Out of chaos---order

Our office at Far, Far Away is nearly in order. I say nearly because there are still boxes to be unpacked in the garage and there are still items that need to move here from Woodlawn. There was indeed progress this weekend!

Here are some photos:

In the process of getting a job done, one must start somewhere. So I started with what was right on front of me: two shelves in need of sorting out! Piles on the floor, piles on the desk, piles on the dining room table. The first 2 hours were sorting, throwing and putting away. Most of it was thrown out.






Next came the books. Oy! The books. All of Bill's business books are gone (ca . 1975-1990) and on their way to 1/2 Price Books. Some of my books found their way to the one box and three grocery bags of books heading out.
How much into the future do we think it will be when books and book shelves will no longer be necessary? I already use Amazon's Kindle, and iPad's iBook to read a number of books for business and pleasure. (And why do we say that as though the two are mutually exclusive?)





My chair is on the left and so this is pretty much my view. Above my head are my Bibles and some of my hymnals (not yet unpacked), my Mystics, and my holocaust books---most especially Etty Hillesum. Is it wrong to put Luther's works near Edwina Gateley? Edwina would giggle. I'm not sure Martin would. I also have him in the mystics section but perhaps he would prefer the theology section. Oh well. It's all mystery to me.



Soon I have to bid farewell to this retreat for the soul and return to my home of nearly 20 years (!). I shall return here again very soon --- and someday for the rest of my days. What great works will come of this? We shall see. We shall see.

Gotta run!
Cheers!

Finding Lots of Stuff

While working diligently this afternoon, I found some of my dad's stuff lingering in the shadows. Just as I sat down to review the sermon sampler he gave us a number of years ago, the Pilgrim's Chorus started playing on my iPod. This is what the National Lutheran Choir sang at dad's funeral in 2009. Pilgrim's Chorus from Tannhauser by Wagner.  Here are the English and German lyrics. The German ones are so much more beautiful, but this English translation comes close.


As they are translated into English:

Paul K Peterson at age ~25
He was familiar with this piece
before he became a POW
during WWII.

"Once more with joy O my home I may meet
Once more ye fair, flowr'y meadows I greet
My Pilgrim's staff henceforth may rest
Since Heaven's sweet peace is within my breast.
The sinner's 'plaint on high was heard
On high was heard and answered by the Lord
The tears I laid before His shrine
Are turned to hope and joy divine.
O Lord eternal praise be Thine!
The blessed source of Thy mercy overflowing
On souls repentant seek Ye, all-knowing
Of hell and death, I have no fear
For thou my Lord are ever near.
Alleluia!
Alleluia forever and ever."


As Wagner wrote them:

Richard Wilhelm Wagner
1813-1883
Tannhauser premiered 1845

"Beglückt darf nun dich, o Heimat, ich schauen,
und grüßen froh deine lieblichen Auen;
nun lass' ich ruhn den Wanderstab,
weil Gott getreu ich gepilgert hab'.
Durch Sühn' und Buß' hab' ich versöhnt
den Herren, dem mein Herze frönt,
der meine Reu' mit Segen krönt.
den Herren, dem mein Lied ertönt.
Der Gnade Heil ist dem Büßer beschieden,
er geht einst ein in der Seligen Frieden!
Vor Höll' und Tod ist ihm nicht bang,
drum preis' ich Gott mein Lebelang.
Halleluja
Halleluja in Ewigkeit, in Ewigkeit."

It's still hard to say goodbye . . .

Time for a break.

To bed at 2 this morning and up at 6:45. How long will I last today?!

Paul in 1987
I got a 3-yr-old to sit STILL!

Is it the natural order of things that in order to create order out of chaos one must first create more chaos? The office is shaping up, but not without a great many temptations: watching old (1990s) family videos (no, Nancy, put them back in their plastic box; use as a reward for getting job done); reading old diaries/journals (yes, I really have them all the way back to high school!); going through old notebooks for notes that need saving or can be torn out and the notebook can be re-used (found a great letter I wrote to Paul when he was 16--may send it to him 11 years later). Another surprise: found Bill's old Mauser hand gunwrapped with brown paper in a box along with an old Brownie camera (with flash attachment) and a camera with the expanding bellows. How to display these treasures??

Put the iPod on shuffle and am working away. Except when Shania Twain comes on -- then I do a little line dancing for 3-4 minutes, work up a little "glisten", and feel refreshed. What's the Blue Cross Blue Shield thing? Just move. That's what I'm doing. Moving. Dancing. Bending. Stretching. Reaching. (No lifting over 40 pounds yet [grandchildren don't count])

Retrieve another cup of coffe and a caramel roll I made this morning. Play a little fetch with the Dexter. Get back to my book shelves. Put order in before I unload more boxes. Ciao for now.

Cheers!

Remind me again: Why Don't I Live Here?



Double Rainbow over Ida
Photo by Sue Anderson, summer of 2004

I arrived at Far, Far Away today and my shoulders came down about 3 inches I think. There's a lot to do here before we move in permanently, but boy, am I ready.

There are about a dozen boxes waiting for me in the garage that need unpacking, sorting and putting away. I can't wait to tackle that project tomorrow! The bookshelves in my office are 90% full, but are such a jumbled chaos that it takes me forever to find something, much less know what I've got. Putting that in order may be an evening project with a glass (bottle) of wine or two. It's like getting reacquainted with all my friends again. There's Etty, Hildegard, Joan, Edwina, Henri, and the Bibles and the Hymnals and The Chicago Manual of Style. And let's not forget the front entry way shelves. Books? Objet d'Art? What should it be? I'll discern that as I move along on the other projects.

Here's a "before" picture of our office in a great jumble of books and papers and projects. Two chairs sit at the desk. There used to be a dog bed under there, too! Dexter prefers the floor behind the chairs so we roll over him when either one of us backs up. Some of the books in here will go to the bookshelves in the entry way (seen here, too). It will be interesting to see what transpires in these spaces over the next 48 hours. Yes! That's all I've got this weekend! So I develop my first-things-first list and get going. But first (hahahaha), a glass of wine a some time on the dock. It's 7:45pm. Do you know where the bass are bitin'?