SACRED SAGAS
"A long story of heroic achievement"
Perhaps a rather presumptuous title, but, life takes courage to live and is, therefore, a sort of heroic achievement. I write about the story, the long story of my life that includes a few heroic achievements, but mostly ordinary ones.
Worship and Discipleship: My story about worship. Not only is worship what we, creatures of God are expected to do. it is also the heart of how we're being formed into the image of the one we worship. Click on the link in the drop down menu under 'sacred sagas' and read all about it.
They have no wine: a meditation on Jesus' first sign (John 2:1-11); changing water to wine; seeing beyond the problematic miracle of water to wine to the symbolic meaning for us today.
They have no wine: a meditation on Jesus' first sign (John 2:1-11); changing water to wine; seeing beyond the problematic miracle of water to wine to the symbolic meaning for us today.
Smallbones’ Saga 2017
Jackie's 2017 newsletter
“We entreat you, make us truly alive” (A 4th century Eucharistic prayer)
I read this ancient prayer recently and realized how much I resonated with it. I’ve been praying for this for a long time and will keep on praying to truly live until I die. I’ve been seeking to truly live in a career of academia. It’s been a good journey; I loved teaching (still do) and I loved the students God sent my way and what they taught me over the years. But that stage of my journey came to an end in May. I walked away from academia with the sense it was the right time to begin the next phase of my journey to live fully.
I had a quiet summer at home in Orange City without the stress of planning a new year of teaching. It was wonderful not spending time on syllabuses, designing creative assignments (or trying to) that I’d have to grade, rethinking ways to teach a new group of students. I don’t miss that at all. Instead, I revised a chapter in my book, Live the Story not the Dream (still available through lulu.com and most online booksellers). I spent hours converting it to an eBook (only available through lulu.com).
I’ve also been working on my website StorymakerLife.com, adding material. I encourage you to check out the following:
Sacred Sagas is my newest page. In it I will continue to write about my journey to becoming truly alive. So far, as you can see above (if you click on ‘sacred sagas’), I've posted 2 pieces. My newsletter, Smallbones Saga, is just a temporary fixture for you to get caught up on my life thus far.
Personal Retreat Guide. Many people I meet want to spend a day in silence and solitude with God alone but don’t know how to do this. I have a designed this retreat guide for such a person. It’s user-friendly and self-explanatory with a variety of suggestions on how to spend the day in solitude and silence. There are two options: 1) "Come and See”: accepting an invitation from Jesus to see more clearly. 2) "Restore us, O Lord": specifically designed for an Advent retreat (with suggestions for a half-day retreat). There is a cost attached to download the Guide. For more information and how to get the guide, click on ‘spiritual practices/retreats/personal retreats.’
Advent Devotions. Once again, I’ve written daily devotions for the season of Advent. They too will be on my website under ‘engaging scripture/read your Bible/advent 2017.’ They will begin appearing on December 2, offering 5 devotions per week, and continue each week of Advent until a few days after Christmas day. Advent reminds us to live into the expectation of Jesus’ coming, training ourselves to be alert, awake and attentive to Jesus in our world today.
To all my former students, especially those in one of the larger classes, who felt that I gave them a look, as they walked into class half way through the semester, that seemed to say, ‘Who are you? You’re not registered for this course.’ I want to apologize. I used to joke I was as blind as a bat. It wasn’t a joke! However, that has changed. Once I was blind but now I can see. Cataract surgery in September has made an amazing difference to my life. I really can see so much more. I’m grateful to God to live in an era where there is a simple fix (albeit expensive) to the very common problem of cataracts. Please rejoice with me.
