Peace Like a River, Reflective

Peace Like a River is a book of faith and miracles. Jeremiah was a man of faith, in the lows and highs. He taught his children how to trust in God and walk in faith. There is always something peaceful about a river whenever we just stare and ponder by it. I think it was the perfect way that Reuben Saw his father in his vision, slipping away into a river at peace and joy in his heart. It was almost as if Jeremiah took the place of his son, his death, and gave him life and healed him also from his breathing problems. Dr. Nokes even told Reuben that he should have died and his father should have lived. Reubens conditions were more severe than his fathers, but it was his father that died instead. It was Jeremiah that kept his family together, he was the glue that mended them together. It is as though Jeremiah passed the torched to Reuben to take care of the family and keep everything running. It was purely a miracle what had happened that day and it is hard for people to make sense of it, at the end of the story Reuben says, "All I can say is, here's how it went. here's what I saw. I've been there and am going back. Make of it what you will". Reubens wounds were fatal, his lungs were in "shreds" and yet lived to tell the story to his brother and others. He lived through it "make of it what you will", but he speaks as though he is confident knowing that it was truly a miracle that he experienced. As Christians we hear of miracles all the time and sometimes we do not expect them to happen to us because we live normal lives and a few of us have only seen a few miracles ourselves so when we actually encounter it for ourselves we are left in awe. When we are face to face with a miracle, the only thing we could do is praise God and give him all the glory and honor because we realize that the "miracle" could have only happened because of God, himself.

The Windhover, Reflective Post

The Windhover is a beautiful poem that just reminds me how great our God is. Many readings that we have read is about stories and poems about life and how our culture is shaped, but this poem shows and describes in beautiful way the glory of God. In class, we spoke how the writer is describing the beauty of God through a falcon. The title of this article means a small hawk like bird that has a habit of sustaining itself in place in the air with its head facing the wind, and I think the title really captures the main description of the poem, "in his riding of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding high there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing". The narrator is captivated by the beauty of the nature and the ability of the bird and how through the beauty he sees God. He describes how his "heart in hiding" is now stirred and moved with admiration for the this bird that he has spotted in the morning glory. I like how he mentions this because as humans we all have different characteristics and some may be really emotional and it may be more difficult for others to show emotions. However, it really shows that no matter who it is, God has the power to move every heart and to melt the coldest of hearts. He is taken completely beside himself and he cant help but to be in awe of God and he begins to speak of the greatness of God. This morning has begun to burn again in his heart, just like the blue-bleak embers, you may think its not on fire anymore, but little do you know that there is fire still burning inside of it and its just waiting for someone to bring it out of them. I really enjoyed this poem and it just reminded me to not take advantage of the beauty that surrounds me and that it is a constant reminder of Gods love and how awesome he is.

Benjamin Button, Reflective post.

     Reading " The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and also watching the movie, a couple of years ago, I always just thought of the reading was telling a story of someone who was born different from the rest of society. Its true when people say that history repeats itself, because when one person is somehow different from the rest of the bunch we automatically label them a "freak" or "strange" and we instantaneously separate them from ourselves and rest of the group. Instead of accepting people for their uniqueness we make them an outcast and never really see the struggles that they go through. This is what I thought that story was mainly about, thought it partially there is more to the story. However, during class, my eyes were opened to several other insights that made complete sense to what the story can also mean and probably the most important meaning. First idea that was addressed was that this story shows how people treat old people. It never really occurred to me that was about how people saw and handled the elder, but it makes complete sense. In "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" it said that he found most comfort in the presence of his grandfather. It says, "when his grandfather's initial antagonism wore off, Benjamin and that gentleman took enormous pleasure in one anothers company." It seems to me that Benjamin could not relate to anyone else but his grandfather. He was much older than most people and no one understood him except his grandfather because they were both around the same age and they were able to discuss "with tireless monotony the slow events of the day", the story states that they would sit for hours and talk. I think this is probably how a lot of older people feel. We younger people are always in our little bubble talking about life and our hopes and dreams of our future, we do not stop to think about the elderly. We figure that they are able to take care of themselves since they are older and that they have friends. However, the truth is that they are not capable, depending on the age and situation to take care of themselves. Most of their closest friends may have passed away or have moved away into elderly homes or different states. They do not have someone to listen to them. So that is why Benjamin found great friendship with his grandfather because he was in some way able to relate to him. In class we also spoke about magical realism. I learned that magical realism is a technique writer's use to create a story that is unrealistic in life but due keep a sense of reality and commonality to life, we are able to accept the story as believable. For example, though we know that this story is not real we are able to believe the story more because though Benjamin was born old, instead of as a baby, he starts to age in reverse. So he would get younger instead of older, there was a process that we saw that we can relate to because many times as we get older we too see an age process, we get older. So we are able to relate more to it because we also change as life passes. Another example that we discussed in class was adjustments. When we get older obviously we gain more wrinkles and gray hair we have to adjust to the change by accepting it or buy products that would make us feel and look younger. Well for Benjamin that was always the case for him. Since he was older and he was attending college he would adjust his appearance to make him look more like a freshman in college. He was actually kicked out of school for looking too old and had to attend a different college, he had to make adjustments because life dealt him difficult cards. This is what magical realism is all about. "It alters or heightens reality, but this is accepted as a commonplace... it combines reality and fantasy" (handout from class discussion).  I am sure as we continue reading stories just like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", with this knowledge that I was able to learn in class it will help me have a better understanding of the text and meaning of the story.