Congratulations, Pensacola’s Arielle Langhorne!
From today’s Pensacola News Journal:
Pensacola children’s photographer Arielle Langhorne won three awards in an international competition sponsored by The National Association of Professional Child Photographers.
She received third place in the seniors category, second place in the maternity category and a recognition of merit in the babies category.
Langhorne specializes in photography of newborns, children and late teens. Her images were among thousands submitted to the competition and judged on the basis of impact, technical merit, composition and creativity.
Her work can be seen at www. ariellelanghorne.com.
Her work can also be seen at The Most Beautiful Baby Ever; she took the first studio photos of the Happy Baby.
Wooo HOOOO, Arielle, how wonderful for you to receive international recognition!
Lessons and Carols December 18th, 5:00 pm at Christ Church, Pensacola
Here is the write-up from the Christ Church website about the annual Lessons and Carols festival, a tradition in most Anglican and Episcopal churches, and an exhilarating treat during a busy season:
A FESTIVAL OF NINE LESSONS AND CAROLS
December 18, 2011, 5:00 pm, in the Church.
Each year, the Christ Church Parish Choir presents A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a uniquely Anglican Christmas celebration. The Festival at Christ Church is notable because the Choir devotes itself to cultivating the carol literature that is at the heart of the most notable celebration in the world, that of King’s College Cambridge. The fine readers in the choir share scripture readings between the carols, and prayers open and close the service. Several congregational hymns are also included. The service is free and open to the public.
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is a format for a service of Christian worship celebrating the birth of Jesus that is traditionally followed at Christmas. The story of the fall of humanity, the promise of the Messiah, and the birth of Jesus is told in nine short Bible readings from Genesis, the prophetic books and the Gospels, interspersed with the singing of Christmas carols, hymns and choir music.
The format was based on an Order drawn up by Edward White Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury but at that time Bishop of Truro, in Cornwall, for use on Christmas Eve] and that a key purpose of the service was to keep men out of pubs on Christmas Eve. (24 December) 1880. Tradition says that he organized a 10 pm service on Christmas Eve in a temporary wooden shed serving as his cathedral
The original liturgy has since been adapted and used by other churches all over the world. Lessons and Carols most often occur in Anglican churches, but also in some Roman Catholic, Lutheran parishes, and Presbyterian institutions. However numerous Christian churches have adopted this service, or a variation on this service, as part of their Christmas celebrations. In the UK, the service has become the standard format for schools’ Christmas carol services.
The best-known version is broadcast annually from King’s College, Cambridge, on Christmas Eve. It features carols sung by the famous Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Groton School of Groton, Massachusetts, has performed the festival longer than any institution other than King’s, holding its first Lessons and Carols in 1928.
LOL @ for keeping men out of the bars on Christmas Eve! Holy Smokes!
“The Great Day of their Wrath has Come, and Who is Able to Stand?”
It is my very favorite church season of the year, Advent. I’ve always loved the waiting and the hoping, the preparations, the joy of imagining the coming of this little baby. You’d think that our readings would reflect this ummm. . . errr . .. reflective season, but no! It’s all Zachariah and Amos and Revelations with their horrific visions.
When I read today’s reading from Revelations, I wonder if the horses are not already loosed? We know that our time and God’s time are very different, and it seems to me that those fearsome horses have been hanging around for quite a while.
Revelation 6:1-17
6Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures call out, as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come!’* 2I looked, and there was a white horse! Its rider had a bow; a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering and to conquer.
3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature call out, ‘Come!’* 4And out came* another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another; and he was given a great sword.
5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature call out, ‘Come!’* I looked, and there was a black horse! Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand, 6and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a day’s pay,* and three quarts of barley for a day’s pay,* but do not damage the olive oil and the wine!’
7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature call out, ‘Come!’* 8I looked and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him; they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, and pestilence, and by the wild animals of the earth.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; 10they cried out with a loud voice, ‘Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?’ 11They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow-servants* and of their brothers and sisters,* who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’
Pensacola Nutcracker
AdventureMan and I had a truly wonderful seasonal adventure tonight, as we attended the opening night of the Ballet Pensacola production of The Nutcracker. All over America, ballet companies pay their bills by putting on this annual favorite, but Pensacola has a knack for making it fresh and new every season.
I am sorry, this is the only photo I have that turned out halfway decent, and AdventureMan was poking me and huffing about my rudeness because my little camera will shoot in low light, but I brought the wrong one, and this one doesn’t have an viewfinder, so it’s ‘making too much light’ to quote AdventureMan.
The sets and costuming are wonderful. The sets were lush and colorful; the costumes fresh and delightful. The snowflakes really sparkled, and had sparkly silver hairpieces that looked light, stayed in place, and captured the sparkly lightness of real snowflakes; it was one of the highlights of the ballet for me. I also loved the coffee costumes – sort of Middle East-y if Middle East dancers wore sparkly pinkish scarves and tinkling belly dancer wraps around their hips. The costumes were delightful, and the dancers seemed to be having a lot of fun.
