Heather Holleman's Blog, page 76

Still on the Path

Today I’ve been reflecting on the last several weeks of rest and recuperation. For someone like me who deeply values achievement, goal-setting, and productivity, the unseen work of rest and recuperation feels downright wrong. With low motivation and a proclivity to lounge about more than do anything useful, I feel like a different person. But I realize this:

In seasons of rest and recuperation, you’re still on the path. You’re merely resting by a lovely tree, taking in the scenery, enjoying the shade, and catching your breath. Maybe you’ve even climbed up into a cozy spot in the trees, and you’re sunning yourself. Everyone else races on by, doing their daily tasks, and you just stay still, resting. The path won’t leave you. It doesn’t go anywhere. You won’t miss anything.

One day, you’ll put your feet in motion and move onward. Just not today. Maybe tomorrow.

I Finally Tried the Fire Crackers Recipe

Since I’d seen people posting about these addictive crackers to make for holiday parties or just to have for snacking, I finally decided to try them. How could they be that good? It’s a simple recipe called “Fire Crackers”: https://www.food.com/recipe/fire-crackers-423316

You basically gently mix a few sleeves of saltine crackers with this mixture: canola oil (1 cup), a packet of ranch seasoning, 2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. That’s it. Mix. Put in a container. Every few minutes, flip the container to keep coating the crackers with your mixture. They aren’t oily, really. The crackers absorb the oil and somehow crisp up with the seasonings after an hour or so.

I then stored the crackers in a zip-lock bag.

The next day, I found myself loving a cracker or two throughout the day. They were good! Spicy, salty, and everything you’d want when you need a salty snack. Do I recommend? Yes! You can also use this same recipe with oyster crackers or pretzels.

Sometimes it’s fun to try something everyone’s talking about. I think we’ll add Fire Crackers to our party spread!

 

The Cup of Tea

I rediscover the joy of peppermint tea in the afternoon. It’s like a little cup of liquid Christmas.

It slows you down to heat the water, steep the tea, and sip it slowly. It slows you down to inhale the aroma and enjoy the smell of peppermint.

If the day isn’t going well for you, reset with a cup of afternoon peppermint tea. Everything feels better afterwards.

When You Don’t Know—Ask

In my study of 1 John, I pause at these verses: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

I think about how God may want me to “lay down my life” in specific and practical ways. What does this look like for us? I’m not always sure. But I can ask God to show me. I’m so thankful for the Holy Spirit who teaches us what we need to know and who illuminates the scriptures. It’s a great prayer: Lord, teach me to lay down my life.

The Beauty Indoors

During the cold winter months, I love to see flowers blooming in my living room or kitchen. My friend just brought me a planted amaryllis bulb in wax. I’ve also grown paperwhites in the winter.

I love growing flowering things and how they contrast with the white, barrenness of the season. Both the waxed amaryllis and the paperwhite narcissus bulb kits make perfect holiday presents.

Checking on the growth of things (plants, nests) has always brought happiness into the day. I will wake tomorrow and check on the amaryllis since we don’t know what color it will be.

 

Garnishing the Soul

I’m rereading Delighting in the Trinity (it’s the kind of book one must read again and again!), and I find myself mesmerized by Michael Reeves’ description of the Holy Spirit early in the book. He reminds us how the Holy Spirit “garnishes and beautifies” and “vitalizes and refreshes.” Reeves writes, “Small wonder, then, that creativity, the ability to craft, adorn, and make beautiful, is a gift of the Spirit.”

I love reading theologians who use language so beautifully. I like thinking about the presence of the Holy Spirit always beautifying. His presence means beauty and refreshment.

Later, Reeves reminds us of the roles of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit together as the Trinity. He proclaims, “The very nature of the triune God is to be effusive, ebullient, and bountiful. . . Creation is about the spreading, the diffusion, the outward explosion of that love.”

I kept those words in my mind all week about this ridiculously generous God who is ebullient. (You might have wanted a dictionary like I did! It means cheerful and full of energy.) So when I arrived to 1 John 3:1, I said, “Ah! Yes! This is God.” We read: See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 

What great verbs today! If your soul feels dull and the world feels dark, remember God’s lavish love poured into your heart. Remember God’s generous, ebullient nature. Think about a different kind of day for yourself, one that represents the outward explosion of love from God. Think about beauty. Let the Holy Spirit garnish the day and garnish your very soul.

Amen.

Overload

Today as I attempted to build an online course, I kept received an error message that the site was experiencing an unexpectedly high number of users. With traffic to the site so demanding, everything began to shut down. Nothing would load. Every single thing I tried to do took an exceedingly long time. And then the system would revert to a prior screen without saving any of my work. System overload. Not enough processing power to accommodate the number of users. 

I temporarily abandon my work and turn to other things. With an overloaded system, you can’t accomplish much anyway. The website claimed “degraded performance” today.

Some days are like this. We’re overloaded. It’s time to turn to other things.

Another Semester Nearly Finished

It’s the last week of classes at Penn State, and then students take exams and professors frantically grade papers. It’s been a different teaching life with masks and COVID testing and vaccine mandates and updates about community transmission. But we did it! Our class survived another semester.

I’ve never seen their faces. Can you imagine? Unless a student talked to me outside where we could remove our masks, I still don’t know what my students really look like. I look forward to the day when I teach without a mask, but I just read Penn State will require classroom masks for the spring semester. I’m keeping a positive attitude!

One day, we’ll look back on this moment in history and wonder what it was like to live through a pandemic. Well, here’s my contribution to the archive: I taught every day in a mask; they learned every day in a mask. Another semester went by, and we adjusted to a COVID world.

Even in Winter. Maybe Because of Winter.

Today my husband and I took a walk along Spring Creek. What a stark contrast from the turtles and ducks of summer! Instead, we enjoyed the bare trees, the water that rushed over rocks sounding distinctly icy rather than what sounds like singing in spring. I saw no speckled trout. I smelled no sweet flowers.

But I did see the wide sky, the tops of the rocky canyon, and the banks of the river that once hid under summertime foliage. I felt the cold. I noticed red berries and pinecones. We found large, hollowed out logs and wondered who would hibernate there.

I remember that you see differently in winter. You see things you can only see in winter when the cold strips the landscape bare. I know by now that God places us in colder, bleaker places because there’s something we can see only in those conditions. I love the creek in winter.

Because He Wants You to Hold On

Writers deal with deadlines. They normally keep to writing schedules. These past few weeks, I’ve learned a key spiritual lesson: When God delays your schedule or thwarts your writing plan, it’s because He’s teaching something you need for the writing. 

If you’ve been following along, you know it’s a season of surgeries and recoveries for me. In that time of not writing, I experienced a key moment just a few days ago involving a conversation with a student that I would then write about to shape a chapter.

Not writing means learning. Not writing means experiencing. Not writing means growing into the writing.

Do not despair! If your schedule has been interrupted and you’re not writing like you want to, remember how God wants you to hold on for a while.