15 Thought Provoking Quotes From C.S. Lewis

I was just finishing reading The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis this morning, when my Twitter feed lit up with the nation stumbling over itself to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of President John F. Kennedy.

Then, a lone tweet from @winstoncoolidge stood out in my timeline. “So today we hear about old people reminiscing about where they were when C.S. Lewis died.” Huh?! What? By Aslan’s mane, it’s the 50th anniversary of the death of C.S. Lewis, too! I literally discovered this with a C.S. Lewis book in my hand. (If that’s any indication of how much of a fan I am…)

Now I’m no soul-reader, but I think it’s fairly safe to say that the death of C.S. Lewis, just a few days shy of his 65th birthday, isn’t one to be too heavily mourned. I mean, I think we’re all fairly sure where he’s ended up.

A modern day literary saint meeting his maker isn’t something to mourn. It’s something to celebrate! So celebrate I shall.

C.S. Lewis is BY FAR one of my all time favorite authors.  An intellectual and an apologist, he used fairy tales, mythology, poetry, science fiction, children’s stories and scholarly essays to communicate the depths of truth. What’s not to love? He’s worth reading and rereading and then reading again.

So without further ado! Here are some literary morsels to chew on in celebration of the life of C.S. Lewis. (Oh, yeah, and sorry you died too JFK…)

1. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

2. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

3. A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.

4. There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’

5. Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

6. Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

7. We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

8. The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

9. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

10. Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.

11. Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

12. The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only – and that is to support the ultimate career.

13. You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

14. The magic is not in the medicine but in the patients body. What the doctor does is stimulate Nature’s functions in the body, or to remove hinderances. In a sense, though we speak of healing a cut, every cut heals itself; no dressing will make skin grow over a cut on a corpse.

15. No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.

Anniversary Weekend In New Orleans

New Orleans is always pulling me back with its siren call of cobblestone walkways, French courtyards, lush ferns hanging from bead strewn balconies, Spanish moss, lamp posts, Dixieland jazz, creole and Cajun cuisine, the mystical and muddy Mississippi River, and history ranging from cultured plantation life to primal voodoo bayou life. I just can’t get enough.

Jonathan and I fell hopelessly in love with this place when we first visited with our best friends David and Shauna when they were living in San Antonio, Texas. We immediately started making wedding plans for a small and intimate gathering at our new favorite getaway spot. It was quite the feat, planning for a wedding in Louisiana from California.

Now, a year and many many life changes later, we find ourselves living just a short three hour drive from the spot where we said, “I Do”. Hello first year wedding anniversary trip!

Last year, it was just Jonathan and I, enjoying life together. Now, we are SHARING life with our little girl. It was so nice to be back in New Orleans, reflecting on our past year and dreaming about the years to come.

Oh. And the BBQ Shrimp, Jambalaya, Red Beans and Rice, Beignets and Café au Lait was nice too. (Sometimes my love for New Orleans is 99.9% the food!)

A couple of repeat visits to The Big Easy are in order before we have to leave Pensacola, methinks. *nods*

Our First Year Wedding Anniversary

Exactly one year ago today, on October 14, 2012, I married my best friend under the lamp posts and hanging Spanish moss of Jackson Square Park in New Orleans, Louisiana, and became Mrs. Jonathan Freeman.

And what a year it has been! I can’t even begin to count the ways our lives have changed – and all for the better! I cannot even wrap my head around where God has brought us, and how He has blessed us, let alone put it into words.

For our first year wedding anniversary, we visited New Orleans again, but this time with an infant in tow. It was surreal, walking the same streets, eating at the same restaurants, standing in the spot where we said “I Do”… but this time with a precious little munchkin looking around bright eyed and curious at the sights and sounds and smells.

Last year we had strangers congratulating us on our wedding, this year we had strangers congratulating us on the beautiful baby. I didn’t see that one coming.

Jonathan and I agreed months ago that we would like to incorporate the Victorian Era custom of gifting one another according to the traditional yearly “themes”, and giving the traditional anniversary flowers for our future wedding anniversary celebrations.

The tradition of giving specific anniversary gifts based on the number of years a couple has been married dates back to the Middle Ages, but the Victorian Era (1837-1901) was especially focused on creating traditions. Although no one is certain how the traditional list of symbolic anniversary gifts originated, the gifts according to year are pretty well established.

The traditional first year anniversary flower is the carnation, and the first anniversary gift theme is paper.

In the language of flowers, carnations are associated with love, distinction and fascination.

Specifically, white carnations suggest pure love and good luck. Light red symbolizes admiration. Dark red represents deep love and affection. Purple represents fascination. And pink carnations carry the greatest significance, beginning with the belief that they first appeared on earth from the Virgin Mary’s tears – making them the symbol of a mother’s undying love.

Jonathan got me a bouquet with each of these colors, and while I picked out the bouquet with him on more of an “oooh shiny” factor, rather than thinking of the symbolism behind the petals, it all seems rather fitting now that the stems are sitting in my coffee thermos vase in the kitchen. I’d say each of the meanings apply to our relationship this first anniversary.

And as for the paper theme: Jonathan and I bought each other, as a mutual gift, a large hand-bound linen photo book with all of our wedding photos. The book is gorgeous and the craftsmanship of the book itself is a work of art – not to mention the photos inside, which feature a mix of the photos our wedding photographer took, and photos that Jonathan and I took on the weekend and day of our wedding.

I am still so desperately and hopelessly in love with my husband. We’re still starry-eyed kids at heart, daydreaming about how we’ll fulfill the rest of the 75 traditional wedding anniversary gift themes. And there is no doubt in my mind that we will.

“Once in a awhile, in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale.”

Happy 30th Anniversary to my Mom and Dad

30 years ago today, my parents got married in a little church in Stratford, California. They’ve been married ever since and I am so proud of them for the journey they’ve made together!

Jonathan and I are both blessed to come from intact families. We’ve never experienced the pain or emotional trauma of divorce or a torn marriage or family life. These are things that as a child you take for granted. But as an adult that is currently planning for my growing family and working on my young marriage, I realize now the blessing of having two loving parents in a strong marriage. Statistically speaking, it has been a gift that continues to bless me even now.

It makes me so happy to know that my daughter Tessa will grow up seeing a loving marriage and an intact family life modeled by her parents and by BOTH sets of grandparents. Having strong marriage role models demonstrates God’s plan for marriage and family life, and gives her a greater chance of having a healthy and stable romantic relationship with her husband as an adult. What a blessing for a child! What a legacy to pass on!

A committed marriage is the foundation of a family. It strengthens all the members in the family, provides for the needs of the children, and causes the church of the home to be an effective sign of Christ in the world. It’s not just a marriage anniversary that is celebrated; it’s a celebration of family.

So thank you for 30 years of family mom and dad! Here’s to another happy 30!

I grabbed some of my favorite images from their wedding day, and put them into a shadow box as a 30^th Anniversary gift. Pretty, no?