? Oh, that my mind would be renewed! There must be a better way!! Unfortunately, lower expectations to me means we turn into a beer-drinking, cheeto-eating (on the couch while watching America's Funniest Home videos EVERY SINGLE NIGHT), farting-at-the-table family who thinks there's something wrong with OTHER people. I can't get my brain around it any other way. Yes, I could invite you over for just tea and dessert instead of dinner with ironed linens, but buy a Mrs. Smith's pie to serve? I CAN'T DO IT! If this isn't your mulberry bush, your suggestions/comments/etc. are welcome. Maybe, maybe, one day the lightbulb will go off and I'll GET it. Meanwhile, the monkey's laughing his head off. |
Mar. 27, 2007
Blogging Psychology
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It continues to amaze me the amount of creative, talented, well-read, and unique people I meet through the Internet. One could lose hours pouring over the well-designed graphics, photographs, book lists, and hyper-links available. Communities abound and it's relatively simple to become a part of one. I, myself, have dabbled with the Home Arts crowd, intellectuals, bookworms, fellow home-schoolers, teenagers I teach, and authors I love (oh, and don't forget fellow Lost fans). I find myself responding with a number of reactions to this real or imagined sense that the blog-train is flying by and I must jump on. Somehow a successful blog might prove my worth as a creative and well-read writer. After all, "everyone else is doing it". If there are all these creative writers out there with a simple platform to get themselves known and I'm not one of them, what does that say? And maybe all the other bloggers publish their entries and photographs (complete with hyper-links), leave comments, and read others much faster than I (or sleep less), because where does everyone find the time? A few I've found are paid to write and can promote their other work through blogging, but I'm guessing most of us blog for fun. Some personalities more than others are driven and care about tangible success. Success, of course, can be defined a number of different ways. Success for me includes receiving notice from others, mainly strangers, for a job well-done. I tend to think that if I'm really good at something, others will pay for it. That somehow it will be recognized monetarily. Some people are discovered, but most of us knock on doors with bloody knuckles and look for our chance to prove ourselves. Some of us come inches close to quitting right before our lucky break and some of us may quit not realizing the breakthrough is just around the corner. Honestly, try as I might, I don't know if I will ever be truly satisfied knowing I was a good mom, homemaker, wife, and friend. Honestly, in this life, I long to be recognized for my brain and heart by strangers who will pay money for whatever it is I'm capable of offering, That's the real deal, folks. And so I blog. And I read blogs. (And I don't comment nearly enough, this must change). I blog to exercise muscles and read them to learn.But will it ever amount to anything for "them" or me? |
Mar. 21, 2007
March Catalog Madness
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Its the time of year when catalogs arrive and the imaginings of next year seem so much more possible than the reality of this year. Highly intuitive, I find the planning, imagining, and visualizing our home-school much easier and exciting than actually making sure grammar, bed-making, and long division are learned. The catalogs and wonderful books almost never address sibling squabbling, getting out of bed struggles, or the constant pull of the internet community over our own children. Each family schooling at home deals with their own unique challenges and dynamics, I'm sure. Mine involve more boys than girls, a strong reader and a weak reader, and at least six years of difference in academic levels of work between the oldest and the youngest. Working with this reality looks a number of different ways, none of which I really like. When we work together, the oldest isn't as challenged. When we don't, he works alone and while the work is completed, I'm not sure it's enjoyed. And I find myself stretched between trying to teach the five-year old to count in 5s to 100 with chocolate chips, dealing with my extremely bright but struggling eight-year old's frustration levels, and following the 11-year olds narration and fascination with electro-magnetism. Some days, its exhausting and far from the imagining of dynamic history lessons with colored time-line figures, cuddling during long reads of Little House books, and deep Bible discipleship. Part of our reality is that "school", the academic subjects aren't given enough time which I think means MORE discipline and LESS involvement in other things...neither of which are my natural strengths. However, I will say, its amazing how grading lousy high school writing motivates me to tackle grammar each day. Happy 38th birthday to me! This Friday Plays with Fire and I are getting out of town together, the same weekend BOTH sets of grandparents decided to leave town (how could they?). Between the three children and two nights we've coordinated with four families which means in order for the two of us to get away, twenty-two people need to stay healthy. That's worth a prayer, don't you think? |
