The Mixed Blessings of Progress

Published by CAstfalk on 08/29/2016

For the first time in four years, we spent some time in Shenandoah National Park. We typically tent camp, but there was a period in which my husband feared having two toddlers in the wilderness (along with our other kids). We gave it a shot last week, choosing a spot in the Big Meadows Lodge over a tent this time out.

Dark Hollow Falls, photo by Michael Astfalk

It’s no secret to anyone that frequents my blog how much I enjoy the park. I love its lush rolling mountains, its wildlife, and nearly everything about it. It’s even a setting in my novel Stay With Me. I’m grateful that its beauty is accessible to me and thousands of others for our enjoyment. I’m often surprised at the number of international visitors to the park that we meet; it’s a worldwide vacation destination.

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#WorthRevisit: Nature’s Calling. Are You Listening?

Published by CAstfalk on 08/24/2016

Worth Revisit Wednesday I’m linking up with Theology is a Verb and Reconciled to You for #WorthRevisit Wednesday Linkup.

Less than two weeks away from Labor Day and fresh from a short but unplugged visit to Shenandoah National Park, this seemed like the perfect post to revisit.

Man has endured work since Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden:

To the man he said: Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You shall not eat from it,
Cursed is the ground because of you!
In toil you shall eat its yield
all the days of your life. (Gen 3:17)

Yet “work is for man, not man for work.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2428) So, this Labor Day and throughout the year, what can you do bring a bit of genuine leisure to your life? To cultivate a sabbath or respite?

One of the simplest, most beneficial, FREE things you can do is get out into nature. In the weeks before school began, I crammed in some last-minute opportunities to get myself and my children outside. We visited a grotto, gardens, nature trails, and a nature sanctuary.

Wildwood Park1 — Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

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Wise Like an Old Dog

Published by CAstfalk on 08/22/2016

By Guest Blogger Cynthia Toney I learn a lot about human behavior from my dogs. Recently, one of my female dogs lay in the sun enjoying…

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Top 10 Tuesday: Settings as Characters

Published by CAstfalk on 08/16/2016

I’m linking up with The Broke and the Bookish (which describes me quite well) for my top ten books in which the setting acts as a character. I worked backwards from my Goodreads list of books read, selecting those whose setting immediately came to mind due to its role in the story. Here they are in no particular order.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: the harsh Nebraska prairie (my review post)

Dying for Revenge by Barbara Golder: trendy Telluride, Colorado (book tour)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: the imposing Manderley estate (my review post)

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Relevant Fiction Reviews: Classics I

Published by CAstfalk on 08/15/2016

Relevant Fiction Reviews

I enjoy reading books by contemporary authors, but now and then I like to pick up a classic. There are so, so many I haven’t read. These are three I had been meaning to read for a while. Interestingly, at the crux of each of these vastly different novels is the sin of adultery. And in each case, its ramifications are played out.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The depth and grandeur of O Pioneers! didn’t catch up with me until the end. I’d read My Antonia in college and Death Comes for the Archbishop a decade ago, and loved both. O Pioneers! only confirmed my appreciation for Cather’s writing.

I was struck again by the beauty of her prose and imagery.

Seven Quick Takes

Published by CAstfalk on 08/12/2016

Stuff We’ve Been Up To Edition

As summer vacation winds to hot, muggy close, I’ve lost the ability to create a cohesive theme. This is stuff we’ve been doing, things pulling me in different directions as we try to savor summer.

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The Mobile Drive-In

Our township has been doing these drive-in movies at the park for several summers. Until last week, the timing and the chosen movie never worked for us. Friday night, I took my kids and one of their friends to see The Peanuts Movie (truly a great little movie) at our park. Our arrival was somewhat delayed by our inability to find where my husband hid our camp chairs, but arrive we did. The whole atmosphere was fun. The park at night, the families, the free Twizzlers handed out. Just as the movie was about to begin, the entire screen deflated. It was a full hour and several attempts at re-inflating and restarting the movie until we began. By 9:30 p.m., most of the little kids present were probably ordinarily asleep, but here we were just getting started. All in my party agreed we’d do it again IF it started on time.

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Guest Post: The Higher Way

Published by CAstfalk on 08/08/2016

Thoughts of A Grace Warrior The Higher Way – In Hindsight, It Was a God-Incident (August 8, 2016) “In hindsight, I realized how blessed we were…

Turning Daily to the Word of God

Published by CAstfalk on 08/08/2016

by Guest Blogger Allison Gingras

Scripture. God’s Word. The Bible.

What do those words mean to you?

Do you consider the Word of God as useful in your own daily life? Does it seems strange that an ordinary book on your shelf could be so important to every day decision-making, behavior-choosing, life-happenings?

If I were asked this in 2005, I would have answered with a resounding, “no way, it is just an old book with old guys’ opinions in it.” That was of course before I actually read it;

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Month: August 2016

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: the harsh Nebraska prairie (my review post)

Dying for Revenge by Barbara Golder: trendy Telluride, Colorado (book tour)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: the imposing Manderley estate (my review post)

Stuff We’ve Been Up To Edition

The Mobile Drive-In

by Guest Blogger Allison Gingras

Scripture. God’s Word. The Bible.