Breaking Down Walls

I’ve been pondering how to be a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, sister-in-law, cousin, and Holy Spirit containing believer in Jesus, how to communicate His light, how to be a candle upon a hill and not under a basket, neither freezing out nor scorching others who come near me.

Fellow blogger, The Mystery of the Ages, wrote a lovely post here; http://theincrediblegift.blogspot.com/2012/01/can-your-family-be-saved.html  

As this applies to all of us all the time it helped bring into focus a few things that have been on my mind  to try to improve in this still new year. Here they are;

Open the lines of communication and take down the roadblocks that hamper it. Disconnect from distracting pursuits and mindless entertainments to allow the quiet spaces necessary to know each other.

Put the phone and electronics aside to be a listener. Sit, work, or walk together without interruption. Be present physically and mentally for those you are with and not off texting or taking calls while they are talking with you.

Especially ask that children put away games and phones to teach them how to look you in the eye and read body language and tone of voice. These are habits that are vital to all of us if we are to be fully aware of the nuances of the complete meanings being conveyed.

Read aloud together, reading current events or informational materials that you think will appeal to them, pausing within the reading for comments and discussion to see their reaction and feelings. Personal anecdotes often flow from identifying with events and stories.

Throw away the ideas of age segregation. Break down the illusion that people are different because of modern lifestyles and share the generations. All people have the same needs to be heard and held as worthy of attention. It’s wonderful to get older and younger to talking after a little practice and so vital to strengthen the ties that bind us together as families. Our time is limited, we want to leave lasting impressions of love and hope. These are treasures we can lay up in heaven.

Deuteronomy Chapter 6 especially verse 7 comes to mind.
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

How Much Is "A Goodly Amount"?

Phrases are rich in communicative powers.

I do love old phrases that I heard in my childhood from my grandmother and grandfather, their parents, and aunts and uncles.  Their system of measurements are especially dear to my understanding of the values of things.

I miss these nuanced usages in today’s abbreviated communications.

Just the other day I had occasion to see what reaction a phrase would elicit from my teenagers.  

My hands were busy dipping chicken in buttermilk and then dredging it in flour for the dutchoven deep fryer. I could see that I was going to run out of flour yet could not spare the time to rinse my hands to refill the flouring plate while three thighs were already candescent in the roiling olive oil.

 “Give me a goodly amount of flour, please,” I requested peering into the fryer for a moment then when I returned my gaze upon the flour dish and saw an overflowing pile upon it. I laughed and told them, “Well, that’s a bit more than a goodly amount.“

We all had a good chuckle about it and I told them the story of learning how much “a goodly amount” is from my grandmother’s kitchen. I thought a moment when they asked just exactly how much it is and I came up with this explanation, “I guess it’s proportionate to the size of the dish, it would probably be somewhere between more than a couple of tablespoons and less than a cup.” More laughter and acknowledgement that cooking fried chicken is an artistic endeavour that is hard to communicate with standard measurements and formulas.

Link to great, but not my fried chicken, with photos if you want to see some ambrosia.

The phraseology of old requires intimacy and attention to personal and specific instances and situations. It is  ripe with inclusion into the art of communication and has “a goodly amount” of agreement upon meaning and values.

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Definition of GOODLY    good·ly adj \ˈgu̇d-lē\   good·li·er    good·li·est
1   pleasantly attractive
2   significantly large : considerable <a goodly number>

Examples of GOODLY
<$10,000 is a goodly reward to offer for a missing wedding ring>
<a goodly number of people gathered to watch the spectacle>

First Known Use of GOODLY
before 12th century

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/goodly 

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goodly
adjective considerable, large, significant, substantial, tidy (informal), ample, sizable or sizeable He spent a goodly part of his life in America.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
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goodly  A goodly amount or part of something is a fairly large amount or part of it, often more than was expected.  English Collins Dictionary 

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Here are some random unrelated gems I found from searching the phrase,
“a goodly amount”

Peaches and health

Peaches contain a goodly amount of potassium and also contain vitamins C and A. They have diuretic and laxative properties, aid in the stimulation of digestive juices, and add color to the complexion. Peach leaf tea destroys worms.