Mar. 14, 2007
Latest Coaching Exercise
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Sorry to miss a Tuesday posting, my day for updating this blog, but I spent the day in the lodge at NorthStar, while my children experienced their first day downhill skiing. The lowest temp our car thermometer registered was 28 degrees, but the children began to shed clothing as early as 9:30am and when we left at 4pm, the temperature was close to 60 degrees. The sun shone bright and the clear blue sky meant our first experience on the slopes was a success. Since exiting and entering the gondola is enough to throw me off balance, I didn't ski. This meant I guarded home-base inside the lodge and kept track of the abundance of gloves, sunscreen, sunglasses, and jackets while finding many hours to read and write, despite the abundance of piped-in rock music. It amazes me how much I got done, including completing an assignment my coach gave me last time we spoke. She told me to list IN ORDER the seven priorities of our home-school. Now coming up with seven wasn't difficult, but ORDERING them as in "I need to let number five go because two is more important" was difficult. All deserve number one! I must conquer every mountain every day!! This, however, is the result of the exercise: When our children leave home we care that they are (IN ORDER): 1. Co-Creators. Made in God's image, they are co-creators with him. We want their attitude to be one that knows what they can do to make their world a better place instead of focused on what they can get out of it. 2. Subjects. That they would stand under and accept God's natural boundaries in life. This affects how they eat, when they rest, when they work, how they spend money and when they have sex (ehem...). 3. A Wells. May they feel connected in a healthy way to their family before they are able to make their own. We want them to learn from this family how to treat and live in their future family as well as nurturing their identity as a Wells with fun and connection. 4. Cultured. We want them to recognize, appreciate, and encourage objective beauty and goodness in all the arts, believing "artists are the canaries in the mineshaft of culture" and preserving objective beauty and goodness will help preserve the best of our culture. 5. Conservationists. That they would know the difference between what God provides for our good pleasure vs. what man makes for profit at the expense of others. This involves where and how we shop, supporting local, small farms, the entertainment we choose, etc. 6. Individuals with confidence and capabilities to pioneer their own way with God in the time and place they find themselves. 7. Hospitable, believing practicing and valuing hospitality and providing home for others is a vital part of ministering to others. I think this means that if I give in and visit McDonald's, I haven't fallen off the conservation bandwagon forever, especially if its on the way home from Music in the Mountains. But I don't know if I'll ever serve soft drinks, even when the basketball team comes over for pizza, but fair-trade tea instead. We'll see. |
Mar. 6, 2007
Winter's Gifts and Beauty
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This winter in Northern California, the rain and snow fell much less than last year. Granted, the rain visited us only ten inches less than normal. However, last year, we received 51" by this time over this year's 29 inches. As well, last year, it snowed 20(!) of March's 31 days. I treasure rainy, snowy days. Rain represents comfort. It's sound soothes a churning mind. It waters the abundant spring wildflowers that bloom and die quickly in our Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers. Rain grants permission to read, stoke the fire, and stay home if possible, burning candles and preparing home-made soup and fresh-baked cookies. As a result of a low rainfall year, I find myself not appreciating the approaching spring. (Can you BELIEVE someone legislated turning the clocks forward THIS WEEKEND already!). Winter solstice was two months ago, but is it already time for children to ride their bikes after dinner? Say it isn't so! Why do I find myself sad when facing spring? Could it be because a mild season can't complete the work or present the beauty only winter can provide? Or is it that I'm so focused on what I won't experience to appreciate what I will? The parallels of the soul fall both ways, though I'm still ruminating on this theme of mild seasons. |
