Cathy Kerton-Johnson

A quiet time is a concept created by the modern evangelical church that has moved so far into sola scriptura that they don’t know how else God could possibly reach us if we don’t spend alone time “in the Word”. Unfortunately it’s not an orthodox teaching and has very little basis in the incredibly varied experiences of God that ordinary Christians have documented over the centuries.

I go to church and hear the Bible preached every Sunday--and Wednesdays in Lent. I teach a Bible study on Wednesdays too. I write articles about the Bible in my vocation. I enjoy reviewing Bible memory work through the audio Bible on walks--weather/health dependent. I listen to podcasts on the Bible. I recite the psalms to myself in my head when I'm struggling to fall asleep. I have discussions about the Bible with my kids when they have questions. I pray throughout the day. I do not have a "quiet time" and for that I always FEEL like I'm not in my Bible enough. My life is not quiet, and orderly. It's seasonal and overwhelmed. I am not a monastic, I'm a mom. And I also think that by nature, it's never going to feel "enough." The more time I spend in God's word, the more humbled and needy I see myself. It took me years to see that dynamic, and stopped chasing the illusive "quiet time" feeling/structure and just be a part of my church that feeds me regularly.

Sometimes going back to the classic greats is just what you need to get through the February of your fourth PhD year. Just finished @dcsandbrook’s Never Had it so Good and moved rapidly on to White Heat. 70 hours of riveting narration by Roger Davis. History writing at its best. And I’m flabbergasted by how much research has gone into these books.

@Mubarak_mubious Cleaning your house.

what’s a skill that takes only 2-3 weeks to learn but could genuinely change your life ??

I’m finding that rituals that we connect to personally help us to appropriate the understanding of thousands of people who have gone before us. In this way, rituals give us a “whole person” understanding of life over time rather than a sequestered intellectual or physical or spiritual understanding.

I'm starting to think that rituals are more important than understanding. You don't need a theory to benefit from practice. Light a candle, tie a string, say the words. Lose weight, remember things, feel better. "Consistency beats clarity" feels wrong. Might be right?

I won’t be flying @Delta again ever. A delay in their local flight meant I’d miss my international connection. THREE TIMES they told me I was rebooked on another flight and each time when I tried to check the rebooking didn’t exist. I will now have two five hour layovers before I even start flying to London. Did I mention it’s the middle of the night? Customer service told me they couldn’t help me after the third time they had lied.

@seatofwisdomopn She’s just so….educated. 💃🏼💃🏼

"just look at the degree on that chick" I did my doctorate as I love my subject, wanted to make a contribution to knowledge, and enjoy teaching. My husband was proud and supported me through it (as I did him through his) but that is hardly why I pursued it! Great set of QTs!

@LifeAtPurdue Purdue GIS Day is a buzz. Here’s my little DH poster on Edith Wharton’s Vandis amongst all the soil science projects. 😄

@DrFrancisYoung Now I need to know why you needed to know.

@bakwasbandkrein Napoleon or Nelson. You choose who wins.

I'm pregnant and looking for a baby boy name that ends with “on” Help me out before my husband suggests Dragon again 🙂

@EleanorKonik @tallsnail But seriously, once I started giving my children choices about what they could do 1. They stopped saying no, because it wasn’t an option and 2. They did the thing they chose pretty quickly. It was a game changer

@tallsnail On similar note, you know those books that are like "Is the dog in the basket? No! Is the dog behind the door? No!" I have banned those books in my house. They teach children that the proper response to any interrogative is "No!"

before having a toddler, i read some parenting books which stated that telling a toddler "don't do X" is difficult for them to parse/understand - they really just fixate on the "do X" part of the phrase so instead you should tell them what TO do instead of what NOT to do. this is more developmentally appropriate and will result in less undesired behavior "don't grab the cat's ear" -> "open, soft hands with the cat" "don't lick the floor" -> "we can touch the floor with our feet and our hands" etc i thought this seemed weird and counterintuitive and... leaning towards overly permissive? don't they need to learn to take a straight-up "no"? but after many months of on-the-ground toddler parenting, i have seen that this principle is completely true (for my child). it's like saying "don't do X" casts a spell on him that makes him obsessively and repeatedly *do X*. and redirecting my language/instruction to what he CAN do feels like an escape hatch what felt counterintuitive is now very intuitive to me and it's slowly becoming second nature in my interactions with him

@EleanorKonik @tallsnail HA! I love that. Ban the word No as an answer to any question 😅😅😅

@CapelLofft @TheRestHistory @holland_tom I was glad to hear that his (illegitimate) daughter married a vicar and had ten children. A laudatory return to traditional English 18th century values.

On Trafalgar Day, I have been listening to the last episodes of the @TheRestHistory on Nelson. Mostly the podcast at its best but I am sorry to hear @holland_tom be so casual about Nelson and Hamilton's adultery. Fanny was treated infamously & Emma was an appalling homebreaker

@context_outside @CapelLofft @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook and @holland_tom another poem to feature on the show perhaps?

@CapelLofft @TheRestHistory @holland_tom Emma was inspirational. If not to the spirit of matrimony then to the man who needed to be inspired when the country needed it most. We owe her our gratitude. Which I referenced some time ago with a rude poem. The context escapes me.

@natebjones Here in the “real” world (of higher education) AI implementation still looks like trying to convince the conservative generation of professors that it’s okay to bring laptops into classrooms. And this is supposed to be the frontline of intellectual innovation 🤦‍♀️

Yes this was exactly the feeling I had listening to the podcast

@EleanorKonik It was a lot of fun!!! But I’ve definitely got more appreciative of modcons as I’ve got older 😂

@ckertonjohnson Honestly that sounds amazing. I'm glad you were able to put in a bathroom, but experiencing that connection with pioneer life must feel incredible.

Different cultures prioritize different life transitions. Early Bantu societies had two major rites of passage for girls: puberty and first childbirth. Marriage wasn't one of them. What milestone mattered more to you than broader society might expect?

@grok @EleanorKonik @grok what is a “chi” and was it a standard unit like an inch?

The underlined sentence refers to Qin Shi Huang's standardization of measurements, inspired by Daoist five elements theory. He associated his rule with "water" (black, number six), so six became the base unit for lengths—like chariot axles at 6 chi (~1.4m), hat heights, and flags—to unify the empire's systems. This helped infrastructure and control.

Reading a book about the first nomadic empire and there's a section about Qin Shi Huang Du, the first Qin emperor, and I gotta say, I don't even really understand what it means for six to have been the preferred unit of length of measuring...?

@EleanorKonik @grok @grok What does this highlighted sentence in the book refer to?

We are in an unusual situation. When we immigrated to the USA from England 15 years ago, we found our dream - 70 acres of pastures, hardwood forest and crop land with the original pioneer cabin from 1836. We could afford it because the house had no plumbing or heating. And had raccoons living in the attic. So we “upsized” in land and downsized in house (1200 square feet). Since the kids left we extended the kitchen, added a bathroom and plan to live here till we die 😀

@ckertonjohnson I love being a mom of young kids but I'm definitely excited about the chapter of our lives when they leave and I can downsize to a smaller house farther away from good schools but closer to forests and nature projects. Did you downsize when yours left?

@PeteCWilliamson @holland_tom Wondering what @dcsandbrook will offer at the theme park… maybe an American President’s assassination rollercoaster? Or “Sixties London High Street”.

@holland_tom The Rest Is History theme park inches closer

OMG