All Your Might

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I came across a quote today.  I was already familiar with it, and probably you are as well, but it sprang out at that moment because I happened to be thinking about working on projects I didn't want to be working on; I was, in fact, pretty actively procrastinating - if that is even possible.  So the quote was very pointed indeed.

whatever your hand finds to do, 

do it with all your might.

ecclesiastes 9:10

Granted, the Preacher was not exactly a cheery fellow; judging from the whole of Ecclesiastes, and from scholars' arguments in favor of Solomon being the author, it appears that he was a world-weary and perhaps God-starved man looking at life through jaded eyes.  His proverbs tend to be negative; the full verse quoted above reads, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."  Not particularly bright and sunshiny.  It sounds almost like Russian literature.

And yet it is nonetheless true, and for a much more glorious reason than the Preacher brought out.  Another quote sprang to mind as I read this one:

so, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

first corinthians 10:31

The two verses mesh; they complement each other.  The Preacher, world-weary and God-starved as he may have been, was yet a wise man: it is true that whatever our hands find to do, we ought to do with all our might.  But not merely because we will eventually no longer be able to do it.  We put our might into these things for a greater reason; we have a higher goal, we march to a more joyful beat.  And that reason, that goal, that beat, is the glory of God.

It is not only our duty, but our greatest good and, we hope and pray, our greatest happiness to glorify God.  We were made to glorify Him.  What does the catechism say?  "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever," or, as some would rephrase it, "...to glorify God by enjoying Him forever."  This is an ongoing, lifelong, daily process, worked out in our most common actions - in our praise and prayer and meditation, and also in our work and our rest.  I Corinthians and Ecclesiastes can be put together, I think, because whatever our hands find to do, we do it with all our might for the glory of God.  

Most of us on this block of the blogosphere are writers.  Some are published; some aren't.  Some are treated by acquaintances as though "writer" were synonymous with "lazy bum."  In this context, I don't think it really matters.  The point is that, no matter what stage of life we are in, no matter the praise or disapprobation of others, we must do what we do with all our might.  If we're putting our hand to this plow - to any plow - we aren't meant to look back.  To co-op a third and totally extra-biblical quote, we shouldn't know how to dabble in things we should be earnestly pursuing.  Perhaps "dabble" shouldn't be a word in the Christian's vocabulary at all.  Labor and perseverance, prayer and praise - those are words much better suited to us.

kudos if you know the reference of that third quote

Beautiful People - Sunshine

pinterest: sunshine & gossamer

It's August!  Who would have thought it?  July seemed at once very long and far too short, for now the summer is drawing to a close.  Eep!

Anyhow, I thought I would usher in the new month with a Beautiful People.  (Because my brain is such a cauldron of Tempus Regina ideas and White Sail's edits that it's not good for much else.  Oh dear.)  Last month, with Georgie and Sky's free-write edition, I did Regina; this month, still using the free-write, I decided to go with a much lighter subject: Sunshine, of my in-dabbling-progress story Sunshine & Gossamer.  This is the novel I relax with - a dash of whimsy and childhood and kitty whiskers - and while it is not properly "in progress," I thought it about time to introduce the main character.

sunshine

1. How old is she?

I haven't been quite able to pin down Sunshine's age; in some ways she seems older than she really is, and in others she's very much a child.  I would say that, upon her arrival to Farrowdell, Wales, at the beginning of the story, she is ten or eleven.

2. What does she look like?  What color are her hair and eyes?

Sunshine's looks are fitting to her name: she has tawny-blonde hair that bobs in loose curls halfway down her shoulder-blades, long, darker eyelashes, and eyes that are typically blue with a lighter ring around the pupils.  She is naturally pale, but days spent outside give her some color; in the summer she freckles across her shoulders, but not on her face.  Sunshine is not tall, but she has long legs - good for scrambling up trees - and her frocks are always getting too short without her ever seeming to gain much height.

3. Where does she live?  Describe her surroundings.

Sunshine comes from the suburbs of London, where her mother and father owned a small home, but she now lives with her Aunt Katherine on a farm in Wales, Farrowdell.  (At least, that's how Sunshine pronounces it.)  Farrowdell sits on more land than Sunshine had seen in the first decade of her life, so that the house, a cottage surrounded by a wooden fence and a tangle of white roses, seems insignificant.  From the little courtyard, you can look between the fence-slats and see, straight ahead, a rise in the unpaved road that winds to the village; to the left, the "new" barn sitting atop a rise in the grass, and some of the pastures beyond it; and to the right, a tumble of unbroken grass and a stream. 

4. Does she own a pet?

Before he left to join the airforce, Sunshine's father gave her a little black kitten whom she named Gossamer.  However, he's not exactly a pet: he's a friend and a person, with a strong will of his own.  She does eventually have the responsibility of taking care of the chickens, and she considers those her "pets."  She tries to name them all, but they look so much alike that the names get mixed.

5. What is her absolute favorite book?

Treasure Island, by R.L. Stevenson.  She has a great longing to sail the Spanish Main (without quite knowing where or what it is) and engage Barbecue in a naval battle worthy of the history books.  She would defeat him, of course, but she thinks she would be merciful and not have him walk the plank.

6. What does she do on a sunny day?  A rainy day?

There are more things to do at Farrowdell than time in any one day to do them.  On sunny days she might float boats in the pond, or carry an armload of books to the Reading Tree, or tag along behind Aiden, the young man who runs Farrowdell.  On a rainy day she might play in the courtyard and get good and sopping wet, or race down to the Reading Tree because she just recalled she left something important there, or she might go up and play with Gossamer in her room.

7. Is there something of which she is particularly afraid?

The mail.  On the days when she is around to see the mail delivered, she is always afraid that it will have a letter or telegram announcing her father's death.  Depending on her mood, she can also be afraid of thunderstorms.  And wasps.

8. Where is her favorite place to be?

She is very fond of her bedroom, though it isn't anything special; she hauled an empty crate up to the window and can now sit and look out over Farrowdell.  This is how she likes to watch the sunrise, when she can crawl out of bed early enough to see it.  She also enjoys being at the stream or the pond.

9. What are her favourite clothes?

Sunshine does not often pay much attention to her clothes, but she does enjoy a shopping excursion to the village.  Currently she has a grey Sunday dress and three every-day dresses: dark grey, brown, and apple-green-and-cream.  I very much fear that the apple green won't last her long.  Besides these, Sunshine is awfully fond of her black wellies.

10. Besides Gossamer, is she fond of animals?

Very much so.  She enjoys looking at the cows, though she finds them a little daunting; she stays clear of the bull.  The chickens are so fat and fluffy that she frequently gives in to the desire to cuddle them, for which she gets thoroughly pecked.  Farrowdell also has one old sow (very cranky and ugly: she's got warts) and two mice behind the "old" barn who appear but rarely, and seem to use it as a sort of country-home.  There is a spider who lives outside of Sunshine's window, and she's even fond of it (as long as it stays there, on the outside).