Post from: TJ Hirst. All content in this post is Copyright © 2008, TJ Hirst, or their respective owners. No content from this site or post may be used without the owner's permission. All rights are reserved to the owner.

Now this might look like a Saturday in December but the sun doesn’t shine at 6 a.m. or 6 p.m. at that time of year in Minnesota. We are mid-way through summer break, and we’ve become a bit exhausted by the constant activity.

The rain gave us a slice of something else to do. We lounged through breakfast and the newspaper, took hot baths, curled up on the couch with my daughter to finish reading The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (a great book), and baked. While I strolled through my Google Reader a little slower than usual, my husband walked in the front door from his office and said to KH, “What’s up, ‘nut?”

“Mom and I are making raisin and cinnamon bread,” she said.

We sliced into the loaf for lunch before it even had a few minutes to sit. The steam rising from the thick chunks of bread seemed to be an anomaly on this summer day. Here’s my mother’s recipe:

Honey Wheat and Cinnamon Raisin Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons yeast
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
2 ¼ cup hot water
3 cups white flour

Mix first three ingredients in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Measure next three ingredients into a medium bowl and stir until honey is well mixed in. Pour liquid mixture all at once into flour mixture. Stir with a heavy spoon until flour is all wet.

Add white flour 1 cup at a time, mixing in well after each cup. Mix last cup in with hands, kneading as you mix. When it is mixed in well enough that the dough begins to stick to your hands, rub the bottom of the bowl with shortening. Continue kneading just until mixed well and ball of dough is greased. Turn over in bowl and let rise until double in bulk, about 30 to 60 minutes.

Turn dough out on a smooth surface and knead until a smooth ball forms. Cut into two equal pieces. To form each piece into a loaf, use a rolling pin to flatten and expel air bubbles. Fold each side in—more at one end than the other. Roll small end toward wide end. Pick up and place in a well-greased standard-sized loaf pan. Cover with a towel and let rise just until even with the top of the pan, about 20-30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. When it is finished it will be golden brown and sound hard when you tap it.

For Cinnamon Raisin Bread: When you leave the dough to rise the first time, put 1 cup of raisins in a 2 cup measuring cup. Cover with very hot or boiling water. Allow these to sit while the bread rises; it will plump the raisins. Drain the liquid when you are ready to roll out the dough. After the dough doubles, cut into two pieces. Roll each piece into a rectangle. Sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Scatter raisins on top. Fold edges over and roll each rectangle up into a loaf. Follow instructions above for baking.

Post from: TJ Hirst. All content in this post is Copyright © 2008, TJ Hirst, or their respective owners. No content from this site or post may be used without the owner's permission. All rights are reserved to the owner.

I was coming home from work at our local arboretum recently on my bike and soon came to a busy crossing. I was tired and hated trying to get up my momentum after stopping to let cars go by.

In front of me a girl, about 10- or 11-years-old, and her younger brother, about 6-years-old, were doing something with their bikes near the street. It seemed that she was showing her brother how to cross a busy street on a bike.

I stopped and waited for a lull in the traffic, like normal, even though I knew of the challenge to gain back that momentum. The street was busier than normal, and I had to wait a little while, but I saw and heard something that amazed me.

The girl pointed to me and said, “Watch. See, she stops.”

I was amazed that such a simple act as doing something that is natural to me can be used to teach others.

Post from: TJ Hirst. All content in this post is Copyright © 2008, TJ Hirst, or their respective owners. No content from this site or post may be used without the owner's permission. All rights are reserved to the owner.

Songwriting is an intimate expression for Courtney King Walker that is “like writing in a journal and then letting everyone see it.”

Her song, He Bowed His Head, conveys her feelings about Jesus Christ’s personal suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and at his crucifixion. When she wrote the words and music, “it felt almost like it was a sacred hymn, even though it is not written in a hymn style.” Listen to it here:

He Bowed His Head, copyright 2001 by Courtney King Walker, all rights reserved.