Feb. 27, 2007
Fishin' for Friends with My Eyes Wide Open
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Plays with Fire and I want (need) more friends. Plays with Fire's reasons are more noble than mine. He still believes in this romantic notion called, "Christian Community". My main motive is that my oldest son is months away from puberty and I am on the offense. I truly believe if my parents had friends with their own teenagers while I was a teenager, I might have survived adolescence. Therefore, I am committed (I think) to spend time with other families in a similar season of life so I can build a community my children and I to some degree share. But that's all I can come up with. As a result, Plays with Fire wants to open our home more. He thinks its time for an adult-only dinner parties. We made a list of ten potential families. Then he asked me THE QUESTION: "So, out of these ten, who are the three women you would most like to talk with over the teapot?" In other words, "Who do you want to hang with, Dear?" Well, this tied me up in complete knots. The three I picked, sorta, were, surprise, surprise, the ones I know the least. Cuz ignorance is bliss. Actually, no. Ignorance is bliss till you get kicked around, judged, challenged, or dumped by said friends. In other words, that feeling of finding a kindred spirit in the first few hours of knowing someone? Not sure it happens after junior high. All the dis-qualifiers ran through my mind. "Well, she doesn't read." "Bunco, um no. I will not attend a Bunco night at her house." "But she's a Baptist!" (Sorry, but true). "She would find me improper." "No, I think she's a little too flaky for me, been there, done that." "But could we serve WINE if we invited them?" One of my New Year's resolutions was to find three new friends. And I did have a qualifier, they needed to be friendships that would help me become more. In other words, once when my mother dropped me off at a birthday party as an adult, she told me later, "Honey, those aren't your friends, their your ministry." I got mad, but she was right. Will I risk it? To be determined. |
Feb. 20, 2007
Ruined for the Ordinary
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or... Can our pastor live 2000 miles away? If my husband died tomorrow, I'm not sure who would perform the service. Sometimes I wonder if my children will ever be baptized. I certainly question whether I'll ever send them to "church camp", ('course that requires its own explanation). The reason? Because besides our own living room, our family cannot find a place to "go to church". Believe me, we've tried, at least I like to think we have. But the reality is, for the last three years, our worship music is provided by Rhapsody, our community from friends with a few attempts at structure, service opportunities through our local home-school co-op, teaching from a few specific authors and lately, Mars Hill downloads and Nooma videos. Yet, we still long for a place to become our spiritual home. The largest church in our county is seeker-sensitive. Many of our friends attend. We decided at the beginning of 2007 to go six times in a row, give it our best shot. We enjoyed the worship (such as it was--SS churches call it singing), drama, the many places to "plug in". Two out of our three children liked it. So what's the problem? Well, maybe struggling theologically with the seeker-sensitive model has something to do with it. Many Sundays I doubt our family will ever be involved with a traditional church again. So much changed for us when the church of our 20s (yes, our entire 20s... the one we married in, dedicated our sons in) fell apart. We no longer accept that those "in the ministry" are working harder for God than the rest of us. We wait for a church to lay hands on and commission the business men and women lawyers, not just the new youth pastors. We no longer believe the goal for Christians is to make friends with non-Christians for the purpose of inviting them to "Seeker Sunday" and get them in the church building. We wait for a leadership that will equip and train us to serve others during the other six days. We no longer sit under teachers who tell us what we should be doing, but keeps our understanding of God small. We need Sundays to expand our view of him, not ourselves or a moral gospel. So many Christians criticize other Christians who church shop. "Stop Dating the Church" a familiar author (in our circles) cries. We really are the cruelest to each other. To the church at large, we are divorcees who struggle with our sexual orientation and hang out with the tax collectors and sinners...not always to be like Jesus sometimes, but just to have a drink with them. There is no easy answer. The closest we've found to finding a home is a place this technological world allows us to connect with 2000 miles away. But I don't think he'll perform my children's weddings. |
Feb. 17, 2007
Humility