The tiny angels were hilarious, and oh, my stars, the sheep! You must go, you must see the sheep! This is one sweet production, a treasure of the season, and you might still have a chance to buy a ticket for the Saturday night performance at 7 or the Sunday afternoon performance, both at the Saenger Theatre on Palafox. Children are DRESSED; this is the South, and this is The Nutcracker Ballet!
Hardware for Women in Pensacola
Sign along Palafox, a main shopping street in Pensacola:
A little closer:
Yes. It’s a jewelry store. I LOVE their creativity – great advertising 🙂
The Tourist; Olen Steinhauer
Haven’t I read this book before? Or didn’t I see a movie, The American, with George Clooney? You know, depressed assassin? Thinking about suicide? In some villa along the Mediterranean or is it the Adriatic? Some enigmatic handler, and who do you trust? And then The Tourist swerves off in another direction and while this particular thread of plot is new, it still seems vintage LeCarre, only maybe a little less solid information. Lots of jumping from place to place with little motivation, lots of shifts in trust, and betrayals.
While I like books where reality keeps shifting, this one had a few too many shifts for me. I have a feeling that spying is a lot less about fast cars and shooting someone so they won’t give away a secret, and lot more about the dull, painstaking work of stitching together swatches of information in ways that form a meaningful pattern, trying hard not to create patterns that don’t exist. I imagine that there is a big problem today with the huge volume of information, sifting through to figure out what matters, and what is mere distraction.
This book is a good airplane read, holds the interest, but give me LeCarre for the grim grey world of spies and their work any day.
Like a Christmas Gift to the School! Flash Mob
(Thank you, Hayfa!)
Kisses From Katie by Katie Davis
This is a photo from Katie’s blog: Kisses From Katie.
Do you believe in God? Do you believe that God believes in you? Then how do you live your life? Do you commit 100% to God and trust him to provide as you leave all your riches behind and follow him, serving the poorest of the poor, speaking for those who have no voices?
I will warn you, this unforgettable book has a lot of talk about God in it. A part of me watches in horror, wondering how long Katie can continue to serve God with all her heart, with all her soul, and with all her mind? How long she can work against all odds, trusting in God to lift her and provide for her and her children. This is a true story, an ongoing life. A part of me fears a terrible crash, but the greater part of me prays for Katie, and stands in awe of her courage and her commitment.
I don’t know who told me about Kisses for Katie, the blog. As soon as I started reading it, I was addicted.
Now for the shocker: Katie is only 23 years old. A year before she graduated from high school, she felt an undeniable call to do a 6 week mission teaching in a school in one of the poorest parts of Uganda. At the end of her six weeks, she couldn’t bear to leave. She returned, finished out her senior year in high school (HIGH SCHOOL!) but she never felt entirely ‘home,’ her heart was with the children of Uganda, the poorest of the poor.
Although her parents had her doubts, the strength and consistency of Katie’s belief that she was called to serve in Africa brought them around, and they agreed she could go work for a year in this small, poor village, before starting university. At eighteen, Katie was teaching, raising money for food, tuition and uniforms for over 100 children, and working to prepare all the meals, bathe all the children, and teach them about the love of Jesus.
When I saw, a month ago, that Katie had a book published, I had to buy it. Kisses from Katie is inspirational and unforgettable. Her story continues on her blog, but the book lays all the groundwork, the heartaches and the joys, the delights of her 13 adopted daughters, the horrors of the Ugandan bureaucracy, Katie’s dogged day-by-day fight to claim and save lives. She is a remarkable young woman, powered by an awesome God.
If Katie were going to burn out, I think it would have happened earlier, as she suffered terrible disappointments, and made truly amazing sacrifices to raise her girls, to be their “mommy” and to insure the educations of over a hundred children. With a growing foundation, Amazina, and a growing group of contributors, she carries on, and the miracle of this book is that she doesn’t seem to sense the amazing woman that she is at all, she seems to believe that she is a simple woman following God’s will for her life, and reveling in it, joyfully surrounded by her 13 adopted daughters and frequent foster babies. She feels blessed to have the life that God created her to live.
I stand in awe.
You can order this book from Amazon.com for $12.49 plus shipping. It might even change your life, or how you view your life. Yes, I own stock in Amazon.com. No, I make no money from recommending this book. 🙂
Whose Point of View?
“What a dumb cat!” AdventureMan says. “Every morning, he goes to the door and says ‘MEOW! Let me out!’ I NEVER let him out, but he goes to the door every morning and does the same thing!”
The Qatari cat sighs.
“I know he’s not stupid . . . ” he thinks, “I patiently go to the door every morning to let him know I want to go out. One of these days he is going to get it! I know it! One of these days he will understand, and let me out! All I have to do is to get him to understand just once, and then I will be OUTSIDE!”
First Flash Mob in Doha, Qatar
Thank you, my friend Hayfa, for sending this flash mob from City Center Mall; very nice;
But this one dates from May 2011, and I love the energy!
And one more, this time at Villagio! Wooo HOOOO, Qatar!
I’m eager to see one done at the Souk al Waqif!
I think Qatar’s National Day is December 18th, and the Qataris know how to party. It would be lovely to see a Qatari flash mob.
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