G.K. Chesterton

No new sewing projects to post yet. My schedule has been so busy lately; the "to do's" seem to hang over my head, heckling me as I try "to get them done." Inspiration does not thrive under such circumstances, or at least not for me. Thus sewing and other creative facets have taken the back burner for now, until school is out (one more week!) and piano recitals are over (ah, the stress!) and I can sit down, take a deep breath, and know that I really don't have anything pressing to do.

All of that said, one thing I have been trying to do more of (in place of creativity) is read. Fiction has not been appealing to me lately, for some reason. I picked up Mansfield Park a couple weeks ago and was exceedingly surprised at my lack of interest in one of my favorite books. Ah, I guess we all go through phases. My current literary phase has been Christian classics. As I posted before, I have been going through Tozer's The Pursuit of God again, which is beautiful. I have also picked up well-loved copy of My Utmost for His Highest and have been reading through Chambers' wonderful bits of daily wisdom. On top of Tozer and Chambers, I have also begun reading an author who I have long meant to read, but just never seemed to get around to: G.K. Chesterton.

The only word I can think of to sum up my thoughts on his literary wit and wisdom is...WOW. I cannot believe that I have yet to read his works, and feel as if I have been missing out on a delightful well of inspiration all of these years!

Here is a taste of this gem of a book I have begun reading through, interestingly named Orthodoxy:

"...I offer this book with the heartiest sentiments to all the jolly people who hate what I write, and regard it (very justly, for all I know) as a piece of poor clowning or a single tiresome joke.

For if this book is a joke it is a joke against me. I am the man who with the utmost daring discovered what had been discovered before. If there is an element of farce in what follows, the farce is at my own expense; for this book explains how I fancied that I was the first to set foot in Brighton and then found I was the last. It recounts my elephantine adventures in pursuit of the obvious. No one can think my case more ludicrous than I think it myself; no reader here can accuse me of trying to make a fool of him: I am the fool of this story, and no rebel shall hurl me from my throne. I freely confess all the idiotic ambitions at the end of the nineteenth century. I did, like all other solemn little boys, try to be in advance of the age. Like them I tried to be some ten minutes ahead of the truth. And I found that I was eighteen hundred years behind it. I did strain my voice with a painfully juvenile exaggeration in uttering my truths. And I was punished in the fittest and funniest way, for I have kept my truths: but I have discovered, not that they were not truths, but simply that they were not mine. When I fancied I stood alone I was really in the ridiculous position of being backed up by all Christendom. It may be, Heaven forgive me, that I did try to be original; but I only succeeded in inventing all by myself an inferior copy of the existing traditions of civilized religion. The man from the yacht thought he was the first to find England; I thought I was the first to fine Europe. I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy."

-G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Yes, it is good. :)

I would love to write more, but must get on with things. I have got to finish putting together an Old Testament timeline project in the course of the day, which quite honestly ought not be as difficult as it has been for me. Suffice to say I have been extremely distracted. Alas! I must press on!

Good day to you all,

Bessie