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A dear friend filled with creativity, energy and smarts lives life by themes. Every Christmas she comes up with a new one for her and those in her circle. We lived the Year of the Chick--celebrating what is fun, feminine and hip during '06. This is the year of dreams and she announced it with comfortable AND sexy nightgowns/negligees, etc. (My husband loved mine, by the way). This friend helps me remember to laugh, not an easy task, I'm afraid. Miles separate us from face-to-face interaction, and I have yet to visit with her in This Year of Dreams. So it makes me wonder if I'm hearing correctly. Because so far, this year is turning into the year of discipline for The Wellspring. I think it has something to do with tuning into the initial auditions for "American Idol". Over and over, I watched these people who were absolutely convinced they had what it took fall flat on their faces. And they still didn't realize their talent was mediocre at best. I am a woman of vision, optimism (most of the time), and belief. I hold it for myself, my children, our family and many others. I "see" potential and long to fuel it. And despite staying home with children's coughs, dishes, tracked in mud and cheap calories (ever realize how many calories is in one packet of Ritz crackers?), I carry these dreams waiting for "the day". But for some reason over the last weeks of the new year, the main messages I hear involve taking me down a notch or two. The reality is, I'm not really a very good writer. I think I could be if I wrote every day, challenging myself in areas I find more about discipline than what comes easily, but I'm not sure I would make it to Hollywood. The reality is, I'm not really a very good disciplinarian with my children, especially my middle guy. He's the strong-willed one and almost 9. Finally taking the bull by the horns and humbly checking "The Strong-Willed Child" and "Dare to Discipline" out of the library (Growing Kids God's Way has kept me from reading any parenting books in the last eight years, literally) I read it with a heavy heart. Loving him tenderly has not held back the angry outbursts, easy frustration and constant negotiation that wears me down daily lately. There's others, but that's the level of humility I can share at this point. Yep, its humbling to realize it, but I think its a good place to be. So, dear friend, this year my dreams involve not crossing the finish line, traveling, or publishing. It involves the visualization exercises the daily work-outs require and actually moving my body, not just talking about it. I think. |
Feb. 6, 2007
Prayer
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Its the seventh week of the year. I have struggled in my daily "rule", still committed to arising before the dawn though it is winter. While I don't understand batting averages, I am maybe at .50. When I would sit down in couch corner, despite the trappings of the winter fire and cup of tea, the Book of Common Prayer, new devotional and my journal, my heart struggled to connect. Thankfully, I've been through enough dry seasons in the past I've learned to not beat myself up, spiritually gyrate in an attempt to manipulate God's presence, but just wait. This morning I picked up last year's devotional that fed me every day, but in my heart of hearts, knew it was last year's manna. Then I remembered a little book I bought over a year ago, sitting on the shelf. This is it. I don't know how I knew, I just knew. Spiritual disciplines is the theme this year, for my children and I. This book is going to help us. There are twelve disciplines listed and twelve months of the year. I know we're on month 2, but I'm ok with skipping ahead. This month's discipline is prayer. Last night I attended a prayer meeting for a dear friend who is suffering. Mentioning only as an observation, not judgment, three days after it happened, 15-20 of us attended. Last night, three months later, there was only 5 of us, with only two of us having been there both times. What is it about life that so easily squeezes out prayer? This is the month to row upstream and figure it out, with the children in the boat. I hope to consistently share how its going. |
Sep. 26, 2006
In all honesty...
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I haven't posted here in a while because... The squatters invaded my home and soul. I think I'm back to the place where my ideals are fighting for tyrant status. The house, schooling, physical appearance, friendships, groceries and meals, business, writing are sitting around the conference table, starting to pound their fists and yell in unison, "more, more, I demand more!" I keep the conference door closed, but I can hear them in there. Somehow, I need to move from the place of living despite them to living without them. When I figure out how to do that, I'll let you know. |
Sep. 13, 2006
So Far, So Good..