The song captures an “exact moment in time” and her impressions of “what He is going through right when He is in the Garden.” It speaks in straightforward words of His sacrifice, not only for His accusers but for each of us:

He conquered life through death.
First on His knees, then as He hung on a tree.
He suffered, He died, for me.

Courtney wrote this song during an emotionally difficult period of her own life. She recorded it in 2001 in California. Jill Thompson and Linda Stewart performed the vocals, and Courtney accompanied on the piano. Now, she looks back on that time as one of her most productive and most inspired times as a songwriter.

“Was there a connection? Why was I able to write so much during that time? The more difficult times drew me close to the Spirit. And I think it was the Spirit guiding me.”

Putting words and music together is a private process for her to say something important. “I only wanted to write about Christ. I feel it is in me only to write about what I care deeply about.”

Growing up she loved both art and music. When she went to Brigham Young University, she had to choose between music and design. She took a songwriting class in college, but she chose design and graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She worked as a graphic designer and now freelances for Shade Clothing and others.

Several years ago, motivated by some positive feedback and encouragement from others, she contacted other LDS musicians to explore the possibilities in the commercial market for her music. Through those conversations, she realized that although she wanted to share her music with as many people as possible, marketing her music commercially didn’t seem like the right choice. Thus, her music remains her own spiritual expression and to her “it feels more innocent because of it.”

She distinguishes between the creative process of putting words and music together and her ability to write music to accompany words that someone else has written. The latter is much easier for her and something she could do professionally.

Before her Grandpa passed away five years ago, she wrote and performed—but never recorded—a song for him to the words of a poem that his sister, Virginia King, wrote in the 1930’s. The poem, God Is, is about the existence of God in everything. Courtney added the words in parenthesis for the flow of the music.

God Is

God is, not was.
He is with us still.
His, the driving force and will
That makes the world go ’round (and ’round).

Wherever you see
a green tree grow,
or a flower in bloom, you’ll know
That there God may be found.
(That there God may be found).

God is He who
makes the sun rise;
the stars that twinkle in the skies.
Today as well as yesterday.

God is. He lives, though you may not hear
His footsteps when He draws near.
That’s where God may be found.
(That’s where God may be found).

(God is.
God lives.
He is with us still.
God lives.
God is.
God is.)

God is Courtney’s driving force that fulfills her desire to create. Her creative pursuits—songwriting and music, art and design, raising a family, cooking, gardening, friendship—express her love of God. Courtney represents a new kind of Renaissance woman of this century—one who cultivates her creative gifts and whose life and character become their expression.

Fulfilling The Desire to Create, Part III is the last in a series from an interview with Courtney King Walker. He Bowed His Head is copyrighted by Courtney King Walker, 2001, and downloads may not be sold or used without permission. You may contact Courtney by email at walkerfamily5 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Post from: TJ Hirst. All content in this post is Copyright © 2008, TJ Hirst, or their respective owners. No content from this site or post may be used without the owner's permission. All rights are reserved to the owner.

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

I Need A Nap! That’s the feeling I had when I sat down multiple times to write about my challenge this week to observe the people who intersect my life, be aware of them and consider their influence.

To be very honest, all that observing, considering and interacting with people outside my circle of friends, families and acquaintances plus continuing to observe, consider, interact and care for those within my own circle burst my emotional limits.

I discovered that there is a reason we have limited circles—we need social and emotional limits. For one who is naturally empathetic, which I am, this was the wrong challenge. I didn’t need to add an additional load of concern to my plate for those whose lives are not already intertwined with mine.

So there it is. And now I will nap.

What about you? Do you need a challenge to look outside yourself or do you do that already?

Join in by trying the challenges with me, commenting, linking, or suggesting a challenge. If you want to write a post on your blog about what happened when you took the challenge, I will publish your link. Just link to my website in your post and send me your link. Feel free to use the TIWMT image in your post.

Post from: TJ Hirst. All content in this post is Copyright © 2008, TJ Hirst, or their respective owners. No content from this site or post may be used without the owner's permission. All rights are reserved to the owner.