Productivity
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I started using the notes column in my schedule tracker to comment on events as they happen. Before I was only using it occasionally to identify my activities more specifically, but I realized I could make better use of it, such as for mini-retrospectives, recording details for the blog, and basic journaling. It does make my notes overall more scattered because now the tracker is an extra place to look for them, but I already had plans to integrate the tracker with the rest of my system, so the notes issue just gives me extra motivation to get going on it.
Spirituality
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Watchfulness by Brian Hedges introduced me to the Puritan discipline of vigilance against sin. It’s a basic necessity of the Christian life but not one that always gets much scrutiny. Hedges draws a lot from John Owen, John Bunyan, and Robert Murray MâCheyne. There were lots of quotes from Pilgrimâs Progress and The Holy War. Whatever flaws the Puritans had, I feel they do have contributions to offer on a serious spiritual life, and the book is a good starting point for study and practice. Even though most of the book is about guarding against sin, the concept of watchfulness is broader, and I was gratified to see it also covered a bit of the other kind Iâd been ponderingâexpectancy, which I see as the follow-up to prayer, watching for how God might act.
Nature
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I tested my last water sample for this round of winter chloride observations. I happened to give the report some extra description of conditions at the testing site, which felt like a nice send-off for the season. In comparison to last yearâs readings at the same location, the chloride level peaked a month later and 20% higher (449 PPM vs 376) and took longer to fall. As for next season, I haven’t decided if Iâll volunteer again or move on to something else.
Music
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I began exploring recordings from the Scripture Hymnal project (Spotify playlist). I ran across the printed hymnal at the ECPA conference on a table of books that had received some kind of recognition. It’s published by Rabbit Room Press, a publisher and artist community I keep half an eye on. The idea of the project is to put direct quotations from Scripture to music to help congregations learn the Bible. The effect is sometimes a bit awkward, but once I got used to it, the songs grew on me. Some favorites are âLet Us Fix Our Eyes,â âThe Lord Rebuilds Jerusalem,â and âThose Who Look to Him Are Radiant.â As far as the hymnal itself goes, they’re aiming to publish an SATB edition later in the year, and I’ll probably pick it up then.