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Mom's Night Out went off with only a minor hitch, I enjoyed my long day at the inn, wrote a great bio for my new venture, shocked my thirteen new writing students into awe and kept connected with my children in the process. The bathrooms aren't clean, but Lysol Wipes work wonders, and are easy to grab for 10 seconds of blitz. The kink in my armor, unfortunately, involves the intensity of personality that sneaks out towards Plays with Fire. He helped tremendously with the housekeeping portion of life, mainly chauffering, cooking and intervening the children's squabbles...truly my largest energy drain of all. Thankfully, our marriage bank account is full enough for a few rash withdrawals once in a while. Working at what one loves truly energizes. Despite the amount of dishes (!) tea for sixteen and breakfast for six creates, serving others luxury is a joy. For the most part, us middle-classers (though I'm told we're shrinking) appreciate all the little touches of beauty. I can imagine it would be difficult to offer ones heart on a platter or tea tray to uppity "this-isn't-good-enough for me and I'm going to sneer at your humble attempts to please me" kind of people, but as far as I could tell, we didn't run into any of those. The sixteen women we served tea to had the two of us judge parasols they had made (now that's an example of a sentence I wouldn't of allowed on my last blog!). Outside the inn, a riot of purple, lavendar, pink and red complemented the Victorian with its sea of fun. Time to make breakfast. |
Sep. 8, 2006
The stakes feel higher
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The next thirty-six hours are filled with responsibility I cannot complete in my own strength. Ten hours from now I need to host the first Mom's Night Out of the year, thankfully in someone else's home. I always hold such high aspirations for these events, longing for women's souls to come away refreshed and rested. I have yet to reconcile, though I like to think I've improved over the years, taking care of the logistics of these events and not killing MY soul and rest in the process. I think I'm more nervous today because one) yesterday was a HUGE pain day and I accomplished nothing much of consequence beyond teaching, writing emails and searching for the perfect tea pots to sell. Therefore, the three appetizers I'm committed to bring have yet to be started or completed (good-bye weekly cleaning afternoon...see how easy that was?). A day or even an afternoon in the kitchen ranks right up there with housework for me. Though I'm very committed to making a home and cooking and cleaning is unavoidable, I still struggle with dread when I am faced with it, don't know why. Secondly, I'm nervous because this group of 20+ women love to stay up late and gab, gab, gab. But at eight a.m. tomorrow, I need to be at a lovely little inn in Colfax to begin training for an inn-sitting my family will provide for four nights in October. Again, a full day on my feet, cooking, serving, cleaning...what was I thinking? Oh yeah, a little extra Christmas money and the experience so I can say, "Been there, done that." Last night I participated in a conference call with eight other women all over the country. Together we are helping Tea Events launch a new membership-only website. These women know what their doing. They are strong entrepreneurs, with multiple businesses and experiences, all related to tea. I have a blog. I applied on a whim and out of dozens of applicants was chosen as one of the six leaders. Don't ask me how. I will need to submit one article a month (having already committed to contributing to another local publication), help moderate the forum and work as a team with these talented, experienced women. From the looks of the website and the conversation last night, this is no small side endeavor. People will pay $29.95 for the privilege of logging on and finding the resources they need as tea entrepreneurs. How did I go from a wanna-be entrepreneur to helping lead others? I have no idea. The stakes feel higher. |
Sep. 7, 2006
fall schedule
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can i write an entry even though i have no shift key... thinking through the fall, i've decided to designate goals for each day of the week instead of trying to keep to a certain schedule. if i schedule something outside of these goals for that day, i need to understand the goals will be thwarted. it will help me keep white space on the calendar and understand what i need to focus on with discretionary time. mondays--teach the composition and literature class, take children to the library, schedule any in-town appointments. if there are none, its a good day for the children's friends to be over in the afternoon. i also want to spend one hour planning the mom's nights out i am responsible for this year for our local home school co-op. tuesdays--stay home. plan menus for the week. give children's school lessons my undivided attention in the morning. prepare for our big out of the house wednesdays. take care of all linens laundry. focus on business