Since I’m now free to do what I want, when I want and where I want, I decided to become a ‘snowbird’ this winter. A ‘snowbird’ refers to people (mostly retirees—hullo, that’s now me!) who flee the winter weather for warmer climes. I’m heading to South Africa in mid-November and returning mid-February. I won’t entirely miss out on winter weather, but enough, I hope. It will be my 3rd Christmas with family in 22 years. I’ll begin my stay in Johannesburg. If you live in Gauteng area, I will be leading an Advent retreat, Restore us, O Lord (Ps 80) in Kempton Park on December 2. If you would like to join me, please let me know and I’ll send you the details. Click on ‘retreats’ for basic information. From there, I fly to the Western Cape with Christmas in Cape Town and then on Pietermaritzburg. If you live in any of those areas, please do contact me and we can tray and arrange getting together and getting caught up.
I wish you a very blessed Christmas, one in which you can truly celebrate the coming of Christ as you also patiently wait his return alert and awake. And I pray that the Lord will make you truly alive in 2018.
Jackie
I had a quiet summer at home in Orange City without the stress of planning a new year of teaching. It was wonderful not spending time on syllabuses, designing creative assignments (or trying to) that I’d have to grade, rethinking ways to teach a new group of students. I don’t miss that at all. Instead, I revised a chapter in my book, Live the Story not the Dream (still available through lulu.com and most online booksellers). I spent hours converting it to an eBook (only available through lulu.com).
I’ve also been working on my website StorymakerLife.com, adding material. I encourage you to check out the following:
Sacred Sagas is my newest page. In it I will continue to write about my journey to becoming truly alive. So far, as you can see above (if you click on ‘sacred sagas’), I've posted 2 pieces. My newsletter, Smallbones Saga, is just a temporary fixture for you to get caught up on my life thus far.
Personal Retreat Guide. Many people I meet want to spend a day in silence and solitude with God alone but don’t know how to do this. I have a designed this retreat guide for such a person. It’s user-friendly and self-explanatory with a variety of suggestions on how to spend the day in solitude and silence. There are two options: 1) "Come and See”: accepting an invitation from Jesus to see more clearly. 2) "Restore us, O Lord": specifically designed for an Advent retreat (with suggestions for a half-day retreat). There is a cost attached to download the Guide. For more information and how to get the guide, click on ‘spiritual practices/retreats/personal retreats.’
Advent Devotions. Once again, I’ve written daily devotions for the season of Advent. They too will be on my website under ‘engaging scripture/read your Bible/advent 2017.’ They will begin appearing on December 2, offering 5 devotions per week, and continue each week of Advent until a few days after Christmas day. Advent reminds us to live into the expectation of Jesus’ coming, training ourselves to be alert, awake and attentive to Jesus in our world today.
To all my former students, especially those in one of the larger classes, who felt that I gave them a look, as they walked into class half way through the semester, that seemed to say, ‘Who are you? You’re not registered for this course.’ I want to apologize. I used to joke I was as blind as a bat. It wasn’t a joke! However, that has changed. Once I was blind but now I can see. Cataract surgery in September has made an amazing difference to my life. I really can see so much more. I’m grateful to God to live in an era where there is a simple fix (albeit expensive) to the very common problem of cataracts. Please rejoice with me.
Since I’m now free to do what I want, when I want and where I want, I decided to become a ‘snowbird’ this winter. A ‘snowbird’ refers to people (mostly retirees—hullo, that’s now me!) who flee the winter weather for warmer climes. I’m heading to South Africa in mid-November and returning mid-February. I won’t entirely miss out on winter weather, but enough, I hope. It will be my 3rd Christmas with family in 22 years. I’ll begin my stay in Johannesburg. If you live in Gauteng area, I will be leading an Advent retreat, Restore us, O Lord (Ps 80) in Kempton Park on December 2. If you would like to join me, please let me know and I’ll send you the details. Click on ‘retreats’ for basic information. From there, I fly to the Western Cape with Christmas in Cape Town and then on Pietermaritzburg. If you live in any of those areas, please do contact me and we can tray and arrange getting together and getting caught up.
I wish you a very blessed Christmas, one in which you can truly celebrate the coming of Christ as you also patiently wait his return alert and awake. And I pray that the Lord will make you truly alive in 2018.
Jackie