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Very interesting side trail, now we know some of what is in those FedEx trucks and why they’re sporting hazardous materials placards!
 http://blogs.lablit.com/2011/06/feeling-a-bit-flat/

When it comes to plasmid DNA, it is relatively straightforward for a researcher to make copies from a tiny, forensic amount of the original. Because of this, it’s become trendy in recent years to send out DNA, not in a goodly amount in a tube, but as spots dried onto a piece of filter paper. This spot can be rehydrated and zapped into E. coli bacteria, which will create copies of the plasmid which you can then liberate from the bugs in large quantities………………And so it was that the Fedex package arrived. And I knew immediately how the DNA had been sent — the package was flat as a pancake. I fondled it optimistically, but there was definitely no tube in there, not even one of those weeny PCR-sized tubes.

Ah well, I thought philosophically as I roused the bugs from their dormant sleep in the -70 freezer. It’s definitely possible to be too greedy. The lab in question probably sends out hundreds of plasmids a week, and it’s just not practical to feed the five thousand. In fact, the post-doc was doing me a favor: I have way too much on on Monday, and another experiment probably would have tipped the balance.

Besides, I like bacterial work: it reminds me of my lost youth as a bona fide microbiologist.

So let’s hear it for the kindness of strangers, something that definitely makes the scientific world go round.

( from http://blogs.lablit.com/
Hummmm, reminds me of Michael Crichton whose writing shares so many fascinating scientific details in fiction. Seems a casual thoughtful blog from research person point of view.
Isn’t that an amazing search-rabbit trail find?)
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This from BlogCritics.org ;
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-silver-my-own-tale/

Book Review: Silver – My Own Tale As Written by Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder by Edward Chupack

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This link;
http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/house_church/

a GOODLY amount of links to house church resources and organizations, both USA and UK.

lead me to review one of my favourite Missionaries to China, Gladys Aylward. http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/73.html  from James E. Keifer’s Biographies http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/bioalpha.html  of Christians. Further taking me to Church History from AD 33 through The Reformation http://www.ccel.org/ccel/robertson/history.html  and finally I ended up going to the movie of Gladys Aylward’s life The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
 158 min – Biography | Drama | War – 19 December 1958 (West Germany) starring Ingrid Bergman, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051776/   I have enjoyed this movie several times before, it  is long but very beautiful and meaningful.
I read the book beforehand, it is well worthwhile.  1957, Alan Burgess wrote a book about her, The Small Woman. When Newsweek magazine reviewed the movie, and summarized the plot, a reader, supposing the story to be fiction, wrote in to say, “In order for a movie to be good, the story should be believable!” Miss Gladys Aylward, the Small Woman, Ai-weh-deh, died 3 January 1970.

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(By now I am far afield from my search phrase;)
“a goodly amount” 

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Ok, this is just too much! Now I have been lead to;
http://theinvisibleworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/02/night-out.html
Sailing adventures in the first Light Trow—a homebuilt, 15ft 6”, ply and epoxy, yawl rigged, sail and row day-boat named Onawind Blue

First I fried some prawns with a goodly amount of garlic and chilli, then I set them aside while I added a goodly amount of white wine to the pot along with the fish stock and a few handfuls of rice.

I ate the prawns while the broth simmered then added the mussels and a goodly amount of parsley.

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And finally to wrap up this post, a dessert;
http://fps-performance.com/2011/11/wanting-bit-willpower-bite-chocolate/

 Wanting a bit more willpower? Try a bite of chocolate…
November 10, 2011 Dr. Charlie Brown, Health and Fitness, Mental Toughness    It also turns out that will power requires a goodly amount of energy, primarily in the form of glucose……….. the “HALT principle”….is a reminder to never get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. Modern brain imaging research validates the HALT principle. If you are hungry and struggling with will power, a bite of something sweet may provide the sugar boost that you need to sustain self control (just make certain is is only a bite!)………………………….

My suggested form of glucose is a Belgian Cocoa Dusted Truffle or two, eaten very slowly. That’s a goodly amount of those richly satisfying treats to make anyone feel pretty happy.