development. wednesdays--attend our home school co-op or field trip. S! (my shift key is back!). Shop for groceries. Prep for teaching the Monday Composition and Literature class (I went to bed last night with this completed...what a great feeling vs. waiting for the weekend!). Thursdays--Stay home. Switch child care with other home schooling mom in the afternoon. Give children's lessons undivided attention. just lost shift key again, arg. take care of all clothing laundry. support plays with fire and sons in odyssey of the mind and their evening meeting. focus on business development. fridays--stay home. give children's lessons undivided attention. take care of any weekly--that often turns into monthly-cleaning. play with family in the evening. saturdays--focus on family project...family event planning, gardening, decorating, or non-grocery shopping. sun-down on saturday to sun-down on sunday practice sabbath. for me, this means no agenda, for as you can see, there are high ambitions for the other days. even though life is full, i feel more fulfilled than ever, as it is all work--except the housework, blech--that i love. thank you, god, for all these opportunities to serve you working with what you've placed in my heart to love. |
Sep. 3, 2006
I'm Back
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Most of my regular readers no longer visit here, but I decided to return none-the-less. It took only three weeks in cyber-space as a "professional" to blow it and act un-professional. Truth is, I'm much too passionate about a number of topics, not just tea. Deciding to voice one's opinion in the great cyber-debate needs to be done under a pseudonym. One mistake, and it blew my hair back to receive the strength of negative comments. It taught me a good lesson. Because my professional life is moving into teaching and providing the art and act of taking tea, I want to promote the new blog and business as a mini-retreat and a place to receive little touches of something; graces, beauty or sustenance for the soul or body. If I make a wrong choice and blast someone with a perspective I just know is right  , it can't be under my professional name. The blog conversation is just too fun to not participate in, so here I am, again, as jewellspring. So welcome back, old friends and new. The NEW old jewellspring might be a little more unedited simply from lack of time and won't be the place I try and show off my writing prowess...I don't think... |
Aug. 9, 2006
New Blog
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Thank you all for your vote (all two of you!). Keeping a personal blog kicked my writing into daily gear like nothing else. But my focus is changing. Perhaps I will give time to a personal blog once again, but now my writing time will be focusing on the opportunity in front of me with Wellspring Tea. Wellspring seems to be my destiny. WellspringTea.com was also available, and as I mentioned , made it a deal breaker. Wellspring means source and is associated with fresh water, the most important ingredient for a decent cup of tea, in the natural world. My love affair with tea and all it involves has become a source of great beauty for my soul and daily life. The last months have truly been a thrill as I've dabbled in helping others discover the art and act of taking tea. Now as I prepare to take it to the next level, the hour or two of writing I carve out a day will need to go toward tea-related topics. Wellspring Tea without an 's' is purposeful, as Wellspring Tea represents tea experiences (hosting tea clubs, tea events, tea cuppings), access (product sales including e-commerce) and education (writing and publishing). Currently, the website www.wellspringtea.com only includes my new blog, but I look forward to a full-fledged web presence in the next month or two, providing opportunity to easily order the quality teas and products The Wellspring offers. Thanks for stopping by, I wish you all daily beauty. So, please, have a look! I hope you will still stop by for a visit now and then. www.wellspringtea.com |
Aug. 7, 2006
Name That Business
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Well, fourteen daily readers, here's your chance to vote. The quiet wrestling, in case you aren't in the know, is because of a surfaced longing, prayer-filled journey (though never as much as I would like) and concentrated study on starting a real business. At least I hope its a real business. There's been a few false starts over the last years. However, discovering tea gives me the skeleton I've been looking for to provide a product and philosophy and work I believe in and enjoy. All the attempts in the past included one or maybe two, but not all three, until now. Mission: To expose others to the art and act of taking tea through experience (tea events, tea clubs, tea cuppings), access (product sales) and education (writing). Name Ideas: Here's your chance to vote. (I'm learning, available .com domains is very important to a successful online presence. This could be the deal breaker, although none of the domains seem to include genuine competition.). Keep the above mission in mind. Tea Everyday Daily Tea Taking Tea Tea Seasons Classic Tea Classy Tea I chose a favorite, but the domain is not currently available, so I thought I'd receive some feedback first in case my wish isn't the one that will end up working. And yes, just in case your wondering, a traditional tea room plan has been placed on hold. Image courtesy of AllPosters.com. Afternoon Tea by Dawna Barton |
Aug. 2, 2006
Quiet Explained
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For some, a few days without entries means busier circumstances than usual. For others, it might mean needing to blog from a foreign country. Others might catch a terrible flu bug. For jewellspring, quiet means wrestling. No, not with Dynamo and SpaceKid or in play, but the internal wrestling of a complicated girl. A friend who has known me fifteen plus years and leans more to the Pentecostal side of the scale than I ever expect to again told me the other day its because I hold the spiritual DNA of a prophet, as confirmed by a teaching that rocked her world. Prophets, I'm told and from my limited understanding are around to plumb God's depth vs. his breadth. Thanks to what I think may be perpetual cynicism, I always take my dear friend's enthusiasm with a grain of salt. But, I can say this. Whenever I face a new "season of the soul", working through it takes a lot of energy, thought, and time. Often, I don't come up for air until I can't hold my breath one more moment and stay under as long as necessary. After all, under the ocean surface, I can imagine, is a very quiet place. It provides brand new, rarely seen perspectives and holds unimaginable dangers and beauty. I announce this is another season where I'm living there. Wrestling. Seeking. Getting distracted. Fighting. Wondering. Asking. Because I must know the answers to questions that can only be shouted under water where God alone hears. And that, my friends, after minimal housework and reassuring my soul that the children's souls are safe and secure (teeth extractions included...so sorry SpaceKid!), I dive. Sometimes Plays with Fire goes with me invited and sometimes, unfortunately and honestly, I push him away. Please excuse the quiet. |
Jul. 29, 2006
Book Review Attempt
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I'm trying to cast my line into the blogsphere more diliberately by leaving more comments. Gotta watch out, though, this blogging community can take a lot of time! But Sherry over at Semicolon proposed Book Review Saturday and I threw my hat in without actually writing one, ha! Also, my impression is I'm writing to recommend one, which isn't the case. But here's my quick attempt. A current read of mine is, Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin. It was nominated as a Christy Award finalist and available at our library, so I picked it up. The last few weeks, I faithfully read a few chapters before bed. Amazon reviewer's gave it five stars "Wrapped in Rain is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read" and a friend recommeded it. But it disappoints me. Set in the South, the story revolves around two grown-up brothers, Tucker and Mutt, who try to find their way after an abusive childhood. Thanks to a hired black woman, Miss Ella (Rain), there is a thread of stability, love and direction despite a raging, alcoholic father. Even after her death, the men carry her presence in their souls daily, holding conversations with her which often includes Scripture as she directs them through their places of pain and in Mutt's case, insanity. The book, though compelling enough to finish and find out what happens, disappoints me on a number of levels, character development holding the number one spot. While the book introduces a number of compelling characters: Rex, the abusive father, Mutt, the extremely troubled mental patient, and Kate(?), the abused mother running from her husband, I find myself constantly questioning the motives of these individuals. Why, for example, does Kate seem completely content to live with these two brothers and her five-year old son, even though Mutt's doctor warned of Mutt's potential violence? As well, the scenes of Rex's extreme abuse, specifically to Miss Ella, which I think is the author's attempt to represent the Savior, are unexplained. What drives Rex to such extremes? We learn nothing of his soul and the only explanation seems to be the drink. Am I missing something? Lest I appear completely dissatisfied, the scenery descriptions are poignant, enabling the reader to imagine the settings easily. As I said earlier, one wants to finish the book to find out what will happen to these characters. "Christian Fiction" has progressed from the days when Frank Peretti and Janette Oke were the only game in town. However, in general, I find them still wanting, as general society stays relatively unread. "We are much too easily pleased". And some of you may find this review wanting, since as I said, in my attempt to throw in my hat, am reviewing a book I can't really recommend. Sorry about that! If anyone has read it and disagrees with me, by all means, post a comment and let me know. I really want to like this book! |
